Games Beaten 2016

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 12:05 pm

Exhuminator wrote:DQIX has plenty of explorable land masses, but they are almost entirely empty of secrets. DQIX offers tons of job systems and skills to learn, but battles are so simple you won't need even 1/10th of what's available. And on it goes.

You are going to loathe DQVII. :lol:

(I really liked DQIX, but I think that all of your criticisms are completely valid.)

.....

First 50

51. Armillo (WII U)
52. Human Resource Machine (iOS)
53. Alone in the Dark (iOS)
54. The Room 3 (iOS)
55. Monument Valley (iOS)
56. Hysteria Project (PS3/PSP)

For Halloween, I played through Hysteria Project, a first-person FMV game in which you escape from an ax-wielding murderer. The game is very short - I beat it in under 30 minutes - but it is fun while it lasts. It has a genuinely creepy atmosphere, and 30 minutes is not long enough for the "choose your own adventure" and QTE gameplay to wear thin. My primary complaint is that the video is incredibly pixelated - just like a real Sega CD game! - and it looks pretty horrible on a big screen. (It probably looks better on a PSP, but to a certain extent, the pixelated video masked the low-budget special effects and made the game a bit creepier.)

Post by **Kuruwin** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 1:07 pm

41.Odin Sphere Remake

I loved the storytelling and the characters (expect Oswald) but what prevented this game becomming one of the alltime greats was all the rehashing. This game has five characters who all go through the same damn levels. Playing the game never became tedious to me but it still managed to sour the game. If each character would have at least 1-2 unique maps of their own the game would have been much better. It was still a good game but it could have been so much better.

Post by **Flake** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:48 pm

Kuruwin wrote:41.Odin Sphere Remake

I loved the storytelling and the characters (expect Oswald) but what prevented this game becomming one of the alltime greats was all the rehashing. This game has five characters who all go through the same damn levels. Playing the game never became tedious to me but it still managed to sour the game. If each character would have at least 1-2 unique maps of their own the game would have been much better. It was still a good game but it could have been so much better.

This is on my shelf about to come into rotation. I remember getting stuck on the PS2 version because of the item system - I'd run out of opportunities to get healing items but wouldn't be able to proceed forward without dying. I understand this was fixed - and I hope so because the art alone makes this game amazing.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 9:36 pm

Yeah the remake looks like it fixed some things, but still seems overpriced to me. Guess I'm not totally sold on it yet.

Post by **noiseredux** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:09 pm

1. The Match Of The Millennium (NGPC)
2. Pocket Tennis Color (NGPC)
3. XCOM 2 (PC)
4. Street Fighter V (PC)
5. Spelunky (PC)
6. Gone Home (PC)
7. Day Of The Tentacle Remastered (PC)
8. Heroes Of The Storm (PC)
9. The Elder Scrolls Legends (PC)
10. Land's End (GearVR)
11. Hearthstone: League Of Explorers (PC)
12. Metal Slug (PC)
13. Broforce (PC)
14. Metal Slug X (PC)
15. Hearthstone: One Night In Karazhan (PC)
16. The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition (PC)
17. The Stanley Parable (PC)
18. Lucky's Tale (PC)
19. The House Of The Dead (PC)
20. Mortal Kombat XL (PC)
21. House Of The Dying Sun (PC)

HOTDS is basically the experience I hoped existed when I decided I wanted to get into VR gaming. I actually tried playing it sans VR a few months back and it didn't really suck me in. But in VR, it is a total experience. I wasn't just playing a game - I was inside a spaceship. I could look around the cockpit. I could turn my head and see enemy ships buzzing by me and it all just felt like The Last Starfighter fully realized for me. There were moments where all disbelief was suspended, and I truly felt that I was in a dogfight in space, able to move in 360 degrees and blow shit up. And when things blow up, it feels huge. In short, I love this game.

The campaign is pretty short - I finished it in 2 or 3 hours. But each mission has multiple difficulties and there are different endings based on how well you do. It's the kind of game I will keep playing. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who has a Rift or Vive.

Post by **Kuruwin** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:12 am

Flake wrote:
Kuruwin wrote:41.Odin Sphere Remake

I loved the storytelling and the characters (expect Oswald) but what prevented this game becomming one of the alltime greats was all the rehashing. This game has five characters who all go through the same damn levels. Playing the game never became tedious to me but it still managed to sour the game. If each character would have at least 1-2 unique maps of their own the game would have been much better. It was still a good game but it could have been so much better.

This is on my shelf about to come into rotation. I remember getting stuck on the PS2 version because of the item system - I'd run out of opportunities to get healing items but wouldn't be able to proceed forward without dying. I understand this was fixed - and I hope so because the art alone makes this game amazing.

I have hard time imagining that happening on the remake. You can save anytime and you can leave the leave and go back to the older ones. I don't know how much exactly changed because i played the PS2 version very little because i hated the combat but the combat at least has been drastically changed. Odin Sphere remake play's lot more like Muramasa and Dragon's Crown which means that awkward stamina system is gone. There is a bar but it's for using skills.

But yeah. It does seem like it's hard to get good deal on the game. It wasn't until just recently that i saw a good deal on it and picked it up from play-asia for 26 euros (Ps3)

Post by **noiseredux** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:36 am

haha, so weird - I beat House Of The Dying Sun on 11/1. It officially released out of Early Access on 11/2.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:45 pm

So you finished the unfinished version? WHOA.

Post by **noiseredux** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 2:44 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:So you finished the unfinished version? WHOA.

Yes, but not really. I knew that the base game was done. They had been just tweaking bugs, etc really and the only major thing added to the 1.0 official release is another more hardcore difficulty level that will only open up after beating the original campaign.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:45 pm

First 50:

51. Akumajō Dracula (Famicom Disk System)
52. Castlevania (NES)
53. Classic NES Series: Castlevania (Game Boy Advance)
54. Guardian Heroes (Xbox Live Arcade)
55. Metal Slug (Neo Geo MVS)
56. Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo MVS)
57. Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo MVS)
58. Soul of Darkness (DSiWare)
59. Code of Princess (3DS)
60. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
61. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
62. The Legend of Zelda 2: Link no Bōken (Famicom Disk System)
63. Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC)
64. Shan Gui (Steam)
65. Space Fury (ColecoVision)
66. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (ColecoVision)
67. Gateway to Apshai (ColecoVision)
68. MURI (Steam)
69. Pink Hour (Steam)
70. Pink Heaven (Steam)
71. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (Steam)
72. Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (Steam)
73. Haunted House (Atari 2600)
74. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
75. Alien (Atari 2600)
76. Xenophobe (Xbox - Midway Arcade Treasures 2)
77. Frankenstein's Monster (Atari 2600)
78. Ghost Manor / Spike's Peak (Atari 2600)
79. Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.1 Onikakushi (Steam)
80. Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin (Famicom Disk System)
81. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
82. Beneath the Cherry Trees (Steam)
83. Voices from the Sea (Steam)
84. Mushihimesama (Steam)
85. Sonic CD (Steam)
86. Shovel Knight (Wii U)

Another fiver. Oof.

Beneath the Cherry Trees
This is an odd duck. Beneath the Cherry Trees is a short and free visual novel available on Steam, with the text being a direct translation of Motojirō Kajii's famous poem. The game also serves as a sort of advertisement for the VN engine that was used to build it. There's some beautiful artwork showcased here, though it's juxtaposed oddly against the cut-and-paste nature photographs. And while the translation is solid the text has some spacing issues and the menus are a bit awkward to read. I'm still not quite sure what to make of this one. Recommended to those who enjoyed The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe on CD-I.

Voices from the Sea
Another free visual novel! Surely I'll run out of these eventually. Voices from the Sea is a Western game, with that recognizable pseudo-manga art style. The protagonist is a boy who has trouble fitting in. He finds a mysterious girl at the beach, who provides some much needed guidance and entertainment. The game's not a "kinetic" VN, as there are some minor choices to be made (and an inventory screen) though all roads still lead home and the game inevitably ends at the same point. The story's a bit of a tearjerker provided you're in the right state of mind.

Mushihimesama
I'm far from a shmup aficionado, but a few years ago I picked up Mushihimesama Futari at PAX East and have adored it ever since. Probably my second favorite Cave game, after DeathSmiles. I never bothered to check out its predecessor until now as, from what I recall, the PS2 port is pricey.

So, Mushihimesama is what you'd expect from Cave. It's a vertical bullet hell shmup. Hardcore fans will find lots to like about the scoring system, but for me it's all about the music and scenery. It's an exquisite game. I went through novice, normal, and arrange modes and I suppose I finished normal on a respectable amount of credits. What's with that final boss in arrange though? Seems impossible to beat without massive credit-feeding. Holy hell.

Sonic CD
So, yeah, the two people who read my posts here realize that I'm not exactly a big fan of Sonic. Most of these games, even the "classics", do nothing for me. I don't think the Sonic series is bad per se, but most entries simply don't click with me and I always feel as if I am playing these games "incorrectly."

That said, there are four Sonic games that I have enjoyed and this is one of them. Let's start with the negative: many of the features that drive me insane about "those other" Sonic games are still present here. The pacing is odd, hit control is iffy, the levels are too big for their own good, there are too many "gotcha" spring and spike traps, the bonus stages are terrible, the "gimmick" (a time travel mechanic) is poorly implemented, and the "false ending" bullshit rears its head yet again.

Wait, I said I enjoyed this though? Yeah, thankfully the annoyances - though present - are kept to a relative minimum and the game has a great "flow" to it. The graphical style is charming and the various game worlds are a sight to behold. The challenge feels spot-on, as there are no cheap (or ambiguous) boss battles this time around. And those early nineties cartoon cutscenes never fail to make me smile. I dig it. I've completed two variations of this game now, and neither one was on the Sega CD which is shameful.

Shovel Knight
Holy shit. I expected this to be good; I didn't expect it to be phenomenal.

"Retro" indie platformers are hit-or-miss and most don't come close to measuring up to the legitimate 8-bit classics. Shovel Knight, on the other hand, crushes 95% of what was released on the NES.

It's a very measured game. The developers were clearly inspired by what made the platformers of old so special and removed the more frustrating elements. The game is delightfully hard, but the ingenious checkpoint system prevents it from ever feeling like an exercise in frustration. I adore how HUGE the levels are (20 minutes each) and how they increase in complexity as the game progresses.

There are plenty of nods to retro games here, though none that feel "ironic" or forced. I laughed out loud in the first town when I saw the inhabitants scrolling by like they were on Zelda II's invisible conveyor belt.

Controls are spot-on and the exemplary music and graphics feel like they could be lifted straight from a late-era NES title. I couldn't put this one down, which is something I don't say often about a game released within the past decade.

racketboy.com

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