1. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (PC)(Adventure)
2. Revulsion (PC)(FPS)
3. Nonogram - Master's Legacy (PC)(Puzzle)
4. Sekiro (PC)(Action-Adventure)
5. Grim Dawn (PC)(Action RPG)
6. Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth (PC)(Action RPG)
7. Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods (PC)(Action RPG)
8. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage (PC)(FPS)
9. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)
10. Shrine (PC)(FPS)
11. Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (PC)(Adventure)
12. Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (PC)(Action)
13. Red Alliance (PC)(FPS)
14. The Forest (PC)(Horror)
15. Pixel Puzzles: Japan (PC)(Puzzle)
16. 12 is Better Than 6 (PC)(Top Down Shooter)
17. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)
18. An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire (PC)(RPG)
19. Port of Call (PC)(Walking Sim)
20. NeonCode (PC)(Walking Sim)
21. Carrion (PC)(Adventure)
22. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (PC)(Walking Sim)
23. Helltaker (PC)(Puzzle)
24. Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr (PC)(RPG)
25. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch)(Platformer)
26. Treachery in Beatdown City (Switch)(RPG)
27. Zeno Clash (PC)(Action)
Zeno Clash is a strange game. It is a first person brawler, with the occasional use of projectiles to give it an FPS touch, much like Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. Unlike Stranger though, ZC never leaves the first person view, so when you're going through fisticuffs, you're seeing your fists do the punching. Unfortunately, the controls big things down, and there are some quirks to what moves you can pull off and combat in general, but then "quirky" is probably how Zeno Clash wanted to be defined.
You play as Ghat, who flees from his family along with his horned lady friend Deadra. Why is Ghat fleeing? Well, he may have killed the Father-Mother, the patriarch and matriarch of the family. Ghat and Deadra flee to the end of the world while he reveals what led to the murder, but it is only upon returning with the mysterious Golem that the truth is finally revealed. And in the meantime, you're going to be fighting so many weird elephant men, crazy folks with pots for helmets, and four-breasted rat ladies, that the truth will be forgettable...which may be why the game has checkpoint saving and unskippable cutscenes. Because nothing helps burn things into my brain like having to rewatch weirdos ask weird questions about weird situations over and over again simply because I didn't see that one skullbomb.
Did I mention skullbombs? They're like grenades, but you can't cook them, and yours have fuses three times longer than your opponents'. They also often have guns, and while they're kind enough to announce they're firing, they're good enough that you're going to want to dive behind cover or another for to block their shots, especially if they're using that grenade launcher-thingy. I say thingy because the gun design is as bizarre as the rest of the world, which does at least keep things consistently weird.
Now hand-to-hand is what you'll spend most of your time doing, so let's discuss controls. You have a light attack; hold it down for a three hit combo that isn't great but knocks off some health and builds towards a stun. Then you have your heavy attack, which can be charged up and used to break blocks. You can also block, dodge, and deflect, though for some reason this is done with the space bar on PC, so it never felt like it meshed; even at the end of the game, I was tapping heavy attack thinking it would block because of previous first person brawlers I have played. Internalized control schemes can really wreck you when your in a pinch.
Also, attacks can flow together, so your opponents can dodge your attack and counter, which you can block or dodge and follow up with your own attack, but this is never explained. When you get it down, it's impressive, but it's a learning process for each type of enemy, and you're often having to do this while fighting multiple at once, so the flow will likely get disrupted as you get punched and/or shot in the back.
Get through all of this, and you unlock the tower levels, which are challenge modes where you must fight your way up a tower or down a pit. Each new level contains tougher confrontations, with the final tower level featuring a harder variation of the final boss fight, where you now get to face two of the game's bosses at the same time while also fending off a horde of foes...and that's only if you make it to that area of the level. It really is a challenge that will require your full understanding of the game's combat system. It might even be fun if I weren't having to spend the time fending off three people and a couple of bosses while a few other folks shoot me or chuck grenades at me. I got stunlocked at one point and spent a minute watching myself continuously get knocked down and go through the standing animation only to hit the mat again as my health chunked away.
As I said, it's a strange game. And I think I'd rather play Stranger's Wrath or Elderborn again than Zeno Clash.
Games Beaten 2021
-
ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8743
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Jonesville, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Games Beaten in 2021 - 73
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
March (3 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (9 Games Beaten)
June (17 Games Beaten)
July (19 Games Beaten)
73. Mega Man X3 - SNES - July 16
Mega Man X3 is, obviously, the third game in the Mega Man X sub-series, and it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect and want from a sequel to Mega Man X2. I still think the first Mega Man X was the best of this sub-series so far, but X3 definitely brought some much-needed improvements over the sub-weapons in X2. That’s not to say that they were bad in X2, but X3 has some seriously cool weapons you can get from bosses.
Graphically, this is pretty in line with the other two Mega Man X games. The biggest changes here are to gameplay mechanics. On the surface, it will look like there haven’t been any major changes, but dig a little deeper, and it’s a different story. Some bosses will either not be fought at all or may be fought in different places depending on how you play the game in certain places. There are optional upgrades hidden throughout the game. Zero even makes his debut as a playable character although how relatively limited the ability to play with him is makes it feel like a little bit of a missed opportunity to me. Still, though, the fact that you can play as him at all was an awesome surprise for me as I think he’s got the coolest design in the series.
One of my issues with Mega Man X2 was that the difficulty seemed a bit skewed with early bosses being brutal without their weakness and easy with it, and the late bosses were just super hard no matter what. X3 is definitely better in that regard. The early bosses were obviously still easy if you had their weakness - that’s the point - but they gave me more of a challenge whereas, with the exception of the final boss, the late-game bosses seemed like less dramatic of a difficulty spike. Another point that really impressed me was the story. Mega Man X in general as a sub-series had a more interesting story than the classic series and dug deeper into it, but X3 really nailed it. It’s still not super story-heavy, but the world-building done with Dr. Doppler and the Reploids after the defeat of Sigma and the Mavericks as well as the little bit of character building they did for Mega Man X were a fantastic touch that really pushed my experience to the next level.
I don’t quite think it matched Mega Man X1, but Mega Man X3 is still an absolutely stunning game, and it came pretty close to the first game in my eyes. The level design is fantastic, and there are enough upgrades to find and little ways to change the gameplay experience that it has more replay value in my opinion than the other two Mega man X games. As the last of the four Mega Man games to release on the Super Nintendo (in North America, anyway, and excluding Mega Man Soccer), this is definitely a solid swan song. As with the other two Mega Man X games on the system, it’s been so widely re-released that every gamer has access to it in some way, so I highly recommend giving this a play.
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
March (3 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (9 Games Beaten)
June (17 Games Beaten)
July (19 Games Beaten)
73. Mega Man X3 - SNES - July 16
Mega Man X3 is, obviously, the third game in the Mega Man X sub-series, and it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect and want from a sequel to Mega Man X2. I still think the first Mega Man X was the best of this sub-series so far, but X3 definitely brought some much-needed improvements over the sub-weapons in X2. That’s not to say that they were bad in X2, but X3 has some seriously cool weapons you can get from bosses.
Graphically, this is pretty in line with the other two Mega Man X games. The biggest changes here are to gameplay mechanics. On the surface, it will look like there haven’t been any major changes, but dig a little deeper, and it’s a different story. Some bosses will either not be fought at all or may be fought in different places depending on how you play the game in certain places. There are optional upgrades hidden throughout the game. Zero even makes his debut as a playable character although how relatively limited the ability to play with him is makes it feel like a little bit of a missed opportunity to me. Still, though, the fact that you can play as him at all was an awesome surprise for me as I think he’s got the coolest design in the series.
One of my issues with Mega Man X2 was that the difficulty seemed a bit skewed with early bosses being brutal without their weakness and easy with it, and the late bosses were just super hard no matter what. X3 is definitely better in that regard. The early bosses were obviously still easy if you had their weakness - that’s the point - but they gave me more of a challenge whereas, with the exception of the final boss, the late-game bosses seemed like less dramatic of a difficulty spike. Another point that really impressed me was the story. Mega Man X in general as a sub-series had a more interesting story than the classic series and dug deeper into it, but X3 really nailed it. It’s still not super story-heavy, but the world-building done with Dr. Doppler and the Reploids after the defeat of Sigma and the Mavericks as well as the little bit of character building they did for Mega Man X were a fantastic touch that really pushed my experience to the next level.
I don’t quite think it matched Mega Man X1, but Mega Man X3 is still an absolutely stunning game, and it came pretty close to the first game in my eyes. The level design is fantastic, and there are enough upgrades to find and little ways to change the gameplay experience that it has more replay value in my opinion than the other two Mega man X games. As the last of the four Mega Man games to release on the Super Nintendo (in North America, anyway, and excluding Mega Man Soccer), this is definitely a solid swan song. As with the other two Mega Man X games on the system, it’s been so widely re-released that every gamer has access to it in some way, so I highly recommend giving this a play.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
Re: Games Beaten 2021
ElkinFencer10 wrote:Games Beaten in 2021 - 73
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
March (3 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (9 Games Beaten)
June (17 Games Beaten)
July (19 Games Beaten)
73. Mega Man X3 - SNES - July 16
Have you experienced the Zero Project ROM hacks for X3? The definitive way to play it.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/888/
http://www.romhacking.net/reviews/7254/
Even without the hacks, I still like X3 more than X2. X1 will always be my favorite although I'll admit X4 is probably the best X game.
"Challenging my unit was both foolish and reckless! You are nothing more than my prey... one that is soon to be retired!"
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12301
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Melek-Ric wrote:Even without the hacks, I still like X3 more than X2. X1 will always be my favorite although I'll admit X4 is probably the best X game.
Perfect! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Marurun vs Games 2021 edition!
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1 JPN version with translation patch)
I have played this game to death. I instinctively know where almost everything is. So why am I playing it again? My previous plays are the Saturn version or the US PS1 version. But there's a US translation of the JPN PS1 version, and this was a great opportunity to test my new Retroid Pocket 2. The Pocket 2 comes already configured for a lot of stuff, but stubborn me, I wanted to upgrade the Android installation from 6 to 8, so that's what I did, and made life hella difficult for myself in the process. And why did I even buy the Pocket 2 to begin with? To play PS1 games in handheld form. That makes SotN the perfect test.
When I eventually got the patched ISO running (I already own the two versions I've previously played and I also picked it up on iOS [big mistake] so I'm not too worried about Konami getting my money) I discovered it runs perfectly on the Pocket 2. Just don't screw around with the settings too much. It's easy to introduce performance issues if you're not careful. Just leave things mostly as they are and you run at a clean 60 fps.
So I love SotN. It's not a perfect game, by any means, but it's addictive for all its flaws. And after replaying Igarashi's Ritual of the Night not too long ago I sort of wanted to compare in my mind. SotN is far and away the better game. By being 2D with limited resolution (uses the PS1's lowest resolution, 256x240, same as the NES and SNES) the graphics are pixelated, sure, but that also encourages a particular style of art that works very well for this game, and enables the developers to introduce lots of neat effects for very little cost and lots of animation. It also enables re-use of art assets from previous games, one in particular: tons of enemy graphics in this game were pulled straight from the PC Engine Rondo of Blood without change (and they didn't need change because they were well-rendered and animated on the PC Engine). So basically, by using the lowest resolution available to the PS1 they could ratchet up the animation and effects and still maintain reasonable performance.
But as much as I love this game, it can also be hard to come back to. There's a little bit of input lag (I'm pretty sure the game itself lags a little natively, but the Pocket 2 is probably also imposing some). You can't slide or dash, which means your only movement trick prior to any of the animal forms is turning around and back-dashing everywhere. The right-side-up castle is very well designed for getting around and everything feels good. The upside-down castle is not the same. Movement feels awkward having to either use the gravity boots or mist/bat forms to make jumps. Also, repeat input on the gravity boots jump is iffy (and always has been, was cleaned up a little on the Saturn). Some enemies just hit like a truck and are too hard to get in on until you find an overpowered weapon and suddenly you are the truck. But I actually don't mind that too much (until the upside-down castle). The game isn't particularly well balanced and it doesn't care, and that's mostly OK. A first playthrough of the game can probably be rough in places, but it's been so damn long that I do not know what a first playthrough would even look like any more.
The translation patch from the JPN version is pretty good, better than the official translation and it include the half-fairy and the nose goblin, who is kind of my favorite.
I'm kind of meandering here because I don't really have much perspective. I'm too close to this game. I both love it and, at times, am frustrated by it. But the one thing it is is a masterpiece. It's also the final piece of the puzzle to tell me I can't play action games any more, even easy ones. I've developed a persistent RSI and playing SotN on the Pocket 2 really aggravated it a lot. I cleared the game once and was going for a 100% all items replay with luck code and I was actually pretty far along when I realized I was just destroying my ulnar nerve in my left arm. SotN is the nail in the coffin (pun [?] intended). Only RPGs and non-action stuff for me for a while, until I get this under control. Fitting that the game to do me in would be one I love so much and have so much history with.
- Trials of Mana (Switch)
- Outer Worlds (Switch)
- Code of Princess: EX (Switch)
- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS)
- Dragon Warrior III (Gameboy Color)
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - New Game+ (Switch)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World™: The Game – Complete Edition (Switch)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1 JPN version with translation patch)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1 JPN version with translation patch)
I have played this game to death. I instinctively know where almost everything is. So why am I playing it again? My previous plays are the Saturn version or the US PS1 version. But there's a US translation of the JPN PS1 version, and this was a great opportunity to test my new Retroid Pocket 2. The Pocket 2 comes already configured for a lot of stuff, but stubborn me, I wanted to upgrade the Android installation from 6 to 8, so that's what I did, and made life hella difficult for myself in the process. And why did I even buy the Pocket 2 to begin with? To play PS1 games in handheld form. That makes SotN the perfect test.
When I eventually got the patched ISO running (I already own the two versions I've previously played and I also picked it up on iOS [big mistake] so I'm not too worried about Konami getting my money) I discovered it runs perfectly on the Pocket 2. Just don't screw around with the settings too much. It's easy to introduce performance issues if you're not careful. Just leave things mostly as they are and you run at a clean 60 fps.
So I love SotN. It's not a perfect game, by any means, but it's addictive for all its flaws. And after replaying Igarashi's Ritual of the Night not too long ago I sort of wanted to compare in my mind. SotN is far and away the better game. By being 2D with limited resolution (uses the PS1's lowest resolution, 256x240, same as the NES and SNES) the graphics are pixelated, sure, but that also encourages a particular style of art that works very well for this game, and enables the developers to introduce lots of neat effects for very little cost and lots of animation. It also enables re-use of art assets from previous games, one in particular: tons of enemy graphics in this game were pulled straight from the PC Engine Rondo of Blood without change (and they didn't need change because they were well-rendered and animated on the PC Engine). So basically, by using the lowest resolution available to the PS1 they could ratchet up the animation and effects and still maintain reasonable performance.
But as much as I love this game, it can also be hard to come back to. There's a little bit of input lag (I'm pretty sure the game itself lags a little natively, but the Pocket 2 is probably also imposing some). You can't slide or dash, which means your only movement trick prior to any of the animal forms is turning around and back-dashing everywhere. The right-side-up castle is very well designed for getting around and everything feels good. The upside-down castle is not the same. Movement feels awkward having to either use the gravity boots or mist/bat forms to make jumps. Also, repeat input on the gravity boots jump is iffy (and always has been, was cleaned up a little on the Saturn). Some enemies just hit like a truck and are too hard to get in on until you find an overpowered weapon and suddenly you are the truck. But I actually don't mind that too much (until the upside-down castle). The game isn't particularly well balanced and it doesn't care, and that's mostly OK. A first playthrough of the game can probably be rough in places, but it's been so damn long that I do not know what a first playthrough would even look like any more.
The translation patch from the JPN version is pretty good, better than the official translation and it include the half-fairy and the nose goblin, who is kind of my favorite.
I'm kind of meandering here because I don't really have much perspective. I'm too close to this game. I both love it and, at times, am frustrated by it. But the one thing it is is a masterpiece. It's also the final piece of the puzzle to tell me I can't play action games any more, even easy ones. I've developed a persistent RSI and playing SotN on the Pocket 2 really aggravated it a lot. I cleared the game once and was going for a 100% all items replay with luck code and I was actually pretty far along when I realized I was just destroying my ulnar nerve in my left arm. SotN is the nail in the coffin (pun [?] intended). Only RPGs and non-action stuff for me for a while, until I get this under control. Fitting that the game to do me in would be one I love so much and have so much history with.
-
ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8743
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Jonesville, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Melek-Ric wrote:Have you experienced the Zero Project ROM hacks for X3? The definitive way to play it.
I have not! I'll have to download that and put it on my SNES Everdrive.
prfsnl_gmr wrote:Perfect! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I haven't played X4 yet, but I agree with the first half.
Games Beaten in 2021 - 74
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
March (3 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (9 Games Beaten)
June (17 Games Beaten)
July (20 Games Beaten)
74. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge - Game Boy - July 19
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge is the first Game Boy game in the Mega Man series and serves largely as a condensed and watered down sampler of bosses and stage themes from the first two NES games. I don’t mean watered down in a negative way, mind you; it was just adapted from a more powerful 8-bit console to work on a weaker handheld system. Considering the hardware the Game Boy had, it’s a pretty impressive adaptation.
Basic gameplay is exactly like its NES counterparts albeit brutally difficult. This difficulty is due to a number of factors. The most immediately noticeable of those factors is how big the sprites are. Because of the small screen real estate on the Game Boy, the sprites are much bigger than in the NES games. This means that you have considerably less room to maneuver and thus dodge enemy attacks. The platforming is also pretty merciless with jumps that pretty much have to be pixel perfect and timing that has to be exact. The NES Mega Man games had some ruthless platforming, too, but some of the jumps in this game just seemed brutal. The last major factor that really ramps up the difficulty is that there are some parts that you just have to know. What’s a hole that leads to a room below and what’s a hole that leads to death? It’s usually pretty apparent, but there are a handful of instances where the only way to know is just to know. A couple of sections have enemies shooting at you the moment the screen transitions making it virtually impossible not to take damage. All of that compounds to turn a tough game into a ruthless one.
None of that is to say that it’s a bad game, though. On the contrary, this is an extremely competent NES-to-Game Boy conversion, and I quite enjoyed most of my time with it BS difficulty notwithstanding. The four Robot Masters you can fight in the beginning are pulled from the first Mega Man game, and the four that you fight in Wily’s castle are pulled from Mega Man II. You then fight a Mega Man killer named Enker before fighting Wily himself. With only six stages, the game is pretty short, but I personally think that short games work better for handhelds especially in the pre-sleep mode days of the DS and 3DS.
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge is certainly rough around the edges, and parts of it haven’t aged particularly well, but as a whole, I still think it holds up fairly well. It has some really difficult segments, but that’s not too uncommon for the Mega Man series. If you want to play Mega Man on the go today, you’re definitely better off with one of the collections on 3DS or Switch, but his leap to Game Boy was definitely impressive for the time and the hardware. I’m not sure I’ll ever revisit this game, but I’m definitely glad I played through it once.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
-
Raging Justice
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1818
- Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 2:11 pm
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Melek-Ric wrote:
Have you experienced the Zero Project ROM hacks for X3? The definitive way to play it.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/888/
http://www.romhacking.net/reviews/7254/
Thanks for reminding me about this, I think I have the roms on my new Nintendo 3ds. I feel like I need to play it now since you say it's so good.
prfsnl_gmr wrote:Melek-Ric wrote:Even without the hacks, I still like X3 more than X2. X1 will always be my favorite although I'll admit X4 is probably the best X game.
Perfect! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
From what I have seen, many fans seem to like X1 or X4 the best. So yeah, plenty of love out there for X1. It's a great game. It's sadly the only one to get a remake on PSP. I guess it didn't sell well so they gave up on further remakes, they ditched making any more games like Mega Man Powered Up too. Shame
You guys ever try the Mega Man Xtreme games on Gameboy? I am very curious about them.
I wish Mega Man X Corrupted would get released some day. Have you guys seen some of the more recent gameplay footage?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciNJ3-vAkzg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvq6CTSZdFo
-
ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8743
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Jonesville, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Raging Justice wrote:You guys ever try the Mega Man Xtreme games on Gameboy? I am very curious about them.
Keep your eyes on my reviews...end of next week, I think?
Games Beaten in 2021 - 75
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
March (3 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (9 Games Beaten)
June (17 Games Beaten)
July (21 Games Beaten)
75. Mega Man II - Game Boy - July 19
Mega Man II on Game Boy is, in a lot of ways, just more of Dr. Wily’s Revenge. It’s not a carbon copy, though, as it does make some noticeable improvements. Most noticeable among these improvements is the length. From what I’ve read, a lot of the complaints with the first Game Boy Mega Man game were that it was too short with only four Robot Master stages and two Wily’s castle stages (the last four Robot Masters were just straight boss fights, no stages). This is remedied with Mega Man II. Whereas Dr. Wily’s Revenge had a total of six stages, Mega Man II has a total of ten.
The game does keep the basic design philosophy of its predecessor by synthesizing bosses and stage themes from two of the NES games, this time having the first four Robot Masters come from the NES Mega Man II and the last four come from the NES Mega Man III. Taking design cues from Mega Man III on NES, Mega Man II on Game Boy includes the ability to slide as well as the inclusion of Mega Man’s robot dog friend, Rush, along with the use of Rush Coil, Rush Jet, and my personal favorite of Rush’s abilities, Rush Marine.
This game’s Mega Man killer boss is Quint, and the weapon you get from him is actually my favorite in the game. It’s a giant pogo stick, and while his three forms keep this weapon from letting you totally cheese the boss fight, you can use this pogo stick to take out one of Dr. Wily’s forms in a couple seconds. It’s totally stupid but totally awesome. That one weapon honestly is enough to set this one above Dr. Wily’s Revenge because it just seems so much more random and creative than any of the weapons in that game.
I played without sound to avoid disturbing folks around me (I was in public for this playthrough and didn’t have headphones with me), but friends have told me that the music and sound effects are just awful in this game - a tinny, high pitched nightmare. I can’t comment on it myself, but I figured I’d at least mention what I heard second-hand. As for the visuals, everything is identical to Dr. Wily’s Revenge - NES sprites in black and white. It’s got fewer BS traps and ambushes than the previous game did, but it’s still pretty tough due in large part to how little room you have to maneuver given the large sprites. Still, though, that’s tough to avoid with the size of the Game Boy screen. All in all, it definitely feels more fair than the previous game, but it’s no walk in the park.
Mega Man II for Game Boy is a lot of fun and a definite improvement over the original game excluding the audio design, but it’s still got some rough patches. Difficulty feels a bit artificially high thanks to the large sprites, but the game’s Mega Man killer boss is cool, and they definitely fleshed out the length more vs the previous game. All in all, it’s a definite improvement, but it still doesn’t stand up to the NES originals.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
Re: Games Beaten 2021
1. Golden Axe II (GEN)
2. Time Crisis [Special Mode] (PS1)
3. Streets of Rage (GEN)
4. Time Crisis: Project Titan (PS1)
5. Rayman Origins (360)
6. Borderlands (360)
7. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)*
8. King of Dragons (SNES)
9. Wild Guns (SNES)
10. Star Fox (SNES)
11. Guardian Heroes (SAT) [2x]*
12. World of Illusion (GEN)
13. Raiden Fighters Jet (360)
14. Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive (360)*
15. Streets of Rage 3 (GEN)
16. Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Xbox)*
17. Mushihimesama Futari (360)
18. Guwange (360)
19. Star Fox 64 (N64)*
20. Soul Calibur (DC)*
21. Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (GEN)
22. OutRun (GEN)*
While playing some games on the Genesis for this month's TR, I took out one of my favorites and basically a comfort food game to me, OutRun! I wrote a longer review on this game last year, so I'm going to keep it pretty short this time around. OutRun is a great example of the charm Sega games had in the late 80's and early 90's. This game was really fun in the arcades and Sega nailed the home port on the Genesis. The graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack are all top notch and make for such a fun pick up and play title.
When I sit down to play this one, I usually try to finish the game a few different times to see a few of the funny ending sequences, depending on the route. I'm usually able to finish a route a little over 5 minutes. It's also always fun to see the easter eggs, such as the jet from After Burner, but I didn't manage to unlock any of them last night.
Anyway, if for some reason you haven't played OutRun before, I highly recommend it!
2. Time Crisis [Special Mode] (PS1)
3. Streets of Rage (GEN)
4. Time Crisis: Project Titan (PS1)
5. Rayman Origins (360)
6. Borderlands (360)
7. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)*
8. King of Dragons (SNES)
9. Wild Guns (SNES)
10. Star Fox (SNES)
11. Guardian Heroes (SAT) [2x]*
12. World of Illusion (GEN)
13. Raiden Fighters Jet (360)
14. Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive (360)*
15. Streets of Rage 3 (GEN)
16. Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Xbox)*
17. Mushihimesama Futari (360)
18. Guwange (360)
19. Star Fox 64 (N64)*
20. Soul Calibur (DC)*
21. Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (GEN)
22. OutRun (GEN)*
While playing some games on the Genesis for this month's TR, I took out one of my favorites and basically a comfort food game to me, OutRun! I wrote a longer review on this game last year, so I'm going to keep it pretty short this time around. OutRun is a great example of the charm Sega games had in the late 80's and early 90's. This game was really fun in the arcades and Sega nailed the home port on the Genesis. The graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack are all top notch and make for such a fun pick up and play title.
When I sit down to play this one, I usually try to finish the game a few different times to see a few of the funny ending sequences, depending on the route. I'm usually able to finish a route a little over 5 minutes. It's also always fun to see the easter eggs, such as the jet from After Burner, but I didn't manage to unlock any of them last night.
Anyway, if for some reason you haven't played OutRun before, I highly recommend it!
-
PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 3062
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2021
Partridge Senpai's 2021 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
* indicates a repeat
Games 1~51
52. Wai Wai World 2 (Famicom)
53. Tiny Toon Adventures (Famicom)
54. King Kong 2: Ikari No Megaton Punch (Famicom)
55. Yume Pengin Monogatari (Famicom)
56. Rock Man & Forte (SFC)
57. Rock Man X2 (Switch)
58. Rock Man X3 (Switch)
59. Rock Man X4 (Switch)
60. Rock Man X5 (Switch)
61. Rock Man X6 (Switch)
62. Rock Man X7 (Switch)
63. Rock Man X8 (Switch)
64. Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)
65. Magical Taruruuto Kun: FANTASTIC WORLD!! (Famicom)
66. Maken Shao (PS2)
67. Getsu Fuuma Den (Famicom)
68. Rock Man D.A.S.H (PSP)
69. Brave Fencer Musashi (PS1)
70. Joe & Mac (SFC) *
71. Atelier Lilie: The Alchemist of Salburg 3 (PS2)
72. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (Famicom)
73. The Bouncer (PS2)
74. Rapid Angel (PS1)
75. Atelier Totori: The Alchemist of Arland 2 (PS3)
76. Drakengard 3 (PS3)
77. Alwa's Awakening (Switch)
78. Hermina & Culus (PS2)
79. Atelier Meruru: The Alchemist of Arland 3 (PS3)
80. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (Switch)
81. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (PS2)
82. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2 (PS2)
Known in English as Atelier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny, I was super psyched to jump right into this game as soon as I finished the first game in the Atelier Iris sub-series. This was a game I hadn't heard a ton about other than a friend who recommended it a fair bit, and with how much the first game was "almost great" in so many ways, I had fairly high hopes for this game. The thing I ultimately found with it left me feeling something similar as to when I finished the first game: wishing something "almost great" had actually made that step to being genuinely great. But either way, I did almost everything in the base game and that took around 36 hours in total to do on the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.
Atelier Iris 2 is the second game in its sub-series, but it's a prequel to the first game set many hundreds of years in the past to that one. It follows the stories of Vieze and Felt, two childhood friends and budding alchemists who were raised at the same orphanage in the peaceful floating island of Eden. However, just after Vieze gets her certification to be a real alchemist and makes her first pact with a Mana (magical familiars who allow alchemy to occur), a sudden cataclysm occurs and nearly all of the holy spots of each mana group suddenly disappear. Finding the titular magical sword, the Azoth, suddenly talking to him, Felt pulls it from its legendary resting place and events push him out on an adventure to save Eden by traveling to the other world just beyond the magical gateway.
Iris 2's narrative is, on the whole, a fair bit weaker than that of the first game. I'm barely scratching the surface of the plot setup in the above paragraph (I didn't even mention the appearance of the titular Iris, though she's a mysterious child and not a playable character). There is just a ton of lore and plot but not actually all that much on the level of meaningful character writing (and very little in the way of narrative-focused side content, to be perfectly honest).
Even the big themes and character beats of Atelier Iris 2 are very similar to those of its predecessor, with Felt and Vieze unsurprisingly realizing they view each other as more than just friends over the course of the narrative. But where Klein and Riita were strangers who grew to trust one another before, Vieze and Felt are already close for the whole narrative, and it's a much quieter and less engaging relationship. Other characters have either virtually no character arcs to speak of or have ones that simply repeat standard tropes (secret princess not ready to rule, and child of the estranged father (who himself is a good guy on the wrong side of the war, a plot line I think is handled particularly clumsily)) in pretty uninspired ways. The game tries to frame Vieze and Felt as two equal main characters in the story, but the actual mechanics and happenings of the story fly in the face of that constantly. Vieze is stuck in Eden making recipes and support information for Felt while he's the one on the front lines meeting new characters, fighting big bosses, etc. Though she does eventually get some more important action as the story progresses, the way the two main characters are split up and the way the woman is made to stay home and simply prepare materials for the man leaves a pretty sour taste in the mouth, even for a game released in 2005.
The characters themselves are likeable enough, but they go through so little actual struggle on a personal level that I found it very hard to ever care terribly much about the story. Iris 2's narrative is a very weird case where the same team (more or less) managed to make a sequel that for the most part feels like a cheap ripoff of the story of their previous game, and after how charming so much of the first game's writing was, that was a pretty big disappointment.
Where Iris 2's genuine improvements shine brighter is in the mechanics and combat. Finally, after having the thing hidden for so many games, we have a visible turn order counter visible at the top of the screen. You even have "break" normal attacks you can do to send an enemy further back in the turn order, and a lot of strategy can be employed on whom to try and push back and when. This is especially true as in addition to special moves and using items, you also have "charge" normal attacks that charge your skill gauge, and those skill gauge charges give you ammo to spend on special moves. This game has no MP at all, and so most decisions in battle come down to the health you had going into it as well as the decisions you make in that battle itself.
This is where Iris 2 hits another one of its main stumbling blocks. Sure, combat animations and overall time is reduced heavily from the first game, as is the amount of time spent in menus. It's a game that overall moves a LOT faster, but it's also a game that is way WAY easier than the last game. The game has a really clever combination of the alchemy systems from the first five games and from the first Iris game, where Vieze makes the "master" versions of consumables using item combinations like the first five games, and then Felt can "mass produce" copies from that master using source he obtains just like how alchemy works in Iris 1. But the fact is that this system basically doesn't matter at ALL because you can get through the large bulk of the games encounters (and boss battles) by only ever using charge moves, break moves, and maybe a special skill if you feel like it. Some later bosses dish out nasty mass debuffs that you'll need to spend a turn undoing with one of the better mass-heal items you have, but even these are super easy to craft and make a TON of, and you can't avoid getting one of the best ones due to how the story goes.
Healing items in general are super duper easy to mass produce to the point where running out of health is virtually never a problem, and the game as a whole just never actually hits any sort of resource management. Not all games need to be super hard, but there was basically never a time I meaningfully thought I was going to get a game over, even against the final boss. Combat is snappy and fun, but it's so simple it ends up coming off as almost pointless due to how poorly balanced the underlying systems are. The overly simple combat combined with the overly easy story add up to an experience that feels like an earnest attempt to improve the formula of the previous game without time being taken to actually polish those systems into something that works.
The presentation at least is as good as ever. The musical tracks lean a bit more towards pop-styles than prior games, and the character design is a little more sexualized than the relatively (although certainly refreshingly) modest designs of Iris 1, but those in themselves aren't bad things and are kept well in moderation. It's got a very pretty, colorful art style and loads of good tunes. Nothing out of the ordinary for a Gust game of the time, thankfully~.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is a borderline "recommended" game, but it's just so underwhelming in so many ways that I feel your time is probably better spent playing a different RPG. This game is very rarely outright "bad" in one way or another, but it just also doesn't do anything particularly well either. Even for the Atelier series, the bar had been raised in terms of the quality of experience in an RPG in 2005, and I don't believe that Atelier Iris 2 does a fantastic job of passing that bar. You likely won't dislike your time with this game (outside of perhaps being bored), but you'll also likely enjoy most other PS2 RPGs of the time more than you will have enjoyed this.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
* indicates a repeat
Games 1~51
52. Wai Wai World 2 (Famicom)
53. Tiny Toon Adventures (Famicom)
54. King Kong 2: Ikari No Megaton Punch (Famicom)
55. Yume Pengin Monogatari (Famicom)
56. Rock Man & Forte (SFC)
57. Rock Man X2 (Switch)
58. Rock Man X3 (Switch)
59. Rock Man X4 (Switch)
60. Rock Man X5 (Switch)
61. Rock Man X6 (Switch)
62. Rock Man X7 (Switch)
63. Rock Man X8 (Switch)
64. Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)
65. Magical Taruruuto Kun: FANTASTIC WORLD!! (Famicom)
66. Maken Shao (PS2)
67. Getsu Fuuma Den (Famicom)
68. Rock Man D.A.S.H (PSP)
69. Brave Fencer Musashi (PS1)
70. Joe & Mac (SFC) *
71. Atelier Lilie: The Alchemist of Salburg 3 (PS2)
72. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (Famicom)
73. The Bouncer (PS2)
74. Rapid Angel (PS1)
75. Atelier Totori: The Alchemist of Arland 2 (PS3)
76. Drakengard 3 (PS3)
77. Alwa's Awakening (Switch)
78. Hermina & Culus (PS2)
79. Atelier Meruru: The Alchemist of Arland 3 (PS3)
80. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (Switch)
81. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (PS2)
82. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2 (PS2)
Known in English as Atelier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny, I was super psyched to jump right into this game as soon as I finished the first game in the Atelier Iris sub-series. This was a game I hadn't heard a ton about other than a friend who recommended it a fair bit, and with how much the first game was "almost great" in so many ways, I had fairly high hopes for this game. The thing I ultimately found with it left me feeling something similar as to when I finished the first game: wishing something "almost great" had actually made that step to being genuinely great. But either way, I did almost everything in the base game and that took around 36 hours in total to do on the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.
Atelier Iris 2 is the second game in its sub-series, but it's a prequel to the first game set many hundreds of years in the past to that one. It follows the stories of Vieze and Felt, two childhood friends and budding alchemists who were raised at the same orphanage in the peaceful floating island of Eden. However, just after Vieze gets her certification to be a real alchemist and makes her first pact with a Mana (magical familiars who allow alchemy to occur), a sudden cataclysm occurs and nearly all of the holy spots of each mana group suddenly disappear. Finding the titular magical sword, the Azoth, suddenly talking to him, Felt pulls it from its legendary resting place and events push him out on an adventure to save Eden by traveling to the other world just beyond the magical gateway.
Iris 2's narrative is, on the whole, a fair bit weaker than that of the first game. I'm barely scratching the surface of the plot setup in the above paragraph (I didn't even mention the appearance of the titular Iris, though she's a mysterious child and not a playable character). There is just a ton of lore and plot but not actually all that much on the level of meaningful character writing (and very little in the way of narrative-focused side content, to be perfectly honest).
Even the big themes and character beats of Atelier Iris 2 are very similar to those of its predecessor, with Felt and Vieze unsurprisingly realizing they view each other as more than just friends over the course of the narrative. But where Klein and Riita were strangers who grew to trust one another before, Vieze and Felt are already close for the whole narrative, and it's a much quieter and less engaging relationship. Other characters have either virtually no character arcs to speak of or have ones that simply repeat standard tropes (secret princess not ready to rule, and child of the estranged father (who himself is a good guy on the wrong side of the war, a plot line I think is handled particularly clumsily)) in pretty uninspired ways. The game tries to frame Vieze and Felt as two equal main characters in the story, but the actual mechanics and happenings of the story fly in the face of that constantly. Vieze is stuck in Eden making recipes and support information for Felt while he's the one on the front lines meeting new characters, fighting big bosses, etc. Though she does eventually get some more important action as the story progresses, the way the two main characters are split up and the way the woman is made to stay home and simply prepare materials for the man leaves a pretty sour taste in the mouth, even for a game released in 2005.
The characters themselves are likeable enough, but they go through so little actual struggle on a personal level that I found it very hard to ever care terribly much about the story. Iris 2's narrative is a very weird case where the same team (more or less) managed to make a sequel that for the most part feels like a cheap ripoff of the story of their previous game, and after how charming so much of the first game's writing was, that was a pretty big disappointment.
Where Iris 2's genuine improvements shine brighter is in the mechanics and combat. Finally, after having the thing hidden for so many games, we have a visible turn order counter visible at the top of the screen. You even have "break" normal attacks you can do to send an enemy further back in the turn order, and a lot of strategy can be employed on whom to try and push back and when. This is especially true as in addition to special moves and using items, you also have "charge" normal attacks that charge your skill gauge, and those skill gauge charges give you ammo to spend on special moves. This game has no MP at all, and so most decisions in battle come down to the health you had going into it as well as the decisions you make in that battle itself.
This is where Iris 2 hits another one of its main stumbling blocks. Sure, combat animations and overall time is reduced heavily from the first game, as is the amount of time spent in menus. It's a game that overall moves a LOT faster, but it's also a game that is way WAY easier than the last game. The game has a really clever combination of the alchemy systems from the first five games and from the first Iris game, where Vieze makes the "master" versions of consumables using item combinations like the first five games, and then Felt can "mass produce" copies from that master using source he obtains just like how alchemy works in Iris 1. But the fact is that this system basically doesn't matter at ALL because you can get through the large bulk of the games encounters (and boss battles) by only ever using charge moves, break moves, and maybe a special skill if you feel like it. Some later bosses dish out nasty mass debuffs that you'll need to spend a turn undoing with one of the better mass-heal items you have, but even these are super easy to craft and make a TON of, and you can't avoid getting one of the best ones due to how the story goes.
Healing items in general are super duper easy to mass produce to the point where running out of health is virtually never a problem, and the game as a whole just never actually hits any sort of resource management. Not all games need to be super hard, but there was basically never a time I meaningfully thought I was going to get a game over, even against the final boss. Combat is snappy and fun, but it's so simple it ends up coming off as almost pointless due to how poorly balanced the underlying systems are. The overly simple combat combined with the overly easy story add up to an experience that feels like an earnest attempt to improve the formula of the previous game without time being taken to actually polish those systems into something that works.
The presentation at least is as good as ever. The musical tracks lean a bit more towards pop-styles than prior games, and the character design is a little more sexualized than the relatively (although certainly refreshingly) modest designs of Iris 1, but those in themselves aren't bad things and are kept well in moderation. It's got a very pretty, colorful art style and loads of good tunes. Nothing out of the ordinary for a Gust game of the time, thankfully~.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is a borderline "recommended" game, but it's just so underwhelming in so many ways that I feel your time is probably better spent playing a different RPG. This game is very rarely outright "bad" in one way or another, but it just also doesn't do anything particularly well either. Even for the Atelier series, the bar had been raised in terms of the quality of experience in an RPG in 2005, and I don't believe that Atelier Iris 2 does a fantastic job of passing that bar. You likely won't dislike your time with this game (outside of perhaps being bored), but you'll also likely enjoy most other PS2 RPGs of the time more than you will have enjoyed this.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me