Mega Man for DOS? Oof. That was definitely not the best version of Mega Man.prfsnl_gmr wrote: ↑Mon Mar 31, 2025 4:18 pm I’m playing some longer games, and I am dreadfully behind on reviews! Here’s an update:
1. Mega Man (DOS)
2. Mega Man III: The Robots Are Revolting (DOS)
3. Teslagrad 2 (Switch)
4. Metal Slug 5 (Neo Geo)
5. Ufouria: The Saga 2 (Switch)
6. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
7. The Bounty Huntress (Switch)
8. Wide Ocean Big Jacket (Switch)
9. Haunted Castle Revisited (Switch)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is pretty great. It stars Princess Zelda and uses the same aesthetic style as the Link’s Awakening remake (which is great because I was very worried for a very long time we wouldn’t get another LoZ game in the same style). Interestingly, though, it borrows a lot of gameplay elements from Tears of the Kingdom. That is, the world is almost completely open from the game’s start, and Princess Zelda’s ability to confront enemies and obstacles directly is very limited. Rather, she creates copies of objects she encounters throughout her journey, including enemies, and uses those to engage in combat, solve puzzles, and overcome obstacles. She can replicate dozens, if not hundreds of objects, which allows you to overcome obstacles creatively, and the game lets you play however you’d like. My only complaint is that the game is looooooong, and each area follows the same story beats (i.e., helps these guys, help these other guys, go to a dungeon, wash, rinse, repeat). Otherwise, I loved it and can’t recommend it highly enough.
The Bounty Huntress is, arguably, the worst metroidvania I’ve ever played. To be fair, the game is created by only a couple of people, costs only $1.99 on the Switch, and has, in places, some good sprite work. Still, it borrows very directly from Dark Souls and SotN, and suffers badly in comparison. It also has a lot of technical issues, contains generic music, uses simple background sprites, and is designed pretty poorly with one segment toward the end consisting of a series of one-way passages demonstrate particular disdain for the player’s time and patience. The difficulty spikes and dips wildly, and there’s a tremendous amount of backtracking for no good reason. Not recommended.
Wide Ocean Big Jacket is a cozy game about going on a camping trip. It has a fun, low-poly art style and a laid back vibe. Nothing much happens, and you can beat the game in 60-90 minutes. This sort of game is not my thing, but admittedly, this is a particularly good example of the genre. I look back on it fondly, and if cozy games are your thing, I can’t recommend this highly enough to you.
Haunted Castle Revisted is a remake of Haunted Castle included as a bonus feature in the Castlevania Dominus Collection. The original Haunted Castle is pretty terrible, but just as they did with Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, M2 has transformed another one of the worst games in the series to a pretty stellar classic-vania game. The game now consists of six well-designed and not-at-all-boring stages. The graphics, while still somewhat faithful to the coin-op original, look great; the music still rocks; the game controls well; and the game is now drastically less frustrating. My only complaint is that the game is very easy, and I 1cc’ed it on my first attempt. Accordingly, while it probably wouldn’t work as a stand-alone release, it’s a pretty amazing bonus feature and a must for Castlevania completionists.
Games Beaten 2025
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TheSSNintendo
- 128-bit
- Posts: 608
- Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:27 pm
Re: Games Beaten 2025
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TheSSNintendo
- 128-bit
- Posts: 608
- Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:27 pm
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Wario Land II (Game Boy)
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prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12302
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Definitely not! Still, it is a wholly original game, and I walked away with a little respect for it (especially since it was made by a single person!).TheSSNintendo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 8:13 pm Mega Man for DOS? Oof. That was definitely not the best version of Mega Man.
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PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 3065
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Partridge Senpai's 2025 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
* indicates a repeat
1. Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
2. Return of the Obra Dinn (PC)
3. Battlefield: Hardline (PS3)
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PS3)
6. Dead Nation (PS3)
7. Kileak, The Blood 2: Reason in Madness (PS1)
8. Paro Wars (PS1)
9. in Stars and Time (Steam)
10. Tetris Battle Gaiden (SFC)
11. Super Tetris 3 (SFC)
12. Battlefield 4 (PS3)
13. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
14. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)
15. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4)
16. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)
17. Call of Duty: WWII (PS4)
18. Resistance 3 (PS3)
19. Tearaway: Unfolded (PS4)
20. Grow Home (PS4)
21. Grow Up (PS4)
22. Ratchet & Clank (2016) (PS4)
23. Dark Sector (Steam)
24. Nagano Winter Olympics '98 (N64)
25. Multi-Racing Championship (N64)
26. Super Smash Bros. (N64)
27. Puyo Puyo Sun 64 (N64)
28. Shin Nippon Pro Wrestling: Toukon Road - Brave Spirits (N64)
29. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 6 (N64)
30. Let's Smash (N64)
31. Mario Tennis 64 (N64)
32. Ucchannanchan no Honō no Challenger: Denryū Iraira Bō (N64)
33. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 4 (N64)
34. FIFA: Road to the World Cup 98 (N64)
35. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 2000 (N64)
36. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 5 (N64)
37. Time and Eternity (PS3)
38. Pokemon Red (GB)
39. Dr. Mario 64 (N64)
40. Shining Force Neo (PS2)
I played and quite enjoyed the sequel to this, Shining Force EXA, maaaany years ago. Knowing this was a very similar game, it'd been on my radar for ages, and I was lucky enough to find this copy for super cheap around the time I moved to Japan (so like 5+ years ago XD). After trying and bouncing hard off of a similar game recently, I decided to play this game instead as a simple hack'n'slash RPG like this was exactly what my brain was in the mood for. It overall took me around 50 or so hours to beat the Japanese version of the game on original hardware while doing most all of the optional content (though how much of that was by choice rather than necessity is something we'll get into later).
Shining Force Neo follows the story of Max. After doing his military training for two years away from home, he's suddenly called home by his father. Excited that this might mean that he'll finally be allowed to be come one of the Forces, the powerful warriors who defend the realm from all matter of monsters, he heads back at once. However, disaster strikes as the mysterious Legion, long thought destroyed after the last great war 13 years ago, suddenly return and threaten the world once more. It's up to Max, his childhood friend Meryl, and the other Forces they meet along the way to stop this new threat by the Legion and the mysterious Clan of the Moon.
Overall, I'd say the narrative here is pretty weak. It's not the most hideously neoliberal garbage I've seen from this era, but that's definitely where a lot of its biggest sins originate from. There is this remarkable reluctance to ever have any character be truly evil or wicked, and even big societal issues like racial conflicts caused by colonialism are ultimately no more than misunderstandings that require barely more than a conversation to be all worked out in the end. It's a game that's both painfully pro-status quo as well as just having incredibly flat characters on top of it. No character being truly flawed means that no one has any way to improve or grow as a person, and that extends to the story as a whole. Max ends up being this totally enlightened character who just knows the problem to every solution, and it makes story dialogue very plodding and dreary outside of the occasional humor (which is in fairness pretty strong). It's mostly inoffensive, but there are some really gross turns the story takes with certain issues, and basically everything about the final conflict with the main villain is so absurdly convoluted that it was nothing but something I could derisively laugh at by the end. This was clearly a story written by someone who's seen a lot of stories but ultimately has very little idea of what makes a good story work, and so you end up with a lot of scattered plot beats ripped from better stories but with none of the actual setup to make those plot beats remotely effective. Not even their trope-filled love story can execute the most basic of tropes well. Like I said before, it's hardly a story actively unpleasant (which is sadly not the lowest bar you can reach for an RPG from this decade), but it's passable at best and frustrating & gross at the worst, and it's hardly a reason to actually go out and play this game.
The mechanics are sadly not that much more of a reason to show up either. It's a simple hack'n'slash game, but a *quite* simple one. If you're familiar with something like Diablo or the PS2 Baldur's Gate games, you'll be pretty familiar as to how an isometric action RPG like this works. You've got a basic attack, a selection of magic attacks that varies by the weapon you're using, and that's honestly pretty much it. Sure, you can block too, but that's rarely actually a sensible decision in a fight you're trying to win. The actual gameplay is very simple, but it tries to make up for it with the loot mechanics. You find TONS of weapons and armor as you quest around from map to map, as the monster spawners most monsters come from drop them when you destroy them. Equipment can have up to two passives naturally, and these passives cannot be transferred between equipment, so the only thing you can do to make a weapon better is just find another one. Sure, you can boost their stats with money at the blacksmith, but that's just base defense and offense increases. If you really want to be a force to be reckoned with, you'll need to be inspecting each and every piece of loot you find just to make sure you're not overlooking anything.
And that is where the problems begin. You can only carry 50 items at a time including the equipment you currently have equipped. Add in the consumables you've gotta carry (which thankfully act like a Dark Souls Estus Flask, so they're usually hard to increase the amount of but at least a trip back to town refills them for free), and you have about 25~30 items you can pick up before you've gotta head back to town. You thankfully have a town portal button accessible basically whenever you want other than in boss fights, and then you can painlessly travel right back to the spot you used it at for free. However, when most monster spawners drop 4 to 5 pieces of gear each, that means you're going back to town a LOT. There's no junk or mass-sell or identify features in the UI either. You'll need to sell every piece of gear you want for gold one at a time (after deselecting "no" to "yes", of course), and then identify each magical equipment one at a time, and then turn that magical equipment into energy crystals one at a time. In a game that's already 90%+ mashing the circle button to attack, this is so immensely tedious that it's kinda insane that a game from 2005 is still dealing with a problem so obvious.
You'll really want to identify all that magic equipment too, because even the weaker stuff can't be mulched into energy crystals for any value unless it's identified, and you'll REALLY want as much energy as you can. Money ultimately can't buy much, as it's easy to get loads of and raising equipment values at the blacksmith isn't actually that effective. Energy crystals are the currency you really care about because that's what you use to upgrade your stats in town. All sorts of stats and variables to how you fight (from doing more damage to particular types of monsters to taking less damage from certain times of magic and much, much more) can be increased this way, and it's one of the game's most major mechanics for increasing your power outside of new lucky super loot drops. The game does have various weapon types if you want to vary up combat slightly, but not only does one-handed melee work FAR better than basically anything else (in my experience anyhow) due to how badly you need the defensive buff from the shield it lets you carry on top of magic being too unreliable to be your main method of attacking, but it takes SO long to get enough energy to reasonably get even remotely decent at another fighting style that it's barely worth it to even try.
Bad UI, mediocre combat, and to top it all off a terrible grind. The first half or so of the game isn't so bad with this, but, my gods, the back half of the game feels padded to hell with incredibly challenging boss fights that take an age to get to and then can mulch you under a second. It was an interesting challenge of sorts to get strong enough to actually fight those bosses, but the game's mechanics are ultimately so simple that you can't really just play better to beat them. You cannot escape that demand for better gear, so you'll likely find yourself pursuing side content in the game's back half if for no other reason than progressing the main story is just impossible at that point. It may feel nice to finally beat those guys after the awful, grinding slogs it is to even fight them once you're strong enough to even survive for more than a second or so, but it's hardly any *fun*. Heck, those late-game bosses are SO damn tough that the actual final boss ended up being pitifully easy because I had to get SO strong to kill the bosses before him. The game's balancing is absolutely terrible, and bundled along with all the other issues this game has, it turns a mediocre action RPG into a decidedly below average one, and the game doesn't even have the decency to provide any kind of co-op mode to soften the blow of that either.
The aesthetics are mostly nice, at least when they work. The character portraits in dialogue are nice, the voice acting (in Japanese at least) is great, and the soundtrack is pretty darn strong too. Character models look a little funky with how their animations work sometimes, but that's not a super big problem. The much bigger problem is that the game just has SO much slowdown that it makes it frequently difficult to play. Around the halfway mark through the game, monster packs are so large that they lag the game very noticeably, and this is a nearly constant problem in how much more difficult it can make playing. There were countless times where I had no idea if the game was just lagging so hard it seemed like I wasn't moving, or if I was actually turned to stone, knocked down, or just stuck from too many monsters because the enemy models are just so big that it's frequently quite hard to see your character in combat. I'm not usually one to dock a game for spotty framerate, but with so much already wrong with how this game plays, it's just insult to injury on top of everything else already wrong with this thing.
Verdict: Not Recommended. If you've somehow not gotten the picture after reading this far, then I'll say once again that this game is an intensely mediocre action RPG with far too many issues with its execution to possibly be worth your time. Even just on the PS2 (granted not here in Japan), you've got the X-Men Legends games as well as the Baldur's Gate games if you want action RPG fun in a Diablo style but built for a console, and those games even have options for co-op play! I am far from an enjoyer of Shining Force games in general, but with how positive my memories are of EXA, I thought I might really like this one, and boy was I ever wrong on that. This game is a boring, tedious affair that'll just hurt your hands with how much you're mashing the buttons to hurt stuff over its far too long runtime, and your action RPG fun is unquestionably better gained elsewhere on the PS2 (or any console since, for that matter).
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
* indicates a repeat
1. Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
2. Return of the Obra Dinn (PC)
3. Battlefield: Hardline (PS3)
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PS3)
6. Dead Nation (PS3)
7. Kileak, The Blood 2: Reason in Madness (PS1)
8. Paro Wars (PS1)
9. in Stars and Time (Steam)
10. Tetris Battle Gaiden (SFC)
11. Super Tetris 3 (SFC)
12. Battlefield 4 (PS3)
13. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
14. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)
15. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4)
16. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)
17. Call of Duty: WWII (PS4)
18. Resistance 3 (PS3)
19. Tearaway: Unfolded (PS4)
20. Grow Home (PS4)
21. Grow Up (PS4)
22. Ratchet & Clank (2016) (PS4)
23. Dark Sector (Steam)
24. Nagano Winter Olympics '98 (N64)
25. Multi-Racing Championship (N64)
26. Super Smash Bros. (N64)
27. Puyo Puyo Sun 64 (N64)
28. Shin Nippon Pro Wrestling: Toukon Road - Brave Spirits (N64)
29. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 6 (N64)
30. Let's Smash (N64)
31. Mario Tennis 64 (N64)
32. Ucchannanchan no Honō no Challenger: Denryū Iraira Bō (N64)
33. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 4 (N64)
34. FIFA: Road to the World Cup 98 (N64)
35. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 2000 (N64)
36. Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyuu 5 (N64)
37. Time and Eternity (PS3)
38. Pokemon Red (GB)
39. Dr. Mario 64 (N64)
40. Shining Force Neo (PS2)
I played and quite enjoyed the sequel to this, Shining Force EXA, maaaany years ago. Knowing this was a very similar game, it'd been on my radar for ages, and I was lucky enough to find this copy for super cheap around the time I moved to Japan (so like 5+ years ago XD). After trying and bouncing hard off of a similar game recently, I decided to play this game instead as a simple hack'n'slash RPG like this was exactly what my brain was in the mood for. It overall took me around 50 or so hours to beat the Japanese version of the game on original hardware while doing most all of the optional content (though how much of that was by choice rather than necessity is something we'll get into later).
Shining Force Neo follows the story of Max. After doing his military training for two years away from home, he's suddenly called home by his father. Excited that this might mean that he'll finally be allowed to be come one of the Forces, the powerful warriors who defend the realm from all matter of monsters, he heads back at once. However, disaster strikes as the mysterious Legion, long thought destroyed after the last great war 13 years ago, suddenly return and threaten the world once more. It's up to Max, his childhood friend Meryl, and the other Forces they meet along the way to stop this new threat by the Legion and the mysterious Clan of the Moon.
Overall, I'd say the narrative here is pretty weak. It's not the most hideously neoliberal garbage I've seen from this era, but that's definitely where a lot of its biggest sins originate from. There is this remarkable reluctance to ever have any character be truly evil or wicked, and even big societal issues like racial conflicts caused by colonialism are ultimately no more than misunderstandings that require barely more than a conversation to be all worked out in the end. It's a game that's both painfully pro-status quo as well as just having incredibly flat characters on top of it. No character being truly flawed means that no one has any way to improve or grow as a person, and that extends to the story as a whole. Max ends up being this totally enlightened character who just knows the problem to every solution, and it makes story dialogue very plodding and dreary outside of the occasional humor (which is in fairness pretty strong). It's mostly inoffensive, but there are some really gross turns the story takes with certain issues, and basically everything about the final conflict with the main villain is so absurdly convoluted that it was nothing but something I could derisively laugh at by the end. This was clearly a story written by someone who's seen a lot of stories but ultimately has very little idea of what makes a good story work, and so you end up with a lot of scattered plot beats ripped from better stories but with none of the actual setup to make those plot beats remotely effective. Not even their trope-filled love story can execute the most basic of tropes well. Like I said before, it's hardly a story actively unpleasant (which is sadly not the lowest bar you can reach for an RPG from this decade), but it's passable at best and frustrating & gross at the worst, and it's hardly a reason to actually go out and play this game.
The mechanics are sadly not that much more of a reason to show up either. It's a simple hack'n'slash game, but a *quite* simple one. If you're familiar with something like Diablo or the PS2 Baldur's Gate games, you'll be pretty familiar as to how an isometric action RPG like this works. You've got a basic attack, a selection of magic attacks that varies by the weapon you're using, and that's honestly pretty much it. Sure, you can block too, but that's rarely actually a sensible decision in a fight you're trying to win. The actual gameplay is very simple, but it tries to make up for it with the loot mechanics. You find TONS of weapons and armor as you quest around from map to map, as the monster spawners most monsters come from drop them when you destroy them. Equipment can have up to two passives naturally, and these passives cannot be transferred between equipment, so the only thing you can do to make a weapon better is just find another one. Sure, you can boost their stats with money at the blacksmith, but that's just base defense and offense increases. If you really want to be a force to be reckoned with, you'll need to be inspecting each and every piece of loot you find just to make sure you're not overlooking anything.
And that is where the problems begin. You can only carry 50 items at a time including the equipment you currently have equipped. Add in the consumables you've gotta carry (which thankfully act like a Dark Souls Estus Flask, so they're usually hard to increase the amount of but at least a trip back to town refills them for free), and you have about 25~30 items you can pick up before you've gotta head back to town. You thankfully have a town portal button accessible basically whenever you want other than in boss fights, and then you can painlessly travel right back to the spot you used it at for free. However, when most monster spawners drop 4 to 5 pieces of gear each, that means you're going back to town a LOT. There's no junk or mass-sell or identify features in the UI either. You'll need to sell every piece of gear you want for gold one at a time (after deselecting "no" to "yes", of course), and then identify each magical equipment one at a time, and then turn that magical equipment into energy crystals one at a time. In a game that's already 90%+ mashing the circle button to attack, this is so immensely tedious that it's kinda insane that a game from 2005 is still dealing with a problem so obvious.
You'll really want to identify all that magic equipment too, because even the weaker stuff can't be mulched into energy crystals for any value unless it's identified, and you'll REALLY want as much energy as you can. Money ultimately can't buy much, as it's easy to get loads of and raising equipment values at the blacksmith isn't actually that effective. Energy crystals are the currency you really care about because that's what you use to upgrade your stats in town. All sorts of stats and variables to how you fight (from doing more damage to particular types of monsters to taking less damage from certain times of magic and much, much more) can be increased this way, and it's one of the game's most major mechanics for increasing your power outside of new lucky super loot drops. The game does have various weapon types if you want to vary up combat slightly, but not only does one-handed melee work FAR better than basically anything else (in my experience anyhow) due to how badly you need the defensive buff from the shield it lets you carry on top of magic being too unreliable to be your main method of attacking, but it takes SO long to get enough energy to reasonably get even remotely decent at another fighting style that it's barely worth it to even try.
Bad UI, mediocre combat, and to top it all off a terrible grind. The first half or so of the game isn't so bad with this, but, my gods, the back half of the game feels padded to hell with incredibly challenging boss fights that take an age to get to and then can mulch you under a second. It was an interesting challenge of sorts to get strong enough to actually fight those bosses, but the game's mechanics are ultimately so simple that you can't really just play better to beat them. You cannot escape that demand for better gear, so you'll likely find yourself pursuing side content in the game's back half if for no other reason than progressing the main story is just impossible at that point. It may feel nice to finally beat those guys after the awful, grinding slogs it is to even fight them once you're strong enough to even survive for more than a second or so, but it's hardly any *fun*. Heck, those late-game bosses are SO damn tough that the actual final boss ended up being pitifully easy because I had to get SO strong to kill the bosses before him. The game's balancing is absolutely terrible, and bundled along with all the other issues this game has, it turns a mediocre action RPG into a decidedly below average one, and the game doesn't even have the decency to provide any kind of co-op mode to soften the blow of that either.
The aesthetics are mostly nice, at least when they work. The character portraits in dialogue are nice, the voice acting (in Japanese at least) is great, and the soundtrack is pretty darn strong too. Character models look a little funky with how their animations work sometimes, but that's not a super big problem. The much bigger problem is that the game just has SO much slowdown that it makes it frequently difficult to play. Around the halfway mark through the game, monster packs are so large that they lag the game very noticeably, and this is a nearly constant problem in how much more difficult it can make playing. There were countless times where I had no idea if the game was just lagging so hard it seemed like I wasn't moving, or if I was actually turned to stone, knocked down, or just stuck from too many monsters because the enemy models are just so big that it's frequently quite hard to see your character in combat. I'm not usually one to dock a game for spotty framerate, but with so much already wrong with how this game plays, it's just insult to injury on top of everything else already wrong with this thing.
Verdict: Not Recommended. If you've somehow not gotten the picture after reading this far, then I'll say once again that this game is an intensely mediocre action RPG with far too many issues with its execution to possibly be worth your time. Even just on the PS2 (granted not here in Japan), you've got the X-Men Legends games as well as the Baldur's Gate games if you want action RPG fun in a Diablo style but built for a console, and those games even have options for co-op play! I am far from an enjoyer of Shining Force games in general, but with how positive my memories are of EXA, I thought I might really like this one, and boy was I ever wrong on that. This game is a boring, tedious affair that'll just hurt your hands with how much you're mashing the buttons to hurt stuff over its far too long runtime, and your action RPG fun is unquestionably better gained elsewhere on the PS2 (or any console since, for that matter).
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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SyedDanishAnwar
- 8-bit
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2024 10:35 pm
- Location: Karachi, Pakistan
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2025
I am really impressed by how you have organized your list of games beaten over the years. I am compelled to create my own list of games beaten similar to yours with links to the past.
I am nearly done with Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice on PC, with only the last boss left - Sword Saint Isshin. I think I will start my personal review with this gem of a game.
BTW, I enjoy reading your reviews of game beaten so keep 'em coming.
A legacy gamer from Karachi, Pakistan gaming since 1989 on both PC and consoles (Atari 2600, Famicon, Sega, PS 1-3 and 5). PSN ID: syeddanishanwar. Playing Now: None at the moment (Taking a mini-break from games)
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PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 3065
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Thank you so much!SyedDanishAnwar wrote: ↑Thu Apr 03, 2025 5:22 pm
I am really impressed by how you have organized your list of games beaten over the years. I am compelled to create my own list of games beaten similar to yours with links to the past.
I am nearly done with Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice on PC, with only the last boss left - Sword Saint Isshin. I think I will start my personal review with this gem of a game.
BTW, I enjoy reading your reviews of game beaten so keep 'em coming.
I have a lot of fun writing them, so it means a bunch to know that other folks like reading them too! ^w^
As for how I organize them, that's just an idea I took from other folks here on the site, so I can't exactly take credit for it X3
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
1. Tomb Raider II Remastered - PC
2. Tomb Raider III Remastered - PC
3. Blade Chimera - Switch
4. Cyber Shadow - Switch
5. Signalis - Switch
6. Ender Magnolia - Switch
7. SimCity 2000 Special Edition - PC
8. Ghost Song - Switch
9. Citizen Sleeper 2 - Switch
10. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider - Switch
11. The Last Faith - Switch
12. Anger Foot - PC
13. Avowed - PC
14. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic Mode - Switch
15. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic II: Dominque's Curse - Switch
16. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II - PS5
Trails Through Daybreak II is the latest in the long running Trails series. It's been running since the PSP days and is now in the second half of the overall narrative being told. I actually had trouble getting through this one, and I was able to pinpoint why. It isn't anything that's technically wrong; rather it's some choices they made that caused me to finally feel some fatigue when it comes to this series.
The game follows up on the events of the first one; there is still one Genesis to collect, and soon events conspire to give you a lead on where to get it. Specifically, that lead involves a monster that seems linked to it in some fashion. The monster also kills you in the prologue, but it's ok; time rewinds and you get a chance to make better choices so you don't die. This time rewinding plot is the defining feature of the game; occasionally you can foresee things and do an optional activity that keeps you on the good path, but most of the time you're forced to experience a bad end and then rewind to set things right. Sometimes you'll do it several times. Fortunately, you keep all items and experience as well as map completion and fast travel points, so usually you can just skip straight to boss fights that you are supposed to repeat with some changed component. How you feel about this plot will be a significant factor in your enjoyment of the game.
Like previous sequels, the game adds more characters to the cast, though in this case they're all characters who were available at least as NPC partners in the first game. The game actually does two chapters of split parties, where half the cast goes down one route while the other half is on another route, giving them all more of a chance to shine (not too dissimilar from the multiple routes in Reverie). The game also has a randomized dungeon that unlocks over time and lets you use the full cast at any point, again, like what we saw in Reverie. There's not as much character growth in this entry for the main party; instead we see more with the new characters and other NPCs.
The part that I think really lost me was the general lack of mechanical evolution. For every previous set of games in the series you would have the first game set up the cast and the systems, then the second game adds to the cast and then provides a second layer to the systems, such as upgraded versions of existing quartz and upgrading slots. This gave it a bit of a new game plus feel, as you would start off with capabilities closer to the end game of the first game but still giving you growth in the second. Here they don't do that. You reset to a status similar to the beginning of the first game, and there is no extra tier of quartz to build towards. The only new feature in the combat is there are a handful of dual arts that you can acquire through drivers and plugins. These are powerful spells that use two elements and are considered to have the element the enemy is most weak to. They're definitely nice to have and make casters your nukes of choice, but they also unlock on a schedule gated on plot progression. Combined with the extra fighting through the aforementioned bonus dungeon (which provies just enough rewards that you feel like you should be doing it) and you'll find that combat fatigue really sets in. By the 2/3 point I was just avoiding all combats because the game's catch up experience curve quickly brings you to where you need to be.
The weirdest thing is that this game doesn't feel like a proper wrap-up game like all the previous second games have been. It feels a lot more like a part two to the setup of the first game, and it even calls out at the end that there are some significant lingering components that need to be wrapped up, presumably in the recently announced Trails Beyond the Horizon. I'm still looking forward to that, but I hope they can do an iteration on the combat to make things a bit fresher again.
1. Tomb Raider II Remastered - PC
2. Tomb Raider III Remastered - PC
3. Blade Chimera - Switch
4. Cyber Shadow - Switch
5. Signalis - Switch
6. Ender Magnolia - Switch
7. SimCity 2000 Special Edition - PC
8. Ghost Song - Switch
9. Citizen Sleeper 2 - Switch
10. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider - Switch
11. The Last Faith - Switch
12. Anger Foot - PC
13. Avowed - PC
14. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic Mode - Switch
15. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic II: Dominque's Curse - Switch
16. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II - PS5
Trails Through Daybreak II is the latest in the long running Trails series. It's been running since the PSP days and is now in the second half of the overall narrative being told. I actually had trouble getting through this one, and I was able to pinpoint why. It isn't anything that's technically wrong; rather it's some choices they made that caused me to finally feel some fatigue when it comes to this series.
The game follows up on the events of the first one; there is still one Genesis to collect, and soon events conspire to give you a lead on where to get it. Specifically, that lead involves a monster that seems linked to it in some fashion. The monster also kills you in the prologue, but it's ok; time rewinds and you get a chance to make better choices so you don't die. This time rewinding plot is the defining feature of the game; occasionally you can foresee things and do an optional activity that keeps you on the good path, but most of the time you're forced to experience a bad end and then rewind to set things right. Sometimes you'll do it several times. Fortunately, you keep all items and experience as well as map completion and fast travel points, so usually you can just skip straight to boss fights that you are supposed to repeat with some changed component. How you feel about this plot will be a significant factor in your enjoyment of the game.
Like previous sequels, the game adds more characters to the cast, though in this case they're all characters who were available at least as NPC partners in the first game. The game actually does two chapters of split parties, where half the cast goes down one route while the other half is on another route, giving them all more of a chance to shine (not too dissimilar from the multiple routes in Reverie). The game also has a randomized dungeon that unlocks over time and lets you use the full cast at any point, again, like what we saw in Reverie. There's not as much character growth in this entry for the main party; instead we see more with the new characters and other NPCs.
The part that I think really lost me was the general lack of mechanical evolution. For every previous set of games in the series you would have the first game set up the cast and the systems, then the second game adds to the cast and then provides a second layer to the systems, such as upgraded versions of existing quartz and upgrading slots. This gave it a bit of a new game plus feel, as you would start off with capabilities closer to the end game of the first game but still giving you growth in the second. Here they don't do that. You reset to a status similar to the beginning of the first game, and there is no extra tier of quartz to build towards. The only new feature in the combat is there are a handful of dual arts that you can acquire through drivers and plugins. These are powerful spells that use two elements and are considered to have the element the enemy is most weak to. They're definitely nice to have and make casters your nukes of choice, but they also unlock on a schedule gated on plot progression. Combined with the extra fighting through the aforementioned bonus dungeon (which provies just enough rewards that you feel like you should be doing it) and you'll find that combat fatigue really sets in. By the 2/3 point I was just avoiding all combats because the game's catch up experience curve quickly brings you to where you need to be.
The weirdest thing is that this game doesn't feel like a proper wrap-up game like all the previous second games have been. It feels a lot more like a part two to the setup of the first game, and it even calls out at the end that there are some significant lingering components that need to be wrapped up, presumably in the recently announced Trails Beyond the Horizon. I'm still looking forward to that, but I hope they can do an iteration on the combat to make things a bit fresher again.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2025
1. Streets of Rage 3 (GEN)*
2. Iridion II (GBA)*
3. Final Fantasy III (SNES)
4. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (PS1)
5. Shockman Zero (SNES)
Shockman Zero, also known as Shubibinman Zero, was originally only released in Japan on the Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom. However, last year, there was announcement that Retro-Bit was going to release the game on a SNES cart. With that in mind, I checked out the game via emulation and enjoyed what I had played of it. I decided to go ahead and pick-up a copy and finally received it in early March. The game is the fourth and final title in Shubibinman series, with the previous games being released on the PC-Engine.
Shockman Zero is an action platformer that also includes some beat 'em up mechanics. As a fan of both genres, I'm totally fine with this mix and think it works well here. You will mostly be using short range attacks to dispose of the enemies; however, you also have access to a charge shot. Unlike the Mega Man games, you're not able to move while you're charging your shot. The game features two-player couch co-op which is a nice touch, as it's pretty uncommon for an action platform title. You also have access to a few special movies, as with Raita (player 1's character), you can do a dragon punch with the same button input as Street Fighter II. With Azuki (player 2's character), you have access to a charged up kick that you can do by pressing the attack button twice while jumping.
The game consists of eight levels, and most of the levels include a boss fight, with one of the bosses being a reoccurring menace. There are also a good amount of environmental hazards to avoid, and those type of hazards get notched up in the later levels. Shockman Zero also features a simple point/experience system, where the more points you earn from killing enemies, the bigger your life bar gets. You can also decide to skip enemies without attacking them (except for bosses), but you won't earn points or grow your life bar this way. With that in mind, I tried to take down as many enemies as possible.
Graphics wise, I do like the look of the game, and a lot of the levels and character designs are quite colorful. There are also some short cutscenes and dialogue sections and the characters have portraits that are well done. Music wise, the tunes here are quite catchy and they remind me of the style of music that would be found in the Mega Man X games on the SNES. In regards to the English translation, there's been some controversy around it. It appears the translator that Retro-Bit hired ended up using a previously released fan translation. I hope that Retro-Bit has distanced themselves from this individual, as I think it's pretty scummy for someone to have plagiarized another's work. Perhaps in the future Retro-Bit can try to get a hold of the original fan translators and collaborate directly with them.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Shockman Zero! It's a fun pick up and play game on the console's library, and I always enjoy discovering good co-op games. I didn't find the difficulty here to be too tough, as I was able to finish the game on my second attempt. I think this would be a good candidate to play casually with friends or family. I'd recommend checking it out if you have a chance!
2. Iridion II (GBA)*
3. Final Fantasy III (SNES)
4. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (PS1)
5. Shockman Zero (SNES)
Shockman Zero, also known as Shubibinman Zero, was originally only released in Japan on the Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom. However, last year, there was announcement that Retro-Bit was going to release the game on a SNES cart. With that in mind, I checked out the game via emulation and enjoyed what I had played of it. I decided to go ahead and pick-up a copy and finally received it in early March. The game is the fourth and final title in Shubibinman series, with the previous games being released on the PC-Engine.
Shockman Zero is an action platformer that also includes some beat 'em up mechanics. As a fan of both genres, I'm totally fine with this mix and think it works well here. You will mostly be using short range attacks to dispose of the enemies; however, you also have access to a charge shot. Unlike the Mega Man games, you're not able to move while you're charging your shot. The game features two-player couch co-op which is a nice touch, as it's pretty uncommon for an action platform title. You also have access to a few special movies, as with Raita (player 1's character), you can do a dragon punch with the same button input as Street Fighter II. With Azuki (player 2's character), you have access to a charged up kick that you can do by pressing the attack button twice while jumping.
The game consists of eight levels, and most of the levels include a boss fight, with one of the bosses being a reoccurring menace. There are also a good amount of environmental hazards to avoid, and those type of hazards get notched up in the later levels. Shockman Zero also features a simple point/experience system, where the more points you earn from killing enemies, the bigger your life bar gets. You can also decide to skip enemies without attacking them (except for bosses), but you won't earn points or grow your life bar this way. With that in mind, I tried to take down as many enemies as possible.
Graphics wise, I do like the look of the game, and a lot of the levels and character designs are quite colorful. There are also some short cutscenes and dialogue sections and the characters have portraits that are well done. Music wise, the tunes here are quite catchy and they remind me of the style of music that would be found in the Mega Man X games on the SNES. In regards to the English translation, there's been some controversy around it. It appears the translator that Retro-Bit hired ended up using a previously released fan translation. I hope that Retro-Bit has distanced themselves from this individual, as I think it's pretty scummy for someone to have plagiarized another's work. Perhaps in the future Retro-Bit can try to get a hold of the original fan translators and collaborate directly with them.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Shockman Zero! It's a fun pick up and play game on the console's library, and I always enjoy discovering good co-op games. I didn't find the difficulty here to be too tough, as I was able to finish the game on my second attempt. I think this would be a good candidate to play casually with friends or family. I'd recommend checking it out if you have a chance!
-
RobertAugustdeMeijer
- 24-bit
- Posts: 196
- Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2022 10:15 am
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Are you into speedrunning? Then this is the golden standard. There's boundless creativity in the movement options and oddball architecture. But as an adventure, this one quickly loses steam, as the horrendous camera does not gel well with the demanding platforming found in later stages. Most of the enjoyment comes from seeing how Nintendo got the most personality out of limited polygons. Often, the compromises create fantastic 90's SGI landscapes, which are a pleasure to trek through.
6/10
17. Resident Evil 2 Remake
There's something cozy about turning an unsafe area (in this case, the police station) into an orderly safe haven. The power fantasy is domestic: it's not that the place is empty, it's just under control. As the narrative delves deeper and astray into lacklustre areas and explanations, this one devolves into run-of-the-mill post-RE4 Resident Evil. The Claire run fares better thanks to the girl's side-missions.
5/10
18. Fantastic Dizzy
Stupid puzzles and annoying platforming are combined into something more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps the anticipation of seeing if your solution actually works is heightened by putting dexterous challenges in your way. And there's adorkable energy abound, as the Darling Brothers yet again shamelessly slap together a jury-rigged budget title according to a proven formula. While it is not recommended to be played, it should nevertheless never be forgotten.
5/10
-
Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1514
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2025
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2025!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
2. Mario Party 4 (GCN)
***3. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2)***
***4. Pokemon Snap (N64)***
***5. Dead Or Alive (PS1)***
6. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
7. Pokemon Blue (GBC)
8. Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
***9. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)***
***10. Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN)***
***11. The New Tetris (N64)***
12. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA)
13. Yoshi (NES)
***14. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)***
I completed Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System this evening!
Back in 2003, I was in college and I was first discovering RPG's. I had played through some Final Fantasy games, so I was buying older RPG's for systems that I already had. Obviously, I bought SNES games at this moment and time. Well, one of the first ones that I played was Super Mario RPG and I did not like it one bit. It was my very first isometric game, so I thought it controlled horribly. Also, I had a rather difficult and annoying time with the game once I finally beat it. After 23 years of praise for the game, I wanted to give it another try like I did for the Link to the Past a few years ago. So, I finally decided to replay the game to completion to see if my opinion changed.
Playing Super Mario RPG is one of the reasons that I love replaying old games to completion. I get a full view of the entire game along with an opportunity to look at the game in a different light. After playing several isometric games after Super Mario RPG, I was now completely comfortable with the controls. I wouldn't say they are great, but they are at least more manageable now. Also, I don't know how much of the extra hit damage I used when I was younger, but that also helped a long way in my enjoyment of the game. I can very much see how many people enjoy the game. I love the dialogue, but my favorite aspect of the game are the facial reactions of the characters. They are so animated and have such interesting quirks to see. It was a real treat to go through the game and I liked discovering the roots of the Paper Mario series once again.
Besides the controls, I felt the game was a little unbalanced. I could kill enemies in one hit, but then I would run into bosses and they would give me quite a bit of trouble. Also, some of the mini-games and end game bosses can be quite annoying. Finally, having to rely on items to revive and not having great heal spells is kind of a pain. You get the Princess so late, that it is hard to pivot to her.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing Super Mario RPG. It's not one of my favorite games as it never really grabbed me and I got easily distracted while playing the game. However, much like Link to the Past, I respect it more than I enjoyed it and I have much deeper respect for the game many years later. It is a classic and well worth the time for anybody. It is one of the best beginner RPG's ever!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
2. Mario Party 4 (GCN)
***3. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2)***
***4. Pokemon Snap (N64)***
***5. Dead Or Alive (PS1)***
6. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
7. Pokemon Blue (GBC)
8. Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
***9. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)***
***10. Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN)***
***11. The New Tetris (N64)***
12. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA)
13. Yoshi (NES)
***14. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)***
I completed Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System this evening!
Back in 2003, I was in college and I was first discovering RPG's. I had played through some Final Fantasy games, so I was buying older RPG's for systems that I already had. Obviously, I bought SNES games at this moment and time. Well, one of the first ones that I played was Super Mario RPG and I did not like it one bit. It was my very first isometric game, so I thought it controlled horribly. Also, I had a rather difficult and annoying time with the game once I finally beat it. After 23 years of praise for the game, I wanted to give it another try like I did for the Link to the Past a few years ago. So, I finally decided to replay the game to completion to see if my opinion changed.
Playing Super Mario RPG is one of the reasons that I love replaying old games to completion. I get a full view of the entire game along with an opportunity to look at the game in a different light. After playing several isometric games after Super Mario RPG, I was now completely comfortable with the controls. I wouldn't say they are great, but they are at least more manageable now. Also, I don't know how much of the extra hit damage I used when I was younger, but that also helped a long way in my enjoyment of the game. I can very much see how many people enjoy the game. I love the dialogue, but my favorite aspect of the game are the facial reactions of the characters. They are so animated and have such interesting quirks to see. It was a real treat to go through the game and I liked discovering the roots of the Paper Mario series once again.
Besides the controls, I felt the game was a little unbalanced. I could kill enemies in one hit, but then I would run into bosses and they would give me quite a bit of trouble. Also, some of the mini-games and end game bosses can be quite annoying. Finally, having to rely on items to revive and not having great heal spells is kind of a pain. You get the Princess so late, that it is hard to pivot to her.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing Super Mario RPG. It's not one of my favorite games as it never really grabbed me and I got easily distracted while playing the game. However, much like Link to the Past, I respect it more than I enjoyed it and I have much deeper respect for the game many years later. It is a classic and well worth the time for anybody. It is one of the best beginner RPG's ever!
