52 Games. 1 Year. 2021.

Whimsicalish · Apr 21, 2021

13 | Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

PC | April 11 | 572 hrs | 4/5

As a note, my hour count is my entire playtime up to this point. I have not played the newest patches yet. This review will focus more on the latest expansion.

Lobotomaxx and I played this when it first released and we stopped 3/4ths of the way through Shadowbringers. It's our bad habit to start games and not finish them until years later.

The environments in this expac are gorgeous. Bright colors for trees and lakes. Extravagant cities. The designers did a great job changing the zones with your story progression. It made a difference as we played. New races and classes were included, but neither of us tried the new tank or dps class. We were pleasantly surprised how well the AI responded in the new dungeon trust system. Neither of us had difficulty and honestly seemed like a good way to teach us the mechanics without bringing down other players.

The reason why I couldn't give a perfect score: the story didn't do it for me. It personally felt convoluted. I had moments wondering wtf was going on. The story in this expansion focuses on a (sub-genre?) of writing I do not like to read, or play, or watch. Also, the main villain felt too god-like. Please don't click on tag unless you're okay with a spoiler for the main story in FFXIV. They DO talk about this thing before this expansion so it's not a surprise but I don't remember when. I don't want to ruin someone's fun.

I detest the multiverse sub-genre. Cheesy, confusing plots for no reason.

This isn't to say the story is bad! It was a miss for me.

I did have a ton of fun with this mmo in general; I do look forward to what they add in the future.

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14 | Gorogoa

NSW | April 14 | 2+ hrs | 4/5

Wonderfully illustrated puzzle told through a story. There are no words, no dialogue spoken. The story is told in an abstract manner, jumping from scene and different timelines. I knew very little starting into the game and I strongly recommend experiencing it for yourself.

The game has illustrations that feel hand-drawn from a story book. There is a wide range of emotional scenes: peaceful, somber, frightening, etc. The designers did a great job with the art style. The puzzles were unique and fun to find a new picture.

It was a short experience. I'm not sure exactly how long I played since Nintendo refuses to give us that option. I know I spent some time scratching my head on some of the puzzles but still felt short. However, the story did feel complete. I rather have a tighter, complete game experience than one trying to pad time with monotonous gameplay.

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15 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

NSW | April 20 | 75+ hrs | 5/5

What can I say about this game that hasn't been said? I was close to not playing it but I figured I should give it a try. I have never beaten a Zelda game in the past. I have limited knowledge of that universe. For whatever reason, I never really gave a Zelda game a chance until now.

As a newbie, this game works for anyone like me. You don't need to know the world or what's going on because the game gracefully takes you through that. The world feels alive around you. Holding metal in a thunderstorm? Get zapped. Wearing thin clothes on a snowy mountain? Get frozen. Fell into volcanic lava? We've all been there. I loved wandering around the map and exploring on foot. It was a blast. I appreciate there are no levels and little limitations.

I have a few minor nitpicks. Riding horseback felt like a chore. I would often ditch my horse somewhere because it was simply easier to run or climb than fight the horse for control. I LOATHE the shrines that use the Switch's tilt sh*t. (I heard it's much easier to use a controller than using the system as a handheld.) But those puzzles were sent from hell. The designers were told they had to make something to showcase Switch's tilt mechanic; they decided to throw in some sh*tty freefall ball mechanics that make me want to toss my Switch against a wall.

Anyways, everything else +++. But tilt shrines can die in a fire.

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Weiss · Apr 22, 2021

10. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - 22/04/2021

For the first half of the game I had an existentialist nightmare wherein I didn't find the game anymore but had such a sense of arrested development I kept coming back to old favourites over new experiences even if those favoruites became boring, then the latter half of the game kicked in and I died more than I care to admit.

Klonoa good.

Lobotomaxx · Apr 23, 2021

1/52

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III | Steam | 4/5 | 97 hours | played with Whimsicalish

Man, look at that cool guy. I liked this game more than Whimsicalish did but a lot of what she didn't like made sense. The story is starting to get sort of whatever with a bunch of stupid reveals in the last 30 minutes that only open up more questions. I'm sure the fourth one (which we've working our way through) probably explains more but the finer points of the story are probably all out of my head at this point. I'm just there to look at Rean and see how cool he is and make sure everyone is talking about Rean at all times.

The new class you're leading didn't really do anything for me for the first third of the game or so but they've started to grow on me, probably even more than the original class. At this point, I'm into these games too deep and I can't stop.

2/52

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers | Steam | 4/5 | 453 hours | played with Whimsicalish

So while this is listed as Shadowbringers, it is actually including all my FF14 time played total. We started this game and have played it on and off for a couple of years. As Wozzer is learning, the game can be a slog in the beginning! The story, again, has started to get more nonsensical to me as it goes on but I have a fun time playing it. This handles a little differently than, say, WoW because the global cooldown is like 2 or 3 second between abilities. While there are abilities that aren't on gcd, a lot of the time I feel like I'm just listening to rad tunes waiting for my next button to press in my combo to deal massive damage.

The ability to have one character change jobs (classes) with one character is nice so you can never have bag space again as you collect everything for everyone. The game looks excellent and everyone is hot. Would play again. Whenever I get to the patch cycle for Shadowbringers, I will count them as separate titles and you can't stop me.

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bushmonkey · Apr 23, 2021

Main post Here

7. Disco Elysium: Final cut - PS5 - 20hrs /21st April - 10/10
This has jumped into my top 10 favourite games ever. It's such a unique experience. As soon as I'd finished it, I just had to start again but with 'opposite' stats. Absolute classic. Also, I didn't encounter any game breaking bugs, just some missed dialogue audio until the patch came in.

Playing Yakuza: like a dragon next. I also need to finish It Takes Two. That game is far longer than I expected it to be.

djinn · Apr 23, 2021

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13. Dorfromantik
Lovely chill puzzle builder game. Still in early access but main gameplay is available. I love chasing that high score but this game would be better with a clearer tutorial. I had to use a steam guide to have some basic gameplay revealed to me. Still, I'm having a lovely time with this. Counted as complete when I hit a score of 10k+

14. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
I just finished this today so I'm kinda still in a raw mood with this. I did not like this ending. And that's affected my whole outlook on the game. It's an enjoyable enough ride but the story unravels at the end and some plot points are just never explained, at least not clearly. Combat is ok. It's nothing to write home about but it's also not particularly annoying either.

I disliked that there was no concrete villain, or, if they were villainous, they were rewarded in the end. Deimos were mindless adds from a video game, Izumi wasn't actually a murderer and professor Morimura is kept on as a leader and Ida got his AI waifu in the end. It's like the game didn't want anyone to face consequences for their actions. My least favourite character, Yakushiji, is clearly favoured by the director and she's given a romance story she did nothing to deserve.

Most egregious was the fact that the sectors were not even a real place, that every sector was just a hologram playing it whilst the characters slept in pods. Just made the entire last battle, a 14 hours marathon but the characters, just this meaningless VR session. Not to mention it just brings up a number of questions: why make things needlessly complicated with sectors then? Why have boundaries of actual metal corridors in each section? Why is the computer so dumb it can't detect they the Deimos are bad? Why turn safeties off in your Matrix holodeck? Why spend 18 years of them living in a fantasy world and only 2 years learning how to start up a new colony?

I'm not given answers that satisfy and it's left me feeling sour.

KtotheRoc · Apr 23, 2021

24: Good Job! End: 4/23/2021. (4)

A fun and charming puzzle game. It felt rewarding solving the game's obstacles, and even causing mass destruction amused me. YMMV on the game being a little on the short side.

Tizoc · Apr 24, 2021

50. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin

So this started out OK, I didn't mind that I was getting lots of Souls and thus can level up quickly, but the later levels got more and more BS or annoying to the point they make the more tedious parts of the first game come off BETTER. I really got burnt out by the time I reached the endgame.
There are some nice aspects to the game though; when the game has some beautiful scenery, the music is nice, and you can get some real powerful stuff if research and plan beforehand.
I think the game started losing me at L. Bastille, especially with THAT guy showing up (seriously WHY did From think THAT was a good idea?!), and then it would become uneven with having you go through areas with easier enemies to deal with, then annoying areas with annoying enemies and hazards. Doesn't help that some of the areas connecting to their later parts just don't make sense and come off feeling random.
I'll get back to the DLC in the future but as is, I'm not too impressed with DS2, it's such a mixed bag =_=

51. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti

An 8-bit action cute'em-up of the Splatterhouse series. As Rick kills enemies he earns EXP (1 per enemy) and he can level up after earning 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. exp which recovers some health and extends it. The game can get a bit challenging in the later levels which isn't helped by some bosses having high HP making taking them out a chore.
All in all though, it is a rather solid action platformer, and while the hard stuff can be annoying, I think it still holds up.

shaneo632 · Apr 24, 2021

I am struggling this year. Only beaten 9 games so far. In part because of the 2021 gaming drought and been busy with projects.

Gonna need to dig into the backlog and play some visual novels or something to get back on track (I should be on, what, like 15 games beaten by this point?).

Tizoc · Apr 25, 2021

Original post

52. Dragon Spirit: The New Legend

NES/Famicom conversion of the arcade shoot'em-up. You play as human turned dragon as you fly across 9 zones filled with projectile spitting enemies in traditional shoot'em-up fashion.
What makes this game stand out is its fantasy theme as enemies vary from mushrooms to sea cucumber looking creatures, to platypii and also godzilla-looking ones.
There are 2 types of shots: the usual shots that fire forward and 'drop bombs', and these 2 types of shots must be used to destroy certain enemies as one cannot be damaged by the other shot.
There were some annoying situations that I got into especially when it came to shots that I was unable to see due to the colour pallete of the game sometimes but I managed in the end.
It's a pretty solid shoot'em-up with a lovely soundtrack, and found it a little clever that sometimes enemies drop items that would downgrade your current abilities such as downgrading your suped up 3 headed dragon into the base/starting little dragon.

...and with 52 games were completed this year~

djinn · Apr 25, 2021

Tizoc said:
Original post

52. Dragon Spirit: The New Legend

NES/Famicom conversion of the arcade shoot'em-up. You play as human turned dragon as you fly across 9 zones filled with projectile spitting enemies in traditional shoot'em-up fashion.
What makes this game stand out is its fantasy theme as enemies vary from mushrooms to sea cucumber looking creatures, to platypii and also godzilla-looking ones.
There are 2 types of shots: the usual shots that fire forward and 'drop bombs', and these 2 types of shots must be used to destroy certain enemies as one cannot be damaged by the other shot.
There were some annoying situations that I got into especially when it came to shots that I was unable to see due to the colour pallete of the game sometimes but I managed in the end.
It's a pretty solid shoot'em-up with a lovely soundtrack, and found it a little clever that sometimes enemies drop items that would downgrade your current abilities such as downgrading your suped up 3 headed dragon into the base/starting little dragon.

...and with 52 games were completed this year~

Congratulations!

fanboy · Apr 25, 2021

Challenge accomplished. 52th. game was Far: Lone Sails on April 11th., really beautiful piece of game/art. Heavily recommend.

I currently sit on 61 completed games and I will be taking break from them for a while I think. I will try to finish the longer ones, like Persona 5, MGS 5 and new ones like RE, ME Trilogy etc.

Wozzer sorry to bother you, but I completed the task. Here is Main post. Should I change anything or is my post ok?

Valkerion · Apr 25, 2021

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20. Control - (6.5/10) 4/25/2021 PS5
I was initially hooked by the basic setting of paranormal or paranatural as they say in game but ultimately felt a bit disappointed once credits rolled. The "this is just how it is" nature of the characters and settings is great but the actual story did absolutely nothing for me. There was no plot hook for me just setting appeal. I eventually just turned on one hit kills in the options for the last 45 minutes simply to finish it. The powers were cool and so were the weapon types but with so many of the areas being the same looking (and I get that's the point) the whole experience petered out the more I played. There were only a handful of interesting combat situations as well.

Wasn't expecting it to be a metroidvania style game either with mods and random pickups like that. Really did not like the map and side quest functions. They were not too hard to do but I never went into searching for them with any real direction other than an area name which I HATE. It's all cool enough but I was really hoping this would have a gripping plot but I ended up being more interested in some of the off the wall things featured in the world rather than what was supposed to be the main points. Like the refrigerator that has to be watched at all times and what not. Interesting game but dunno, sucks I wasn't into it more and kinda just wanted it to end in the last two hours since I could feel from the halfway point nothing in this story is going to grab me.

21. Klonoa - (7/10) 4/29/2021 Wii (Dolphin Emulator)
Always wanted to try one of these games and finally got to it. I'm not a fan of platformers but thanks to save states I beat it fairly comfortably. I enjoyed the jolly colorful vibes of it for sure but it starts SHOCKINGLY easy and then has some fairly tricky platforming imo. It still wasn't hard but I could see myself getting really frustrated without save states. Enjoyable remake of the first that's for sure. Was a nice pallet cleanser after Control.

Tizoc · Apr 25, 2021

djinn said:
Congratulations!

Thanks :3
Urrently going thru some short ish games to wind down from thr DS games overload xp

KtotheRoc · Apr 25, 2021

25: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. End: 4/25/2021. (3.5)

There's a lot to love about old school action platformers. There's a lot to love about throwbacks to old school action platformers. And there's a lot to hate about them too. Particularly this one, which makes the player go through it multiple times.

Still enjoyable overall.

djinn · Apr 25, 2021

fanboy said:
Challenge accomplished. 52th. game was Far: Lone Sails on April 11th., really beautiful piece of game/art. Heavily recommend.

I currently sit on 61 completed games and I will be taking break from them for a while I think. I will try to finish the longer ones, like Persona 5, MGS 5 and new ones like RE, ME Trilogy etc.

Wozzer sorry to bother you, but I completed the task. Here is Main post. Should I change anything or is my post ok?

Wow! Congrats to you too!

Azriell · Apr 26, 2021

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9. A Dark Room | ★★★☆☆

I remember hearing about A Dark Room during the Cookie Clicker boom in 2013. I had no interest in clickers or idle games at the time and never gave any of them a look or second thought. In recent years I've come to appreciate clickers, idle games, and any browser games that aren't too demanding as nice distractions at work. What's been a great surprise is how much creativity and love goes into some of these.

A Dark Room falls in that category. It starts as a simple clicker and checks all of the usual boxes of clicking a button, unlocking more buttons, and eventually gaining an auto click. Eventually it grows into a very light resource management game, and then eventually into something of an old school RPG. You explore a large map with an uncertain goal. What you find is a lot of random battles and some points of interest. You have to keep an eye on your food and water as you explore, and you can't venture too far from camp at first but eventually you uncover more and more of the map screen.

The whole thing ends, surprisingly, with an Oregon Trail river type sequence that's easier or harder depending on how much time you put into exploring.

It's just a clicker game, and I suppose those can only be so enjoyable. But as things go, I had a pretty good time with A Dark Room.

CrazyAznKT · Apr 26, 2021

It's not May yet, I'm good! I broke the pattern!

I've somehow fallen into a groove of playing horror-adjacent games, it's been a lot of fun.

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January 2021
1. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Expansion Pass (Switch) | 1st Jan - 8hrs | 3/5

I didn't keep up with this game because it was too grindy for my tastes, and the expansions also feel like they assume you're someone that has grinded out this game a lot. The first two expansions, Curse of the Vampire and Rise of the Phoenix, are just a series of fairly tough gauntlet challenges. The third one, Shadow of Doom, is what I wanted all of them to be, a new campaign! This campaign is what I came to these games for and really the only problem I had with it was that there are some segments where you have to get through a bunch of increasingly difficult obstacles and I just cheated with a teleporting character to get through it. It's cool seeing all these characters in the same roster again because it's been so long since it's happened anywhere outside of the comics, but it's still sad that it had to happen through DLC. I hope this series continues to deliver.

2. Sniper Elite 4 + Season Pass (PS4) | 8th Jan - 22hrs | 5/5

I was extremely surprised to have enjoyed this game as much as I did! A friend suggested Sniper Elite 4 to me because it reminded them of MGS and we were able to go through the game cooperatively and that piqued my interest. The story is a fairly standard war story but the DLC does build up to you assassinating Hitler. I even wound up replaying some missions on Hard because I enjoyed how the game challenged me in aiming with taking bullet drop and wind into consideration as well as the noise you produce from shooting. I generally don't enjoy realistic FPS games but this game really caught my attention and I'll be there whenever Sniper Elite 5 drops.

3. Maneater (PS5) | 10th Jan - 10hrs | 4/5

I checked this out because it was free on PS+ and it ended up being much more addicting than I expected. Pretty basic and arcadey but it has a really satisfying gameplay loop of getting collectibles, eating fish, eating humans, and fighting off bounty hunters to upgrade your abilities and mutations. The story is delightfully silly and satirical of this kind of reality TV. Overall recommend checking it out for fun even if you don't end up playing the story all the way through.

4. Sniper Elite V2 Remastered (PS4) | 11th Jan - 10hrs | 3/5

I was riding my Sniper Elite 4 high and wanted to check out what the rest of the series had to offer. Sniper Elite V2 Remastered was as far back as I could go with the PS4, and this game has not aged well at all for me. The gameplay is barebones compared to what will become Sniper Elite 4 and the maps are extremely linear so there's little in way of strategic positioning outside of some sequences. The sequence in particular that I really enjoyed was one where you are surrounded by other snipers in some city ruins but that's about it for this game.

5. Wolfenstein Youngblood (PS4) | 19th Jan - 12hrs | 2/5

Why did I do this to myself? I was warned! Riding off the high of Sniper Elite 4 co-op, my friend and I wanted to do some more co-op and I said "hey I have a copy of Youngblood with the buddy pass, let's do that!" The opening sequence was really fun but it was selling me on a lie - the rest of the game was a series of open areas with no map for you to consult as you run sidemissions and objectives to grind your level to tackle the handful of bespoke main story sequences. It was very repetitive and we just tried to get over it as soon as possible while also getting distracted in random conversations. This game feels like a failed experiment, it's an interesting idea and but fails in executing. Oh and the story is barely there, the premise of it being "BJ's green twin daughters look for BJ" is basically all you need to know.

6. Yakuza 4 Remastered (PS4) | 27th Jan - 80hrs | 5/5

This game was exactly what I needed from the Yakuza series after so many games not quite living up to Yakuza 0. Without being too specific, I really enjoyed getting to play so many new characters that interacted with the world in a different way from Kiryu. It's not quite as silly as Yakuza 0 yet but there are some glimpses of it starting to show up in this game. The combat is a huge improvement over Yakuza 3 and is getting closer to what I was used to. The only thing I don't like about this game is that it's starting to feel like Daigo is going through character assassination just so they can create more conflicts to happen with the Tojo Clan.

February 2021
7. Hitman (2016) (PS4) | 6th Feb - 38 hrs | 5/5

This was a weird one for me. So I've generally gotten over trophy hunting, but for some reason I was compelled to replay the Hitman 2016 content in Hitman II so I could transfer my save to Hitman III and optimize my trophies. It's Hitman, I love it.

8. Hitman III (PS5) | 16th Feb - 60hrs | 5/5

Hitman III... has issues. I don't mind that it's more story focused than previous games or that it has less maps. The things that does it for me is that each of the maps have less objectives in them than the previous two games. Every map I played, I was able to do nearly every objective before feeling like moving on and on closer inspection it's because they had about a third of the amount of objectives of previous games' maps. Still though, the maps in Hitman III are jaw dropping setpieces and the situations presented being more bespoke was still a welcome experience for me.

9. Resident Evil 7 (PS4) | 19th Feb - 9hrs | 5/5

This game took an embarassingly long amount of time to get to. I feel like I've ruined the experience for myself having watched several playthroughs of this already. I kept putting this off because I wanted to save it to stream in VR but I kept being a scaredy cat and before I knew it, RE8 was just around the corner so I needed to get to it! I'm pretty conflicted on this game because there's a lot about it that I don't go to Resident Evil for, namely being scared? I come to RE because if I get scared I can shoot it to make the proble go away, but this game does so much to take that away from you. It's really effective at what it knows it wants to do! In the end, I still get serotonin from solving puzzles and surviving situations like I would in other RE games so I enjoyed this. The Banned Footage modes are pretty fun too, I highly recomend "Bedroom" and "Daughters" for some extra story context.

10. Resident Evil 7 - Not a Hero (PS4) | 20st Feb - 2hrs | 5/5

An action spinoff in RE7's engine makes a lot of sense. While the purpose of going first person was to heighten the potential for fear, it's also very natural to make action work in that perspective. It's nice getting a followup to what happens to Lucas. Though I wouldn't want a full game like this, it works for the amount of time we're given with it. What's up with Chris's face though?

11. Resident Evil 7 - End of Zoe (PS4) | 20st Feb - 2hrs | 5/5

I feel like this is the most openly silly bit of canon Resident Evil. Sure there's silly stuf like Tofu, but you're canonically playing as a hick that punches zombies! No complaints here, great bit of story continuation. Again, wouldn't want a full game of this but really enjoyed my time with this.

March 2021
12. Luigi's Mansion (2018) (3DS) | 16th Mar - 7hrs | 5/5

I totally understand the appeal now! This game is so charming, every single room in this game has a different unique ghost encounter - your toolset is minimal but you're constantly having to think creatively to advance. Aiming can be a bit annoying and navigating to higher parts of the mansion can be a bit bothersome but it didn't bother me enough to lower its score. It's really short even with doing 100% so I highly suggest giving this game a shot if you get the chance!

13. Picross S5 (Switch) | 30th Mar - 35hrs | 5/5

It's Picross, I'm an addicting, it gave me my fix. Not much new that I can think of but as always I want much more color picross puzzles.

14. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) | 31st Mar - 15hrs | 2/5

What a massive dissapointment immediately after the first game. This game is designed entirely around the idea that people want their handheld experiences in short bursts. The way this is manifested is that the game is now five different, smaller mansion areas that you explore in ~20 minute missions. This means a lot more backtracking as well as Professor E Gadd interrupting you every five minutes. It's the most hand holding I've experienced in a game in a long time, I hate this game so much. The only significance of this game is that it introduces Polterpup.

April 2021
15. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (2015) (3DS) | 7th Apr - 43hrs | 5/5

I was very intimidated by this game but now I absolutely adore it. I started this last year after going through Ocarina of Time, but randomly stopped halfway through because I was having trouble keeping track of all the sidequest stuff. I didn't enjoy OoT that much because every TLoZ game after it had improved on the formula so much, but Majora's Mask is so uniquely unafraid of being a weird, morbid, artsy game. I also did not expect Fierce Deity to be so insanely overpowered, I feel like I didn't get to experience a final boss fight at all. I don't necessarily want all future TLoZ games to be macabre but I wouldn't be opposed to a few more games like this.

16. Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3) | 11th Apr - 52hrs | 5/5

Boy, I went through a weird experience with this one. So I actually beat this game about a month earlier, clocking in 38 hours - pretty short for a Yakuza game. Then, because none existed, I decided to write a Cabaret Club/Hostess Dating Guide! This game got a lot of hate back in the day for not being a typical shooter as well as riding the wave of the zombie craze - you can totally feel it too: the special zombies are ripped straight out of Left 4 Dead and the bosses are Resident Evil bosses. The gameplay less focused on accurate gun mechanics and more on action, run and gun, and GUN HEAT MOVES! I also appreciaate that Yakuza Dead Souls lets us play as Goda and Majima for the first time (release-wise). There's so much insight into them that we never get otherwise that still feels significant event though this is entirely non-canon. I found the ways they interacted with hostesses particularly interesting considering we don't see them date many other women since we don't get to play them as often. Do yourself a favor and look up Majima's karaoke rendition of "GET to the Top!"

17. Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS4) | 20th Apr - 11hrs | 4/5

It's so nice getting a game with Claire! She doesn't take part in the ending much though, which is really weird. I hate Steve, he's the most annoying character I've ever seen. I wish Chris wasn't on the cover of this because he was a nice surprise, and it's cool seeing that this is the first game where Wesker shows up again with powers. I had trouble with tank controls at first because this was truly my first time having to use it, but I think it might be second nature now! I enjoyed how this game was split into several distinct areas that you travel between like RE7. My major complaint is that backtracking takes forever in this game and the map layout can be a bit confusing with its restrictions. Otherwise this feels like a precursor to how silly the series gets.

18. Resident Evil Zero (PS4) | 25th Apr - 9hrs | 3/5

This is the most gorgeous of the fixed angle RE games! I would even say this game's art style holds up better than RE4. This game has a lot of neat ideas that it explored that I'm glad they tried. Controlling two characters is a neat idea but never really felt necessary most of the time except for their extra inventory - but even then it wasn't worth the upkeep when they also have to carry weapons and ammo. The lack of item boxes was interesting but ended up being annoying because your inventory never increases and I just ended up wasting a lot of time backtracking to grab items. Also, Eliinators are the worst enemies in the entire series, luckily there aren't that many of them. Despite all of these complains, I still find myself liking this game a lot.

KOfLegend · Apr 28, 2021

Made it to 52! Woo!

djinn · Apr 28, 2021

KOfLegend said:
Made it to 52! Woo!

Congratulations!

KOfLegend · Apr 28, 2021

djinn said:
Congratulations!

Thanks!

Zassimick · Apr 30, 2021

I posted 15 days ago with a huge update of games. Trying to do better, so here we go.

Click here for my original post with all of this compiled nicely!

17. Ratchet & Clank (PS Vita) | 26th April - 14hrs | 3/5
Sometimes you play an older game and realize just how much design has improved over the years. 2002's Ratchet & Clank is one of those instances. The game has some fun ideas, but wow does it make it just not enjoyable to play. Shooting stinks. Enemies are so aggressive and you die too easily. Some instances of bad checkpoints. And for a lot of the game, I really don't care for Ratchet himself.
For my first foray into the series, things seem awfully grim. I did have a decent time with it overall, just a few too many things that caused me grief. Just wasn't too fun to play. Here's to Going Commando, the next game in the series. Personally rated 6/10.

18. Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate (PS5) | 29th April - 10hrs | 4/5
There are several movies from my childhood that just hit the nostalgia button, and the '95 Mortal Kombat movie is one of them. In my hype for the new movie (which was... fine...) I picked up Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate and just got to it. First MK game I've played since... MK3? And the only fighting game I play is Smash Bros. Needless to say I suck.
But I had a ton of fun with it! Holy smokes the campaign is just a movie but nutso. Visuals are terrific. Gameplay feels stiff but when you get a nice combo going it's satisfying. Like I said, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I picked this one up. Counted both the main campaign and Aftermath as one completion. Personally rated 8/10.

shaneo632 · Apr 30, 2021

Playing some short Game Pass games to catch up!

12. Double Kick Heroes (PC) - An intriguing rhythm game albeit one that feels a bit disjointed conceptually. Having to keep an eye on both the note highway and the action is tricky and means you often miss out on cool artwork. I also found using the Xbox shoulder buttons really not-pleasant for a rhythm game. I ultimately had to put the difficulty down to Easy after about the half-way mark. But it's got a cool art style and didn't outstay its welcome so it was fine. 6/10 (2.5 hours)

Clive · Apr 30, 2021

I've been really busy with work lately so I haven't had time to do this. So, big update but I won't write much about each game.

10. Persona 5 | March 7 - 80+ hrs | ★★★★½
I have to admit that I didn't really like it much initially. The social links felt boring, the game was very restrictive with what you could do and dungeon exploration was so-so. But, the game grew on me a lot and it's a really unique and well made experience overall. More flawed than most games I'd rank 9/10 but I think it's an essential, outstanding game in spite of this.

11. Bravo Team | March 7- 5 hrs | ★★
VR can be incredibly exciting and engrossing but this game is incredibly restrictive with how you can move around the areas and the infinitely spawning enemies made it more rewarding to try to rush towards then end of the level than it was to stay and fight. No memorable gameplay sequences either and the story was very generic.

12. Code Vein | March 9 - 25 hrs | ★★★★
Not the majestic masterpiece like the series that inspired it but one of the best Soulslikes out there in my book. Some really fun bosses (almost all of them with big boobs for anime reasons) and great and tense exploration. A bit unbalanced and it was sometimes way too easy with AI co-op and sometimes way too hard without it.

13. Forza Horizon 3 - Hot Wheels expansion | March 7 - 5+ hrs | ★★★★
The races and track design was superb and really fun to master but the open world design suffered a bit from everything being tied to tracks. Part of what makes the Horizon games so fun is exploring the world and that was lacking in this expansion.

14. Ni no kuni II | March 21 - 60+ hrs | ★★★
A pretty good but short JRPG hidden beneath a ton of typical uninteresting Level-5 filler. I'd say I enjoyed it overall but I wish there would have been less dull fetch quests to recruit characters and that you wouldn't have been so underpowered by just doing the story bits.

15. Dreams | March 21 - 5 hrs | ★★★½
The Media Molecule campaign is an interesting showcase of what can be accomplished in Dreams but for the most part it's just frankly mediocre in terms of how enjoyable it is. The final stretch was pretty fun overall though and made it worthwhile in the end. Dabbled a bit with user created content and found nothing that was remarkable in any other way than it being impressive for user created content. I moved on because I prefer professionally made games.

16. Donut County | March 22 - 2 hrs | ★★★½
Occasionally a very charming game and entertaining for the two hours it lasts but the puzzles generally feel pretty basic and so does the physics based gameplay. Worth playing, especially since it was free on Game Pass.

17. Ratchet & Clank (2016) | March 26 - 5 hrs | ★★★★
Replay and I finally got the Death By Disco trophy for the platinum! Really fun gameplay-wise and some incredibly fun weapons to mess around with and upgrade. The story feels a bit cut short compared to the original and the movie though and it lacks some of the depth other games in the series have.

18. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time | April 6 - 5-10 hrs | ★★★★½
Another Ratchet & Clank replay. Maybe the best game in the series because of the level design and weapons. There is a bit of vanilla flavored filler in there but the overall product is very well made and polished. Some of the optional Clank puzzles are absolutely diabolical too.

19. ACA NEOGEO: Aero Fighters 3 | March 7 - 2 hrs | ★★★½
Fun shmup which I'm not hardcore enough anymore to beat on the default settings. With some extra continues it's a typical Japanese shmup from the era, full of wacky bosses and varied levels. Nothing outstanding but a solid game.

20. Falcon Age | April 12 - 5 hrs | ★★★½
Enjoyable VR game where you team up with a pet falcon which creates an interesting combat dynamic. Fun to play, polished and well designed but the world building and story weren't tied up in a satisfying way to me in the end.

21. Aery: Little Bird Adventure | April 18 - 2 hrs | ★★★½
Relaxing and short game where you fly around levels searching for collectibles. Sometimes these collectibles match the backgrounds a little too much in color so they became too hard to spot but I liked it overall.

22. Doom 3 VR | April 25 - 10 hrs | ★★★★
The game itself feel pretty mediocre compared to modern AAA titans like Doom Eternal but there is something special about being inside the game world thanks to VR and the horror elements really feel at home thanks to the format. Some problem with the scaling and it wasn't a perfect VR conversion. The motion controls worked really well though and I had a blast overall.

23. ACA NEOGEO: Ninja Commando | April 25 - 2 hrs | ★★★½
There's definitely something special about the NEOGEO sprite art and "feel" of the games from this time. The time travel story is nonsensical, it's very short, pretty simple and too hard on default settings but the art, creative bosses and sense of wonder when playing it makes it really enjoyable.

Weiss · Apr 30, 2021

11. NieR Replicant ver. 1.22474487139.. - 30/04/2021

Meh it was alright. Nothing special, really. Don't see why anyone cares this much about the series.

FallenGrace · Apr 30, 2021

Master Post:

27/52 Games completed
569/570 trophies gained.

Currently Working on:

Torchlight II (PS4)
EDF 4.1 (PS4) (Trophy hunting)
Yakuza 5 (PS4)

Memory Pak · Apr 30, 2021

25. Teslapunk (2016, Wii U) ★★★☆☆
I've come around to really liking this fairly average, entry-level bullet hell shooter, despite its subpar presentation. The art style, using pre-Space Age sci-fi blueprints is certainly unique, but occasionally veers into garish or downright ugly territory. Combined with the trolling, cringey, early noughties sense of humour, and the incohesive soundtrack (please stop using kickdrums as basslines, Eurodance producers), first impressions were bad.
Fortunately the gameplay is solid. The simple, precise controls, easily readable shot patterns, and genuinely welcoming novice mode make Teslapunk a good starting point for people who want to get into bullet hell games, but are scared off by DoDonpachi. Once you understand the basics, you'll find a lot of depth in stacking multipliers by firing off Bombs to cancel enemy bullets, rather than using them as defensive measures. The game encourages replays and trying different approaches through its Mission Mode. Sadly the endless Survival Mode is undercooked, feeling divorced from the Arcade Mode thanks to truncated controls, and by not contributing to the Missions. Lastly, an epilepsy warning: photosensitive people should not play this game. You can disable some flashing, but not all of it.

26. Warriors Orochi 3: Hyper (2012, Wii U) ★★☆☆☆
Big crossover of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, with other Koei-Tecmo franchises like Ninja Gaiden, Dead Or Alive, and even Bladestorm represented too. Thanks to a time travel plot, other historical characters like Joan of Arc, Hattori Hanzo, and Achilles are roped in too. The result is the epitome of a quantity over quality approach.
Why make ~120 subtly different, colourful characters, but set them in dim, dark environments you can hardly see at times? Why create almost no memorable scenarios? The Lord of the Rings games on PS2 had more unique levels. Orochi 3 feels very shallow despite containing mountains of stats to grind out. At least the framerate is mostly stable (at a cost of copious amounts of environmental and enemy pop-in), so it's smooth enough to play while listening to podcasts/audiobooks.

27. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (2012, Wii U) ★★★☆☆
Making my first foray into modern Ninja Gaiden right after a musou game was a mistake, as mindless button mashing gets you absolutely nowhere here. It's a gleefully violent action game, demanding fast reflexes and a grasp on how to manage crowds of enemies. Visually it impresses with slick cut-scenes, buckets of blood, and detailed, varied environments. Team Ninja aren't known for their storytelling chops, and while this has the usual early 2010s shadow government conspiracy premise, it does occasionally imbue smaller scenes with some gravitas.
Unfortunately it also includes the usual, embarrassing Team Ninja obsession with cleavage shots, which undercut the impact of some scenes. And while the game's levels are varied, enemy variety basically dries up half-way through. Coupled with a dearth of meaningful interactions between fights, and a lack of brevity everywhere, leaves the game feeling a bit too long in the tooth. Sometimes less is more: shortening levels by reducing the amount of fights, making fights shorter by having less opponents, and cutting everyone's health bar in half would go a long way towards making the pacing more palatable.

LonestarZues · Apr 30, 2021

April 2021

24. Paradise Lost - One of those games where you enjoy reading the letters and exploring the environments over the actual story which I had no feelings towards one way or the other.

25. Costume Quest - Enjoyed it more then I thought I would. Combat was very basic, but did love the whole Halloween setting.

26. Assassins Creed Valhalla - My least favorite of the recent games. I'm really curious to see where they go from here as the modern storyline while short was really interesting as far as the implications for the series go. 1st of the dlc/expansions is coming out soon, but I'll wait for the Paris dlc and dive into both when it releases.

Slow month, but I'm already halfway thru so I'm going to be playing some long games in the coming months.

chrominance · Apr 30, 2021

April's almost in the books, so:

8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch, 2017) - 52:15 - April 4
9. WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship (PS5, 2020) - 20:15 (+12:34 in 2020) - April 15
10. Rock Band Blitz (PS3, 2012) - 1:26 - April 17
11. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (PS5, 2020) - 21:11 - April 30

Some solid catching up on the backlog this month; both Breath of the Wild and Spider-Man Remastered were pleasant surprises, even knowing going in that both were critically acclaimed. Breath of the Wild is the first Zelda game I've had the pleasure of finishing, and honestly I don't know if I'll be able to go back to the likes of Ocarina of Time (which I struggled through for a few hours) after this. I also managed to finish a season at the top of the sport in WRC 9, and although I didn't win the drivers' championship I think 3rd is a really solid finish. Really the only disappointment here was Rock Band Blitz, which maybe wasn't the best rhythm game even when it launched, but is practically broken and unplayable nine years later.

The only game scheduled for May in theory is the Nocturne remake. I still (!) have two Persona 5 games to get through, but considering I haven't touched either of them this month, it's not looking good. I've also started looking at PS3 games again in the wake of the once-imminent store shutdown (which has since been put on indefinite hold), so maybe I'll be able to finish a game or two from there. Next on my plate, though, is finishing up the DLC campaigns for Spider-Man, and trying to get to the end of at least the village quests in Monster Hunter Rise. My Switch is in heavy demand, as I still have A-Train from earlier in the year, plus New Pokemon Snap arriving... uh, I guess Tuesday. (Thanks, pandemic!)

AniHawk · May 1, 2021

main post: https://www.resetera.com/threads/52-games-1-year-2021.354148/page-12#post-62173600

Kaze and the Wild Masks (NSW) ★★★★☆ (5 hours)
Drill Dozer (Wii U) ★★★☆☆ (6 hours)
Ristar (NSW) ★★½☆☆ (3 hours)
Dynamite Headdy (NSW) ★★★½☆ (3 hours)
Vib-Ribbon ★★★☆☆ (1 hour) (PS Vita TV)
Ys I & II Chronicles ★★½☆☆ (12 hours) (PS Vita TV)
Ys Origin ★★★½☆ (7 hours) (NSW)

welp, now at the end of april and a whopping 41 games completed so far. this is easily a record for me (thanks short mega man games).

there is a good mix here of going through the backlog, panic-buying a bunch of older games, and playing through new stuff.

having also completed dkc3 recently, i have a lot of appreciation for kaze and the wild masks. it just goes and does the dkc stuff so damn well. it's just a good feeling platformer to control and it doesn't have any of the weird user-unfriendly things retro did in their dkc games. one major issue i have with it is that the game does devolve into a bunch of chase sequences, and they tend to become more noticeable towards the end. but the game actually doesn't need that. it's challenging and fun, and it was a good time 100%ing it (minus the time trials). definitely looking out for more.

the next three are older games from my backlog. i got ristar and dynamite headdy for the wii virtual console of all things and drill dozer was purchased physically 15 years ago and i just never got around to it until i could play it on wii u. all three of them are all right. drill dozer was a game i dropped and never gave a fair chance. it's a slower-paced puzzle platform game, but it makes decent use of its central gimmick and doesn't overstay its welcome. ristar was the least enjoyable and mostly because it felt kind of like it was trying too hard to find a gimmick and it didn't really work out. dynamite headdy is a little too insane but that makes it work. there's a lot of stuff constantly being thrown at you and it makes this platformer feel like a shmup. it's so weird and unfair at points, but i liked it.

vib-ribbon is really cute and fun, but a lot shorter than i expected and also the thing that probably requires a physical version to really shine.

ys i & ii chronicles i treat as a full game even though it's technically two. my history with ys begins with memories of celceta, so this was my first time trying out classic ys. it's pretty quaint and really interesting as an artifact - and surprisingly good for a game from 1987. it's not something i'd recommend to anyone though, other than people really wanting to get into ys. ys ii is a massive upgrade, and shockingly came out a year after the first game. considering what console games were like at the time, i can really see why these games were a hit in the 80s.

after mulling it over, i decided to continue on the ys series by going into the ys lore instead of continuing onward with adol christin. yunica is fucking awesome and this game is pretty good. the tower is sadly a drawback - the visual presentation is great, but the environments start too feel to samey. at least it's a lot of fun to play.

sabertoothzombie · May 1, 2021

Main Post

April
21. Disco Elysium (PC) | 12th April - 33 hours | 5/5 : Amazing game. The characters, the mystery, the storytelling are all great. One of my favorites for sure
22. Battle Chef Brigade (PC) | 15th April - 7 hours | 2.5/5 : Fun in the beginning, but becomes repetitive and kinda boring if the puzzles don't get your attention.
23. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (PS5) | 30th April - 35 hours | 4/5 : Side quests got real boring, the design decisions on how to get the endings after B are...questionable, but it's really "fun" to play and get through the story. Makes me want to play Automata again

Month's Docket:
Pokemon Snap
Mass Effect Collection
maybe a Ratchet game

Cipher Peon · May 1, 2021

errrr double post, no idea how that happened sorry

Cipher Peon · May 1, 2021

Main Post

My April update

Another extremely busy month, with me finally tackling some games that have been on my backlog for ages. Which is good because new releases are pretty much here from now on!

Quick thoughts

Luigi's Mansion 3

I hated Dark Moon, but I heard LM3 fixed many issues with it, so I decided to pick it up. After a promising start, the game imploded spectacularly, easily being the worst game I've played on my Switch.

2/10

Doom 3

Loved the horror direction, adored the way the enemies from the original games were adapted, and absolutely LOVED the final message before the final boss. Extremely heartfelt and wonderful. Game lasts too long, tho.

9/10

The Outer Worlds

A great start lifts an otherwise average adventure. Thought Fallout 4 was better in every way, except with that one sidequest where you act as Pavarti's wingman. That was great.

6/10

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country

The mandatory sidequests in this game are the most shocking pace breaker I've seen in a long long time. Wow.

6/10

Gears Tactics

My first Gears game. I liked the XCOM gameplay, but the repetitive environments and character designs really dragged it down. And its mandatory sidequests are even worse than Torna's!

6/10

Persona 5 Strikers

Absolutely adored it. Very well paced and breezy adventure which contrasts nicely to Persona 5's ambitious but slog affair. Combat is wonderful and really liked the new additions to the scooby gang.

8/10

Lord Fanny · May 1, 2021

So May is done and gone. Main post with all months here.

Lord Fanny said:
April:

26. Outriders - Xbox Series X - 17 hours, 32 minutes

April was a hard month to get anything going, because I moved and there was a lot of personal stuff that just made it really hard to sit down and play anything. I'm actually kind of surprised I managed to finish Outriders lol. I started a lot of stuff, like Nier, Returnal and there's going to be a lot of games coming this month. On to May.

Completed Games (29/52)

May:
27. Nier Replicant - Xbox Series X - 20 hours, 51 minutes
28. Resident Evil Village - PS5 - 8 hours, 31 minutes
29. Rain on Your Parade - Xbox Series X - 2 hours, 27 minutes
30. Superhot VR - Oculus Quest 2 - 2 hours

jazzneversleeps · May 1, 2021

Despite being a slow month, I played some absolute bangers!

Completed: 18/52

Main post.

Cyber Shadow | PS4 | 09/04/2021 | ★★★★½
I enjoyed this thoroughly! The presentation is solid, the story is cool, soundtrack is ace and everything felt super polished. I did a 100% run and went for all the boss related feats/trophies, so it took me a fair bit longer than average playtimes (about 16 hours), but might do a speedrun at one point.

Disco Elysium | PS4 | 24/04/2021 | ★★★★★
Detective in need of assistance... On the dancefloor! I can't think of anything that hasn't been said before, but wow, what a ride it was. Surprising throughout and an unforgettable experience. I have to admit, the amount of dialogue/monologue was a lot at times, but it was always worth it. Absolutely replaying this in a few months.

Olija | PS4 | 27/04/2021 | ★★★★☆
Olija is a 2D action-adventure platformer, and what a great little game it is. I like the style a lot, taking obvious cues from Another World/Out of This World (and Prince of Persia for that matter). The narrative and sense of mystery was another highlight and I wouldn't have minded if the game was a bit longer, but it was a great, condensed experience. There's some amazing moments in the soundtrack as well. It took me around 5 hours to 100%.

shaneo632 · May 2, 2021

13. Donut County - A simple but satisfying "hole simulator". Great art style and fun humour. Short and sweet, offers no difficulty whatsoever but a nice cosy sit on a cold Sunday afternoon. 7.5/10 (1hr 43 mins)

nacimento · May 2, 2021

9. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Switch) | 30th Apr - 48hrs | ★★★ ½

A charming RPG with Pokémon elements hampered by a weak combat system. Ni No Kuni is a really nice fairy-tale style adventure with great art, endearing characters, a well-built world and an interesting creature collecting and evolving system. But sadly the combat system is lacking and companion AI is horrible. This makes the battles, a large part of the game, unappealing. I also think that creature catch rates for some creatures were to low, which killed my intital motivation of completing the game's bestiarium. The game's style and atmosphere are quite unique though, making it possible to look past these flaws. Overall, Ni No Kuni is a great feel-good game which is worth playing even if it isn't without some significant flaws.

Main Post

Tiny Hawk · May 3, 2021

MAIN POST
Ended up surpassing the total from last year this month, so it looks like 52 is possible! Quick rundown of last month's gaming.

25. STEEP (PC) | 2nd Apr - 30.5hrs | 4.5/5 - an absolute beast of a sports title. Loved the individual sports, the incredibly challenging terrain, and had a blast just taking it all in.
26. STEEP: Road to the Olympics (PC) | 2nd Apr - 2.5hrs | 3/5 - The rest of the DLC for STEEP is fairly lackluster, but this had a lot of cool content in it. Loved the campaign.
27. Disco Elysium (PC) | 15th Apr - 22.2hrs | 4.5/5 - Could be a 5/5, but I need to go through it again. Incredible game with fantastic writing and characters throughout.
28. Green Day: Rock Band (X360) | 17th Apr - 3.5hrs | 3/5 - Entertaining trip through Green Day's biggest hits. Kind of wish this was a Guitar Hero game instead of a Rock Band game, but oh well.

And the first two completions of May!

29. The Beatles: Rock Band (X360) | 1st May - 5hrs | 4/5 - A loving tribute to probably the most iconic band in music. Fun visuals and music to jam with.
30. Daytona USA (PS3) | 2nd May - 1.1hrs | 4/5 - Fun arcade game! Absolutely love the soundtrack and those SEGA blues skies.

Tizoc · May 3, 2021

53. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger HD

A 3D Action Adventure game from the PS2 era. The HD re-release touches up the visuals and overall the game performs and looks nice, although still looking like a PS2 era game still :P
The overall structure involves going through 9 major levels (3 for each of the main 3 'worlds') and going through them collecting Gems, Opals and gears, in effect being a collectathon of sorts.
The game itself isn't too difficult but each level can take as little as 30 minutes to finish as you explore and get collectables needed to unlock the boss of that world and then move onto the next, with the endgame taking place in a lengthy set of levels culuminating with a battle against the game's main antagonist, Boss Cass.
It's a simple and decent game but it is a product of its time.

Illusionary · May 3, 2021

Keeping things ticking over in April with the Cube Escape Collection while I work on Immortals: Fenyx Rising, which just tipped into May before I was finished with it. These now take me up to 32 games for the year!

24. Cube Escape: Arles (PC - Steam) | 1 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. A bit of an oddity in having little to do with the wider Rusty Lake storyline and instead focusing more on the art of van Gogh, there's a fair amount of simple item collection here instead of more involved puzzles - but equally, here we see the origin of the use of symbol/pattern matching to solve codes, used frequently later in the series.

25. Cube Escape: Harvey's Box (PC - Steam) | 2 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. The introduction of Harvey (the bird seen throughout the series) as a character in his own right is narratively interesting, but aside from a few standouts (for those who have played it, fireflies in particular), the puzzles here feel less satisfying than we see in the other games.

26. Genesis Noir | Xbox One - Game Pass | 4 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Despite seeming very promising, with a phenominal graphical style, Genesis Noir has been sorely disappointing. Ostensibly a point'n'click-esque adventure game, the gameplay here is very shallow and often confusing/unclear, there's not much of a story and it's frequently rather glitchy.

27. Cube Escape: Case 23 (PC - Steam) | 4 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. One of the best of the collection, Case 23 sees the introduction of a multi-room, sequential format, with some of the more engaging puzzle design and intriguing plot development.

28. Cube Escape: The Mill (PC - Steam) | 6 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Developing from Case 23, The Mill introduces individual puzzles that span multiple rooms, each available for exploration at the same time rather than in sequence. Here the plot developments focus more on the titular mill and the cubes, while the puzzles are more mechanically focused.

29. Cube Escape: Birthday (PC - Steam) | 9 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. While the brief story developments here are some of the collection's most surreal, I really enjoyed the puzzle design here, nicely balanced in terms of difficulty and with some brief time-based elements.

30. Cube Escape: Theatre (PC - Steam) | 10 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Focused on a series of short acts of a play. Theatre continues the surreality of Birthday but in a different way, with it being somewhat tricky to discern the full significance of each act without deeper thought/investigation. Conversely, here we're back to a single room and each act's puzzles are quite self-contained, so arguably more approachable than we see elsewhere.

31. Cube Escape: The Cave (PC - Steam) | 12 April 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Closing out the collection, The Cave mixes up the typical format somewhat, with two distinct parts - firstly exploring a cave, before rather unexpectedly switching to control of a submarine to seek out the cubes needed to finish the game. While I enjoyed the puzzles of the first section, the submarine section, based around locating coordinates and then repeating a series of steps for navigation, felt rather uninspired as a culmination of the games leading up to this point.

32. Cube Escape: Paradox (PC - Steam) | 21 April 2021
Completed both chapters with 100% of achievements unlocked. A nice send-off for the Cube Escape series, the standalone Paradox returns to a single-room setting, but, spread across two chapters, there's an impressive amount of depth to be explored within what might initially seem to be a quite limited environment. Once again, the core premise of the game is to escape from the room, solving almost wholly mouse-based puzzles between four walls that you can cycle between. Intriguingly, Paradox also comes bundled with a short film that acts out some relevant extracts of the game's events, and is actually crucial to some of the achievements. To be honest, I'm still not overly fond of those puzzles based on pattern recognition and codes more widely, but these are a minority here and the majority of the puzzle design is strong.

The surreal, creepy (and at times, arguably, disturbing) continues here, used to good effect, with a high level of production values despite the 2D hand-drawn graphics - and so long as that isn't a turn-off, puzzle fans should have a good time here.

Tiny Hawk · May 4, 2021

MAIN POST

31. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1) | 3rd May - 3hrs | 3.5/5

I've owned this game for so long, but I've never bothered to complete it until now. First, I thought my game disc was busted for a long while. As it turns out, it works with some music skipping and FMV issues. Second, if you had the sequel that improves everything, why would you go back to the old one? Whatever. Anyways.

The original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater feels outdated compared to the subsequent entries in the series, but it's still an extremely fun game all these years later. It's very simple to pick up and play, but it was definitely a challenge trying to get a high combo. There aren't a lot of moves in your arsenal, so you really have to make do with the tricks you're given. It makes getting any kind of combo over 4 tricks something to celebrate and is still smooth to play. The sound is absolutely perfect for this game. Yes, I know how good the soundtrack is, but those sound effects to go with it are just so excellent to listen to. I just love how crisp and crunchy they are. Kind of a shame that they didn't keep them for THPS2. It's kinda crazy to play the 2020 remaster and then come back to the original after so long. Definitely worth the visit.

Palomitero · May 5, 2021

April Update

Main post here

09- No more Heroes 2 -9h- 3,5/5

Same gameplay as the first one, but no open world GTA-like. Personally never liked the open world so it's ok.

More action and stupid humor always good, short but fun as always.

Also, you play as Shinobu for a couple of maps.

10- Loop Hero -20h- 4/5

Another Big brain indie game, fun and addicting.

In addition, you can play at 50%/AFK most of the time, so it's great as a chill game.

Must play this year.

11- saGa Frontier Remastered -15h- 4/5

Played the Emilia route first, really happy with it.

Mostly full freedom to explore planets via ship from the start, many characters to recruit and interesting story. Did almost all side quest and recruits with little to no difficult, don't understand the reviews backlash for the high difficulty of the game.

Great port with important QoL, now you can escape from random battles(thanks God), and the always welcome X2-X3 speed in-combat and out-of-combat.

LOVED the artstyle.

Now playing:

Travis strikes again

Sillen2000 · May 5, 2021

Main Post

April update: 16/52

Who knows what happened last month, really. Not sure it matters. The passage of time is what it is and video games are what they are. I wouldn't necessarily call them a journey. Every journey ends, but we go on. The world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear, dreams take over.

I beat four games this past month by the way.

13. April 11th | Fist of the North Star: 10 Big Brawls for the King of the Universe | Game Boy | 20m | ☆½(/5)
We all strive to get a title as needlessly long as this one. It almost takes as much time trying to understand what it means as it does actually playing through the entire game, though I'm not sure which of the two is the better use of said time. This might be one of the most random games I've ever beaten considering I don't have any interest in the Fist of the North Star franchise (though I've seen both the animated and the live-action movie for some reason). The only reason I even know of the game's existence is because I happened to hear som music from it and thougt it sounded pretty good, so I booted up the game (I might have emulated it, but I can neither confirm or deny it) to maybe play for a minute before deciding it was terrible.

It honestly took less than a minute to see the game's very low quality in basically every department. It's extremely bare bones, the fights (this is a fighting game. Should probably have mentioned that earlier) consis of you doing nothing but sweep kicks until later opponents where you just have to time fire balls and dodge theirs as the AI is so dumb that if you stand at enough of a distance, they'll always stop and charge up their own fire ball without going for melee attacks (which is a good thing, because the AI opponents moves always seems to be prioritized, while the hit boxes are so terrible that a kick you land on an enemy does nothing, but if they kick a split second the always damage you). Still, it's strangely... fun? I don't really know how to rationalize my feeling for this game, because it's objectively terrible but I find it surprisingly charming.

The short length definitely helps here, because despite just doing the same thing over and over again I never felt particularly bored, and while the graphics are crude, I like how they actually do make every opponent look distinct, and with at least most of them having their own stages. The english translation is also hilariously bad, like when Kenshiro levels up (this game has an RPG system where you get exp. after every fight, though I never really noticed any difference in strength when gaining a level) it says "KENSHIRO IS LEVEL UP". I'm very much too young to be nostalgic towards Game Boy games from 1990, but I do think there is beauty in this game's archaic simplicity. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but I had a pretty good time somehow. Definitely recommend the soundtrack, though!

Soundtrack highlight:
Raoh

14. April 16th | Squidlit | Switch | 22m | ☆☆½(/5)
Another very short game, just two minutes longer than FotNS:10BBftKotU, but while I thought the short runtime of that game was to its benefit, I'm not entirely sure about this one. Squidlit is definitely a charming little platformer, but being even shorter than the original Kirby's Dreamland it never really gets going. It begins, and then it ends. It was definitely fun during the short time I played it, but not much else.

I usually write pretty lengthy thoughts about the games I beat, but there really isn't that much here to say than what I've already said. It's definitely the better Switch platformer with gameboy aesthetics featuring a squid in the main role (the other is Save Me Mr. Tako, if anyone's wondering), and probably worth the very low price I paid for it last year (or maybe it was in 2019? Who knows what time is anymore), but really nothing special outside of the humor which is especially bad at times. The game as a whole feels very much like a proof of concept rather than its own thing.

Soundtrack highlight:
Can't really think of one here.

15. April 19th | Persona 5 Strikers | Playstation 4 | 49h 54m | ☆☆☆☆(/5)
(Beat the game on normal with Joker, Makoto, Haru and Zenkichi as my main team)

My Ikaruga obsession in March stopped me from really getting to play Persona 5 Strikers as much as I had wanted, but with nothing standing in the way in April, I dove deep into this action RPG (which some say is a musou and some say it isn't? I haven't played any, so I wouldn't know) which I guess could be seen as a sequel to P5, but seeing as it has no connections to Royal, I'm not too sure. Every Persona game is obviously canon (somehow), but this is probably the one where I find that most difficult to really see how.

Not that it really matters, good game is good after all. It mostly retains what made Persona 5 such a great game, like the aesthetics, characters and, obviously, the Persona fusions. The gameplay is where the game really shakes it up, with its fast paced action combat that I at first found a bit overwhelming, but it didn't take long until it felt as natural as the turn based battles in the mainline games. The camera is definitely not great when there are a lot of enemies on screen at once, but otherwise I don't really have any issues with it. It's literally just Persona combat, but with an action twist. You still need to use buffs and debuffs, exploit enemy weaknesses and ambush enemies to get an advantage in battles. The conversion from one end of the combat spectrum to the other side honestly turned out a lot smoother than I ever would have imagined, and every phantom thief outside of Morgana is surprisingly fun to play as. For most of the game I was switching party members in and out just to experiment with their individual movesets, or in some cases just because I couldn't decide who I liked playing as most. Omega Force really did a good job making them all feel unique, while also keeping their combat styles true to how they played in P5. I also really love how you also have a pseudo witch time, where if you dodge an attack at just the right time you automatically dish out a powerful counterattack which stuns the enemy. Such a smart way to encourage riskier play.

While the gameplay is great, the story is... I don't know. It's decent? I definitely prefer the ambition and scope of 5 to that of Strikers', and while this one really does touch on some relevant topics surrounding social media and childhood trauma, a lot of it feels like it's handled in too simple a way. Persona 5 is definitely guilty of that too, but not to the same extent as this one, which also has a serious problem of really suspending my disbelief to my limits. I can buy that there is something called cognitie pscience and the like, but some things that happen in this game is just too much for me. Doesn't really help either that this sometimes not too great story is told through cutscenes that are way too long. I'm one of the few people who don't really have a big problem with Persona 5's pacing, so it should say something that even I think this game's story drags. The characters are also just incredibly stupid. I feel like there are several instances where they here someone say something like "you were abused as a child!", and one the thieves would say afterwards "what do you think that meant?", and Joker can only answer with "I don't know". Maybe this happened in Persona 5 too, but I can't remember it being as common as it was here in this game that's not even half of the former's length.

Still, the character interactions and characters themselves are as good as ever (and in Haru's case, definitely better than ever before), while the new characters Sophia and Zenkichi are good additions to the crew. Especially Zenkichi, who really makes the case for other adults to be part of the party in future Persona games, though whose Phantom Thief outfit is, sadly, absolutely awful. They both add something to the cast either way, and without them the game's Japan road trip wouldn't have been the same. It would probably still have been good considering how great the game's dialogue for the OG cast is for most of the game, but still - not the same. I really wish there was some sort of social link system in the game just so I could spend more time with these characters, but all you really get is the choice of taking one person on a ferris wheel, which is nice but I wish there had been something like that event in every city.

So yeah, great game that's super fun to play but with a story that sadly disappoints more than it delights. GOTY so far, and I feel very confident in saying that since, as of may 5th, it's the only 2021 game I've beaten. Would not recommend going for the platinum trophy though!

The soundtrack is absolutely incredible btw.

Soundtrack highlight:
Counterfeit Phantom

16. April 29th | Resident Evil 6 | Playstation 4 | 22h 1m | ☆☆½(/5)
I didn't start out the month beating a Resident Evil game for the first time this year, but I did at least close it out with one. Just like RE5 I played RE6 in multiplayer, and while I must say that playing it this way was fun, the game itself is such a mess that I don't really know where to begin?

Okay, maybe let's start with this: I have no idea why this game has four separate campaigns. It really doesn't add anything and considering they all play almost exactly the same (except Leon and Helena's where most enemies don't have guns), and there are several times where you just replay the same exact thing, or in Sherry and Jake's case just watch the same thing and then wait a bit for the AI to do what you did during Chris and Pier's campaign. Really don't see why they couldn't just do one campaign where you change between characters, and then maybe unlock Ada's campaign as a final side mode, because that's really all it should have been. Maybe someone would say that playing it like that would ruin the game's mystery as it's really constructed over so many mysteries that are mysteries more because every campaign is only give parts of the answers and the chronology isn't entirely linear, but when a story is this bad and absolutely every reveal is somehow more anti climactic than one could possible imagine, does it really matter? Also, it's pretty obvious that the final boss of the game is fought during Leon's campagin and that's the one most people are bound to play first, since it's the one listed first out of the four. It's honestly hard to really articulate how bad this story, the execution of it and cutting it up in fragments that forces you to play through three overlong plus Ada's campaign to get the least interesting of answers.

And yeah, the campaigns are all (outside of Ada's) way too long. Every single chapter feels like Return of the King, but instead of being a great movie with several scenes that it could have ended satisfyingly on, it's just Resident Evil 6 which means it's a pretty fun third person shooter, though not so fun that it can get away with having every single chapter just go on and on and have so many points where it should have ended but then just fucking won't. RE6 is such a strange beast, because I would say it feels rushed considering how buggy it is, how unfinished a lot of the textures look, and how unfinished the script feels (and that is saying something for a Resident Evil game). But at the same time I feel like Capcom just worked on it for too long, adding new parts to stages because games are supposed to be a certain length and not because it benefits from it. They also added cool jumps for dodging attacks that, as far as I know, are never necessary to use (never really found them that useful even when playing Mercenaries) other than being something you accidentally do at the wrong time. Though I guess it's cool that you can slide along the ground for a short distance and do som damage if you hit an enemy while doing it?

Gameplay is mostly fine, though. The melee attack is maybe one of the most satisfying things anyone has ever added to a game, but otherwise it's pretty standard Resident Evil, though without the tank controls which I'm honestly not a huge fan of since I feel like they are a bit more sluggish when making a turn than Chris or Sheva in 5. I got used to it though, and found the gameplay to be quite nice. I don't really get how some say it's the best third person shooter of its generation since hiding and shooting behind covers never feels good for some reason, resulting in me usually just running up to a shooting enemy, getting shot and falling over (because this is probably the only game ever that thought it was a good idea to make the player character fall down when being shot at enough), then shooting them while lying on my back. I also felt like every shotgun in the game were some of the most unsatisfying shotguns I've ever experienced in any game. There's just no punch to them, and that makes me a bit sad when Resident Evil is a series that really knows to respect the shotgun. Still absolutely amazing melee combat though!

Like I said in the beginning, though, I played RE6 in multiplayer and that way it's a lot of despite all the BS the campaign throws at you. Instead of throwing away the game you can sit together and laugh at the awful snowmobile segment with Jake and Sherry (who gets really uncomfortably sexualized during one particular chapter), or the abysmal stealth segment of Ada's first chapter. Maybe you can even learn to love running through extremely bland settings and trying to get keys in some sort of chinese market where absolutely every street looks exactly the same. If I'm serious for a moment, multiplayer in RE6 is a lot of fun, and the fact that both players can get every new weapon is such an improvement over 5 where they're shared, plus the great addition of being able to actually save yourself when in the "dying" state. Speaking of 5 - it's definitely a better game overall, but I wonder if 6, despite its length, isn't an even more fun multiplayer game? Add Mercenaries to that and you have what should be seen as a legendary co op experience. The game still has a pretty terrible campaign, but at least you can laugh at it together and punch Derek C Simmons in tandem until he transforms into his 100th boss form, and then share your dismay over the absolutely awful UI.

I'll honestly miss the multiplayer, but thank god RE7 came along and made the franchise actually good again.

Soundtrack highlight:
The Mercenaries Theme

Currently playing:
Final Fantasy Adventure
Persona Q2

Exile In Mudville · May 6, 2021

MAIN POST and the First 9 Games!
The one where I play a bunch of indie games and pick up a new habit series.
The one where I write way too much about Yakuza 3 through 5 (and other games).

28) Superliminal (PC) - May 6th - A pretty interesting first person puzzler that's got some Portal influence but also clearly more geared towards a walking simulator mechanic, especially with how the player character is never in real danger of the death state variety. The usage of perspective and environmental manipulation is pretty fascinating though, even if it inadvertently serves to make the more recent Maquette look like an even weaker offering. There's a few easter eggs, and the game doesn't really drag at all. Can't really complain too much about it, besides the fact that it's over too soon, but then again short games are what I'm looking for at the moment so I guess it worked out. (3 hours) (4 out of 5 stars)

29) Secret Ties (NES) - May 6th - One of the unreleased NES games you hear about sometimes! This one was a canned 1992 side scrolling action game from Vic Tokai, and the hero looks a little like Duke Togo (Golgo 13) for a reason - the same guy (Takao Saito) created Golgo and the source manga for Secret Ties, called Master Thief Sugar. Anyway, it's a light action adventure game, with the requisite cheap design of NES platformers that make people grateful for modern emulation conveniences like Rewind/Save States/Fast Forward. A very cheesy b-movie plot with oddly competent (but still also cheesy) localized dialogue for an early 90's NES game - although the weirdness of adding on a flimsy environmental subtext was pretty much the most 1992 statement ever. Not the worst way to spend a little over an hour on an 8-bit system but I can see why they ultimately decided against release. (1 hour 15 minutes) (2.5 out of 5 stars)

30) Super Pitfall II/Atlantis no Nazo (NES) - May 6th - If you were to tell me Activision almost localized this as Super Pitfall II when I first discovered it I'd be horrified. No, this game is too bad. The mechanics of powerups are incoherent, the monster spawns are bullshit, and the platforming was bad for 1986 and it would be company destroying to be associated with it in 1989 when they planned to release it. But then again I'd totally believe that late 80's Activision would have thought this was a good idea for a minute. My only guess as to why they canned it was because they couldn't salvage the bullshit last level and ending, that basically relegates you to wandering around until a timeout death. For the morbidly curious, the original is on the Japanese NSO Famicom app on switch as well. But don't play this. You could do better things with your time. Like playing Secret Ties. (1 hour 25 minutes) (1 out of 5 stars)

31) Fallout 4 (XB1X) - May 14th - I've been working on this one off and on for the last 2 years, longer if you count attempts at starting on PC. Decided to put a pin in it after about tthe 3/4ths point, and I was generally satisfied with most parts of the game but had big problems with the parts I didn't. Loved the companions, hated the dialogue system. Loved weapon and armor crafting, hated resources. Loved building things, hated the demand for constant upkeep when I was trying to do other things. Loved Nuka-World, hated that you didn't really get that kind of interaction with raider gangs and human antagonist groups outside of Nuka-World. Loved the Institute, hated the Brotherhood of Steel more than anything. It's a Bethesda game, for better or worse. And I really don't want to touch it or another BGS game for a while, but at the same time I want to dive back in on PC so I can go wild with mods the way I did with Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Curse you Todd Howard. (256 hours and 55 minutes) (3.5 out of 5 stars)

32) Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life (XB1X) - May 20th - The first of the Dragon Engine games (but third I've played in this run, including Judgment and Kiwami 2) and the new engine makes a massive difference in combat, environments, and interactions. But there's a lot more here - the new world of seriously focusing on Kiryu and the people he interacts with is stronger than ever. There's a better quality of writing and dialogue and character development that was barely there in 4 and not there at all in 5. An amazing array of NPCs, the most viscerally despicable villains in the series yet, a lot of echoes of the first game (or Kiwami 1 if you'd rather) and Yakuza 3, and a very streamlined and compact story with not a lot of weighty diversions - I managed to finish most of the minigames and all but 1 of the side stories. It might claim to be Kiryu's Final Chapter, and in fact it was the perfect way for him to go out, but I can't help but wonder.... (45 hours and 2 minutes) (5 out of 5 stars)

33) The Mummy Demastered (Switch) - May 31st - Bought this on hype two years ago, and just now finishing it. When I start on a Metroidvania, I usually like to finish it pretty quickly, so me dropping this repeatedly already communicated that this game has some big problems. The Mummy Demastered has a cumbersome map and pathfinding, spotty platforming, underpowered weapons (until the last two you pick up), and it makes health pickups absolutely tedious, especially when you're bogged down far away from your next health container. The platforming does get somewhat better, but only after you've picked up a couple of late game collectibles. WayForward has never really sold an essential game to me in the past, despite giving them multiple chances. Most of the time they manage to still give me a solidly slightly above average game (Double Dragon Neon and River City Girls were both fine enough for their time), but when they miss, it's really atrocious. With as much attention that this was getting I expected so much more, so consider me not hyped at all. (9 hours and 16 minutes) (2 out of 5 stars)

34) Mars Matrix (Arcade via MAME) - June 5th - Every so often I'll get on a whim to tear through one of my favorite shmups, and Mars Matrix I haven't messed with in a while - in fact, it was almost a decade ago when last cleared it on the Dreamcast. The game still holds up pretty well with great music and enemy designs, but there really is no give in the bullet swarms. I burned through upwards of 30 credits this time around, and I'm a complete amateur when it comes to being good at bullet hell shooters. I still really enjoy the design and feeling of taking on these kinds of games though. And Mars Matrix is right up there with CAVE's best work for being satisfying to survive, even when it's a stumble to do so. (around 45 minutes) (4.5 out of 5 stars)

35) Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC) - July 4th - Do you know what I've been doing for 4 weeks? No, not playing Yakuza 7, which I started on immediately after 6, only to take a break from because I was burnt out from not properly pacing myself, despite really enjoying the JRPG system. No, I''ve been playing modded Fallout (both Tale of Two Wastelands and heavily modded Fallout 4 for PC). It's only now that I've come to my senses to get back to looking at games from at least the last 12 months. Anyway...

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion turned out to be a goofy little Zelda-like puzzle adventure with a strange bit of heart, I didn't really expect to get that hooked by this, but the fact that it flew by pretty quickly and had some fun jokes and a few weirdly emotional turns when discover the backdrop of the world that you're in gave it a little more substance than I expected. Not to mention the accessibility for completionism (you have a Continue+ from the incomplete ending to pick up what you missed with a hint system). Not really a bad way to spend a couple of hours. (2 hours and 35 minutes) (3.5 out of 5 stars)

Griffin · May 7, 2021

MAIN POST

I'm back in a state of emergency so there was a lot of time to play games last month. And what do you know? April actually had some pretty good games, especially on my phone since I tried out the monthlong trial of Apple Arcade.

13. Yakuza Kiwami 2: Majima Saga (Xbox One) - ★★★☆☆

I finished Kiwami 2 late last year, but only just got around to playing the Majima Saga, a short extra segment starring everyone's favourite eye patch-wearing gangster. There's not much to say about it, really. I didn't like the weapon-heavy combat in Kiwami 2, so Majima's crazy fighting style was a lot more enjoyable. There were barely any battles, though, and the three chapters go by quickly. It was a nice follow-up to Majima's story in Yakuza 0, with quite the emotional reunion, but not much else.

14. Gato Roboto (Xbox One) - ★★★☆☆

This was a cute little tribute to Metroid starring a cat in a mech suit. The monochromatic Game Boy style is nice and nostalgic, and there are a bunch of different colour schemes to find around the alien caverns. Though there's only a few upgrades to uncover, I liked that they're all useful and give your kitty more movement options like air dashing and rocket jumps. I tend to prefer lengthier games with more interconnected areas, but this seems like it'd be a fun short game to speedrun.

15. Sayonara Wild Hearts (iOS) - ★★★★☆

I love the idea of a playable pop album and Sayonara Wild Hearts pulls it off almost perfectly. The entrancing visuals and the way the action syncs up to the music is absolutely marvellous. It's rare to play a game that's so confident in its own style, that tells its story of heartbreak in a way that's totally different to anything else. The one problem I had: the controls. I'm sure this game is great on other platforms, so don't play it with touch controls. Even after adjusting the sensitivity, I found them to be really imprecise, to the point where I was constantly crashing my motorbike into walls and missing items. As much as I love the game's music and aesthetic, I didn't have any desire to go back and get better ranks, but maybe I'll check out the console version some day.

16. SaGa Frontier Remastered (Switch) - ★★★★☆

I've only finished Red's story so far, but I really enjoyed playing this PS1 RPG for the first time. The tone of the game is all over the place and I kind of love it. There are familiar SaGa systems like randomly sparking new abilities and gaining stat increases based on how challenging the battles are, but I love all the weird mechanics for different characters. Figuring out how to make monsters morph into different forms was fun to puzzle out and the customisable robots pretty much carried Red's team to the end. There's so muc randomness, but that's what makes the game so exciting. Since there's no one way to get through a challenging battle, I had to use my head and learn from failures (like the need to make multiple saves since it's all too easy to get locked into a difficult dungeon).

The weird mishmash of visual styles still isn't particularly appealing, but this is a real improvement over Square-Enix's usual remasters with plenty of quality of life improvements like the ability to escape from battles. I wrote up some more thoughts here, but the bottom line is that SaGa Frontier rules and I should really get back to playing as the other characters.

17. What the Golf? (iOS) - ★★★★☆

I've never been particularly interested in golfing games, but I enjoyed this goofy spin on the sport. Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge this ain't. The controls are simple enough: just slide your finger to swing your club/launch your golfer/deploy your golf ball grappling hook and so on. The game still preserves the basic rules of golf - hit that ball to the flag at the end - but it gets progressively weirder as you putt your ball around a facility set up to present players with bizarre takes on golf that probably shouldn't be spoiled. The game's unpredictable nature can sometimes be a bit annoying. Some holes switch from portrait to landscape mode, which isn't really ideal for playing on the go, especially when motion controls are involved. Although some of the gimmicks do wear out their welcome, the laughs never stop coming. So many games fail to do comedy well, but the rapid-fire gags in this one really worked.

18. Necrobarista (iOS) - ★★★☆☆

When I first saw Necrobarista at an event I initially dismissed it as a ripoff of VA-11 Hall-A, but it's actually totally different. If anything, Necrobarista reminded me of the anime Death Parade, just with a surprising Aussie flavour to it. It was an interesting mix of Melbourne's coffee culture and anime-style storytelling with a supernatural twist. The tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell are in there and one is made out of a box of goon. I can respect that.

Even though the art often looks weird in 3D, the staging of scenes is more interesting than your average visual novel. The story is rather unfocused, with sudden tonal shifts and many characters who don't seem to actually serve any purpose so it ends up feeling like a small slice of a greater story. However, the storytelling is also genuinely Australian in a way few other games are, not just because it casts infamous outlaw Ned Kelly as a Collingwood-supporting landlord, but because it deftly uses dry humour to show the characters dealing with the fear of death and gradually being open about their feelings with each other. There wasn't really any actual gameplay, but it was wonderful to see the city I grew up in represented in a game. Like Sayonara Wild Hearts, even though it's on Apple Arcade I'd recommend playing it on anything but a phone.

19. Fantasian (iOS) - ★★★★☆

Wow, a big budget RPG on phones that isn't full of microtransaction-fuelled gambling! It's been so long. The use of real miniatures to craft the game's settings gave Fantasian a really striking look that makes it stand out despite drawing a lot of mechanics and plot points from older JRPGs. I expect they'll be more developed in the game's eventual second half, but the touch-controlled turn-based battles were also quite novel, especially since you can store away random encounters and fight them all at once. I already wrote a full review of this one so I feel like I'm repeating myself. Some of the battles started to drag by the end, but I've got high hopes for Part 2 of Fantasian.

20. Takeshi and Hiroshi (iOS) - ★★★☆☆

Wrapping up the month, I played another iPhone game with cute little miniatures. It's a very short, sweet story, with an aspiring game dev making games for his sickly younger brother to play. As Hiroshi tests out this RPG prototype, his older brother controls the battles from his laptop, trying to keep the excitement levels up without accidentally slaying his brother with strong enemies. It's an interesting inside look at the struggles of balancing difficulty in a game, although Takeshi & Hiroshi itself ends up becoming quite frustrating. Hiroshi is weirdly hard to please and it's hard to control the outcome of fights when there's always the chance that attacks will miss. Eventually it turns into tedious trial and error so I'd recommend Takeshi & Hiroshi for the cute stop-motion animation, not the gameplay.

So yeah, Apple Arcade. It has a lot of good stuff (especially now it finally supports newer game controllers) and brought back my interest in mobile games for a while. Well anyway, now that my free trial is over I guess it's back to using my phone for the endless gacha grind. See you again when the second half of Fantasian is out.

BrickArts295 · May 7, 2021

I totally forgot about this thread, luckily I do keep track on docs/notion. Thanks Wozzer for keeping up with this thread.

Previous years:
2014: 35
2015: 41
2016: 56
2017: 78
2018: 113
2019: 79
2020: 84

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope (PS4) - 7/10 - 4 hours (Jan 3)
Destroy All Humans Remake (PS4) - 6.5/10 - 7 hours (Jan 6)
Granblue Fantasy Arena (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 7 hours (Jan 7)
Mafia Definitive Edition (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 10 hours (Jan 12)
Crash Bandicoot 4 (PS4) - 8/10 - 11 hours (Jan 20)🥉
Dreams (PS4) - 9/10 - 4 hours (Jan 26)🥈
Another Lost Phone (Android) - 6.5/10 - 1 hour (Jan 30)
Spider-Man Miles Morales (PS5) - 8.5/10 - hours (Jan 31)🥉

February

Donut County (XB1) - 7/10 - 2 hours (Feb 4)
The White Door (Android) - 6.5/10 - 2 hours (Feb 5)
CrimsonLand (PS4) - 5/10 - 4 hours (Feb 12)
Yes Your Grace (PC) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Feb 16)🥉🏅
Assault Android Cactus (PC) - 6/10 - 3 hours (Feb 19)
A Mortician's Tale (PC) - 6/10 - 1 hour (Feb 19)
Frog Detective - The Haunted Island (PC) - 6/10 - 1 hour (Feb 20)
Yoku's Island Express (PC) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Feb 21)🥉🏅
Finding Paradise (PC) - 8.5/10 - 5 hours (Feb 22)🥉

March

Anime Studio Story (Android) - 6/10 - 5 hours (Mar 3)
Saints Row The Third + DLCs (PS4) - 8/10 - 18 hours (Mar 8)🥉
L.A. Noire + DLCs (PS4) - 8/10 - 19 hours (Mar 14)🥉
Marvel's Avengers (PS5) - 7.5/10 - 16 hours (Mar 21)
Hitman World of Assassination Trilogy (PS5) - 9.5/10 - 15 (Mar 27)🥇
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Xbox) - 8.5/10 - 9 hours (Mar 31)🥉🏅

April

Splinter Cell Double Agent (Xbox 360) - 6.5/10 - 5 hours (Apr 4)
Forza Horizon 4 + Expansions (Xbox One) - 9/10 - 33 hours (Apr 9)🥈🏅
inFamous Festival of Blood (PS3) - 6.5/10 - 3 hours (Apr 27)
House of the Dead 4 (PS3) - 6/10 - 1 hour (Apr 27)

May

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition (XB1) - 9/10 - 66 hours (May 1)
Prey (XB1) - 8/10 - 14 hours (May 3)🥉🏅
Bugsnax (PS5) - 8/10 - 11 hrs (May 9)
Returnal (PS5) - 8.5/10 - 15hrs (May 16)🥈
Resident Evil Village (PS5) - 8/10 - 10hrs (May 31)🥉

June

Resident Evil 3 (PS4) - 7/10 - 5hrs (Jun 5)
Ratchet and Clank (PS4) - 7/10 - 5hrs (Jun 10) [Replay]

July

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart (PS5) - 8.5/10 - 13hrs (Jul 4)🥈

Sep

12 Minutes (XSX) - 6/10 - 3 hours (Sep 13)

Nov

AC Valhalla (PS5) - 7.5/10 - 99 hours (Nov 1)🥉
The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes (PS5) - 7/10 - 5 hours (Nov 6)
Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5) - 9/10 - 20 hours (Nov 24)🥈🏅
Deathloop (PS5) - 9/10 - 16 hours (Nov 28) 🥈🏅

Dec

Forza Horizon 5 (XSX) - 8.5/10 - 17 hours (Dec 21)
Spider-Man Remastered (PS5) - 10 hours (Dec 26)

Awards
Masterpiece (9.5<)🥇
Excellent (9<)🥈
Amazing (8<)🥉
Exceed Expectations🏅

Current Total: 29

Whimsicalish · May 7, 2021

16 | Golf Story
NSW | May 06 | 25 hrs | 4/5

This game has taught me that I do not possess a strong patience for real golf. And I'm okay with that.

I really did enjoy this though. It has humor, charm, and real terminology in golf. I got a quick education on the sport. The art is delightful and bright. There are a handful of different golf courses with biomes. You get colorful environments with variety. Most of the characters are funny and remember-able. Throughout the story, you can change your gear and you'll have stats when you level up.

Couple of tweaks I would love to see: being able to opt out of a lesson or tournament instead of mashing the A button. Sometimes you could hit the plus button and quit but most of the time that option wasn't available for some reason? So it was quicker to just hard quit the game.

Some of the quests are SUPER vague. I had to Google to understand whatthehell I was supposed to do. But I had a good time playing and definitely recommend.

17 | Gray Dawn
PC | May 07 | 4.5 hrs | 3.5/5

You play as a priest, in a walking sim, searching for a missing altar boy. The story began strong and eerie as weird things are happening around you. Demons speaking, toads falling from the ceiling, spooky radios, etc. It was fun! In the beginning, your character starts freaking out and you have to pray at a cross to calm down. That never happens again...but I thought that was really interesting. (I'm not a religious or very spiritual person either. I thought the game looked like an interesting experience. when I picked it up)

But further in, the story makes less sense. As many "psychological" horror games. (I think this one CAN get some pass with that stuff because the game heavily focuses on belief and mysticism. Instead of "oh mental illness, scary.") However writing this hours after finishing both endings, I can't tell what happened 100% in reality. There are dream sequences and puzzles in this trippy, abstract world. Those were actually very cool! But the "real world" was more difficult to tell what is going on. Then I lost a sense of the characters because everything is getting muddled. Maybe I'm not smart enough to completely get it but I think with more polish, the story could be more clear.

The biggest thing the devs could polish are the loading screens. They are very abrupt. You'll open a door into a room that you can see inside; but when you walk into the room, suddenly there's a loading screen. It's very odd and cuts the tension.

The loading screen will usually have a sentence or two hinting what's happening in the story. I shouldn't need a loading screen telling me whats going on in the story. The story should be doing that. It's like the game knows the story is difficult to understand. That's a hint you need to make the story telling more clear.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience. I will be interested in what the devs do in the future.

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KtotheRoc · May 8, 2021

26: Judgment. End: 5/8/2021. (4.5 out of 5)

After taking a long break from the Yakuza franchise, I came back to Kamurocho with Judgment. The gameplay is probably the best in the franchise's history, and I found the story engaging. There were a few things I took issue with, but I really enjoyed my time back in Kamurocho and am looking forward to visiting again.

Bii · May 8, 2021

Previos post: https://www.resetera.com/threads/52-games-1-year-2021.354148/page-4#post-55624606

Total play time is now at 605 hours.
486 hours on PS5 and 119 hours on PS4.

So I haven't made much progress in playing games that can be finished. I jumped back into NBA 2K21 after not playing it for two months, skipping seasons 4 and 5 entirely in MyTeam. With season 6, I didn't plan on getting enough XP to get the grand prize, Dark Matter J.R. Smith, but it happened organically as 2K had a lot of easy-to-get XP. To stay competitive online, the meta is starting to change where all players should be at least 6'8" (yes, even your guards) and be able to hit 3's from anywhere on the floor.

I typically run a 5-man team and strategically space my timeouts to build back stamina. If I was running a 10-man team, this is what it would look like. As the season ends, my lineup consists of 3 of the top 10 available players: Grant Hill, Danny Ferry and Bol Bol.

We're approaching the endgame now and I'm excited for season 7. The devs shortened it from 45 days to 30 days and the season reward is a Dark Matter Vince Carter who I can start at SG. I'll provide another update once the season ends.

Tizoc · May 9, 2021

54. Red Faction Guerrilla

Remembered I had this in my library and fired it up. I think that the game's destruction aspects were good for the time but the overall game is mired by typical open world mission design. A lot of the game has you doing various side missions in order to get enough Salvage or scrap to buy equipment and upgrades which without makes the game more tedious than it should be. The main mission themselves are like 2 dozen throughout the entire game, and I found myself simply rushing past mobs of enemies and assault vehicles to reach the main point in a mission to complete it. Thnkafully there is an upgrade that recovers your health and it recharges every 8 or so seconds.
I feel I've satisfied my curiosity with this game, but I doubt I'd see myself going back to it. If one enjoys blowing stuff up and wrecking down the buildings of capitalism, they'll likely still enjoy this game.

55. Red Faction G: Demons of the Badlands (DLC)

A prequel DLC set in a smaller area known as Mariner Valley, this time controlling Sam. I found rather disappointing coming off of the main game as it seemed like a quick cash grab dlc as it doesn't do much new and the new weapons weren't all that impressive either.

Deleted member 85465 · May 10, 2021

Reserved, did not think I would be able to do this, but I started counting and I have finished 17 games so far, so I might make it.

Will update post later.

52 Games. 1 Year. 2021.

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