January 2025 and the Remnants of Dec. 2024
Did my December report a bit too early as I had finished out some games before the year’s end. Apologies in advance for typos and unusual repeated spaces. I have yet to fix my keyboard…
FFXIV is currently done and dusted. All expansions done, combat jobs at level cap, at least one relic weapon per expansion obtained, and various extreme/savage raids done. I’ll be picking it back up again when more updates come, but in the mean time I can finally put it down. However, this does mean I’ll have to start committing copious time to FFXI… but we’ll put that off for another time.
December 2024 (Games unaccounted for)
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The Complex
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Peeping Dorm Manager
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Story Of Eve 2
January 2025
The game was about what I expected but still enjoyable. Granted I did assist someone I knew with it not long before it so any surprises were pretty clear. Won't go into it too much as the journey is the experience.
Recommend? Yes. Short, Sweet, Cheap, and Unique-ish.
Kind of just picked this up on a whim after it has been on my wishlist for so many years. Much of the appeal has dropped as the characters like Isaac and Astro Boy have fallen by the wayside for me. Still a decent puzzle fighter with some semi-interesting mechanics but nothing truly stand out for me.
The story mode seemed interesting at first as the branching paths had interesting and unique narrations… until you realize there is only one ending. Matches can take a while to load in and a lot of characters just didn't have much appeal to me.
Puzzle fighter of choice: Zombie
Recommend? Eh. You could probably just default to something like Capcom's Puzzle Fighter, but it is not a terrible alternative.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
My second GG game so far, yet somehow not the second in the series, and I can already say I'm glad that the insta-kill moves are far less common than the first. Went for a soft beaten game in that I cleared an arcade run (that does not have arcade endings), a story run (which acts as arcade endings), and an extra mode run which seemed to be a sort of score attack. I would have done more story runs with other characters but apparently the final boss ranges in difficulty vastly and found my skill just not up to par to take down that beast. Oddly enough I enjoyed the final boss when they aren't super amped up. Their unique attack interactions were fun while still keeping the boss fairly difficult. There was a huge cast of characters so I may go back and try out a few more when I work up the courage to face that boss again…
Fighter of choice: Bridget
Recommend? Yes, though later in the series, it is a clear upgrade from the original GG game
A mixed bag of Mega Man entries. Oddly enough I seemed to like the games people didn't with Mega Man 7 and 8 being the better where as 9 and 10 being a weird step back. 7 and 8 seemed to continue evolving the Mega series with upgrading in the shop, dedicated power button and unique level interactions (yes I liked the board riding levels) not to mention continued graphics upgrades and even some voice acting. That's when 9 and 10 happen where it felt like it took place immediately after 2 in terms of graphics and abilities. It was a serious case of whip lash. Honestly I didn't mind most of the reverted changes EXCEPT for the fact that they took away the charge blast and (most importantly) the slide. Why? WHY did they take away the slide!? Anyways, my critique for the series as a whole is that by this point I'm sick and tired of Wily (and apparently Mega Man is too) and his dumb multi part boss fights that I just can never enjoy. That and every Devil variation. Yes, I know reusing a main boss is pretty common in older games, but it has always been a tired recurrence for me. Oh, and if you are relying on save states like in the last collection, let it be known they revert to checkpoints rather than where you save in this. A last annoyance is that the collection menu button isn't the same in every game leaving confusing button presses.
Recommend? Overall yes, but definitely a bit more divisive
Genuinely surprised they could make a modern Mega Man game and still retain some of the classic difficulty. Even with the new gear system this game can be pretty hard and yet a lot of the bosses and levels were pretty interesting… if not a bit annoying at times. Yet, this game didn't get much fan fare and very well may be the last of it's particular series. In some ways I can see why. Something about the visual design of Mega Man just doesn't look right. He has the general size and shapes, but something is off and I don't like it. This is weird for me because a lot of the levels and robot master designs are absolutely great. Additionally, albeit a smaller issue, the other characters calling Mega Man by "Mega" also felt weird and forced. Though a much more story driven game then some in the past, it isn't particularly captivating. Still a lot of the game is pretty great and the robot master battles and abilities are some of the best out there, even if I didn't always appreciate their level design (looking at you fire level).
Favorite Robot Master: Torch Master (Just straight up a Street Fighter battle)
Recommend? Yes.
So, you're inspired by Mega Man, huh? Well, this game is too. Unfortunately, it just can't quite nail the execution. The fast paced focus of the game is kind of nice… when the game works that way. Yet, the absorb mechanic is so funky it just never quite flows well. Essentially after depleting an enemies health (or boss's health to a point), you must dash into them to absorb them. The quicker you do it, the better the absorb rank. Since you can't see health bars/points you will have to memorize the shots it takes to get to that point… which is annoying. Yet when you are able to speed through a level absorbing at mach speed it feels great if not a bit non intuitive since you can take contact damage if you are too early or late. Just feels a bit conflicting. The level order is far more clear than any Mega Man game as each defeated boss will show up in the level their ability is meant for.
Bosses are pretty uninspiring, lack visual appeal, and countering with certain powers does not seem to consistently work. Also, a major bug I experienced is if I went through roughly two levels worth of progress (even if it is the same level repeated) I'd start getting huge amounts of lag. This made certain levels and every boss fight near to actual impossibility as reactions just aren't possible with the amount of delay and slow down. The only solution I could figure is to completely close the game after each attempted level before trying again or another. It is incredibly annoying and by far the worst offense.
Recommend? Not at all. Maybe had a sequel been made there could have been improvements. Instead, play something like Shovel Knight.
Would it be weird to say this is my favorite Serious Sam game? I mean by all accounts it doesn't follow the formula, so it kind of isn't. Instead it's a 2D, arcade-like, over the top action, and (most importantly) doesn't punish you for simple pickups and is far easier than any SS game thus far. The gimmick of the game is you can attach weapons on top of each other to make ridiculous looking loadouts. You can further upgrade each weapon with unique abilities to continue the craziness. I loved it, making these monstrosities that either helped traversal, melt mobs, destroy bosses, or a mix of all the above. Not once did I have to roll my eyes as 1,000 kleers spawn because I picked a +1 armor token… since that doesn't happen in this game. Instead it is just non-stop mayhem in each level with unique vehicle levels to mix things up.
All that being said… it does have it's issues. It's actually pretty easy to breeze through levels without interactions. Not all weapon upgrades seem useful. Levels in general weren't particularly interesting, though that's not unique to this entry. Though most bosses were alright enough, the final boss is so boring. It offers little in terms of engagement.
Recommend? Generally yeah, assuming it is under $10.
Gotta say, though this is an improvement over the last game… I still had trouble enjoying it. The opening level alone gave me a headache with it's loud repeated music that wasn't particularly great. Enemies still respawn to some effect, but at least ammo seems to as well if not having checkpoint stations offer health/ammo as well. I found a lot of levels to be confusing or just not enjoyable nor does the map help much in any way. The actual combat was decent and the various death animations from the basic humanoid dino enemies were great… until you run into some later enemies who take a lot to go down no matter what you use. This not including some enemy types that will just melt you if you show them a polygon of your character. The worst offenders of the games are generally the bosses. Most require you to hit specific spots on their body. Most of your weapons will often miss these spots due to auto-aim, hitting another spot before hitting the weakness, etc. (if they were to hit the spot at all). It just made for an unpleasant experience. The best thing about the game is the bore gun which is by far the most interesting weapon the series will have to offer until maybe Evolution.
Recommend? Not really.
Oh no! Mighty No 9 has been on my wishlist for a while, but looking at your review (and the “Mostly Negative” on Steam) makes me reconsider it … you highlighted the issues with your experience pretty well, I appreciate it
Hope I saved you some pain (and money). Yeah, had it not been for the performance issues I could at least say, “give it a try”, but it was just too much. Glad you could find use of my review. ^_^