Log #2: June 2024
With severe weather warnings nearly every other day and the temperature reaching up to 47°C,I will probably burn to death by August I didn’t really go outside much this month other than to go to work and to the gym, so I played a lot. I had more completed than beaten games this month, probably because I played a lot of short games.
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Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
82 minutes playtime
2 of 16 achievements
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Resident Evil Revelations
20 hours playtime
13 of 50 achievements
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Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
77 hours playtime
no achievements
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This game is essentially a prelude and tech demo for MGS:V, it's a single level but I really enjoyed playing it. The level itself felt a lot more intricate and coherent than most of the MGS:V levels. I would have liked to see more levels similar to this in the full game. Didn't really do any of the side content but I might return to it later.
Resident Evil Revelations (Activated in May 2022)A trope I love in games is when the entire game takes place in one location, and this game takes place in a boatship (mostly anyway). I loved exploring every corner of the ship and scanning for secrets, definitely this game's highlight for me. I don't really remember the story, like at all, which I think speaks for itself, but not that big of a downside for me since I don't play RE games for the story. I do remember that I did not really like the new characters (I think Parker and Jennifer? Can't be bothered to look them up), and I still find Chris boring, I thought this was a solo Jill game so I was very disappointed when I started playing as him. Overall I had fun, very solid game in my opinion.
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (Activated in June 2024)I played the original SMTV on an emulator up until the first major boss and dropped it because playing a game at 15 fps and 24 fps at its best is not something I was and am interested in, but I still really wanted to play it so I just held out and hoped for a pc/ps port, so I was very excited when this rerelease was announced. I loved this game so much I ended up making guides for it, which I've never done before (although I was partially motivated by how much of a pain it was to look up anything about it). The character, demon designs and general artistic direction are amazing, the combat system is extremely fun, and oh my god the soundtrack is just so good it sets ups and builds the boss fights and atmosphere of the game perfectly. I also loved the new addition of the area where you can talk with your demons, I already liked the dialogue during the negotiations in this series but this feature really takes the demons' personalities to a new level. This game was pure fun for me. Probably my GOTY (at least for now) and it already had some strong competition. Okay, I'll stop fangirling now.
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Vanaris Tactics
5 hours playtime
18 of 18 achievements
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Disco Elysium
30 hours playtime
45 of 45 achievements
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Beacon Pines
5 hours playtime
11 of 11 achievements
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Unpacking
4 hours playtime
25 of 25 achievements
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Mediterranea Inferno
2 hours playtime
11 of 11 achievements
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Finding Paradise
10 hours playtime
1 of 1 achievements
Very solid little Tactics game, the gameplay starts kinda slow but once you unlock abilities the gameplay becomes more fun. I really liked the pixel art style. I didn't really follow the story though since the localization was a bit bad and the pacing was weird. The achievement list was pretty straight forward so I ended up going for 100%.
Disco Elysium (Activated in Dec 2023)I don't really know how to say anything about this game without spoiling anything, but it's definitely a one of it's kind game. The gameplay is just walking around and picking dialogue options, but there was a section that genuinely had me stressing and panicking about what to do (I'm sure if you have played this game you know what part I'm talking about), and in general this game me feel a lot of things. Definitely recommend for any rpg fans. The achievements for this were kind of annoying to do but not really hard.
Beacon Pines (Won in June 2024)This game was a very nice and short narrative experience. I really liked the branching paths as well as the storybook format, and I thought the narrator's (writer's?) voice acting was really good. One thing I did not like was the art style, I thought it would grow on me but it never did. The achievements were easy and fun to do so I went for 100%.
Unpacking (Won in June 2024)This game's story is told in a very creative way through its gameplay, and the pixel art is very pretty. But I found the gameplay a bit too repetitive in certain sections (did I really have to unpack that many clothes??), but the game is still very good overall. Achievements were very straightforward.
Mediterranea Inferno (Won in May 2024)Unfortunately I did not like this game. This game follows three characters on a summer retreat post-lockdown, and really none of them are likeable, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think it was intentional. None of them really get a good ending, unless you do the true ending, which feels undeserved, not for me as a player, but for the characters. On a more positive note, I believe that this game's visuals and music are excellent (I got chills when I heard some of its tracks on a random yt video). Overall not enjoyable for me, next time I want to experience a Mediterranea Inferno I'll just step outside.
Finding Paradise (Activated in Feb 2022)I love rpg maker games, they have a certain charm to them that always pulls me in. This one is no different. I really liked the story and the way it was told. I actually was really surprised by the twist, and I was really humbled as well as I thought everything that was hinting towards it was just bad or dated writing (I had no idea while I was playing this that it was a 2017 game!). Will definitely check out To The Moon and the rest of the developers games.
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Beacon Pines
5 hours playtime
11 of 11 achievements
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Unpacking
4 hours playtime
25 of 25 achievements
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Risk of Rain 2
0 minutes playtime
0 of 118 achievements
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Kaichu - A Kaiju Dating Sim
0 minutes playtime
0 of 15 achievements
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Congratulations on all of your assassinations!!! ᓚᘏᗢ
As someone currently in Texas I deeply sympathize as the heat wave is very troublesome, I’ve taken my anger out on it by washing laundry and throwing it into the backyard to dry because if the temperature has the audacity to be over 100 degrees I’m going to take advantage of it. I particularly love this sentence “next time I want to experience a Mediterranea Inferno I’ll just step outside.”
Also as someone who’s avoided the persona series due to the sheer strangeness of it, what is shin megami even about? The more I look at it and watch the store videos the more confused I get.
Thanks! Each SMT game is very different but some core things stay the same, they’re post-apocalyptic monster tamers, with your monsters (called demons) being anything from mythological creatures, cryptids and even deities from cultures all around the world. You make lots of moral choices throughout the game and depending on them the outcome of the world changes.
They’re definitely on the weirder side, so I get what you are saying (I would say mainline SMT is even weirder than Persona). I think they are worth a try if you like turnbased JRPGs, like the aesthetic and the above aren’t a turn off for you.