Bangledeschler's Completion Addiction Bangledeschler’s profile
My master list and stats of game progress across all platforms HERE
Twitch: ! Screen Thieves
XBOX
PSN
Feb 2025
You are the rat kisser
It feels like I played a lot more games than is being shown but not entirely sure why. In some fairness Witcher 3, MHRise, and some unlisted games have been taking over my life. Right now just hoping to get through what I can and start prepping these reviews before hand instead of doing it all in one go. Putting FFXI on the backburner for a bit as I am enjoying my break from MMOs for the time being.
Steamdeck
Game gifted to me, though I had some knowledge of the premise already (gift giver knew this before gifting it).
All you need to know is that this game has all of your rat shaking needs. Decent enough little that involves shaking rats among other actions, but don't worry about that yet just keep shaking your rat. Interestingly enough it did receive a content update shortly after playing which vastly improved the last half of the game.
Some of the issues with the game involve a lack of a decent save or checkpoint system which can create frustrating moments. This issue is reinforced by the fact that the first portion of the game can be a bit of a slog once you have played it a few times. Sometimes just shaking the rat on it's own just isn't enough. Some "tutorial" messages pop up each time you approach the same object it pertains to can be a bit annoying as well. Please, I know when and how to shake my rat THANK YOU VERY MUCH. The rat shake meter can be REALLY slow if you are shaking without moving, this kind of loops back to the issue with the beginning of the game but a weird design issue none the less. Lesson here? Always shake your rat on the go.
Steamdeck: Generally plays well, though maybe not the most ideal for rat shaking purposes. Ended up using the touchpad for most of the shaking as I fear my joystick would have broken in twain.
Recommend? Yes, aside from the free price I got, it is a relatively cheap game that is generally good ol' rat shaking fun.
Rating: 7/10 Shakes of a Rat
Plus Ultra: Will never forgive myself for missing out on the Valentine's event that allowed you to kiss the rat.
Steamdeck
Only covers base game up until Sunbreak
I put off this game for a long time because I was pretty annoyed with how the game appeared to play. I fell in love with Hunting Horn in Worlds and to have it reduced to some fast paced and simplified weapon that lacked the oomph… well I disagreed a lot with it. In truth, the grander issue dealt more that I was expecting either more a more Worlds like game or something more similar to 4U… but this wasn't either. (But also the HH thing really bothered me…) Yet when I started treating this game more like a spin off I actually started to enjoy it a bit more. That is until I started noticing more aspects that bothered me.
Let's start with the good. Generally great monsters with Magnamalo being a fantastic, albeit a bit tame, flagship monster. It looks great, interesting abilities, and awesome armor/weapons. Aesthetically, the Japanese Ninja/Edo period style is very charming and a nice change of pace from the typical Jungle small village vibes most MH games give. This is both good and bad, but it is very streamlined and wants you to go. What I mean is the game doesn't want you to waste time doing anything. It wants you to go to the monster, get there as fast as you can, and move on to the next one. Gathering points only take one interaction and animation to receive your material. You can do most actions from your dog mount which you can use to traverse the map quickly. You are able to run up just about every surface and even when you can't you are likely able to use wirebugs to zip around like Spider-man. This also translates in combat where weapons either get very fast move sets or additional moves that allow them quickly in and out. Admittedly this probably made Great Sword far more viable for me being a newcomer to the weapon set. It was interesting to see how they designed and adapted monsters to keep up with this new fast paced MH. For instance, a lot of monsters that shot balls of fire now shoot streams of fire as well for more coverage. The palamute, which is your new ally and mount, offers not only quick movement but an additional ally in battle with it's own skills.
So, what's the bad? Rampages, which are a sort of horde mode introduced in this game, are god awful experiences. Having to setup and use installations is cumbersome and not enjoyable. It was one thing to do this for Zorah Magdaros in Worlds, but that was a massive Kaiju. This is just a stream of various monsters and is just clunky. Luckily there is a limited signal mode that buffs your weapon so you get get in there and fight yourself but it's a small bandage on a huge wound. This game has some of my least favorite maps in the series. With the wirebugs offering new traversal it seemed like the maps were over-designed to compensate for this. They are far too vertical with too many holes to just fall down or go up that it just gets down right annoying. So many areas are just unused for monster hunting purposes and don't have much purpose other than "Oh neat, I can go here" or picking up various items which usually aren't all that necessary. Maybe it's just me, but I felt a lot of the menus and figuring out where I gotta go to equip my palico, equip skills, forge, etc. was kinda confusing. It just felt over complicated and spread out. As I said before, the fast paced and streamlined is as much of a negative as it is positive. Plenty of weapons were quick without having the weight behind their attacks, dumbed down (hunting horn songs can now all be done with repeated button presses), and the game itself just felt a lot easier than usual. You even get stat enhancing pickups while traversing which makes the game even easier. You don't even get access to most things until your well into HR and just nearly before Sunbreak. With everything being able to be done as you go, it almost felt like you were rushed to get done. Also, being able to sharpen on your mount mid battle is a crazy work around that renders most sharpening abilities moot. I've also rarely ever needed to upgrade gear. For most of the base game I was using the same basic low rank gear with some slightly upgraded weapon until I made the Magnamalo set. Most fights, even in High Rank ended within 6 or 7 minutes tops. Village quest line is so short it's kind of embarrassing to the point where it reminded me of Generations on the 3DS. I understand that there are more hub quests that really get into the meat of things but it just felt kinda barebones. Oh, and I feel the "final" fight for the original set of hub quests is horribly designed.
Steamdeck: Plays perfectly with no real issue. I found I could get in more than a few hunts before worrying about the battery.
Weapon of Choice: Great Sword
Favorite Monster: Magnamalo
Least Favorite Monster: Chameleos
Recommend? Yes, despite my disagreements with the choices for this game it is still an overall solid MH game. It does however rank to my second least favorite one just above the water combat entry. That being said, the DLC so far has been a massive improvement in general and will share more once I finish that out.
Rating: 6.5/10
Very reminiscent of Hatoful Boyfriend yet it lacks quite the same charm. Maybe it was just too little too late but it doesn't quite carry the same weight as dating my bird boyfriends in terms of writing or zaniness. It's multiple protagonist pitch is interesting if not slightly annoying as it almost makes the game feel a bit like groundhog's day from a player perspective. I'll admit I did not expect the amount this game does not hold back when it comes to suggestive themes or maybe how accepting your characters are with dating cats. In some cases it was kind of uncomfortable with just how unhinged(?) some moments and suggestions could be. The cats themselves are fine if not a bit too defined by one characteristic. It gets to the point where a couple I just can't imagine ever being a genuine love interest in either design or personality. The mystery behind the story seemed pretty easy to figure out from the get go, which isn't inherently bad but doesn't do much favors either. It's also an all or nothing story which is also kind of annoying especially since to get other endings or paths you will have to go through the entire game again as there is no manual save system. This wouldn't be so bad normally, but there's also no skip button for dialogue either so you'll have to mash out the messages until you make your choices.
Best Cat(s): McMurphy, Trixie, Secret
Worst Cat(s): Kibbles, Floofybutt
Recommend? Not really. It really just doesn't quite capture the same absurd enjoyment that Hatoful Boyfriend provided and in some ways gets a little to serious.
Rating: 3/10
Steamdeck
The UNS game that solidified the formula for Ninja Storm games to come. This covers the first portion of Shippuden and just about all of the Akatsuki arc. Removing the open village travel of the first and enacting a more limited hallways traversal yet now expands past the Hidden Leaf Village allowing for more sites giving a bit more of a drawn and detailed aesthetic. Combat is relatively the same but now has Team Ultimates. There are no more minigames, only fights and fetch quests which is slightly disappointing but also understandable. We also no longer see Giant Battles but instead we get our QTE's in major fights that when done quickly reveals a "hidden" extra scene.
General improvements all around, though some of the boss fights are kind of tedious and boring. I did have weird camera moments where it would get stuck on something in the background and obscure my vision until it became unstuck. It was only really in one general area and was easy to fix, but something to note. I was kind of disappointed they glossed over some fights that felt overall important for their character growth but overall covers a decent amount.
Steamdeck: Unlike the first UNS game, this runs very smooth. From my experience there have been no slowdowns on any arena, ultimate move, or cutscene.
Recommend? Yes, it's a solid entry though it can feel like a slog to get through at times.
Rating: 7/10
Completion Note: There are a few multiplayer achievements, one of which would require up to 70 online battles if done right. Needless to say you'll likely not get this without help.
This only covers base game and Hearts of Stone DLC
I first played this back in 2016 and absolutely loved every moment. Unfortunately I had to drop it pretty early on in the story due to a lot of stuff going on and as time went by it became harder to pick it back up. Yet, I mustered the courage with the latest announcement and was not disappointed. In most ways the pinnacle of the series that gives you ease to dabble into Geralt's various trees whereas in the past games I always felt I needed to focus out a singular tree to be of any use. The writing is great even in just simple side quests to the overall main line story. Each and every character is well voiced, a great cast, and plenty of returning and new characters/monsters. It was even great just enjoying picking up contracts and prepping for each monster. I would often find myself spending hours on just those alone and almost wish for renewing contracts to keep me traveling around the land. Speaking of land the areas felt absolutely massive and were a treat to explore. That being said it almost felt a punishment to explore too much as you may explore a cave that is meant for a side quest. Vise versa is that if you don't explore enough you could miss out on a side quest because you didn't see the quest giver. Combat is pretty solid though sometimes the lock on can be a little unreliable. In addition, at least at my difficulty, some abilities just don't seem to work as intended.
It was kinda surprising to see how buggy and glitchy the game could be. I didn't remember it being so back in 2016(?) but then again I was still in the honeymoon phase of the game. Things like your horse doing a forward (or backward) wheely while going down a hill, monster's sometimes being in walls, noticeable tears/seams in the environmental textures, interactions with people or objects only working if you save and then load right back into the area, among a few other cases. It's not particularly game breaking enough to detriment, but the Cyberpunk release now makes far more sense. Traversing the world can be clunky, especially on horseback where Roach will just dead stop because of slight incline/decline among other path changes. As per each installment, there is a love interest mechanic in play, but I don't particularly like how it's done. First, the game REALLY pushes one interest over the other. Where you normally get to choose to flirt or make various plays, one interest it just happens casually in the dialogue before a choice is given not to mention many of the story implications really weigh in that interest's favor. The other issue is that you don't seem to get much of a chance to sensibly interact with both before making a choice or pursuit. Understandably committing to both is bad in a moral standpoint, but you have to make your choice with each interest at the end of their own questline which initially feels like you can miss. If they were going to do it in this way I would have liked to have a final make a choice after getting to know both. Again, not the most moral route but with the way the game is structured it makes a bit more sense. This only leaves to question how actually succeeding one of them affects the DLC interests. Menu-ing kind of sucks, it's just a lot to parse through especially with inventory and skill trees. A smaller point but some side quests definitely feel under cooked and/or not well thought out as the solutions sometimes don't make sense or one is just objectively (even roleplaying as Geralt) the right choice. This isn't exactly unique to the genre, but so many special weapons seem to not be very usable or special. This may also be difficulty related but man does your equipment deteriorate fast.
Hearts of Stone: The DLC was surprisingly small in that I was expecting a whole new land and adventure considering how it opens. Don't get me wrong the story is still very well written and each character (old and new) is well done, but other than the main quest line you only really have a couple of side quests and a couple merchants to buffer it out. All in all it was a great time and loved the finale of it all. Only wish I could have kept my love interest around.
Recommend? Very much so, currently working on Blood and Wine and it's only been getting better.
Rating: 9/10. Could easily be a 10 had the various bugs and issues been fixed/handled differently.
Completion Note: Play Gwent with every merchant you come across and win. I started to skip out on Gwent for a while and now I'm suffering the consequences as merchants can randomly have a card you need. Better to get it done along the way than to backtrack.
Note: I feel like I'm missing some things to note, but I've been spending a lot of time on this post and can feel my writing deteriorate… Hopefully I'll be a bit more concise and accurate with my Blood and Wine panel.
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.
June 2024 - December 2024
So… it’s been a season… or two. My phone stopped opening the Steam app so I couldn’t sign back into BLAEO. Once it did start playing ball I was so out of habit I just kind of haven’t been back. Needless to say I won’t be writing reviews as I was more worried about hammering out my progress thus far. Anyways, here’s to another year of killing the backlog and happy holidays.
June
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DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil
6.0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Cherry Kisses
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DOOM 3
10.2 hours playtime
no achievements
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Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
PC
July
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Celeste
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FlipWitch - Forbidden Sex Hex
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Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel
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Final Fantasy XIV: DawnTrail
PC
August
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GUILTY GEAR
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Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
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MARVEL SNAP
6.2 hours playtime
no achievements
September
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Acting Lessons
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Miss Neko 3
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Story of Eve - A Hero's Study
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Axiom Verge
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Bendy and the Dark Revival
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Mega Man Legacy Collection
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Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit
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Treasure of Nadia
46.3 hours playtime
no achievements
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Castlevania 64
Nintendo
64
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Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
Nintendo
64
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Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Gameboy
Advance
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Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
Gameboy
Advance
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Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
Gameboy
Advance
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Castlevania Lament of Innocence
Playstation
2
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Castlevania Curse of Darkness
Revisit
Playstation 2
October
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Kaiju Princess
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Tattletail
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X-Angels
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Being a DIK
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Horny Suika: Wet Watermelon
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Lucy Got Problems
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Scarlet Maiden
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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
Revisit
Gamecube
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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2
Revisit
Gamecube
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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
Playstation
2
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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
Playstation
2
November
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
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Final Fantasy VIII
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HoloCure - Save the Fans!
0
1
18
201st playthrough character picks:
X-Men: Children of the Atom - Silver Samurai (Akuma defeated)
Marvel Super Heroes - Psylocke
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter - Cammy and Gambit
Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter - Ryu and Akuma (Dark Sakura defeated)
Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes - Morrigan and Venom (Shadow Lady defeated)
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 - Cammy, Gambit, and Silver Samurai
The Punisher - Punisher
December
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NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...
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Futa Fix Dick Dine and Dash
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Dead Cells
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Milfy City - Final Edition
13.3 hours playtime
no achievements
May 2024
Well, I was hoping to write this at the top of the month but anytime I thought to a counter came to mind saying, “I could making progress on FFXIV right now…”. Needless to say that happened a lot. Now that I have allotted some time I can confirm… I have played A LOT of FFXIV but at least now I’m ready for the Dawntrail expansion. Bonus is I can work on other games now that I don’t need to hyper fixate as much.
Games In Progress
Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth
May Progress: Cleared Stormblood, Post SB, Shadowbringers, Post ShB. All jobs to lvl 60+
June Goals: Clear Endwalker (done), Post EW(done), All jobs to lvl 70+, relic weapons, side content clean up, and extreme/savage runs.
Stormblood continues to improve upon everything so far while introducing new mechanics, areas, and cast. First and foremost, the change to a bright and colorful Japanese Edo period style of environment is a great contrast to the grey medieval castle scenery that Heavansward located itself in. In particular, I enjoyed the villain this time around quite a bit more. The post game and side game content also receive a massive boost with the inspiration from Japanese folklore as well as collaborations with other Final Fantasy games. Some of the new mechanics/gameplay include new traversal options throughout the world as well as in game objectives that are not just kill x and fetch y. As per usual the music is great and we continue to get more character development across the board. Overall a solid expansion.
Shadowbringers… Shadowbringers was the final push I needed to get me to play FFXIV when it released. Before then I had worries that I would not have the time commitment for an MMO… Unfortunately I was right as it would be 4+ years before I finally get to make any considerable progress in this game. Luckily, I was right about this expansion. Easily my favorite so far as it not only tackles interesting plots, brings forth a change of pace in villains, but also just a whole new world for us to explore and change. In some ways it feels like an entire game entry on it’s own. To summarize, we enter a world over taken by light and now must done the role of Warrior of darkness to snuff that light out. That concept alone is tantalizing. Interestingly enough, this expansion really starts to bring all of the threads of past story arcs together and get a glimpse of the big picture that had been vacant for so long. We also get a GREAT alternative to duty finder where you can use your cast of NPCs to join you in the dungeon. Not only does this offer a more single player experience, but there is also unique dialoge and even unique interactions (though I’ve only noticed this with one boss mechanic so far) with the cast of NPCs you choose. This also reduces any issues where other players may just charge ahead not letting you enjoy the dungeon and learn mechanics on your own instead of others openly explaining it, etc. Going forward I have been doing this for both this expansion and the next and no regrets. The general scenery across the maps feels incredibly refreshing and sets itself apart from the rest… other than some desert areas anyways. Not as much of a critique as an observation but it does invest entirely into this bleak existence as it maintains a constant serious tone with little to no comic relief or palate cleansers, if you will. Though FFXIV is known for (well a lot of things) music, this one is pretty great though I did find it to wane as you hear it more and more. Maybe because there are more vocals this time around but it can become tiresome.
Favorite Jobs: Monk, Dark Knight
SB: 9/10
ShB: 10/10
April 2024
March was almost entirely dedicated/stolen by my time with FFVII Rebirth. So, I figured I’d get back into FFXIV to finally start making some consistent progress and… ope there goes April (and half of May so far). It’s left my backlog… well on the backpedal but it is what it takes to take down a monstrosity of these proportions. Though the events don’t help the time sink… In other news I have finally scrapped together an excel sheet to track all of my games progress across platforms though still have much more to fill for pre achievement days and Nintendo products. My Game Completion List Here. So glad BLAO has made getting my Steam games on there easy. Anywaysen I hope everyone’s year is going well and see you (hopefully on time) on next month’s update.
Games in progress/played:
Stellar Blade Demo
Final Fantasy VIII
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Neptunia Shooter
Devil’s Calculator
Lady Killer in a Bind
MK1
Tekken 8
Crystals of Time
HOG that reminded me heavily of Ghostwood. Simply put, it’s kind of a low effort put together game that has you aimlessly revisiting areas in hopes to find/refind a hidden object instance for a tool you may have already had. Puzzles are pretty barebones and the actual hidden objects feel just a tad bit too random. This could be in part that the actual art often leaves things to question not to mention questionable word choices for each object to find. Your character is given some background. You are a young woman in search of your father and investigate a mysterious mansion. This somehow doesn’t give any more room for the story, so much in fact that once you get to the final moments… it just kind of ends. No moments to relish, celebrations/mournings, or anything really just… credits. It’s entirely anti-climactic and leaves you as empty as the gameplay that got you here.
Recommend? No. A boring and sometimes frustrating mess.
Rating? 3/10
To be honest, I thought this was going to another “turn a childhood thing and make it scary” cheap ploy. A welcome surprise when it turns out this game has a lot of love in it and draws heavy inspiration from survival horror games, especially the Resident Evil series. Somehow this game captures fear, humor, deep moments, and satisfaction all in one. There’s just so much enjoyment out of this. What this game probably does best is it leads you to where you need to go without telling you to much. It gives you a reasonable thread, but lets you figure it out. You can figure something out and then go “Oh wait… maybe I can do this over in this area” or “maybe this is related to an item I have” and just revel in those aha moments.
In summary, you are a repairman sent to shut down a broadcast tower for a long since defunct children’s TV show. Unfortunately, it seems the muppet like characters are not too happy with your presence and must defend yourself with stationary like weapons. Since these are not outright zombies, they won’t stay down from trauma. So, use your limited resources wisely and learn what it is to be a friendly neighbor.
The limited resources for combat, well-constructed environments and navigation, the subtle themes addressed as you explore, the story as a whole, and the mysteries present along the way. Not to mention the absolutely well-done puzzles and secrets throughout (save maybe a couple secrets that feel a bit too arbitrary). Despite these characters being fairly normal in appearance, there were more than a few times where I did feel a semblance of fear and on edge. Yet, when they ragdoll and you can tape them where they land creates some truly great comedy. It is not without fault though. The actual reach of enemies (even including your wrench) is a bit hard to gauge and seems occasionally inconsistent. There are also a fair share of bugs and glitches you can encounter though rarely game breaking. I did also feel the final segment could have gone on a bit longer as it really delved into a darker part of itself and would’ve enjoyed having a prolonged exposure to that side of the game.
Recommend? Very much so. Survival Horror fan approved.
Rating 9.5/10
April Progression: Completed post “A Real Reborn” updates, “Heavansward” expansion, Post “Heavansward” updates. All Jobs, DoH, and DoLs to Lvl 50+.
May Tasks: Clear “Stormblood” expansion (done week 2), Post “Stormblood” updates (in progress), and All jobs to lvl 60+, Start “Shadowbringers” expansion.
If I have posted about base ARR you may know that I think it’s… okay. Story isn’t overly interesting, it has some good fights, and characters are mostly fine but leave a lot to build on. Now the post ARR updates… well it’s an incredible slog that has you do a lot of busy work with very little reward (in terms of narrative) pulling you along the way. It’s not till a severalteen hour cutscene that it starts to become interesting and… then you get to Heavansward. For ARR and post, my eyes kind of just glazed over and ended up skimming most text towards the end. It just couldn’t capture my interest.
Heavansward on the other hand is a massive step up in just about everyway. Great locales, dungeons, fights, and story. Characters felt more engaging in general though some I had to pretend like I remembered throughout it. Post Heavansward updates are more or less in line with the base expansion, but didn’t do much more than that for me. The jobs added in this expansion were neat. I particularly liked Dark Knight. Tried to get into Machinist but Ranged DPS just doesn’t seem to do anything for me so far though still far better than bard. AST… is interesting to say the least but I’m a bit too scared to commit to healing just this moment.
Favorite Jobs: Ninja, Monk, Dark Knight, and Warrior.
Least Favorite Jobs: White Mage, Bard, Paladin.
ARR: 6/10
Post ARR: 4/10
HW: 8/10
Post HW: 8/10
March 2024
Well, that was a month gone by that was entirely consumed by FFVII Rebirth. Though my general progress is not much to note, I don’t regret even a second of it. Now with Rebirth out of the way I have fully dived back into FFXIV and plan to finally start on the Heavansward expansion (though I’m currently and fervently grinding all job levels to at least 30 and maybe 50). Of course, I’ll probably drop that again to continue FFVIII at some point, but we shall see. Still, a very JRPG time of year for me it seems though I still plan to keep up with MK1 and Tekken when time allots.
Goddesses now walk amongst the Earth. To continue getting praise and worship many become idols but not all idols are equal.
A pretty decent VN that has you work with two goddesses that wish to become great idols like some of their peers. What’s more you have a familial like relationship with one of the great divine idols. Help these two rise in their popularity and enter a contest where they just may get to spread their divinity on stage around the world. The first thing to note is this seems to have decent production value with nice quality images and animations as well as voice work. The one thing that kept keeping me off guard were the number of musical sequences that made me think it was the ending sequence of the game… but then the game kept going. It isn’t a bad thing, just a bit of whiplash and possibly some lack of thought on my end. This game does get pretty fan servicey, but nothing out right lewd.
Rating? 7/10
Recommend? Kinda? To be honest, I kind of grew bored with it towards the end and didn’t care for some of the character paths.
I should start by saying that I genuinely hate mobile games. Everything about them just doesn't work for me. Yet, because Square likes to hide story in these (Kingdom Hearts >.>), I decided to start it when it released last year when I needed to take an hour bus to get to work. After much fatigue and weariness I ended up putting it down and only recently picked it back up on Steam… and I still hate it.
To no wonder, the game is plagued with the same cheaply implemented gameplay and microtransaction hell that most mobile games have. If you want to progress the actual every crisis story, you'll have to play through some of the original FFVII chapters as well as Crisis Core chapters before making much progress. Even when you do make progress in the new story, it takes a long while before anything happens. By that time, you've reached late game which not even an astounding amount of grinding will get you far. In fact, to progress you need a lot of RNG when you synthesize materia to not only get a high quality one but also has the stats you need. It's ridiculous, incredibly and utterly ridiculous. The gacha portion of the game mostly just gives you different weapons, though rolling enough times will give you stamps to unlock limited time costumes for the game which are the only positive thing in this game… if it didn't require an unholy hell amount of time to get the crystals to roll the gacha in the first place.
Recommend? Not in the slightest. I… I think I'll just have to watch the story in an online video.
Rating? 1/10
1st Playthrough Time: 110 hours
1st Playthrough Difficulty: Dynamic
1st Playthrough Final Level: 49
To be honest, this review is a little hard to write as this game had consumed my life for a month. Where do I start? What’s the best way to transition between points? How do I fully convey my pure enjoyment and awe of the entire experience? Well, let’s start with this: Rebirth improves upon FFVII Remake in every way possible. Probably the most frequent feeling for most of these categories, and the game itself, was… “wait… THERE’S MORE!?” in the most genuine and great way possible.
Combat
Though the combat at a base level is still very much the same action RPG it has been incredibly expanded with the synergy system. The synergy system allows unique interactions between characters like never before, deploying powerful combination attacks and even buffing your team. First, there is synergy abilities give either an offensive or defensive attack without needing to use up ATB charge (your means of using abilities, items, etc.). They are often great to use in a tactical situation such as needed to block lots of damage, hit enemies out of reach, and even build up ATB quickly. These abilities often work with a wide range of characters per character so you rarely have to worry about not activating them once unlocked. Synergy abilities are massive and more unique to a specific pair of characters that do lots of damage, stun, and apply a powerful buff for the duo enacting it. These buffs include anything from increasing ATB segments, no mana costs, increase stagger duration, and upgrading your limit break to the next level. Since these abilities are so powerful they require a bit of setup. First and foremost having the correct team members to activate and second you have to build synergy charges by using abilities that cost ATB charges (the more ATB charges cost the more synergy you build up). Admittedly, I didn’t completely understand this system and assumed much until about 60 hours into the game as I thought it was related to stagger and not ATB cost. In some fairness, even on dynamic difficulty, most fights didn’t give me a chance to use these abilities until maybe late game when it started to pick up a bit so I never had the chance to really test these theories. Speaking of Dynamic difficulty, it felt like it took a long while before the game adjusted to a difficulty that I felt challenging. It probably wasn’t until the final few chapters of the game where it really went into full effect whereas everything before that was pretty easy. Still, every boss battle I fought, and even most regular enemies, felt amazing (with maybe the exception of one). Anything I ever had trouble with merely required me to think of a different way to go about the situation (and sometimes maybe remember how Elemental actually works).
Combat in Short: The newly added synergy system creates a fun and new way for your characters to interact during combat while also giving us visually dynamic abilities. Dynamic difficulty is slow to calibrate to your skill level (hard is not available from the start). All fights feel amazing, save for maybe one bird in the sky.
Exploration
I’ll keep this portion short as this and story easily have the most to surprise new players. Exploration is exceptionally phenomenal. Without fail, each new area surprised me just as much as the last and even after all that surprised again. Exploring every area, whether it be overworld or in a dungeon, felt like it was so carefully and well crafted. Certainly you do get some ideas carried over from other games like towers that pin point certain locations of interest, but it definitely carries itself in a better way (I felt). The music creates an atmosphere that matches the areas locale and spectacular scenery. The various challenges and instances laid about feel more or less natural and feels like no space is created without reason.
Music
Oh my GODS the music in this game is not only abundant but phenomenal. I simply cannot believe how much music there was in this game, that side quests would get their own themes, we’d get several variations of some songs, and every single one is amazing to the last chord. I had pre-ordered the OST back before I even had a chance to play the game and I am so glad I did as this, much like the rest of the game, has far exceeded any expectations. Which is saying a lot considering FF has been known for solid musical pieces for some time.
Story
Again, Keeping this short to avoid spoilers. Starting with side quests, in which there are an abundance. Side quests offer a lot more than meets the eye. First and foremost, side quests tend to tie with one of your party members so you can sort of bond with them as you go along. This is a wonderful way to get character building and growth while you go about your tasks. Not to mention a lot of side quests tend to provide lore and story elements that some times feel like this should be main story content. Each side quest feels very self aware. That the devs know what people hated in the past game, wanted for rewards, and creating genuine interactions between the player and the various NPCs you interact with. Though I didn’t vibe with every character I came across, I did respect their existence and appreciated anything they were having me go through. Not to mention, every quest felt unique. Very rarely was it as simple as go beat up x thing, or collect y things. Simply the amount of mechanics was astounding. Main story was amazing to every last beat. They did each character so incredibly well, building them up wonderfully and expanding upon parts that were either brought up before or simply alluded to in past. You won’t find that everything is the same from the original (as suggested by Remake) we are on an adventure where fate may change. Yet, any changes made often just enhanced the original moments and/or kept me in wonder on what will happen next. One thing is clear is that the game intentionally leaves some things vague and unanswered.
Story in Short: All side quests felt as important to the story as the main story itself and provided wonderful character and world building. It even introduces a affection system that increases every time you bond with someone and/or talk to them. Every point was enjoyable. The main story enhances just about every kept sequence from the original while providing a sense of mystery and wonderment. One thing is clear is that the game intentionally leaves some things vague and unanswered.
Mini-Games
Why would I make a section for mini-games? Well, if you saw any of the complaints or praises for the game, then you might know that there is an absolute mega-ton of mini-games in here… and I loved every single one. It should be mentioned that 99% of the mini-games are extremely optional. So don’t worry if you think that the game is going to force this down your throat and bloat the game. It absolutely doesn’t. In fact, the game wants you on the story as much as you might, but those damned enjoyable minigames will keep calling you back. So, let’s start off with easily the best one, Queen’s Blood. A new card game introduced that has you try to conquer lanes to gain points and outwit your opponents. The amount of depth this game has is unreal. There are so many cards and ways you can go about building your decks, taking the victory, and facing against challengers as well as challenges to keep your card bloodthirst sated. Without surprise, it is no wonder people want a stand alone game or even IRL TCG version of it (I know I do). Though Queen’s Blood stands out quite a bit, just about every other minigame feels fairly on par and either makes some wonderful callbacks to the original, enhances existing ones, and provides some wonderful new entries. They are not always well crafted so to speak as some challenges can be a little rough, but not outright unenjoyable.
Minigames in Short: Though there are quite a many minigames in the game, almost none are mandatory. Yet, they are so fun that they may as well be. Queen’s Blood being ~~King~~ Queen among them. Some may have more challenging sections than one may like, but still a great experience in the end.
UI/General Complaints
This game is not without it’s flaws. Some challenges felt unintentionally rough. Some wording in the battle failed UI needs better clarification. For instance, if you get caught in a series of battle and die, you will get several options including “Retry from Before Current Battle”, “Retry from This battle”, “Retry from Before Battle”, “Resume”. One of these options puts you right as you face the last person you fought, one places you at the start of the sequence of battles, and one puts you in an area before the battle begins. Though my wording may help you as you try to figure which option does what, I assure you that these are not very clear especially in the heat of it all. I’ve probably restarted the longest and hardest series of battles 3 to 4 times over because I either selected the wrong option or the default position of your cursor changed and I selected the wrong option by accident. Frustrating to say the least.
All in All: I probably missed more than a few points as there is a lot to cover and it was hard to get everything in my head down on paper in time. Not to mention I wanted to make sure the honeymoon phase passed before I passed judgement. So, it’s without a doubt that I can say this has easily gotten into my top 10 if not top 5 games of all time. It’s perfect, perfect. Down to every minute detail. For any issues it does have, other parts of the game more than make up for it. Definitely my favorite game to get the 100% completion.
Recommend? Absolutely yes. Though you don’t have to replay Remake, it is certainly recommended. Just know that this game improves upon it quite well, so don’t be discouraged to get this one either way. Even talking about it now I am tempted to boot it back up again.
Rating? 10/10
Beaten > Completed
Not much has changed for me regarding this game, which may be for worse than better. The general combat still feels good, balance patches have smoothed some things out, cross play, and quality of life changes (such as seeing ping, having Next match appear instead of rematch, etc) have been a huge ~~Ed~~ Boon to the experience… even if some of these changes should’ve been in here from the get go. Still, the game is still a shadow of what it could and should have been. Not to mention the seasonal rewards have been getting worse since Season 2. Still keeping strong and will continue to experiment with characters each season.
Season 1 Main – Raiden w/ Cyrax Kameo
Season 1 Rank – Demi God
Season 2 Main – Reptile w/ Scorpion Kameo
Season 2 Rank – Elder God
Season 3 Main – Mileena w/ Sektor Kameo
Season 3 Rank – Champion
Season 4 Main – Johnny Cage w/ Janet Cage Kameo
Season 4 Rank – Still in Progress
If I understand, these DLCs are not sold separately which can be conflicting considering how underwhelming the first one can be if you aren’t interested in it’s focus Pokémon.
Isle of Armor
A fairly bite sized DLC that has a few open areas, 1 new Pokémon, 1 new variant, and a bunch of returning Pokémon from previous games. The new variant of Slowpoke is alright, but you only have access to one of it’s evolutions, the other being locked behind the following DLC. This feels incredibly misleading considering the amount of scavenging you need to do to get the item for it’s evolutions. The new Pokémon it introduces, Kubfu, is it’s entire focus. So much so that the end of the game has you do a battle tower with only that mon. So, if you aren’t interested in this new fighting type, it’s a pretty easy skip as far as it’s adventure goes. All the activities are either straight forward battles or a collectibles quest that unlocks Alolan Pokemon. Sadly there just is not much to this DLC.
The Crown Tundra
Where the Isle of Armor lacked interesting content, the Crown Tundra made up for in adventure. We are no longer tied to one main line quest focused on a single mon, but instead 3 different quest lines focused on a plethora of new mons and variants. The whole theme behind this is legendary hunting. It’s the entirety of what you do and it’s great. Solve puzzles to find the Regi mons. Track down and outsmart the new bird legendary variants, and find out the mystery of the crowned legendary themself. It is nothing short of grand and exciting to go on this catch-a-thon. Of course, more Pokémon get returned to the dex and we finally get access to the new Slowking variant. On top of that, there is a new raid dungeon with a twist. Essentially creating a rogue-lite situation where you must use the Pokémon you battle in the dungeon to make your way through the series of battles to the final legendary Pokémon. However, you only get the one mon, so you must decide which to keep and what paths to take to fight the different obstacles. Admittedly, I didn’t do this too much, but it feels much better than the game’s normal raids, not to mention the final prize seems to be a guaranteed legendary. We also get some great characters including an excellent comic relief who leads you along this adventure.
Team: Galar Slowking, Marowak, Urshifu, Zoroark, and Venusaur (swapped in the three legendary birds for the final challenge…)
All in all the DLC averages out to be between alright and good. Pretty much how I felt about the base game. I did make it my effort to take on a whole new team of Pokémon for this DLC pack which I think made the experience all the more interesting. My overall gripe was that there really isn’t a Pokémon Center in either DLC and needing to swap mons, buy items, or heal up was quite a pain.
Recommend Generally yes, but maybe on sale and wouldn't go out of my way for it.
Rating: 6/10
Though this game has several performance issues, I actually quite enjoyed the base game. It being one of the more fun Pokémon games I had played in quite some time. So, I was interested in seeing how it’s DLC would play especially after experiencing Sword’s DLC.
The Teal Mask
We get a new area which is fairly sized and offers a ton of returning Pokémon, 1 new evolutions, 2 new variants, as well as several new legendary mons. The game has a more involved story with heavy folk lore themes and fun new characters. There are some side quests, but a lot of them seemed quite easy to miss as they don’t really have a notification on the map to draw you to their position, but one in particular is quite enjoyable and reminiscent of Pokémon Snap. The pace can be quite slow at start, but does quickly evolve as you go. My biggest issue with this DLC was traversal. Several caverns are easy to miss and often lead into semi-difficult hard to navigate areas. Overall an enjoyable DLC that leads straight into the next…
Team: Oricorio (Ghost variation), Dipplin, Sinistcha, Magcargo, Ariados, and Basculegion
The Indigo Disk
Serving as a sort of continuation of the first, it picks up from your last experience as we get returning characters and continuing plot lines. However, the big difference with this DLC is that all trainer battles are DOUBLES. It’s an interesting twist that sets itself apart from the series allowing you to rethink your team comp and abilities. Though, when facing wild mons you will still have single battles. We also get a main terrarium area that is divided into four distinct biomes to catch these new Pokémon. So, what’s new in terms of Pokémon? Well, we have two new evolutions, a new legendary, new legendary variants, new mythical, and a plethora of returning mons.
The story of this game is less folk lore-y than the last and has a more standard feel as we get an elite four-esque battle goals. Though, in addition to facing these mighty four you will have to first to pass their challenges which were all fairly unique and a nice twist. Luckily they were only needed to do once, much like beating the elite member themselves. We also get more ties into crater zero despite being in a school far away. The only let down here was that it required battle points (earned by doing menial tasks) to take on the elite four and I was never directed or given privy to the new legendaries. I never actually ran into any of them and don’t know how. So, if there was some sort of content leading you in that direction, I simply was not aware of it.
Team: Granbull, Alcremie, Alolan Muk, Malamar, Overqwil, and Dewgong
Though this DLC pack cost a bit more than Sw/Sh’s I think it is a decent price considering I felt it held much more consistent adventure and story. Just a great overall experience.
Recommend Yes! It’s free and well worth your time.
Rating: 7.5/10
Ongoing Games
Like A Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (3DS)
Final Fantasy VII (Steam)
Final Fantasy XIV (PC)
Jan & Feb 2024
Oh how time has been consumed one after another. Fighting game after fighting game, new game after new game, all into the absolute time sink FF7 Rebirth has taken. Yet, with this post, I am finally caught up. A sigh of relief and considerable weight off my shoulders. I have just begun a work from home job saving me hours of travel and more time to not only kill the backlog, but better myself as a whole. I look forward to a much more productive year and to revel in our feats as a community… but first a little more Rebirth…
January
Standard Pixel Puzzle game so not much to say. To be honest, I didn’t think I even had another Pixel Puzzle to play after the Ultimate edition, but lo and behold it was sitting there.
Puzzles were decent but it was odd that it was far more Illustration heavy than anime.
Recommend? Middle ground. Nothing special and thus doesn’t offer enough to really prompt a genuine response.
Rating? 5/10
VR game that creates minigames based on FNAF Sister Location, Pizzeria Simulator, and even Security Breach. The creativity and range of the various minigames are a welcome change. However, I would have liked a few more direct inspirations such as the restaurant management sim and office work gameplay from Pizzeria Sim. Another missed opportunity is the lack of a challenge/endless mode for some minigames. Most are either a 3 – 4 round based game and/or objective limited. I very easily would have spent far more hours in this game if I could try to get a high score in an endless mode of the food service mini games, for example. Speaking of high scores, any mini game that has some sort of score listed during the game doesn’t seem to get saved or posted anywhere locally that I could see. Hopefully an update or DLC will introduce these but I won’t hold my breath. If you are a fan of FNAF lore and secrets, this game does offer more with it’s story and feels much more engaging than Help Wanted 1.
Recommend? Yes. All in all, such an enjoyable experience but still has room for improvement.
Rating? 8/10
Beaten > Completed
I’ve finally started my cleanup of the Yakuza series and the start of my views of each entry. The general grind to completion wasn’t too bad, save for the weapon shop related completion tasks. Then came the critical fights… Each challenge requires a certain set of criteria and skill loadouts to complete and a lot of the early ones are grueling. Oddly enough once you get to the final set it gets laughably easier in comparison. Overall, my view of the game didn’t change too much other than the fact that I realized how much I sucked at playing Majima.
Beaten > Completed
Though Kiwami doesn’t require the same critical battle that 0 did, but it has something far far worse… Haruka’s Requests. A string of mandatory requests to improve your relationship with your newly “adopted” daughter. This doesn’t sound inherently bad until the little child wants you to win exorbitant amounts of yen in various gambling games or challenge extremely difficult pool challengers. The latter made me lose a little hope for my completion of the game. This is just the post game content. Regoing through the series has made me realize how uninspired the various ultimate heat actions mechanic was and how absolutely dreadful the car sequence on Legendary truly is. Not a terrible game, but definitely lowered my personal view on it.
Beaten > Completed
Oh, rue the day I have dedicated myself to the Fallout series. The grind for the auto axe (needed for a DLC achievement) was ridiculously tedious considering you had to redo the same mission to get a limited number of tickets (10 for first time full completion of the day, max of 8 for every full attempt after). This low value rewards of 8-10 max tickets per attempt was insulting considering the item cost 1000 originally and the fact that these missions were meant to be played with a party (a tall order when you consider the game is dead and most do not care to participate). Luckily a few things have happened since my original playthrough. The auto axe ticket requirement was halved (now 500 tickets) and the newest add-on introduced new missions that were not only quicker but offered far more tickets per run (10 – 12 per attempt).
Coming back to this game, I still cannot give any recommendation for this game in the slightest. Frankly, I hope they stop giving it updates so we can all lay it to rest and hope for a better Fallout future.
February
A charming game gifted to me that gives off a similar feel of a Phoenix Wright game (even down to dealing with spirits). You start off with a simple fact… you’re dead. However, this is just a beginning as you can use your spirit to control objects. This isn’t meant to be just a random spooky game though, you must use these abilities to reverse time upon someone’s death and alter their fate all while trying to figure out the mystery of who you were before death. What’s more you have limited range from how far you can travel from each object. This puzzle game requires logic and creative thinking and absolutely oozes with charm. There is also a great soundtrack and humorous dialogue to really round this out.
Recommend? Very much so.
Best Character: Missile
Worst Character: Sausage Head
Rating 8/10
I played the original way back during the 360, but the Ultimate version always alluded my pursuit. Since, I wasn’t great at fighters at the time (especially assist based ones) I never wanted to spend any extra money to acquire it or accelerate my acquisition once I did finally have access to Steam. Yet, with all the news of various added characters via mods and recent hype amongst the community I finally bit the bullet. I forgot how great the soundtrack was for the game, and this may be in part due to some additions from this particular version. The new characters I did try were interesting, but there is a darker more personal problem for me… Ever since I’ve advanced in my fighting game prowess I have learned one thing… I absolutely SUCK at Capcom fighting games. I haven’t put my time into this version but there is a degree of skill and timing that I just haven’t gotten down yet. Once MK1, Tekken 8, and some other games keeping my attention start to pass I’ll certainly try to commit more to that and Street Fighter 6. Perhaps going through the Darkstalker series could help.
Recommend? Yes
Preferred Team: Dante (DMC), Zero, and Wesker/Viewtiful Joe
Rating? 8/10
With the news of a new DS game coming out I absolutely had to finally get around to playing the original strand game. First off, whether you like the game or not, it introduces a very interesting mechanic that is fairly innovational for gaming (or at least something I haven’t come across to this degree). That innovation is creating a single player experience that still has you affect other’s playthroughs and theirs for you. Anytime you connect an area to the chiral network ( a main objective in the game), you are then connecting your built structures to other’s worlds and vice versa. Yet, there is no direct interaction. You’ll never PVP or quite co-op with others. Instead structures being used will receive likes, which have their own benefits, and you can even complete deliveries for others that either have lost or dropped off some cargo. It’s such a rewarding experience knowing something you built is being used by others. So much so that I was obsessed with finishing all of the predesignated roads available so that other’s journeys may be just a bit easier. The general gameplay isn’t too exciting but often a something bit of a relaxing yet challenging journey and delivery system. Thus, don’t expect much combat, and when there is it’s not always so exciting. However, getting through each challenge (a sometimes literal climbing of the hill) gives a nice sense of accomplishment.
Story, it’s about as weird as an experience as one may expect knowing Kojima’s games. It introduces a sort of post-apocalyptic America with beings that come from beyond death and brings out philosophies of life, death, solitude, and togetherness. However, I could care less for a lot of the characters in this game. I could care less about most of the random people I was connecting (celebrity cameo or not) or most of their stories. Most of the main stay characters act either obtusely odd or downright rude, especially to the main character who has a known phobia of touching people. Damn if they don’t try every instance they can to get as uncomfortably close to the MC every chance they get though. Fragile was the worst for me as she was always offering a living insect like creature in our face then the camera focuses on her eating it. She’d also repeat an annoying catchphrase and to be honest I just had a personal bias for hating this character. There is also far too much lore to read than I can currently intake. Literal paragraphs per email, record, even dialogue. It just gets to be exhausting, especially with my waning of reading interest in games over the years. Even still, there is just far too much.
There is a bunch of annoyances that will alter be addressed in the director’s cut. For starters, navigating the various menu’s is a pain, especially for tutorials (in which there are many). Fast travel is a pain as other people’s shelters will get in the way of main game areas, and text is far too big.
Recommend? It’s not for everyone, certainly, but it if you can be open to it it does offer a certain charm you will have trouble finding elsewhere. It in no way will ever overtake the MGS series for me but a worthy entry from the, sometimes overly praised but still fairly deserving, Hideo Kojima.
Rating? 7.5/10
Praise be the save transfer system and the auto-unlocking achievements that follow. Literally saving me an entire playthrough and several buildings of achievements. As far as I can tell, a lot of the game remains fairly similar but has some great quality of life additions as well as some more content. Quality of life includes the ability to quickly access main game fast travel locations (once unlocked), easier to parse menu system, and more readable yet smaller text, among other changes I can’t particularly recall at this moment.
The new content includes a metal gear inspired set of side missions that introduce more character development for a pre-existing character, new pre designated roads that ease travel across various areas, racing missions, and new vehicles/structures that give some refreshing new ways to cross the lands. Unfortunately, being a new game, only certain structures carry over so you won’t be able to rely on every old route you are used to. This does however create an opportunity to explore new routes and ways of traversing them. The racing missions were generally enjoyable, though I wish they placed a storage system nearby to make rebuilding it more convenient. Especially considering you need to bring a vehicle there to donate it. The challenges have you take on each setup 3 times, once with each different class of vehicle, but has an odd order for them. Starts with the fairly quick bike, then to the very drifty roadster, and finally to the obtusely slow truck. Starting with the truck may have been a bit easier.
All the new content means a few more achievements, but nothing too dire unless you are pretty adverse to the racing missions.
Recommend? Yes, a much improved version of the best strand game.
Rating? 8/10.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
A relatively short Yakuza game that bridges the events of Yakuza 6, 7, and leads into 8. We follow Kiryu, a man believed to be dead, now going as Joryu who essentially works as an undercover agent. His tale of being a man with no name feels pretty in line with the strong narrative the series is known for. Though the game is generally shorter, there is not much skimping on side content though the substories feel considerably reduced. We also get a new agent fighting style, alongside the standard Dragon style, that relies on interesting gadgets for fighting. Some are far more useful than the others. Both in terms of gameplay and narrative I felt a strong resemblance with Kiwami 2, but without all the poor tasteless executions the past game had made. Even with the final boss he felt inspired (in a good way) of Ryuji Goda. This game also has one of the saddest moments in gaming and is the second highest game in terms of tears (you just can’t break Crisis Core for me). If you have made the lengthy Yakuza journey that I have throughout all the games, and just a Like A Dragon series fan in general, I very much urge you to play this game. It’s importance for Kiryu can not be understated enough.
Recommend? Yes, absolutely. Fans especially.
Rating? 9/10.
Beaten > Completed
So far, the Yakuza game that took the greatest hit from replaying it is this game. The new feel the heat system does not improve much (and in some ways more boring) than that of the last. What makes this game take a downfall? It’s not the story, for me at least. Instead, I found the minigames to mostly be boring and far too long winded. Sure we got the reintroduction of things like Cabaret Club, but it also brought forth the monstrosity that is Bouncer Battles (among others). Bouncer battles specifically are a series of fighter challenges that overstay it’s welcome and forces you to do a very large number a repeated number of times for each difficulty variation. Especially when you introduce the various secret bosses to them it becomes fairly suffering. Then we get down to various mechanics including limited stomach space (making completing restaurants worse than the alcohol consumption limits and far less rewarding).
The fight system takes an interesting route by focusing on weapons. This would be fine if any non owned weapons did not just slip out of your hands while stubbing your toe during a fight. Not to mention most don’t seem to pack the fire power you would think a game focused on them would. It’s interesting… just not well executed.
Still enjoy the game, but it probably drops down the second or third worst rated Yakuza to date. Luckily for it, it is hard to surpass the likes of Yakuza 5 for me.
Free to play short game that I believe is used to renew some faith for the future of Silent Hill. It kinda worked. If you are at all familiar with the PT demo way back when, then you might have some idea what you are in for, though the story and progression is a bit more straight forward. Still, this first-person game does a lot of what the SH games are known for. Sound design, unsettling atmosphere, psychological themes, and creepy encounters. Though it may not speak for all future SH games (especially after the disaster of Ascension) it does give me a little more confidence towards the SH2 remake and, more importantly, the much anticipated (for me) SH: F.
Recommend? Yes, it’s free though maybe limited to console.
Rating? 8/10
Oh, oh this is good. Tekken easily being my favorite fighting game series means there were serious hopes on the line. Long story short, it has yet to disappoint. Not truly anyways. The combat is still very in line with the past few games, fast paced action, and fun new characters. The soundtrack is amazing. Even if you do not care for it you get the jukebox which not only introduces a large variety of tracks from all the past games, but allows you to add them to the stages and menus of your choosing. We also get a fun return of Tekken Ball (this time not as DLC like Tekken Bowling in 7). It doesn’t maintain popularity but still great nonetheless. What the game lacks is something we will never get back from the days of Tag 2.. and that is customization. There is a decent amount of customization but it is still sadly limited. There are only so many designs, some are locked to full outfits, and for whatever reason you can’t change eye color or switch hairstyles with hats. Some things I can for now accept, but not being able to change eye color with the limited options seems strange. They recently introduced a Tekken shop, some items of which are free while others require micotransactions. This may seem to be an unfortunate state of today’s gaming world, but I will say that the prices are amazingly cheap in comparison to it’s fighting game peers. Most costumes are no more than 5 USD while MK1 and SF6 can easily breach 10 USD with ease. The fighters lounge is a decent way to make an interactive lobby for online but I don’t really care for the “Mii” style characters.
Story. The story is absolutely amazing. It paces well, offers a good assortment to characters, has incredible fighting moments unique to it, and has some truly amazing themes that fit everything Tekken has been working towards thus far. It does introduce some characters that feel far more setup than actual integration, but I don’t mind considering it does feel like a great ending to a certain saga. There is no amount of praise and hype I can give this story mode that can truly equate to how I feel. As far as arcade endings, we get a nice array of great character endings though some people are bound to be disappointed their character doesn’t play a more important role.
Recommend? We still have much to see in terms of how balancing will go, the general state of online play, and how future characters and mechanics may or may not be implemented. Nonetheless, I absolutely love it and wish I had more time to keep consistent and explore more characters.
Current Mains: Victor, Hwaorong (in practice), Xiaoyu (in practice)
Rating: 9.5/10
Nov & Dec 2023
Well heck, time is getting away from me. Luckily, it is making the catchup for reviews a lighter load (for better or worse). I’ve just started a new job that no longer requires two hours of my day just travelling to and from. Needless to say this time can now be spent killing that backlog that has been getting away from me (and sadly a bit bigger…). Well, a month and some change late, but here’s to a new year!
November
Boris and the Dark Survival
After my disappointment in the first Bendy game I was hoping that this would bring forth much needed improvements and changes… but ended up being far worse than I imagined. In fact, the game doesn’t even really build upon the story of the series at all. It’s just an isometric procedurally generated and repeating strings of fetch quests. It’s probably the worst direction it could have possibly gone in. Not to mention the fact that all the bonus items you need for any semblance of progress is randomized and theoretically could never be obtained depending on your luck (and possibly bugged). What’s worse is that though the game tracks your successful attempts… it’s all reset when you close the game. So, any “high score” you want will have to be done within each session.
Recommend? God(s) no.
Rating? 1/10
An exception sequel to Risky’s Revenge that removes the weird layer travel it used for level navigation and focuses on a more classic 2D metroidvania-ish approach. The abilities you get to progress are far more useful in combat now and make every boss battle all the more enjoyable. The writing is still consistent and provides plenty of laughs while the story is fairly interesting with a great cast.
All in all an excellent game.
Recommend? Yes
Rating 8/10
Metroidvania-like that has excellent combat and movement flow. Boss battles very and some are truly dynamic though some feel like they can be cheesed a bit with some later abilities. The game also gives you some tutorials for mechanics that you don’t really get into for a while which gave some confusion both early on and later. There’s not much to the story and doesn’t feel particularly interesting, but it never felt like it was something to focus on. Though not expected, it was a bit of a shame to not see a way to bring over collectibles in future playthroughs.
Recommend? Yes
Rating 8.5/10
Easily the most ground-breaking FF of the 2D era… but it’s always been one that I have dropped almost immediately after picking it up again and again over the years. The feeling of wanting to drop the game, sadly, persisted throughout various parts of the game. I just had no interest in it’s stories and felt the characters uninteresting and forgettable. The characters I did find some interest in ended up having terrible abilities that were almost useless mid to late in the game. Still, I can’t discredit all of the great stuff it does. Varied gameplay that masks some of the standard turn based RPG elements, Relics (which very obviously inspire materia in VII), split story paths focusing on different characters, and the various unique abilities assigned to each person. Overall, a game that certainly deserves the praise it gets… it just wasn’t for me.
Recommend Yes.
Rating: 6/10
December
An updated version to a classic horror themed boomer shooter that is far too difficult for it’s own good. Unlike Doom, this strays away from the Sci Fi and keeps it pure horror and magic. It even goes the Duke Nukem route where it parodies and references many famous horror flicks, including Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St, and more. For this alone I greatly appreciated this game amongst it’s general spooky aesthetic. Unfortunately, it has the gall to be incredibly difficult, even more than general classic game standards. It gets to the point where some scenarios seem downright unfair. Luckily, one can (and should) save scum, but that doesn’t reduce any frustration or exhaustion.
Recommend? Yes, though this may take you a while.
Rating? 7/10
Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015: Do You Still Shower With Your Dad
It has been many years since I last endeavored the completion road for this game. Many a showers were had, many with a dad. Yet, it seemed impossible… some achievements thought to be broken. Yet, as I make a return I not only see updates to the game, but that people have in fact gotten the remaining achievements. REJOICE! The last showers were had, the last showers with me and my dad.
If you aren’t familiar with the game, it is an accumulation of minigames that revolve around the theme of showering with dads. It’s fairly sfw and provides an assortment of humor and dad jokes.
Recommend? Yeah, I guess if you can get it for cheap.
Rating? 5/10
Relatively relaxing and definitely time consuming cleaning game that has you power wash various vehicles, houses, and other objects. With various upgrades, extensions, and other equipment you can go about your tasks in many ways. However, some equipment just didn't seem all that useful for any situation, particularly soaps that generally failed to be worth the price. I wouldn't say I obsessed over this game in enjoyment, but I had trouble leaving mid project as I just needed to get a little bit more done... which that little bit turned into a lot a bit and a few more minutes turned into at least another hour. Needless to say, it will absorb your time. There is an underlying story that the game hints about but it is not much of a concern when you have power washing to do. There are also many updates including crossovers that are available including FF7 Remake, Tomb Raider, Spongebob, and supposedly a 40K one coming out.
Recommend? Yes, but beware as you will lose much time and go crazy trying to find the remaining specks of dirt you had missed.
Rating? 8/10
Oct 2023
It would appear I let the year get away from me more than I realized… whoops.
Also, to remind, every October I do a streaming event with a group of people and we rate each game’s scariness by skeletons, so you will see that during this month’s reviews.
Though this sequel adopt the darkness from the first, it does abandon just about everything else save for some shred of physics puzzles. No madness or advisement to stay in the light though the enemies do still patrol various areas. That is the majority of the scariness this game holds. Save for a few moments the game does not build much atmosphere nor give many or strong horror events. Most puzzles are extremely straight forward and often are as simple as a push of a button (or few). Though a few puzzles will catch you by surprise in their cleverness. Despite that, this game more feels a bit closer to a walking sim with some stealth and the occasional chase sequence. What the game does particularly well is the themes it portrays and the visual symbolism that grows as you draw closer to the end and figure out what lies in the past of this new protagonist. In the same breath I would say the story still lacks a bit and at times things feel as though they are just happening. At the very least it is a bite sized game.
Recommend? It’s a fine game though nothing of great interest nor does it pull much from it’s predecessor.
Skeleton Rating? 3 out of 10 skeletons
Rating? 4/10
Truly a unique experience that gives much nostalgia for old Atari games. Despite it’s bit restrictions it actually does quite well with it’s horror. Certain events will make use of rotoscoping and jagged rough designs that will give you absolute unease. I would have liked if it had used it more, to be honest. It also uses text-to-speech for it’s dialogue, though for some people it may wear thin after some time. The game is composed of 3 chapters with several endings per chapter (not to mention a plethora of secrets and lore) so there is plenty of replayability. The minor grief is that some chapters feel far longer than others so going back to find what you missed can be tiresome.
Recommend? Absolutely. It is a one of a kind experience and holds it own and the realm of horror.
Skeleton Rating? 6 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating? 8 out of 10
A creepy point-and-click adventure that starts out fairly strong but loses itself quite a bit in the middle. Fran, a child stuck in a mental hospital after her parents horrible murder. She finds a bottle of pills that allow her to switch between realities, which you must use to solve puzzles and make your escape. The difference and suggestions between realities is absolutely horrific and great all the while maintaining a slight palate cleansing humor to stop from full morbidity. Though, as I said, the middle chapter takes a strong turn from it’s core concept and drags it quite off the path before circling back. Still, a cozy and endearing little adventure that kept things interesting… for the most part.
Recommend? Yes
Skeleton Rating? 2 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating? 6.5/10
Easily my favorite game that I played during the month. Something about having you do generic work to keep your focus while having creepy events occur around you is just the perfect mix for my horror fix. Even when certain spooky events reoccur they are still just as scary as the last thanks to the focus with the task(s) at hand. As you may guess, you handle dead bodies in a mortuary. Essentially you go down a list of tasks for each body and execute them in order. Though, you’ll quickly find you are not alone in the mortuary and must find a way to expel the demon as escape is no longer an option. The game is just riddled with secrets and since there is no linear story path, you can enjoy each session as it’s own thing. Allowing each night a chance to uncover more secrets, see new events, and just enjoy the gameplay loop. The only grievance is that for important tasks or general gameplay that some important steps or moments that are not particularly clear. As well, the game could desperately use a snap to option controls for mouse and keyboard.
Recommend? 110% you will pee your pants.
Skeleton Rating? 10
Rating? 9/10
From the get go this game is far more action packed than the first. Upon taking your first step you will be swarmed by enemies with guns… maybe even unfairly so (something consistent throughout the game). This may have been done to offset the lack of insta-kill moments the first game loved so much. Needless to say… due to it’s age and time… the combat just didn’t age well. Still, it did have it’s fair share of odd and unusual puzzles to solve… maybe even a bit more unusual than usual but certainly there. It’s hard to explain other than the over reliance on poor combat but it just kind of fell a bit more flat than the original.
Recommend? Not really.
Skeleton Rating? 1 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating? 3/10
DLC: Ruin
Taking place after the events of the base game, a friend of Gregory is in search of him and must traverse a much more broken down Pizza Plex in order to find him. To start off, it was a treat revisiting this place even despite it’s disrepair. The new mechanics and old enemies were a nice mix for the downloaded content. That being said, I wasn’t a fan of the general level design in this. The levels were much more linear but ended up being more annoying and down right unfair at times for certain encounters (especially for collecting everything). Not to mention I rarely felt any genuine danger from the greater enemies.. save for one specific encounter (which was great and terrifying). Performance, though a bit better from the original release of the game, still suffered a bit and I encountered far more crashes, glitches, and what have you throughout my playthroughs.
Recommend? Yes, though maybe discounted.
Skeleton Rating? 6 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating? 7/10
Another game that uses a mix of generic job tasks while sneaking in horror throughout to create an enjoyable horror game. Sequel to the Burger Barn game you must manage and handle a fast food restaurant all the while engaging in odd encounters. Though you are not limited to your job as you will find you have a home and a small town to traverse in that may just hold a few secrets. Visually the game is super gritty and has a fantastic Playstation original graphical vibe to it. The general gameplay loop is great, finding secrets for progression is fairly intuitive, and the encounters give much unease. Later in the game as you uncover more it is clear to see there were dropped events and areas that were never quite developed. This is a bit disappointing especially when you end up wasting your time investigating everything. Additionally, there seems to be several points of no return which is not terrible in itself unless you wanted to return to the (seemingly) unending gameplay loop. That being said, there is an endless mode but it was not quite what I expected. Essentially you start a shift that never ends… until you die anyways. I was more hoping it was just a constant day in day out work flow that had every possible option available each shift. Still, an enjoyable experience with lots to offer.
Recommend? Very much so.
Skeleton Rating? 5 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating? 7.5/10
Atmosphere. Atmosphere is the one thing that this game does best. It’s not always in your face scary, but it builds up and when the tension is highest… it pulls the trigger. You are “trapped” in a house that you must investigate. Though the game is split up into chapters, you are always exploring the house in between them and can access them in any order. Each chapter has a focus as well as it’s own set of lore and collectibles. They can range a bit with some being absolutely terrifying and deep while others don’t quite hit the same mark but still have great ideas and themes within them. It should also be noted, and the game is clear about this too, that this game does NOT hold your hand in the slightest. You must absolutely be prepared to use your head and eyes to figure out puzzles and notice details to make any semblance of progress. Even saying that I would not say the game is always at peak difficulty or requires some sort of higher cognition but it will require your full attention most of the time. For me, I took a long time to notice a simple thing… so much so it took me out of the horror element for a bit but it was my fault alone. The only issues I found, other than a lackluster chapter and maybe slightly dissatisfying end, is that the game occasionally has some bugs and even had it crash a few times at a particular scene.
Recommend? Without a doubt, this is a great horror game.
Skeleton Rating? 8.5 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating? 7/10
A short game made by Lixian (Editor for Markiplier) that held some surprisingly decent scares in it’s very short game. You are hired to clean up someone’s apartment. There are multiple endings and even some neat little modifiers to mess around with.
Recommend Yes! It’s free and well worth your time.
Skeleton Rating? 7 out of 10 Skeletons
Rating: 7.5/10
Replayed Games:
Resident Evil 2 - PSX/PS3 - Leon A and Claire B
Fatal Frame - PS2/PS3 - Rank C
Silent Hill 3 - PC - Hard Difficulty, 4.9 Stars
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles - PS3 - Normal Difficulty
The Evil WIthin - PC - Nightmare Difficulty, 150 Deaths
Sept. 2023
Well, it’s that time of year again! …or I should say was, in that it WAS October which is my busiest time of the year and thus did not have time to write two months of updates (hooray…). So, kind of rushing these out but at least getting them out. Though nowadays with two fighting games out (MK1 and Street Fighter) a lot of new DBD content coming up, and starting to edit videos again, I am having trouble finding time to do any actual backlog killing… Well… time is what we make it I guess. Until the next (and hopefully very soon) update. ^_^
A worthy puzzle game that offers a plethora of different and engaging puzzles to challenge you as you progress through a philosophical based world to make you things like existence itself and what it means to be human/alive. To be honest the latter held little interest to me as all I wanted to do was solve puzzles. Luckily, knowing the story matter little for progression. Each puzzles is in it’s own sub world and sectioned off into self contained areas (much like Portal). Solving each puzzle earns you a puzzle piece which is color coded which can be used to unlock new areas and/or puzzle item mechanics. Each contained puzzle tells you what mechanic you’ll need (in case you didn’t unlock it) and use. It will also tell you if you have already gotten the item and any secrets (if any). For the most part, a lot of the puzzle mechanics are neat the recording one in particular caused some interesting though processes and solutions though it felt like I was solving puzzles in a rather unintended way at times. As stated before, there are secrets to get some of which seem to require some weird solutions outside the bounds of the puzzle to which I rarely bothered with as it seemed like too much for my brain already. Though I did enjoy the general 3D puzzles I absolutely loathed the puzzle piece ones towards the end. They offered very little and felt excessive and obnoxious at the end.
Recommend? Yes!
Rating? 8/10
At the start Bendy offers a great classic cartoon styled horror game that delivers in spooky ambiance and a charming art direction. Unfortunately, the game very quickly loses steam due to lackluster final chapters and an absolute metric ton of softlocking glitches that will have you restarting the game from scratch. You wouldn’t have the need to restart if you could save in chapter select but they did not include that feature. Even when it does save, a glitch could have already occurred and there is no way to fix the situation.
Sample Glitches/Bugs:
-Saving can glitch out and even manual saves will stop working (Fix: must restart game if you notice the save icon sticking around)
-Progression triggers can fail to execute properly. i.e. a lift refusing to move, key items not appearing, or an enemy not going into a kill zone. (restart game and hope it works but not guaranteed)
-Loading into a save can result you being inside a locked room with no escape. (No solution except start a new save)
-etc.
It is utterly disappointing that this game has as many bugs as it does with seemingly no response from the developer and no genuine solutions.
Recommend? NO
Rating: 2/10
CRPG with a party system. With a party system of up to 8, it is not only almost imperative to find 8 members (not difficult) but incredibly hard to manage. Trying to get someone to fall back will often incur misclicks to make a different party member move, cast, etc. You can set party formations but they often matter little and do not function the way they would wish. Facing enemies gets to be incredibly overwhelming and found no clear way for my party members not to fall consistently. Luckily, if a member falls they are not necessarily dead, though there is a chance they could where they have to be resurrected by spell or scroll but they also leave behind a loot explosion which becomes far more tiresome than it’s worth. Thus save scumming is incredibly advised. Each party member lacks little personality or story, so you are basically looking at pure stats for each. XP sharing and management can also be problematic as you may end up under leveled due to the size of your party. Due to these various issues the game feels like it may be more suited for it’s multiplayer mode rather than single player. What makes this version worse is that there is no ending. You beat the final boss, he drops loot that you can’t pick up, and then straight to credits. Supposedly other versions have the ending but it is very bizarre this was ported without, not to mention no way of capitalizing on end of game loot.
Recommended? Nope, but hopefully in future titles they halve the party members you have to manage.
Rating: 3/10
The Dark Souls of Jedi Games… well just about. Though it doesn’t quite capture the difficulty of the souls-like genre it still keeps quite a few staples including bonfires, loss of currency (unless a skill point has been earned) upon death, respawning enemies on death/resting, and some general combat flow.
The story follows Cal Kestis, an ex Jedi who survived Order 66 (which seems to be an ever increasing amount in the current Disney timeline). Though he lives as a scrapper he very quickly finds himself being chased by a Sith Order called the Inquisitorius.
Overall, I found the game to be… just alright. A lot of the maps are annoying to navigate ESPECIALLY when returning to areas for missed items/lore. On top of this the actual UI for the map itself makes things worse. Exploration feels a little unrewarding as you mostly just get different ponchos for Cal to wear or skins on either BD or your ship that you probably wouldn’t look at. The combat is fine though, like the game itself, can be a bit buggy and awkward. Characters are written well enough and have decent interactions. A decent experience in general but leaves a lot to be improved and desired.
Recommend? Eh, maybe if it’s on sale.
Rating: 5/10
Simple platformer, with some generic combat, and a light story told throughout. The world can feel like a pretty generic 3D world as it is basic platforms just in the sky. The story is given both in general dialogue bye the character as you progress and if you collect all of the stars (strewn about the world and earned by defeating all enemies) you get bonus story which is possibly needed for the final battle. Nothing about the movie game seems to particularly excel or impress in any field however some of the mechanics/puzzles are neat and the story is a nice light and bit of a heartwarming story. That being said, some of the puzzles seem to not work well. In particular, rolling the stone balls.
Recommend? Maybe on the cheap.
Rating 5/10
Potentially lewdy VN. From Bar Wench to Captain, you must lead your newly acquired crew to either rags or riches and possibly find love and companionship in the process. The game has some decent scenes early on but is clear it frontloads it as a lot of potentially great situations are never expanded or explored later on. Not to mention a couple of routes were behind DLC and some characters never ended up getting their promised routes at all. There are some non-VN esque points where you do ship battles but they are either incredibly straight forward or entirely guess work which is pretty lame.
Recommend? Eh. It would be better had the game been complete with all routes, even if some ended up being DLC. The game clearly just does not get the same love towards the end as it did from the start.
Rating: 4/10
Time has been reset once again (and once again making us suffer terrible naming schemes) giving old characters new beginnings. Liu Kang, once the Keeper of Time now the protector of Earth Realm, seeks to keep order in his new timeline. Despite his seemingly flawlessly constructed timeline someone seems to be tampering with fate behind the scenes. As per usual, NRS does generally well in their cinematic storytelling. Seeing everyone’s new origin and interactions starts out fairly strong as the game starts with a strong movie-like presence. However, its eems as the ball rolls everyone shouts their quick background exposition as they start leaving a bunch of subplots open and unanswered (Is there more to Mileena’s case? Jerrod’s death? Relationships between certain people?) and would have much preferred some to be expanded on. Even some events that actively happen seem to just kind of gloss over. Thus the story gets a bit messy towards the end despite having a pretty great concept in the final chapter. All in all, this story did not feel like one of a main line title but moreso a spin off than anything. The new conquest mode (invasions) explores fun little stories each season that also gives you limited time to unlock a plethora of skins/palattes, gear, etc. in theme of said season in a board game style adventure. Much improved from the super armor heavy and item overloading of it’s first season I find it to be much more pleasant than the time towers of 11.
The very short time between the game’s announcement and release (a mere four months) left me incredibly uneasy despite some excitement. At this current moment I think both were quite warranted. On one hand the game is incredibly fun and have not enjoyed an NRS game since the time of MKX and Injustice 2 (though the latter was a bit grind heavy) and on the other it seems more and more clear that this was pushed out early to make up for WB’s lack of earnings. Things such as plethora of bugs/glitches, egregious price gouging in simple items, inconsistent and/or lack of information between the devs and actual implementations, and more that point to the idea that this was pushed out much too early (again likely by WB). That being said, it does seem like NRS is making considerable changes such as improving the previously sluggish and annoying Invasions mode, reducing the price on seasonal fatalities to be reasonable (though some may still prefer them to be free), balances (mixed reactions), fixes, etc. Though I’m a bit mixed if I should praise the game for fun gameplay with assist based kombat in an MK game or if I should be critical that this was pushed out far too early with a lot of issues (though slowly being fixed). I think I’ll stay somewhere in the middle though feeling optimistic that NRS will make something even greater out of this through continued support. Perhaps that is something we have to decide for any release these days when buying a game and trusting a dev/publisher to follow through despite taking our money.
Recommend? Yes, I have yet to tire of the gameplay and look forward to experimenting with both the current roster and those that will be released later on.
Rating? 7.5/10
| 1490 | games |
| 27% | never played |
| 7% | unfinished |
| 37% | beaten |
| 27% | completed |
| 3% | won't play |