Games Beaten 2016

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:03 pm

Yeah, 2 is seriously worth pushing through. Can't hype Luca Blight up enough. He's not even the final boss and that's the brilliance in Suikoden/Xeno level storytelling. Complete lunatic that eats Kefka-o's for breakfast. And characters like Shu (2's strategist) are a lot better than their counterparts in 1. Apple is a big return too.

Bone's post has me flabbergasted since Suikoden 1-2 are practically more comparable to 16bith stuff haha.

One of the best parts there pierrot. Chills! Geddoe was so freaking cool too and loved the mysteriousness around him. His group could have had a full game around them. I picked Chris though!

Here was another one of my favorite tunes... Chisha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uJOYd76nSQ

@Flake: I'd have a hard time thinking of other games I really enjoyed with the forced perspective changes. So I get you there. Especially in RPG's... it can really disorient me. But I embraced it with Suikoden 3 and in the end think it easily showcases its strength in the character building and connections. It's quite late game, but you eventually do have everyone at your disposal later on. Once the revelations start falling into place explaining situations and events that happened in the early game, it was really satisfying. I wouldn't change a thing.

Post by **noiseredux** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 1:41 am

I think bone would love the first one.

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:51 am

alienjesus wrote:
PartridgeSenpai wrote:Adventure Island guy (I can never read his name properly, and that's just what I call him),

It's either Takahashi Meijin or Master Higgins, depending on region.

Also....I like those 'arcane banalities' that Smash Bros has to unlock stuff. I felt more involved when there was a goal to achieve with a reward that actually felt worthwhile. I'll take that over a crappy achievements/trophy system any day

I'm fine having a trophy system in a fighting game, or even special costumes to unlock to show that you've committed a lot of time to an objective, but gating fighters behind huge swaths of content is just so stupid to me. Why would you even include it in the game if so many people just aren't going to see the content? I'm not sure if Smash Bros. Melee started this trend, but there are SO many fighters on the Gamecube era that require DOZENS of hours of commitment to usually very if not fairly repetitive content to see very large portions of their rosters unlocked, and it's usually through some stupid bullshit method.

D.O.N. Battle Stadium, for example, has about only 60% of the roster unlocked at the start. In order to unlock the rest of the characters and stages, you need to complete missions in playthroughs of the single player mode which then allows you the privillage of playing a FUCKING SLOT MACHINE to unlock characters! No skill involved, just god damned luck!

Naruto Ninja Taisen 3, a great 1v1 fighting game by Eighting, but another game where you've gotta complete tons of missions to unlock points to use in the in-game shop to unlock characters. But you've gotta complete yet MORE side objectives to even unlock those characters for sale, and some of those mo'fo's cost a TON of points (like half a million, when some others cost only a few hundred).

I'm not completely against unlockable characters. I was okay with how Smash Bros 4 did it where like 5 or so characters out of 50-ish were unlockable through sometimes weird but fairly conventional means. You could even unlock them just through playing rounds of multiplayer games. But when I need to play dozens and dozens of hours just to find a character I might like aestetically or mechanically, that really feels like the game isn't respecting my time. I REALLY love the trend in modern fighters (like Street Fighter X Tekken), where just EVERYBODY is unlocked at the start. Especially if it's a crossover or franchise game, it's so damn annoying to have to plow through so much game-time just to play my favorite character, or even to try them out.

I get that there's an argument to be had to have these crazy high objective ceilings to keep up player engagement, but that's not why I play games. I play games to play them, not to run on some treadmill until I complete all the things so I can finally play it with other people properly. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with enjoying gobs of progression in games, I just get especially annoyed when there's very substantial content locked behind purely single player content in full-price multiplayer-focused games.

Post by **dsheinem** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 10:59 am

Games Beaten 2016

First 50:

Battleborn - PC
140 - PC
Last Duel - Arcade (PSP)
Alien on the Run - 3DS
Undead Bowling - 3DS
Chain Blaster - 3DS
Runny Egg - 3DS
Bound - PS4
Parasite Eve - PS1
Destiny - PS4
Destiny: The Dark Below - PS4
Destiny: The House of Wolves - PS4
Destiny: The Taken King - PS4
Otomedius Excellent - 360
Crimsonland - PC
Planet of the Eyes - PC
Destiny: Rise of Iron - PS4
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut - PC
Eve Valkyrie: Gunjack - PSVR
Elegy for a Dead World - PC
SOMA - PC
The Typing of the Dead: Overkill - PC
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood - PSVR
Actual Sunlight - Vita
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Jackal Assault VR - PSVR
Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered - Vita
Thumper - PSVR
Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre - iOS *new*
Trackmania Turbo (VR Campaign) - PSVR *new*

Total: 79

Previously: 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre very much reminds me of Jetpack Joyride, but with a crazier premise, more rewarding progression, and even more addictive gameplay. I collected all the available recipes and did everything one can do in the game, so am counting this one done. I'd love to see them expand it further, though.

Trackmania Turbo's VR campaign is another fantastic PSVR experience, and I am really starting to feel like getting into VR was a wise decision: it is making other "regular" games seem pretty non-exciting by comparison :lol:

The game takes the "stunt track" concept and lets you feel, more than ever, like you are riding on a roller coaster of sorts in a very fast car. They do a good job of pacing the feelings of intensity, and there is of course a whole "regular" version of the game to play as well (which is pretty cool in its own right). It is on sale on the PSN right now for like $14, and I highly recommend it.

Post by **pierrot** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 3:31 pm

Xeogred wrote:One of the best parts there pierrot. Chills! Geddoe was so freaking cool too and loved the mysteriousness around him. His group could have had a full game around them. I picked Chris though!

I do really like Geddoe, and Chris as characters; more so Chris for the way her character grows during the course of the game, and for bringing in Nash. I least like Hugo's character, but

Xeogred wrote:Here was another one of my favorite tunes... Chisha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uJOYd76nSQ

Yes, that BGM is excellent. I also love Basking in Ducks.

------------

1-50

51: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II (FC)
52: Biohazard 2 (DC)
53: Biohazard 3: Last Escape (DC)
54: Biohazard Code: Veronica - Kanzenban (DC)
55: Lunar: The Silver Star (SCD)
56: Escape Goat (GOG)
57: Magicool (PCE-CD)
58: Hotline Miami (GOG)
59: Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Wasurebana no Shou (DC)
60: Dennou Senki Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram (DC)

So, Hotline Miami is a game. I don't really know what to say about it, but apparently I wrote some things about it in backloggery right after finishing it:

I went through all of the stages, including the bonus and special stages. Since I had always heard of it as a twin stick shooter, I played it with a Dual Shock 3, but maybe it would have been better to play with M&KB. Aside from the AI at times, it wasn't too frustrating or difficult, and was a decent time waster for a few hours. Nothing really special, but fun enough.

Berserk is a bit of an odd game: It plays out a lot like an OVA with battle arenas spliced in between exposition. The production values are rather impressive, and I was quite entertained by watching the story unfold. It wasn't particularly meaningful to me, as I have no experience with the source material, but I was relatively invested in Guts' motivations, and the plight of the town he had wandered into. It was interesting seeing the competing interests at play. The other half of the game (the combat) is a little bit of a mixed bag. I do feel like the developers afforded the player a substantial amount of versatility in Guts' move-set, but as I was playing, I was reminded of a CGR review of the game I had seen quite a while ago, where Mark mentioned that swinging Guts' BFS around in tight spaces would get it hung up on walls and things (except when in berserk mode), making it almost impossible to attack with it in certain environments. I was completely unwilling to change my methods of attack, as I imagine Mark was, but in those situations it was probably intended for the player to use Guts' fists and items instead. There are unlimited continues, though, so it's not really necessary. The only penalty is that Guts' supply of items gets reset to default (extra items can be found by smashing up barrels, etc, and given as rewards for clearing a stage). It's no killer app, but I liked the game for what it was. It's pretty short to play through, but there's some stuff unlocked after beating it on other difficulty modes. Unfortunately I missed out on Puck's minigame, whatever it is, because I would actually have to beat the game on easy mode to unlock it (ie. it's not unlocked by beating the game on a higher difficulty).

Virtual On is such a rad game. It makes me wish I had everything to play it with the link cable. It takes a little bit of adjustment to get used to the controls, as there's a lot of subtlety to them. Initially I had no idea that I could jump by pulling the sticks outward, or that I had a third basic attack executed by hitting both triggers--manual be damned. I still have trouble with effective movement at times, though. It's definitely an arcade game; providing instant gratification, but nuanced enough to require a lot practice to really get good. I'm happy enough to play it at a casual level, though. There's a crouch attack that can be done by attacking, after pulling the sticks in toward each other, while dashing, but I really don't know in what situation that would be more effective than a standard dash attack.
Anyway, I beat the game with Temjin, initially, then tried Angelan, which has this sweet homing dragon attack, but when I got to Tangram (the final boss) I could only get it down to 46% health once the round time ran out. Funny thing about that is, it's just a game over; no option to continue. I found out through a little reading that she(?)'s actually one of the more difficult machines to beat the game with. I might try it again, since I figured out that she also has boost attacks, like Temjin.

Post by **Flake** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 10:46 pm

Xeogred wrote:
@Flake: I'd have a hard time thinking of other games I really enjoyed with the forced perspective changes. So I get you there. Especially in RPG's... it can really disorient me. But I embraced it with Suikoden 3 and in the end think it easily showcases its strength in the character building and connections. It's quite late game, but you eventually do have everyone at your disposal later on. Once the revelations start falling into place explaining situations and events that happened in the early game, it was really satisfying. I wouldn't change a thing.

We'll see! I am taking an RPG break before I tackle Suikoden 2 but I already bought 3 for the PS3 back during a flash sale so I'll definitely be taking another stab at it. I really wish I hadn't been so accustomed to Final Fantasy back when I was more into the genre. My own inflexibility is probably to blame for my missing out on such great games.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Sun Nov 27, 2016 3:32 am

115. Famicom Detective Club II | SFC (1998) | 4/10

In 1989, Nintendo released "Famicom Detective Club Part II: The Girl who Stands Behind" for the Famicom. It was written as a prequel to the original Famicom Detective Club. Later on this game was remade for the Super Famicom and Game Boy Advance. The 2004 Game Boy Advance version was part of the Famicom Mini series. Whereas the Super Famicom version was released via the Nintendo Power cartridge rewriting service in 1998. None of these versions were ever released outside Japan. However in 2004, the Super Famicom version received an English fan translation. And that's the version that I played through. An interesting fact; the murder and smoking scenes resulted in a CERO (ages 15+) rating for the GBA release, making it the first Nintendo title to receive a parental advisory rating.

To touch on the plot briefly; you are a young detective working for a detective agency. A young girl is found murdered nearby, and you are put on the case. Her murder leads to a highschool, and from there a 15 year old ghost story. As you investigate all the people involved, the tale becomes more complex, and eventually to the point of detriment. By the end of it all the plot will probably be lost on you, but you won't even care. Or at least, that was my experience. I just wanted to see the credits and put this one to rest. At least the plot was sometimes told through well choreographed animated cutscenes.

You see, Famicom Detective Club II is an adventure game in the classic Japanese style. And by that, I mean you navigate the game via a series of menu interactions. Everything you do, be it talking to someone, thinking internally, or searching a room, is all done via menu selection. This style of adventure game was very popular in the 1980s in Japan, and resulted from limitations of PCs during that time. Some people really enjoy this style of adventure game, but I am not one of those people. Endlessly clicking through menus until you hit the right hot button selection, over and over, isn't very exciting to me. You can honestly beat the game just by randomly clicking menu selections until you finally whack-a-mole your way to victory. Not exactly challenging.

What can carry the experience beyond that kind of rote gameplay? That would be fantastic writing, strong atmosphere, and a constant yearning to solve mysteries. It's a shame then that Famicom Detective Club II doesn't nail any of those categories. Sometimes the game grazes them, and gets tantalizing close to possibly becoming competent, but it never quite congealed for me. There is so much filler in this game, so much redundant backtracking and inane recycling of content and conversation, that I found the entire thing to be a slog very quickly. You'd get a better mystery out of any Scooby Doo episode, better atmosphere too, and I've seen better writing in old '80s DOS instruction manuals.

So why did I bother beating Famicom Detective Club II then? Well in 2005, I nearly beat this game (I was bored), but I lost my save game. For many years now I've meaning to go back and finally finish it... so yay?

Sometimes we play old games because they are actually fun, and sometimes we play them out of sheer scholarly interest. I mean folks, this is a Nintendo published game with smoking, transsexuals, murder, blood, ghosts, and alcohol consumption in it. That's not an everyday occurrence. And the fan translation was pretty good, while the OST was actually great. And let's face it; there's not a ton of legit adventure games on the Super Famicom or SNES for that matter, so this was a unique experience for its platform. Notice I said "unique" and not "fun". Obviously I found Famicom Detective Club II to be terribly boring. It's no surprise it took me over a decade to get around to finishing it. :roll:

Post by **isiolia** » Sun Nov 27, 2016 12:27 pm

1. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox One)
2. DOAX3 Fortune Edition (PS4)
3. Uncharted 4 (PS4)
4. DOOM (2016) (PC)
5. Halo 5 (Xbox One)
6. Dark Souls (PC)
7. Call of Duty (PC)
8. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
10. King's Field: The Ancient City (PS2)
11. Bloodborne (PS4)
12. SOMA (PC)
13. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4)
14. Dark Souls III (PS4)
15. Lords of the Fallen (PC)
16. Demon's Souls (PS3)
17. Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss (PC)
18. Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel (PC)
19. Dishonored (PC) (replay)
19a. Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall
19b. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches
20. Dishonored 2 (PC)
21. Aliens: Infestation (DS)

One of the handful of DS/3DS carts I grabbed for my trip up to visit family for Thanksgiving, which I wound up putting some time into while there...and went back to finish after I got home.

On a basic level, it's an Aliens based Metroidvania, with a somewhat unique element of having permadeath for the individual marines you play as. You start with a squad of four, which are your "lives" more or less - if one of them dies or gets dragged off (which gives you a limited time to get to their signal to save them), you take over in place with one of the remaining marines. If a slot "opens up", you can fill it with one of solo marines you run across.
'course, the game doesn't automatically save, so quitting and reloading if you lose someone is also possible. That said, having someone die is the only way to swap new characters into your roster - which is one of a number of odd design decisions. For example, you find multiple weapons over the course of the game, but can only swap your primary weapon at save rooms. If you run across weapon upgrades, they automatically apply to your current main weapon, so upgrading everything took running back and forth just to swap weapons around.

The game is predominately set on a ship, but visits several other locations temporarily, which also make it a bit different from a lot of other games in the style. The map also only covers main corridors - "hidden" areas remain unmapped, despite how common (and key) they are.

I was largely not a fan of the boss encounters - they were mostly just massive bullet sponges and I wound up just accepting losing a marine or two when running into them. To be fair, some of the challenge there also just came in from needing to realize the potential actions I had...literally, I went for almost half the game not realizing there were run/stay still buttons. :oops:

Even then though, the boss encounters didn't seem to fit with the rest of the game.

That said, the game is generally quite well done. It has nice pixel art on occasion, with a colorful (if a tad stereotypical) roster of marines to find with nice comic book style portraits (the character sprite is the same, male or female, just recolored).
A clear appreciation of the source material, with nods to the movies without reusing much from them (one of the boss fights -is- basically the loader fight from Aliens).
There's even an unlockable minigame for the "knife trick", if you want to see how fast you can not stab a digital hand with your DS stylus.

Overall, a good licensed game, and one to definitely check out for fans of the IP. With the sheer volume of Metroidvanias out there these days, it's probably not a massive standout, but not a bad use of a few hours either.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Sun Nov 27, 2016 2:32 pm

First 50:

51. Akumajō Dracula (Famicom Disk System)
52. Castlevania (NES)
53. Classic NES Series: Castlevania (Game Boy Advance)
54. Guardian Heroes (Xbox Live Arcade)
55. Metal Slug (Neo Geo MVS)
56. Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo MVS)
57. Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo MVS)
58. Soul of Darkness (DSiWare)
59. Code of Princess (3DS)
60. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
61. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
62. The Legend of Zelda 2: Link no Bōken (Famicom Disk System)
63. Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC)
64. Shan Gui (Steam)
65. Space Fury (ColecoVision)
66. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (ColecoVision)
67. Gateway to Apshai (ColecoVision)
68. MURI (Steam)
69. Pink Hour (Steam)
70. Pink Heaven (Steam)
71. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (Steam)
72. Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (Steam)
73. Haunted House (Atari 2600)
74. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
75. Alien (Atari 2600)
76. Xenophobe (Xbox - Midway Arcade Treasures 2)
77. Frankenstein's Monster (Atari 2600)
78. Ghost Manor / Spike's Peak (Atari 2600)
79. Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.1 Onikakushi (Steam)
80. Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin (Famicom Disk System)
81. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
82. Beneath the Cherry Trees (Steam)
83. Voices from the Sea (Steam)
84. Mushihimesama (Steam)
85. Sonic CD (Steam)
86. Shovel Knight (Wii U)
87. Super Mario World (SNES)
88. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)
89. Operation C (Game Boy)
90. Metroid (Famicom Disk System)
91. Metroid (NES)
92. Breath of Fire (SNES)
93. Elisa: The Innkeeper - Prequel (Steam)

Bone vs. Visual Novels - the saga continues.

Elisa: The Innkeeper - Prequel may feature the typical anime-style art, but it is in fact an Italian game (both in development and setting). There isn't a whole lot to say about this one, primarily due to its brevity. "Prequel" is a bit of a misnomer, as this is actually the first segment of what will become a full-fledged lengthy VN sometime in the near feature. Essentially, this is something of a free demo designed to draw potential customers. There's even a plug for the Kickstarter (which has already been funded at this point) thrown into the game.

So, the story centers around an inn with a beautiful innkeeper who spurs passionate reactions (positive and negative) from all men who encounter her. The game lacks a true protagonist and central narrator, so specific characters will have their story developed further depending on what paths you choose to take. The artwork is quite stunning, though the characters are one-dimensional thus far. They don't even have names! - just prince, merchant, etc. There are a couple of "hot" maidens thrown into the mix but they only pop in to say "buy the full version of the game to see us!" Clever. (Oh, I guess I should mention that the full game will be 18+ due to a stretch goal that was reached in the Kickstarter campaign. What a world.)

The soundtrack is great and has this laid-back Celtic vibe. I left the title screen on for hours while I was just derping around in the basement because I enjoyed the score so much.

Overall, an enjoyable and brief experience but nothing out of this world. Whether I continue the adventure in the "full" game is largely dependent on price, surely.

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Nov 27, 2016 7:18 pm

First 50:

51. Ori and the Blind Forest - Xbox One
52. AM2R - PC
53. Total Annihilation - PC
54. I Am Setsuna - PS4
55. Planetary Annihilation Titans - PC
56. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - PC
57. Dark Reign - Rise of the Shadowhand - PC
58. Dragon Age Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon - PC
59. Dragon Age Inquisition - The Descent - PC
60. Dragon Age Inquisition - Trespasser - PC
61. The Witcher 3 - Hearts of Stone - PC
62. The Witcher 3 - Blood & Wine - PC
63. ReCore - Xbox One
64. Final Fantasy Tactics - PS1
65. Resident Evil 6 - PC
66. Knuckles Chaotix - 32X
67. Assault Suit Leynos - PS4
68. Might & Magic 2 - Gate to Another World - PC
69. Might & Magic 4 - Clouds of Xeen - PC
70. Might & Magic 5 - Darkside of Xeen - PC
71. Might & Magic 4&5 - World of Xeen - PC
72. Rise of the Triad - PC
73. Batman Arkham Knight - PC
74. Rise of the Triad (2013) - PC
75. Dishonored 2 - PC
76. TIS-100 - PC
77. Tyranny - PC
78. StarCraft II - Nova Covert Ops - PC

If you're like me you like RTS's but are terrible at them against a real person. Blizzard has heard you and released a new campaign pack for StarCraft II focusing on Nova. It's the closest we're ever going to get to StarCraft Ghost. And it's pretty fun on its own; definitely worth the money I spent.

Nova Covert Ops is set after the events of Legacy of the Void. It's clear from this and the upcoming Timothy Zahn book that Blizzard still enjoys the universe and seems to be settling in to seeing how the races get along now that there's no eldritch abominations forcing them to all out fight. This story follows around Nova; at the start she wakes up with amnesia and an ominous message on her visor; she needs to escape because the people she's currently staying with are terrible. Soon it becomes clear that you were being used by forces attempting to destabilize the Terran Dominion and bring the Korpulu sector back to war. Naturally you need to stop this, uncovering clues as to why you had amnesia and what's going on.

The game takes the most cues from Heart of the Swarm; the focus is on the Nova hero unit and throughout the campaign you unlock various pieces of gear for her. You end up with four gear slots, each of which can be swapped in between missions (and in one case, during a mission). These can give you special abilities, attribute boosts, and even changing your weapons. About half the missions are solo "installation" missions, while the other half are more standard base building missions. For the base building missions you will unlock several upgrades for your units that can be swapped between the various units, but also can only be used on one unit at a time. For example, if you give your Marauders the ability to be built without a tech bay then you can't give that upgrade to your Siege Tanks. This gives you a fair amount of flexibility in where you want to focus your energies during the missions, and it lets you customize your army to suit your playstyle.

The whole thing is 9 missions long and each mission lasts about half an hour. There's a mix of objectives in it as well, so things stay pretty fresh throughout. The campaign doesn't overstay its welcome; it's just about the right size for what they're trying to do with it.

racketboy.com

Games Beaten 2016

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