Games Beaten 2016

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:46 pm

First 50

51. Armillo (WII U)
52. Human Resource Machine (iOS)
53. Alone in the Dark (iOS)
54. The Room 3 (iOS)
55. Monument Valley (iOS)
56. Hysteria Project (PS3/PSP)
57. Azarashi (iOS)
58. Pink Hour (iOS)
59. Kero Blaster (iOS)
60. Pink Heaven (iOS)
61. Severed (iOS)

Severed is - basically - a first-person, tile-based, dungeon crawler with swipe-based, Punch-Out!!-inspired combat. In it, you avenge(?) your family's death by navigating intricate dungeons, slaying monsters, and upgrading your abilities. During battles, you fill a "focus" meter that allows you to hack pieces off of defeated enemies at the end of a battle, and you use these parts to upgrade your character. The gameplay is, at the outset, incredibly compelling, but it wears a bit thin by the end of the game. (The mazes start to blend together a bit; the backtracking is tedious; and there aren't enough enemy types.) The art direction - consistent with Drinkbox Studios' other work - is exceptional, and despite my complaints, I was compelled to complete the game (i.e., explore every inch of the map, uncover all of the game's secrets, maximize all of my statistics, etc.). Accordingly, if the concept sounds interesting to you, I recommend giving Severed a shot. Just know that your mileage with it may vary a bit.

.....

Now, back to DQVII. I suspect I will pour another 20 hours or so into it before setting it aside for another break. Hopefully, by the 40 hour mark, I will have progressed far enough into this incredibly long game to access its job system... :lol:

Post by **Sarge** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:48 pm

I hit the job system at around 20 hours, for the record.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:50 pm

Sarge wrote:I hit the job system at around 20 hours, for the record.

Cool. I think I am close. I just passed 21 hours yesterday, and my party is a bit overpowered to say the least. (Apparently, this game does not require any sort of grinding...yet.) I am finishing up some side-quests in Greenthumb Gardens, and I anticipate moving on shortly.

Post by **Sarge** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 1:17 pm

I think they smoothed the difficulty curve a little bit, but I don't remember grinding a whole lot in the original, just for certain battles. There was one in particular that owned me. I think the recommendation is to get someone with Insulatle.

Post by **MrPopo** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 2:01 pm

I think the only time I ever grinded in the original was because I wanted to be in a high tier job class, not because I felt like I needed a power boost.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 3:34 pm

Arc the Lad (PS1 game via PSN to muh PSP) | 1995 | 8/10

If you enjoy Shining Force, you'd probably enjoy Arc the Lad. It's a simple to play SRPG just as Shining Force is. Such things as terrain elevation, elemental weaknesses, or permadeath aren't factors here. This simplicity means speedier battles, and the terseness also carries into character setup and plot exposition. Arc the Lad doesn't concern itself with fluff, it just gets down to its SRPG battling business and stays busy.

There are many things I enjoyed about Arc the Lad. For one thing, this is a game from 1995, and embodies a lot of positives from that platinum era of gaming. Beautiful 2D artwork fills the gameworld with pleasing sprite animation. A spry and eclectic J-rock OST keeps the soundtrack pumping, much preferred over the typical orchestrated fantasy sludge. The main characters are all unique, with plenty of weirdo monster designs to combat. There's lots of variety in the types of attacks your team has at their disposal. And best of all the hero, Arc, is not a whiny emo brat as most modern Japanese RPGs tend to have. Arc is about kicking ass and getting the job done.

Another good thing; Working Designs didn't screw this localization up. Working Designs was hit and miss with a lot of their stuff, but they remained constrained with Arc the Lad. You won't have the fourth wall broken every time you turn around, or find yourself groaning at quickly outdated pop culture references. However the primary plot of Arc the Lad is not so hot. This is a story of a teenager, fighting an ancient evil, brought on the planet by mankind's disregard for nature, yadda yadda. You've seen this show before. Thankfully some of Arc's crazy teammates keep the plot interesting, despite so many genre tropes.

Arc the Lad is a brief SRPG, it'll take you about 10 hours without a walkthrough. It was designed that way because this is a prologue to Arc the Lad II. Fair enough, because Arc the Lad is still a great game in its own right. With a bit more mission variety, and some actual challenge, I would have bestowed an even higher score. Arc the Lad is super easy, like babby's first SRPG easy, and for me that wasn't a positive. I can understand why the developers did this though... trying to ease players into Arc's world. But genre veterans won't be breaking a sweat here.

So there you go, I enjoyed Arc the Lad quite a lot. For being a 21 year old SRPG, I say it's held up just fine. If you like simpler strategy games, devoid of modern day cruft, give this one a shot. Especially if you enjoy great 90s game design. Arc the Lad may not be the apex of its numerical trilogy, but it certainly set the path forward at the right trajectory.

Edit: PSN link

Post by **Sarge** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 3:36 pm

Sweet. That's pretty much my assessment of the game, too. Solid, no-frills, a bit short, but still a lot of fun while it lasts.

Post by **Sarge** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 11:06 pm

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:
144) Castlevania (NES)
145) Chip 'N' Dale's Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)
146) Chip 'N' Dale's Rescue Rangers (NES)
147) Gain Ground (GEN)
148) ActRaiser 2 (legit) (SNES)
149) The Rocketeer (NES)
150) Adventures in the Magic Kingdom (NES)
151) Kung Fu
152) Spartan X 2

To keep things consistent, chalked up the legit win on ActRaiser 2. As for the new ones...

The Rocketeer on NES is... okay. It's a bog-standard, slightly-off Batman knockoff. More weapons and a limited-fuel rocket pack, but no cool wall jump; more importantly, it doesn't have nearly the soundtrack that Sunsoft's game does. I owned this one back in the day, ended up selling it (or trading it, can't remember), and got it back when I went on my NES re-buying spree. Good thing I did that when I had the chance... not The Rocketeer, but the others I had to snag.

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom is pretty meh. It's basically a really short collection of minigames. One is a Bump 'n' Jump-style racer (but not as good), one has you guiding a train to the correct station, switching rails as necessary, Space Mountain basically sees you doing QTEs, there's a quiz to track down one of the keys (you get keys from all of these), and two decent platforming stages with Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted House. It's still ridiculously short, although those stages can be really tough! Definitely an early Capcom title, and nowhere near the level of their later Disney stuff.

EDIT: Kung Fu is a simple side-scrolling brawler. Not a belt-scroller, though. It's a very simple, and very short game. Spartan X 2, its sequel, is a little longer, and looks better, but is still pretty simple and kinda dumb at times.

Post by **touchofkiel** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:27 am

Nice! I reviewed the whole Kung-fu "series" a while back on my blog. Not definitive, but man.. it sure felt like I played a lot of that junk.

I loved the Rocketeer as a kid, but probably because I also loved the movie. Good idea for new NES game to return to!

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:56 am

So Arc the Lad is from the mid-90s, ten hours, 2D, and easy? I am in.

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