More for the list:
1. Ys Book II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter
PSN Vita2. 3D Streets of Rage 2
3DS eShop3. 3D Gunstar Heroes
3DS eShop4. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2
3DS eShop5. 3D OutRun
3DS eShop6. Mugen Senshi Valis II: The Fantasm Soldier
PCE CD7. Mugen Senshi Valis III: The Fantasm Soldier
PCE CD8. Bomberman
PCE CD9. Rocket Knight Adventures
Mega Drive10. Trax
Game Boy11. Panic Bomber
Virtual Boy12. Arcana Heart 3: Love MAX!!!!!
Vita13. Super Monkey Ball
Gamecube14. Lost Kingdoms
Gamecube15. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
Gamecube16. 1080° Avalanche
Gamecube17. Bubble Ghost
Game Boy18. Catrap
Game Boy19. 3D Thunder Blade
3DS eShop20. 3D AfterBurner II
3DS eShop21. 3D Fantasy Zone II W: The Tears of Opa-Opa
3DS eShop22. Ikaruga
Gamecube *NEW*
23. Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal
Vita *NEW*
IkarugaOk, first things first, because I know people will ask - No, I didn't get a 1CC. Not even close. Here were the conditions I was aiming for to count this as beaten - 1. Beat the game with limited continues. 2. Beat the game on Normal mode. If any of your are familiar with the Gamecube port of the game, you might know that for each hour you play this game, you earn an extra credit per run, until you play the game for 7 hours, when you will earn unlimited credits. My goal was to beat the game before unlocking unlimited credits. Which I did....on my first run at 7 credits.
And that's because Ikaruga is hard. There's a lot of pattern recognition in it, and due to it being so scripted I imagine that there is a 'best' way to tackle particular levels, expecially if your chaining for extra score, which is done by killing same coloured enemies in groups of 3 at a time. I didn't really bother much, as after stage 2 it becomes all about survival for me.
So, Ikaruga. You have a ship, it can fire lasers straight ahead. It can also swap colour from black to white and back again. Enemies also come in black and white varieties. White bullets will kill you whilst you're black and vice versa, but you can absorb bullets of the same colour to charge up your super powerful homing laser attack. The skill in Ikaruga is in switching constantly to manage the absolute torrential barrage of attacks enemies fire your way. On the flip side, if you hit enemies with the opposite colour, they take more damage, so there's a balance between being vulnerable and powerful or safe but weaker. On normal difficulty, killing enemies of the same colour as your weapon will make them shower you with suicide bullets, which will be the bane of your existence on later levels where you need to switch near constantly.
And there is a steep difficulty curve in Ikaruga. I can get to the midboss of act 3 (literally 50% through the game) without losing a single life, but I've never finished Act 3 without using at least 1 credit - the 2 bosses cause me issues. Act 4 robs me blind - I normally lose an easy 4 credits here, especially on the boss of the act which I can't get the hang of at all. The image above is from stage 4.
The run in which I beat the game was my first time seeing act 5. The opening sections and first boss were easy enough, the second boss gave me some trouble, and the 'final' boss was easy enough. I finished the last boss having just started on my last credit, and celebrated as I saw the level completion stats screen. Hooray! Ikaruga beaten!
Except it wasn't. The game had one final surprise for me after the level was over - the boss came back, and I couldn't shoot - it's a final, one minute gauntlet of dodging and switching polarity whilst the boss sends everything he has at you. I lost a couple of lives and I thought I was done for, when it finally ended. On my very last life, I'd managed to finish the game. Double hooray!
Now I'm sure there are some here who will denounce my victory because I used so many continues. I don't really care - I've spent weeks trying to get to this point, and I was delighted with my triumph. Ikaruga is the game that got me into shmups, and it's been a long time coming for me to see it all the way through. I'd happily sit down and play it again anytime - it's a masterpiece.
Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster SealDungeon Travelers 2 is a japanese dungeon crawling RPG for the Playstation Vita. It features you building an all-female team of warriors and venturing into a dungeon to take on all-female enemies to save the day from a demon. No points for guessing which gender the demon is either.
Dungeon Travelers, from what I can gather, is a spin-off title of a fairly popular dating sim/eroge series known as To Heart. The first dungeon travelers game was a dungeon crawler featuring the characters of To Heart 2, and this game is a sequel to that game using an all new cast. This game doesn't try to hide it's slightly seedy origins much either - there is a lot of suggestive enemy designs and CG stills in this game, with both party members and enemy 'monsters'. Actually, I'd even say it's rather front-loaded in this regard - lots of the later stuff is far less suggestive of exposing than the things they throw at you early in the game.
But, whether or not the fan servicey presentation and sexually suggestive content does much for you, this is actually a very, very well made dungeon crawler. Dungeon designs are interesting, and there is a tone of customisation available for party members to build a party how you want. There are 5 base classes - Fighter, Magic User, Scout (read: Thief), Spieler (a class with luck based and odd skills) and Maid (a class focused on buffing, debuffing and restoring MP for free) and each can upgrade into 2 or 3 new classes at level 15, with another branch available at level 30 totalling 3 final classes for each base class - 32 classes in total. In addition, each class has lots of skills which you can choose to invest in, so 2 characters in the same class can still play quite differently.
The story of the game isn't very in-depth, although it does actually try to take itself seriously, and the plot isn't focused on the fan-service at all. In fact, the game constantly feels like it's trying to outgrow the fan-service aspect, and the main character tends to ignore all the attractive women in compromising situations he constantly finds himself surrounded by. Maybe this is something to do with the fact that this was localised by Atlus -perhaps they made it more tasteful, or maybe it was just like that to begin with.
Dungeon Travelers is actually a very fun title, but it has some flaws - the game is very slow paced. Your customisation options are very limited until level 15, but it takes about 20 hours to reach that point at least. Even then, you'll be desperate for the power of the level 30 classes before too long - the game is also pretty difficult. The game is about 50-70 hours for the main story, and levelling up is very tedious if you need to do it - it can take a good hour to get 1 level up for a team. The abilities in dungeon travelers also tend to work less well together than, say, the skills in Etrian Odyssey 4 - whereas skills often aid teammates or combine for better effects in EO4 (such as arcanists cauing status effects on the enemy and the nightseeker doing extra damage to statused enemies) the classes of DT2 tend to be very independent. That said, at level 30 some classes get abilities that at least help the party overall, such as the Valkyrie shielding the back row from some damage.
Dungeon Travelers isn't a game for everyone. Aside from the blatant and regular fanservice (well, fairly regular - it can take a few hours between each CG event) which will be offputting to many, the actual slow paced, grindy and difficult gameplay is not exactly friendly and welcoming either. That said though, Dungeon Travelers is incredibly well put together, and building your team is compelling. I could have done with the pace being quicker and the game being about 15 hours shorter, but I enjoyed my time with it overall.