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1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD
14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB
15. Tales of Zestiria - PS3
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4
18. Tales of Berseria - PS4
19. Battlefield 1 - PC
20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC
21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC
22. Starflight 2 - PC
23. Armored Hunter Gunhound EX - PC
24. Space Megaforce - SNES
25. Persona 5 - PS4
26. Torment: Tides of Numenera - PC
27. Cosmic Star Heroine - PC
28. Prey - PC
29. Strafe - PC
30. Mystic Origins - NES
31. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 3DS
32. Ultra Street Fighter II - Switch
33. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - PC
34. Ultima IV - PC
35. Environmental Station Alpha - PC
36. Dust: An Elysian Tail - PC
37. Hollow Knight - PC
38. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter - PC

Look at me, I finished a second Trails in the Sky game. It starts immediately after the first Trails; after the ending stuff goes down this picks the narrative back up and begins to run with it. The game even starts at the same level range, and you'll end things near the level cap. So it really does end up feeling like the second half of one giant game (sort of the Lost Age to Trails 1's Golden Sun).

Second Chapter is much better paced overall, in my opinion. While it still has a bit of a problem of verbosity, the events are much better distilled. You have a total of ten chapters, with a prologue located outside the main area of the game, five chapters at each of the five major cities again, then the climax chapters when the evil plan starts to hit full force. Each chapter is shorter and gets pretty quickly to the heart of the current aspect of the evil organization's plan, so they fly by much faster. It all ties together pretty well, and comes to a major conclusion that wraps up the major story threads.

Not much has changed combat-wise. There is a new Craft ability where you join with one or more characters to do some damage, but I never found it useful, as it takes up everyone's turn. Instead, art spam is still the order of the day. Your orbament has one extra slot, Estelle is reconfigured as a full generalist (3 on each side with 1 in the middle while the more caster oriented people have longer continuous chains), and there are some extra high level spells, as well as a bunch more space and mirage spells. Most of the spells have had their requirements adjusted as well. Your quartz can go all the way up to level five by the end game, so costs have been adjusted a bit to fit this paradigm.

Honestly the worst thing I can say is that holy shit, the combat is just utterly samey after two games worth without any tactical changes. Earth Wall still trivializes many bosses, spamming low level arts is the way to go, and Speed Up Ex is amazing. I think I would have found this game less of a slog to get through (as you can see by my break of three Metroidvanias) if I had waited six months between entries. And I'm crazy enough to do the 3rd after this (though it'll bounce back and forth between that and FFXII).

Speaking of the 3rd, while this game wraps up the main storyline there are still a dozen dangling plot threads. I figure a few get resolved in the 3rd and then more are leftover for the other Trails games. They've written themselves a very large world with a lot of plot hooks in it.

1. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2. Gyromite (NES)
3. Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5. Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6. Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)
7. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
8. Exile (TurboGrafx CD)
9. Exile: Wicked Phenomenon (TurboGrafx CD)
10. Xak (PC Engine CD, Xak I・II)
11. Xak II (PC Engine CD, Xak I・II)
12. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
13. Captain Silver (Sega Master System)
14. Märchen Veil (Famicom Disk System)
15. Vanguard (Atari 2600)
16. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
17. Front Line (Atari 2600)
18. Mario Bros. (Atari 2600)
19. Harmonia (Steam)
20. Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
21. Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
22. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (TurboGrafx CD)
23. Gorf (Atari 2600)
24. Neutopia II (TurboGrafx-16)
25. Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2, Taito Legends 2)
26. The Lost Vikings (SNES)
27. Blue's Journey (Wii Virtual Console)
28. Wizard Fire (Wii, Data East Arcade Classics)
29. Super Mario Run (Android)
30. Dragon Warrior II (NES)
31. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (GOG.com)
32. Witch & Hero (Nintendo eShop)
33. Phoenix (Atari 2600)
34. Emerald Dragon (Super Famicom)
35. Sky Skipper (Atari 2600)
36. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
37. Cadash (TurboGrafx-16)
38. Cadash (Genesis)
39. Popeye (Atari 2600)
40. Mega Man 2 (NES)
41. Mother (Famicom)
42. Scramble (Game Boy Advance, Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced)
43. Super Cobra (Atari 2600)
44. Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (GameCube)
45. Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo (Steam)
46. Donkey Kong (Wii Virtual Console)
47. Donkey Kong Jr. (Wii Virtual Console)
48. Donkey Kong 3 (Wii Virtual Console)
49. Donkey Kong Jr. Math (Wii Virtual Console)

Did the Donkey Kong NES quadrilogy... On the Virtual Console. I can't afford black label games. Damn scalpers and resellers.

The first three were frequent rentals from my childhood, while Math was an exciting fresh new experience.

Donkey Kong
Pretty good! Graphically similar to the arcade original, but missing the Conveyor Belt Stage like many other console ports. Pauline is cute. I just realized that the title screen theme is reused in Donkey Kong Country. I am slow.

Donkey Kong Jr.
I can never decide if this is better or worse than the first game. There's some added complexity, but some cheap deaths and I don't like DKJr's big chunky sprite. He's a little awkward. Also, Mario should never be a villain. He's a good man and an excellent plumber.

Donkey Kong 3
This one's just weird. No Mario, the protagonist is Stanley the exterminator who blasts bugs and sprays Donkey Kong to the top of each stage. It's like Donkey Kong himself was just shoehorned into the game to create a sequel to Jr. It plays well enough I suppose, but isn't incredibly compelling. Also, stage two doesn't show up on the first loop which makes no sense.

Donkey Kong Jr. Math
"Educational" video game are a tough sell in any case, and this one's pretty bad. There are three "modes" of play. The first two are two-player only. The third one involves solving math problems solo, but displaying the answer is so unintuitive and slow. You have to move Jr. up chains that correspond to a specific digit. The higher he is on the chain, the higher the number the appears in the answer. Trust me, it sucks.

NEVER FORGET:

This is the best one:

Xeogred wrote:This is the best one:

Truth.

I haven't really been around the forum much since I have been living abroad and haven't been doing as much gaming as I used too. That should be changing soon so I decided I should probably make a post here as I have completed games. As per my usual, I am far too lazy to do write ups for them all.

January
1. Xevious - Namco Museum Essentials (PS3)
2. Xevious Ressurection - Namco Museum Essentials (PS3)
3. ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (PS3)
4. Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PS3)

February
5. CounterSpy (PS3)
6. Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL (PS3)
7. Galaga Legions DX (PS3)
8. StarDrone (PS3)
9. Mortal Kombat - Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PS3)
10. Mortal Kombat 2 - Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PS3)

March
11. Paint it Back (PC)
12. Retro City Rampage DX (Vita)
13. Xeodrifter (Vita)
14. Flower (Vita)
15. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 - Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PS3)
16. My Name is Mayo (Vita)
17. Uncharted Golden Abyss (Vita)
18. The Unfinished Swan (Vita)
19. The Muppets Movie Adventure (Vita)
20. Tennis in the Face (Vita)
21. Super Stardust Delta (Vita)

April
22. LittleBigPlanet PSVita (Vita)
23. Gravity Rush (Vita)
24. Table Top Racing (Vita)
25. Assassin's Creed Chronicles China (Vita)
26. Assassin's Creed Chronicles India (Vita)

May
27. Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Vita)
28. Lego Lord of the Rings (Vita)
29. Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R (Vita)
30. J-Stars Victory VS+ (Vita)

June
31. BreakQuest: Extra Evolution (Vita)
32. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Vita)
33. Desert Ashes (Vita)

July
34. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified (Vita)
35. Minecraft (Vita)

It's nice to see you back!

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron haha...

Wait, weren't they making a new ToeJam & Earl?

They are. It was advertised pretty heavily during SGDQ.

Xeogred wrote:This is the best one:

Yeah I need to buckle down and beat that someday.

Yes. Yes, it is.