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dunpeal2064
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by dunpeal2064 Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:40 am

Exhuminator wrote:The only big problem I had with the experience was the last 5% of it. Like the final boss and stuff around it. Pixel just threw the balance straight out the window, and Cave Story stopped being fun at all for me at that point. Unique art style and awesome music though, I give it props there.


Yeah, that 5% gave me pause when writing that, particularly the final area and insane boss rush. Up till there, the game felt very well balanced, but things quickly get out of hand, and the final boss(es) definitely gave me some fits.
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isiolia
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by isiolia Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:26 pm

1. DKC Returns (3DS)
2.√ Letter
3. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PC)
4. Spec Ops: The Line (PC)
5. Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) (such as it is)
6. Gears of War UItimate Edition (Xbox One)
7. Onechanbara Z2 Chaos (PS4)
8. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
9. Nioh (PS4)
10. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U)
11. Dark Souls III: The Ringed City (PC)
12. Demon’s Souls (PS3) replay
13. Dark Souls (PC) replay
14. Dark Souls III (PC) replay
15. Dark Souls (PC) replay
FFXI
16. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NSW) replay
17. Destiny 2 (PC)
18. Doki Doki Literature Club (PC)
19. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4)
20. VA-11 Hall-A: Cyperpunk Bartender Action (PC)

21. Dark Souls (PC) yet again
22. Super Mario Odyssey (NSW)
23. Nier: Automata (PS4)

Dark Souls
As mentioned in the Souls thread, I did a heavy armor/fat roll run, kind of with the idea in mind of keeping the build as dirt-simple as possible. Outside of a few things, it proved to be extremely effective and easy, since I still used a high stability shield, making rolling kind of unnecessary for most anything. I did drop to fast roll for the center part of Bed of Chaos - there are likely other ways to do it, but, its' a BS fight in the first place.

Super Mario Odyssey
Played through to the N64 castle area and did a bit there, but interest was waning already, so I didn't push much further. Which isn't to say that it's a bad game. I wasn't keen on the inclusion of motion controls - not strictly necessary, but, usually the better/easier way to do things (auto-targeting hat throws, faster climbing, etc). I even tried to turn them off at one point, since they seemed to be causing me to steer when I didn't want to in one of the flower/dash things....but the game happily ignored that setting. :? Plus, as much as the hat mechanic more or less creates an elegant re-imagining of the variety of other power-ups Mario would typically get...the constant pop-ups telling you how to do things seemed kind of not-Mario, even if they're somewhat appropriate when controls can change so often.
Anyway, for what it is, Odyssey is good, great even. The folks that still can't get enough Mario 64 have a new game to do challenge runs in for decades on end. For me personally...it's fun enough for a bit, but not the kind of game that I can't wait to get home and play. So, I was satisfied with leaving it at what's objectively a fairly low completion level.

Nier: Automata
I started on this when it came out earlier this year, but wound up playing through other things (and eventually drifting back to the FFXI black hole for a bit), but wanted to get back around to it. While I didn't bother with many of the specific game-over type endings, I did get endings A-E and sacrificed my save data so someone else could as well...sooo, not going back for stray sidequests anytime soon.
Overall, pretty good, though it never quite hit the level I was hoping for based on the hype. Certain expectations were, of course, tempered, since Automata is actually a relatively low budget game made over a fairly short time period. Even accounting for that though, necessitating playing the first part of that game twice over (with changes here and there) stretched the asset reuse a bit much, and I wasn't fond of the 2.5D switching either. Combat seemed over-thought, though I guess it'd allow for players to tune things harder if they really wanted (pretty easy by default, save for some of the twin-stick hacking parts).
Those kinds of things are easy to gloss over with how quirky the game is in general, and it comes together well as a whole. Maybe not as amazing to me as to some folks, but, it was fun, and the somewhat small game world kept it focused and memorable.
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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:02 pm

I credit Cave Story for really helping kick off the indie game scene, so it's phenomenally important. However, I think it's good, not great. And the Hell run is just brutal, brutal stuff. That's the point at which I stopped having fun and my masochism kicked in. I will not be beaten! 8) :lol:
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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Ack Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:08 pm

Sarge wrote:I credit Cave Story for really helping kick off the indie game scene, so it's phenomenally important. However, I think it's good, not great. And the Hell run is just brutal, brutal stuff. That's the point at which I stopped having fun and my masochism kicked in. I will not be beaten! 8) :lol:

It also has broken achievements on Steam, which is irksome in it's own right if you tend to go for them.

I liked it but didn't love it too. I can appreciate what it did, yet I see no reason to return to it.
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Blu
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Blu Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:11 pm

alienjesus wrote:Snip Outrun 2


I'm glad you enjoyed this game, and the series has grown on you. Outrun 2 is such an amazing game and I also enjoyed the many challenge stages, remixed tracks. I also love they still had the Ferrari license with this game. I had beaten most of the challenge stages and then got a disc read error. I need to fire it up and beat the last couple that I have left.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BoneSnapDeez Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:33 pm

Is Outrun 2 more forgiving than the original? I find that one to be downright brutal.
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alienjesus
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by alienjesus Wed Dec 13, 2017 2:37 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Is Outrun 2 more forgiving than the original? I find that one to be downright brutal.


Yes, although it's no pushover.

I finished the courses on Easy difficulty first (because I was narrowly missing the normal mode requirements) but was able to finish normal mode courses fairly reliably once I'd done all the easy mode runs and some of the challenges in the challenges sections.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by PartridgeSenpai Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:23 pm

dunpeal2064 wrote:
Exhuminator wrote:The only big problem I had with the experience was the last 5% of it. Like the final boss and stuff around it. Pixel just threw the balance straight out the window, and Cave Story stopped being fun at all for me at that point. Unique art style and awesome music though, I give it props there.


Yeah, that 5% gave me pause when writing that, particularly the final area and insane boss rush. Up till there, the game felt very well balanced, but things quickly get out of hand, and the final boss(es) definitely gave me some fits.


Given that I've never done a non-hell play-through (I always get the best gun and other stuff), I cannot imagine how difficult that final boss rush must be with just the normal guns Xp
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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pierrot
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by pierrot Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:19 pm

dunpeal2064 wrote:
pierrot wrote:
dunpeal2064 wrote:I think Pop'n Twinbee is fantastic. Very accurate port for its time, running fairly smoothly too.

--"Port"?


shit, you got me, its not a port. Apparently I was thinking of Detana! Twinbee. Admittedly, I get all of Konami's big shooters confused (I can't tell a Parodius or Gradius apart, unless its Sexy/V).

I really thought you might have known of some Twinbee arcade game I'd never heard of before. The Twinbee series is way too complicated for not really having all that many shmup entries.



alienjesus wrote:
BoneSnapDeez wrote:Is Outrun 2 more forgiving than the original? I find that one to be downright brutal.


Yes, although it's no pushover.

I finished the courses on Easy difficulty first (because I was narrowly missing the normal mode requirements) but was able to finish normal mode courses fairly reliably once I'd done all the easy mode runs and some of the challenges in the challenges sections.

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I probably prefer Outrun 2 to the original Outrun. It is just so much fun to play. Outrun 2 could probably be a desert-island-game for me.
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Exhuminator
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Exhuminator Fri Dec 15, 2017 1:51 am

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117. Fray CD: Xak Gaiden | PCECD | 1994 | 8/10

Fray CD: Xak Gaiden is a Japan-only cute 'em up / adventure hybrid, developed and published by Micro Cabin, released in 1994 for the PCECD. This game stars Fray, an offshoot character from Micro Cabin's action-RPG "Xak" series. Fray CD: Xak Gaiden has a lot of voiced dialogue, animated cutscenes, and text boxes, all in Japanese. I can tell there's quite a bit of story in this game, but I couldn't understand it as I'm not Japanese literate. However, you can still play and enjoy Fray CD: Xak Gaiden even if you don't know what's going on. The gameplay is simple. You move Fray around levels, attacking enemies with magic, collecting gold for doing so, and kill a boss at the end. Unlike the Game Gear version, Fray can use offensive mega spells against bosses this time. Fray also has the ability to jump, so yes, there's platforming as well. You mainly use the jumping ability to avoid enemy fire though. In between stages, Fray can visit towns to spend her hard won gold to upgrade her gear and buy restorative items. She can also talk to townspeople while shopping around. There are a few stages where Fray is not on foot, but rather flying around. This type of stage is appreciated to bring variety on board.

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Graphically Fray CD: Xak Gaiden is very nice, classic professional pixel art. The music however isn't very good, although there's a few decent tracks (just not enough). Fray CD: Xak Gaiden is quite a bit more difficult than the Game Gear iteration of this series, and not in a very balanced way. Hit boxes are kind of sloppy, edge detection is bad for jumping, and Fray moves too slowly to avoid many enemy attacks (jumping doesn't always help). I should mention also that Fray CD: Xak Gaiden takes about two hours to beat, perhaps even longer if you don't skip all the cutscenes and dialogue boxes. Despite the uneven difficulty and surprising length for the genre, the rest of this package is quite enjoyable. And even though I couldn't understand the dialogue, the pantomime antics of the characters still made me laugh. So if a lighthearted cute 'em up starring a bubbly magic girl sounds fun, don't hesitate to try Fray CD: Xak Gaiden. I'd go so far as to say this is a hidden gem on one of the most esoteric platforms outside Japan.
PLAY KING'S FIELD.
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