Games Beaten 2017

Post by **dsheinem** » Mon Dec 25, 2017 8:02 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:43. Old Man’s Journey (iOS)

I find it very hard to recommend (especially after just finishing up the equally-priced but drastically superior Gorogoa).

Hmm, I have had my eye on this one as something to pick up, but your post makes me hesitate. After seeing your review, part of me thinks: "Oh, ok - now I know not to buy it!" and part of me says "Oh, but he also didn't like To The Moon, so what does he know?!" :lol:

Games Beaten 2017
The first 50:

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - PS4
Alienation - PS4
Forza Horizon 3: Blizzard Mountain - PC/X1
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris - PS4
Doom VFR - PSVR
Gorogoa - iOS
Devil May Cry 4 Refrain - iOS
Sonic Mania - Switch
Raiden V - PS4 *new*
Scanner Sombre - PC *new*

Total: 60

I played through the story mode in Raiden V, which is a little bit overwhelming with all the various modes and stages that are available. I think that 1cc'ing this would be a marathon event, especially if one were genuinely trying to accomplish a maximum score. I need to seek out some expert playthrough videos at some point to see what the best players have been able to do with this most excellent clinic in shmup design - anyone have one that they recommend?

Scanner Sombre is mostly neat as a visual toy as the gameplay is pretty bare bones ("walking simulator" is an apt term here) and the story, to the extent there is one, doesn't really connect very well. Still, the visuals are impressive for what they are - it reminds me of a scifi take on something like The Unfinished Swan. here are some screens:

Trying to get five more games in between now and the end of the year. Wish me luck!

Previously: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:13 pm

dsheinem wrote:
prfsnl_gmr wrote:43. Old Man’s Journey (iOS)

I find it very hard to recommend (especially after just finishing up the equally-priced but drastically superior Gorogoa).

Hmm, I have had my eye on this one as something to pick up, but your post makes me hesitate. After seeing your review, part of me thinks: "Oh, ok - now I know not to buy it!" and part of me says "Oh, but he also didn't like To The Moon, so what does he know?!"

Trying to get five more games in between now and the end of the year. Wish me luck!

Watch a video and give it a shot. (I mean, you liked To The Moon; so, who knows? Maybe overly easy, twee, self-important games are your thing? :lol:

) It is only $2 in the App Store right now, which isn’t much for an hour’s entertainment. (Personally, however, I think both your time and money are likely better spent on other things.)

.....

1. Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero (Wii U)
2. Blek (iOS)
3. Bloo Kid 2 (3DS)
4. HarmoKnight (3DS)
5. 3D Fantasy Zone II W (3DS)
6. Fantasy Zone (SMS/3DS)
7. 3D Fantasy Zone Opa Opa Bros. (ARC/3DS)
8. Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa Opa (SMS/3DS)
9. 3D Classics Twinbee (NES/3DS)
10. Rainbow Bell a/k/a Twinbee (ARC/DS)
11. The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild (Wii U)
12. The Guardian Legend (NES)
13. The Clash at Demonhead (NES)
14. The Goonies II (NES)
15. Day of the Tentacle Remastered (iOS)
16. Mario Kart 64 (N64/Wii U)
17. Drancia Saga (3DS)
18. Chain Blaster (3DS)
19. Color Commando (DS)
20. Ace Mathician (DS)
21. Jump Trials Supreme (3DS)
22. Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
23. Fairune II (3DS)
24. RBI Baseball (NES)
25. River City Tokyo Rumble (3DS)
26. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (Wii U)
27. Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders (iOS)
28. Device 6 (iOS)
29. Transformers: Human Alliance (ARC)
30. Metroid Samus Returns (3DS)
31. A Ride Into the Mountains (iOS)
32. Super Mario Run (iOS)
33. Legend of Kusakari (3DS)
34. Banjo Kazooie (N64/360)
35. Go! Go! Commander Video (iOS)
36. River City Knights of Justice (3DS)
37. Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo (3DS)
38. Tomb Raider Go (iOS)
39. Lume (iOS)
40. To The Moon (iOS)
41. The Executive (iOS)
42. Gorogoa (iOS)
43. Old Man’s Journey (iOS)
44. Shadow Blade (iOS)

Shadow Blade is a ninja game that does a great job making you feel like a ninja, and it is about as solid as action platformers get on iOS. In it you proceed through a variety of stages, avoiding obstacles, grabbing collectibles, double jumping off of walls, and slicing the five enemy types to pieces. You get one star for grabbing all the basic collectibles, another for grabbing two, more difficult to find collectibles, and a third for beating the stage within a certain amount of time. It really isn’t all that hard, and it usually took me only a few attempts to perfect each level. (I am still working my way through the challenge levels, however, which are much harder. I doubt I’ll have the dedication to perfect all of those.) It actually controls incredibly well, which was a bit of a shock for an iOS platformer, and most importantly, it is consistently fun and rewarding. It was certainly a nice up-tempo, change of pace from the last few games I have added to this list. I can’t remember who, but someone on here recommended it to me a while back, and I am both thankful for the recommmendation and happy to pass it on.

.....

I received a $50 App Store gift card today, which is more than enough to buy every game I want for the platform. I don’t have the storage space for them, however (especially after downloading Full Throttle Remastered the other day). Accordingly, my quest to clear iPad storage space continues...

Post by **MrPopo** » Tue Dec 26, 2017 1:18 am

First 50:

51. Oniken - PC
52. Strife Veteran Edition - PC
53. The Mummy Demastered - Switch
54. Super Mario Odyssey - Switch
55. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - PC
56. Etrian Odyssey V - 3DS
57. The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Anniversary - 3DS
58. Vectorman - Genesis
59. Human Resources Machine - PC
60. The Legend of Legacy - 3DS
61. Dynamite Headdy - Genesis

One of the early Treasure games, Dynamite Headdy is a pretty solid platformer that kicks you in the balls in the last third. And I mean, right, square in the balls. It's a weird change of pace from the first two thirds of the game, which had a reasonable difficulty curve. It almost feels like the game is going "uh oh, this guy might beat me; I need to pull out all the stops."

The main thing that sets Dynamite Headdy apart from other platformers is the head mechanic. Your basic attack is to throw your head in a direction, where it will go out for a bit then boomerang back. It's important to note that your head does no damage on the way back. This attack not only lets you damage enemies, you can also knock stuff over and you can grab on to certain parts of the stage; this will let you pull yourself up and comprises a bit of the platforming (including a bastardly part near the end). Building on this is the ability to pick up a variety of new heads during the game. Each of these lasts a limited time and has some different effect; one doubles damage and can break through special walls, one turns you invisible (invincible), and one stops time. Some of them are used for stage traversal, while others are a way to get extra damage in on bosses. And then there's one useless head that makes you vulnerable for enough time to take three hits in between your mercy invincibility.

Aesthetically, the game is presented as if it is a stage play. Lots of the backgrounds look like they are wooden sets, and frequently parts of the "set" will fall off in response to things happening in the foreground. There's even some moments when you go backstage. It's a neat aesthetic and I think they use just the right amount of acknowledging it.

The actual level progression is kind of haphazard. Some levels consist of a short section before a boss, others consist of multiple stages with multiple bosses in between. There's even a shmup level. It seems like the stage breaks are used in lieu of checkpoints, so you'll get a mixture of short stages and longer stages depending on where the devs wanted you to respawn after death.

But man, that last portion of the game. The bosses get incredibly nasty with very little room for error. One boss can put you in hit stun and then kill you with crushing, while the final boss has several incredibly hard to dodge attacks mixed in with his repertoire; I was only able to beat him by pause buffering to take my time and figure out how to approach each pattern. And that was after I died a ton when I either got a bad pattern that dealt too much damage or I miffed a dodge and lost half my health to a bullshit attack.

It's a goofy little game that hides some serious teeth when you're not looking.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:16 pm

13. The Clash at Demonhead (NES)
14. The Goonies II (NES)
15. Day of the Tentacle Remastered (iOS)
16. Mario Kart 64 (N64/Wii U)
17. Drancia Saga (3DS)
18. Chain Blaster (3DS)
19. Color Commando (DS)
20. Ace Mathician (DS)
21. Jump Trials Supreme (3DS)
22. Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
23. Fairune II (3DS)
24. RBI Baseball (NES)
25. River City Tokyo Rumble (3DS)
26. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (Wii U)
27. Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders (iOS)
28. Device 6 (iOS)
29. Transformers: Human Alliance (ARC)
30. Metroid Samus Returns (3DS)
31. A Ride Into the Mountains (iOS)
32. Super Mario Run (iOS)
33. Legend of Kusakari (3DS)
34. Banjo Kazooie (N64/360)
35. Go! Go! Commander Video (iOS)
36. River City Knights of Justice (3DS)
37. Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo (3DS)
38. Tomb Raider Go (iOS)
39. Lume (iOS)
40. To The Moon (iOS)
41. The Executive (iOS)
42. Gorogoa (iOS)
43. Old Man’s Journey (iOS)
44. Shadow Blade (iOS)
45. The Sailor’s Dream (iOS)

The Sailor’s Dream is a beautiful work of interactive fictionn from Simogo, the creators of Device 6 and Year Walk. While it ultimately isn’t as compelling as either of those titles, it is nonetheless a moving short story wrapped in lovely artwork, haunting voice work, and lovely music. I highly recommend it, and I am disappointed in myself for not playing through it sooner.

Post by **dsheinem** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 2:44 pm

Games Beaten 2017
The first 50:

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - PS4
Alienation - PS4
Forza Horizon 3: Blizzard Mountain - PC/X1
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris - PS4
Doom VFR - PSVR
Gorogoa - iOS
Devil May Cry 4 Refrain - iOS
Sonic Mania - Switch
Raiden V - PS4
Scanner Sombre - PC
Everything - PC *new*
Luke Sidewalker - PC *new*
The Fidelio Incident - PC *new*

Total: 63

Everything is a fascinating game that is hard to classify in any way, other than that it combines elements of something like a Katamari Damacy game with elements of something like No Man’s Sky but, ultimately, easily turns out to be better than any of those titles. The narration and soundtrack by Alan Watts is compelling as all get out and made me dive down a rabbit hold of reading about him and his life and writings, which is high praise for a game that has you start out by walking around as a horse in a...strange way. I get why this one has been on people’s GOTY lists...it will likely end up on mine.

Luke Sidewalker is a dumb little game that offers a cynical and occasionally funny take on navigating NYC and its various neighborhoods. It has nothing at all to do with Star Wars, but I checked it out because of the jokey title and was not disappointed.

The Fidelio Incident is like a more politically-driven Dear Esther or some such, with a few puzzles and trippy sequences thrown in for good measure. It deals with the IRA in the 1980s, is based in Iceland, and is probably worth your 2-3 hours if you grab it on sale. It isn’t near as good as some of the best games in its genre, but it looks nice and is still a good way to kill some time on a lazy afternoon.

I just need to beat two more between now and Sunday night to hit my goal. Looking good!

Previously: 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Post by **Segata** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 3:32 pm

Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

In other threads talked about this game a great deal. Mentioned how early on feels a bit like Skies of Arcadia. Even some similar music. Oh, and the music in this game is phenomenal. The story is well done and I do like the sharp Scottish and Welsh accents. While it is a Xenoblade game in a great sense of scale, this is not nearly as big as the last game in X. I do kind of wish it was but it's still plenty big to explore. Combat is the best in the series. It's much more accessible. The game does have some parts in the game that I'm not a fan of. Mainly Chapter 7 and an early part of Chapter 10. I loved how the game

I was pretty surprised that Nomura designed Malos and Jin as they are actually good. Normura typically sucks shit at character design. Even Cloud sucks with parachute pants and banana hair. The villains are not over the top, they make sense and you feel for them really. Great game and recommend it any JRPG fan. In some ways, it's like what if someone made a Tales game that was you know..actually good!

Post by **Sarge** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:53 am

Previous games:

December:
110) Faussete Amour (DUO) (5.0) (12/4) (3 hours)
111) Ys III: The Wanderer from Ys (DUO) (5.5) (12/7) (~5 hours)
112) Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action (DUO) (6.5) (12/9) (~1.5 hours)
113) Ys Book I & II (Book I) (TCD) (6.0) (12/16) (~5 hours)
114) Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue (8.5) (12/17) (~3 hours)
115) WeaponLord (GEN) (6.5) (12/18) (~40 minutes)
116) Alwa's Awakening (PC) (6.5) (12/20) (~6.5 hours)
117) Ys Book I & II (Book 2) (TCD) (6.5) (12/27) (~5 hours)

So, I knocked out the other half of Ys Book I & II. It's better than the first one, because you get a few more locales. It also fundamentally changes how the game plays in some ways by giving you a ring that belches fire. As you level up, it gets more powerful, where it will continue to tear through enemies. You also find a few idols that will give it homing capability. It's different, that's for sure.

Once again, mazes are the order of the day. Navigating the game can be a chore. Thankfully, you get a ring that will let you return to various towns and temples you reach, so the backtracking isn't quite as egregious. Also, I wouldn't advise killing the penultimate boss until you're one level away from the max. Otherwise enemies are going to give very little experience while trying to reach max level, which is almost a necessity for the last boss. I ended up grinding in Jira's Basement, basically getting the monsters to pool and a fire shot would give a solid 15 EXP a pop. It took a good 15 minutes or so to get that last level, and it was pretty mind-numbing.

Graphics are about what you'd expect from a non-souped up Turbo CD game. The soundtrack is a'ight, too, although I like the remixed version of the PSP game a bit better.

Really, you can see where they sanded off some of the rough edges of the first game, so the series at least was showing some promise here. It's still not a patch on the series starting from Ys VI, but I didn't hate my time with the game. And it was nice seeing some of the history of the series. I'll probably give Ys IV a go soon so I can have all the main entries under my belt.

Post by **Segata** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:15 am

Disagree. Always felt Ys II is weaker of the 2. Still fantastic games.

Post by **Sarge** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:53 am

If it weren't for the awful Darm Tower in the first game, I'd agree. Neither really lit the world on fire for me, though.

I'm pretty sure the only games I haven't finished in the main series now are the two versions of Ys IV. And some of the remakes, but I'm not itching to get into those any time soon. I do wish that Ys V Expert was the one that got translated, though. I thought the original version was solid, but it was pretty toothless.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:01 pm

Sarge wrote:I'm pretty sure the only games I haven't finished in the main series now are the two versions of Ys IV.

Believe it or not, there's four different versions of Ys IV:

So technically, you already beat Ys IV, congratulations!

The SFC one (Mask of the Sun) I beat myself. It was terrible. I don't recommend it to anyone. Especially not someone I actually like such as yourself.

The PCECD (Dawn of Ys) one has an excellent presentation aesthetically, great OST, and even good voice acting (well the fan trans English dub is good anyway). The text dialogue aspect of the English fan trans is done well also. The problem with the PCECD version is it's very very grindy, and not especially well balanced. These balancing/grinding issues combined with being pretty long for classic Ys wasn't a good formula for me. I got about 2/3rds the way through the PCECD version before I couldn't take it anymore. Sorry Bone.

I don't know a lot about the PS2 version (Mask of the Sun - A New Theory), except it's a remake that uses a presentation more similar to the Ys Napishtim-Oath-Origin style:

Of course THIS version doesn't have an English translation, but walkthroughs exist.

It's not exactly common knowledge, but Memories of Celceta on Vita is Falcom's take on Ys IV:

"Eurogamer: Falcom is already working on a PlayStation Vita game too. What can you tell us about Ys Celceta: Sea of Trees?

Falcom: The subtitle is related to Adol’s adventures in Ys IV. Falcom has never worked on Ys IV directly on the development side. Those games were made by other companies using Falcom’s intellectual property. For close to 20 years, we’ve been hearing from fans they would like to see a Falcom developed Ys IV. The new fans that found out about Falcom through our PSP releases don’t know Ys IV. Even the older Ys fans, as I explained earlier, have been asking us to create our own Ys IV. This seemed like a good way to satisfy both customer bases."

( http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... eta-review )

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