Games Beaten 2018

Post by **Markies** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:37 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2018!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*

1. The Granstream Saga (PS1)
2. Perfect Dark (N64)
*3. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1)*
4. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (XBOX)
5. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
*6. Pikmin (GCN)*
*7. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (N64)*
8. Shining Force II (GEN)
*9. X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (PS1)*
*10. Mafia (XBOX)*
11. James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (GCN)
12. ChuChu Rocket! (SDC)
*13. Super Metroid (SNES)*
14. Final Fantasy II (NES)
15. Devil May Cry (PS2)
16. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (GEN)
17. Secret of Evermore (SNES)
18. Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (PS2)
19. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GCN)
*20. Paper Mario (N64)*
21. Grandia II (SDC)
22. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PS2)
23. Bomberman Hero (N64)
24. OutRun (GEN)
25. Dragon Warrior IV (NES)
26. Super Monkey Ball (GCN)
27. Mischief Makers (N64)
28. Dragon Valor (PS1)
*29. Beyond Good & Evil (XBX)*
30. Tokyo Xtreme Racer (SDC)
31. Black (PS2)
*32. Street Fighter II (SNES)*
33. Koudelka (PS1)
34. Bad News Baseball (NES)
35. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
36. Shattered Union (XBOX)
37. The Simpsons: Road Rage (PS2)
*38. Cruis'n Exotica (N64)*
39. Kid Icarus (NES)
40. The Lost Vikings (SNES)
41. Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (PS2)

I beat Capcom Vs. SNK 2 for the Sony Playstation 2 this afternoon!

The original Capcom Vs. SNK game for the PS1 was one of my favorite fighting games for that system. The ease of play and cast of characters made the entire experience one of the most enjoyable fighting games on the PS1. I also loved the ability to gain points to unlock characters and stages in the game much like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. It gave an incentive to play the game through multiple times. I knew that they had made a sequel to the game as my friend had the GameCube version. However, it took me a while longer to get it because I didn't want to use the GameCube controller. Several years ago, I finally bought the game and have played it multiplayer several times throughout the years. However, I never sat down to beat the game until now.

The major hook in Capcom Vs. SNK 2 is the wide variety of characters that you can play as. The game has a total of 48 characters that you can play as with some of them having to be unlocked through strange circumstances. The cast is a great representation of Capcom fighters, SNK fighters and unique characters from Capcom franchises. It is great to see these characters battle against one another with some of them being introduced to the Capcom fighting world. Besides the characters, the different modes in Arcade is completely new. You can do a 1 Vs. 1 traditional Mode, you can choose a mode where three characters battle up as a team or you could do a new Ratio Mode, where you can choose one character to be your strongest. I love the idea of the team battle that is found in many SNK fighters as it adds something completely new to the Capcom side.

All these characters are very fun and the fighting is great, I just wish the unlockables were much easier to find. My friend had this game for years and didn't know there were secret characters until one random evening. I wish there was a store where you could spend earned points and unlock the different characters, modes and stages that way. Also, the announcer could be the worst in gaming history. The absolute worst announcer ever.

Overall, Capcom Vs. SNK 2 gives more of the same in regards to the original Capcom Vs. SNK. However, like a good sequel, it just adds more to the table. More modes, more characters and more unlockables make the game a great addition to any 2D fighting fan that owns a PS2. Another fantastic Capcom Fighting Game.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:57 pm

1. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis)
2. Darkwing Duck (NES)
3. Batman* (NES)
4. Journey to Silius (NES)
5. Aladdin* (SNES)
6. Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse* (SNES)
7. Run Saber (SNES)
8. Batman: Return of the Joker (NES)
9. Ninja Warriors (SNES)
10. Thunder Spirits* (SNES)
11. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
11. Thunder Force III* (Genesis)
12. Donkey Kong Country* (SNES)
13. Skyblazer (SNES)
14. Super Turrican* (SNES)
15. Donkey Kong Country 2* (SNES)
16. Super Turrican 2* (SNES)
17. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4)
18. Monster Hunter World (PS4)
19. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PSX)
20. Resident Evil 2: DualShock* [Claire A/Leon B] (PSX)
21. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)
22. Resident Evil HD* (PS4) [PLATINUM]
23. Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares* (PS4)
24. Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition* (PS4) [Vergil]
25. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
26. Nioh (PS4)
27. Super Mario Bros 3Mix (NES Romhack)
28. Yakuza 6 (PS4)
29. Metroid: Rogue Dawn (NES Romhack)
30. Front Mission: Gun Hazard (SNES)
31. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB)
32. The Guardian Legend (NES)
33. Brain Lord (SNES)
34. Assault Suits Valken (SNES)
35. Black Mesa (PC) [May2018]
36. Super Metroid Randomizer [C5708009]
37. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PC)
38. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade)
39. Captain Commando (Arcade)
40. Fallout: New Vegas* (PC)
41. The Punisher (Arcade)
42. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
43. TMNT: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
44. Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder (Arcade)
45. Golden Axe (Arcade)
46. Undercover Cops (Arcade)
47. X-Men (Arcade)
48. Double Dragon (Arcade)
49. Final Fight* (Arcade)
50. Battletoads* (Arcade)
51. Mega Man ZX Advent (DS)
52. TMNT III: The Manhattan Project* (NES)
53. Mega Man Zero* (DS) [MMZC]
54. Mega Man Zero 2* (DS) [MMZC]
55. Mega Man Zero 3* (DS) [MMZC]
56. Mega Man Zero 4* (DS) [MMZC]
57. Shadow Hearts (PS2)
58. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time* (3DS)
59. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (PC)
60. Doom 2: Hellbound (PC) [12hr][Complex|HMP]
61. Doom 2: Sawdust (PC) [50m][UV]
62. Mega Man X* (PS4) [MMXLC]
63. Mega Man X2* (PS4) [MMXLC]
63. Mega Man X3* (PS4) [MMXLC]
64. Mega Man X4* (PS4) [MMXLC]
65. Doom 2: Back to Saturn X EP1 (PC) [7hr][Complex|UV]
66. Mega Man X5* (PS4) [MMXLC]
67. Mega Man X6* (PS4) [MMXLC]
68. Doom 2: Back to Saturn X EP2 (PC) [7h30m][Complex|HMP]
69. Doom 2: Plutonia 2 (PC) [8h23m][UV]
70. Doom 2: Lunatic (PC) [45m][UV]
71. Doom 2: Japanese Community Project (PC) [5h57m][Complex|HMP]
72. Resident Evil 3* (PSX)
73. Dragon Quest V (DS)
74. Koudelka (PSX)
75. Doom (PSX)
76. Final Doom (PSX)
77. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts* (SNES)
78. super Castlevania IV* (SNES)
79. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
80. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES)
81. Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (NES)
82. Mega Man 11 (PS4)
83. Super Mario All-Stars* (SNES)
84. Silent Hill 2* (Xbox)
85. Silent Hill 3* (PS2)
86. Silent Hill 4* (Xbox)
87. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
88. Shadow Dancer (Genesis)
89. Castlevania: Bloodlines* (Genesis)
90. The Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis)
91. Power Blade (NES)
92. Dragon Fighter (NES)
93. Shadow of the Ninja (NES)
94. S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team (NES)
95. Shatterhand (NES)
96. Power Blade 2 (NES)
97. Choujin Sentai Jetman (NES)
98. Vice - Project Doom (NES)
99. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna The Golden Country (Switch)

* = replay

I began 2018 getting around to Xenoblade 2, which I absolutely loved. Now I get to finish off 2018 returning back to its world with the prequel Torna, which blew my face off. They've finally achieved perfection in the gameplay department with Xenoblade at this point, the combat is absolutely amazing and gone is the gachi/Blade system of 2, instead you just have a core team of 9 characters to manage which I enjoyed. To call Torna DLC or even an expansion seems like a disservice almost, I got 30 hours doing about 90% of this release and will probably keep playing to actually 100% this one for a first. Only a few more side missions left and then some super bosses. I never thought I'd say that about a Xenoblade, usually chalk full of content which isn't a bad thing but not something I fully explore. This was a bit more bite sized... in comparison. Again, you're going to get 20-40 hours out of this and it's just crazy how easily Monolith Soft cooks this stuff up. It's an absolute steal for the price this is going for and deserves more attention and praise.

One large map is re-used to an extent but remixed a bit, as this prequel does take place 500 years prior to 2's events. Outside of that a lot of the OST is recycled which is fine, since the Xenoblade OST's are MASSIVE. However there are a handful of new tracks that go for a different spin than usual Xeno tunes, full on jazz fusion. The battle theme is one of the best EVER. Topped off with quite possibly the best gameplay/combat in the history of the entire Xeno-verse up to this point... this game was just pure bliss to play.

The story/characters are an excellent complimentary piece tying into 2 but again, what I'm getting at here is that even on its own, Torna is a huge awesome package complete with its own arcs and chapters. Some fans even like this cast more than 2's! I'd still probably recommend release date order and would play 2 before this but honestly, you could probably go with this if you wanted. It's probably an easier recommendation since it's a more compact and refined Xenoblade experience.

Monolith Soft just get better and better and I'm glad 2 and Torna's sales exceeded expectations. Can't wait for what's next!

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:34 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2018 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat

1-20

21-40

41-60

61. Iconoclasts (Steam)
62. Serial Cleaner (Twitch)
63. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PSVita)
64. Hokuto Ga Gotoku [Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise] (PS4)

65. Pokemon Picross (3DS)

My 3DS picross itch was not scratched when I beat the Zelda one back in like January. After 10 months or so of playing the training modes EVERY day and spending 4 bucks on 800 points in-game to unlock stuff, I have FINALLY beaten the last puzzle in this game.

It's a picross game, and it's a fine one, but the F2P parts are really what make or break it as far as I see it. The main Pokemon aspect to this is that you can bring a team of the Pokemon you "catch" (i.e. solved their puzzle) into a puzzle and can use a special power that that type of Pokemon has to make the puzzle easier (trips a certain pattern of blocks, freezes the clock, highlights hints). Each puzzle also has missions you can achieve during them to win points that you can use to unlock more areas (out of 30), expand the number of Pokemon you can take on a mission, or extend your recharge timer (you can place one new block of puzzle every minute after you start depleting the number of your default 200).

The powers and missions often meet as you need to use a certain power to complete a certain mission in a level, but that means to get the points for that you HAVE to make it easier, even if you just wanna play it like a normal picross puzzle. That on top of the absolutely GLACIAL pace of unlocking more areas (it's usually about 10-14 days of playing the training mode as your only interaction with the game) that make it a bit of a hard sell as a F2P game. It's fine if you wanted to just pay for the stuff, and that also means you don't need to care about the missions as the points they earn you are meaningless as you've effectively already unlocked everything.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. A bit too slow-paced for a F2P game, but it is technically entirely completable free. It's a neat distraction, but your money would probably be better spent on something like 3D Picross Round 2, which also has several hundred puzzles and in the neat 3D spin-off of picross :3

Post by **MrPopo** » Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:10 am

First 50:

51. Legacy of Kain: Defiance - PC
52. Iconoclasts - PC
53. Slain: Back From Hell - PC
54. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - N64

So here I am, growing older all the time, looking older all the time, feeling younger in my mind. The last part is thanks to playing an old favorite that I never owned but rented a lot: the N64 version of THPS. I've always enjoyed the series, and when Elkin was liquidating it I just had to snag it. And it's just as good as I remember.

THPS is the establishing game for the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series and Neversoft really nailed it the first time out. It was created to cash in on the popularity of skateboarding in the late 90s, which culminated in Tony Hawk nailing that 900 at the 1999 X-Games. The game was already in development at the time, but that ended up being a nice shot in the arm for it (and he wisely sold his name rights for per-copy royalties, rather than a lump sum, which did very well for him and the other skaters in the game). The dev team was really determined to capture the essence of professional skateboarding, while still making various concessions for more fun gameplay compared to realism. The big one that sticks out based on footage I've seen of live skateboarding is the grind tricks; you can do those really slowly in game.

The gameplay loop is you get two minutes to jam out to some late 90s alternative music while trying to accomplish a total of five goals in a level. These goals fall into five categories: collect the five letters that spell SKATE, collect a hidden tape, do something to five objects (grind them, crash into them, etc), and then two score goals, an easy one and a hard one. Each of these goals awards you a tape, and akin to the stars in Super Mario 64 these are used to gate your progress. In order to get to the next level you need a certain number of tapes. There are also three competitions in the game, which is a one minute chance to get as high a score as possible, across three heats (best two scores). In the competitions you have a more tailor made space for playing, so higher scores are easier than in the regular levels (which are intended to be "real" locations). The first two gate the level that follows them, while the third is the climax of the game.

The game has a very intuitive system of holding a direction and pressing one of the three trick buttons. Grinds are used to traverse on edges and poles, and when going off a ramp you can do either flips or holds. Flips tend to be faster but also score less points. The game encourages you to combo, as if you do multiple tricks in a single stream you will have all their individual points summed up and then the entire thing multiplied by the number of tricks. So there's a risk reward (especially with the grinds, which get more unstable the longer you go) to try and get a big combo string, as the point growth is exponential. It's definitely in the simple to learn, hard to master category, as getting higher combos requires you to be planning out things before you start and understanding how to use your specials and get in that one last trick for the multiplier.

If any of you guys are looking to unload a Dreamcast copy of 2 or a Gamecube copy of 3 hit me up. My brother had 2 on the DC years ago and I pirated 3 on the PC back in high school, and I'd love to get into them again.

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 10:55 am

Partridge Senpai's 2018 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat

1-20

21-40

41-60

61. Iconoclasts (Steam)
62. Serial Cleaner (Twitch)
63. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PSVita)
64. Hokuto Ga Gotoku [Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise] (PS4)
65. Pokemon Picross (3DS)

66. 3D Picross: Round 2 (3DS)

I really liked the first 3D Picross on DS, so I was of course very excited when I heard they were making a 2nd one for 3DS. In typical me-fashion, I waited ages until it was on sale so I could get a physical version from Japan (didn't come out physically here), and then waited even longer to eventually play it in the first place XD . I finally started it a couple weeks ago, and then 56.5 hours later, I finished it XD . This game has a TON of puzzles, and they're really good fun! I played through the whole game on "Bitter" difficulty, and got rainbow rank on all 364 puzzles as well as unlocking all but 1 amiibo puzzle (I don't have a Link amiibo XP).

3D Picross turns the traditional picross formula on its side by putting it in the third dimension. Instead of several numbers indicating how many sets of unbroken blocks are in a 2D picture, each puzzle has a series of blocks with solid numbers on them. A plain number indicates a single unbroken stream of blocks, a number in a circle indicates the set is in two sets, and a number in a square indicates three or more sets. 3D Picross 2 ups the ante on that even more by making it not just numbers, but colored numbers. Now blocks can have clues for both orange and blue numbers, both of which can have the aforementioned shape modifiers. Orange blocks indicate a block that will be modified or curved upon the completion of the puzzle, while blue blocks are ones that will stay blocky. Even more-so than 3D Picross 1, the two sets of colors/numbers means re-teaching yourself how to 3D Picross all over again, and it's SO worth it for how tough and mind-bending some of the puzzles are.

The game does have some features to make the game more palatable for everyone though. I played on the hardest "Bitter" difficulty, but there are two other flavors of lower difficulties that provide more hints in each puzzle (Bitter is effectively having exactly enough information to complete the puzzles: no more no less). The game even sets the starting difficulty for you depending on how much trouble you have on the tutorial stages. You get higher ranks depending on how quickly you complete each puzzle and on how few mistakes you have, and higher difficulties provide higher points modifiers at the end (how many diamond (the second highest) ranks you have as well as how many points and how many sets you've completed unlock new puzzles to play). The music is good, as well are the puzzles, although give the game is so long I'd really recommend some good podcasts to listen to while you're going through them, as there aren't THAT many music tracks in the game.

The only real mechanical issue I have with the game would be that it can be hard to tell if you've completed a section or not because of how the colors look. The colors fade a bit when you've done all of that color's blocks in a line, but it can be hard to tell, particularly with the orange numbers on an orange block, if you've got it dimmed out or not. The same goes with how hard it can be to see the numbers on the much larger puzzles, as there is no dedicated zoom feature. I played this on a 2DS XL, and I can only imagine how hard it is to see the hint numbers playing on a normal 3DS when there are both colors of hint numbers on a block. Even on my bigger screen, I would frequently mistake a circled number for a squared one and vice versa when it was an orange-on-orange number/color combo. However, unless you're going for rainbow-ranks on everything, this is not that important a complaint, and will only add to your miss-counter. Very few puzzles have the penalty for getting misses as puzzle failures (like 10-15 out of the 364).

Verdict: Highly Recommended. It's probably one of the best picross experiences out there. Graphical information problems aside, with all the difficulty features helping with accessibility, this is a game anyone can pour tons of time into without running out of puzzles to complete. I'd go as far as to say there are TOO many puzzles, because the game just doesn't want you to run out of puzzles to complete. Play as many or as little as you want, as easy or as tough as you want, and you can still have a great time with 3D Picross 2 ^w^

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:07 pm

First 50

51. Knightmare Tower (iOS)
52. 80s Overdrive (3DS)
53. Hitman Go (iOS)
54. Deus Ex Go (iOS)
55. Ecco the Dolphin (Genesis)
56. Double Dragon IV (iOS)
57. Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
58. Double Dragon (GB)
59. Shadow Tower (PS1)
60. Double Dragon 3: The Sacred Stones (NES)
61. Double Dragon II (GB)
62. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap (SMS)
63. Legend of the Dark Witch Ep. 2 The Price of Desire (3DS)
64. Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis)
65. Costume Quest 2 (PS3)
66. Resident Evil (NDS)
67. Pang Adventures (iOS)
68. Resident Evil Deadly Silence (NDS)
69. Cube Escape: Paradox (iOS)
70. Time Soldiers (Arcade)
71. The Dynastic Hero (TG16)
72. Monster World IV (Genesis)

Monster World IV (Genesis) is the last game in the Wonder Boy/Monster World series. Wonder Boy/Shion, however, is only mentioned in it (which is probably why Sega dropped the Wonder Boy moniker). Rather,, you play as Asha, a cute green-haired warrior girl who jumps, swings a sword, raises a shield, and uses her little blue pet to float and solve very basic puzzles. (The game also has a middle-eastern setting, and it undoubtedly serves as an aesthetic inspiration for WayForward’s Shantae series.) The gameplay is, in many ways, drastically simplified from its predecessors, and it takes a more traditional, level-based approach to game design. It is also very, very easy, despite its many, fun boss fights. Finally, the game looks absolutely fantastic, with bold, bright colors, big, well-animated, well-defined sprites, and so, so much parallax scrolling. I had good time with it, and while it isn’t the best game is the series, it is still a fun, breezy, action-platformer that has a lot going for it.

....and...that’s the end of the Adventure Island/Monster World/Wonder Boy series for me! Inspired by one of Noise’s Together Retro proposals, I set out early in the year to beat every game in those related series and all of their significantly modified ports, and now I’ve done it. It was a fun way to interact with my favorite medium and a good inspiration for playing through some games I likely would have left on the shelf indefinitely. There are still a few stragglers - I never could emulate Bug Honey (Famicom) very well, and I’d like to play through Wonder Boy Remastered, The Dragon’s Trap remake, and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom at some point - but I am satisfied with my accomplishment. I will also likely try another big series run in 2019, but it is unlikely I will find anything as interesting and as sprawling as the Adventure Island/Monster World/Wonder Boy series ever again.

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:28 pm

First 50:

51. Legacy of Kain: Defiance - PC
52. Iconoclasts - PC
53. Slain: Back From Hell - PC
54. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - N64
55. Warcraft II - PC

Warcraft II was my introduction to Blizzard; my cousin brought his copy to my house one time to have something to do during a family gathering and I was smitten by this new game concept. I was able to get a copy of the Battlechest later that year and spent a lot of time with it. I always found it too hard when I was young, and found Command & Conquer to be the more beatable game. Now that I'm older, I'd say that it's less that Warcraft II is harder and more that the lack of group keys and/or attack move and the nature of Warcraft II's economy that was hard for me back then. Now, I'd say it's about as hard as C&C.

Warcraft II is the much better sequel to Warcraft I. It's set after the Orc ending of Warcraft II, though many of the events of the Human campaign also happened. The Human forces have now joined with other nations to try and repel the Orcish Horde, which is chasing them across the sea. This game greatly expands the scope of your army; in addition to analogs for every unit in Warcraft I there is now sea and air units available. And unlike C&C Red Alert, which would come out the following year, the sea units are very heavily integrated into everything. Outside of the first couple tutorial missions, the vast majority of the maps have sea power as a major factor in success or defeat (and many times is required, as you'll need to use transports to assault enemy islands).

What separates the Warcraft II economy from the Command & Conquer economy, and isn't necessarily intuitive, is the fact that you want to spam workers. In C&C buildings are constructed magically through the sidebar and you can only support between two and four harvesters, depending on the specifics of the map. With Warcraft II (and it would continue into StarCraft) you want to get a ton of your worker units. Toss a bunch at the gold mine and a bunch more at the trees. Each additional unit translates into additional gain without much limit. So if you're only tossing a handful of workers out you'll always be stymied by a lack of resources. Learning this through my time doing StarCraft ladder back in Wings of Liberty (before people learned how to counter MMM) translated to a much more successful run through Warcraft II.

The other hurdle going back to this game is the fact you can only select 9 units at a time and there is no way to save that group selection for later. This is definitely an edge that C&C had over it (and this was fixed in StarCraft). Additionally, there is no concept of an attack move, where you say "move here and fight anything that gets in your way". This is another thing fixed in StarCraft, but the omission of both means that managing an army tends to be very micro heavy and you'll frequently find yourself limiting yourself to engagements of 9 primary units at a time, with maybe a support force behind (such as siege engines). C&C also lacked an attack move, but the group hotkeys made up for it. Ideally you want both in an RTS, but having one of the two lets you manage large armies reasonable well.

The game has a pretty good difficulty curve to it; as enemy units are introduced you tend to get counterparts either on that map or on the following map. The enemy AI isn't super bright; it tends to have a couple of preprogrammed attacks it will engage in, so you can learn how to counter them by setting up a kill zone. The big thing is that the AI will only rebuild its town hall; no other buildings. So taking out a key production facility (such as a shipyard on an island map) will neuter the enemy's ability to attack. The computer also doesn't mass units; instead it will have its initial units, whatever it builds to attack you, and maybe a handful of automatic defenders (such as ranged units when you attack with air units). So an enemy who you have strangled out from attacking you won't compensate by building a giant ground force. This is a good thing, too, because the computer doesn't actually use resources; its workers gather to look good and to deny you resources when you take their base.

One thing I noticed is that resources are frequently very tight. Once I was past the halfway point of the game I was needing to use up every expansion, including enemy secondary bases, in order to sustain my attacks. I suspect some of this is a matter of the fact that I would lose an army regularly as part of an attack which would have been mitigated if I could reliably control a larger force (strength in numbers to quickly kill enemies and mitigate damage to my arm), but some of it is just the map being designed to require you to make do with what you have.

Overall, the Orc campaign ends up being a bit easier; the Human campaign has several missions where you need to take a starting force and establish a foothold to even begin building a base, and the last couple of them are particularly challenging to get going. And the final Human mission stays as a constant threat until you wipe out most of the enemy forces, as the last enemies you'll take out are the base sending dragon hordes at you. The nearest equivalent is the third to last Orc mission, where you're on a fairly strict timer to get a sufficient navy up. If you don't then you're screwed, but if you do you can quickly turn that into destroying all enemy sea forces and take your time with the remainder of the mission. The final Human mission is no such luck; you need a large enough base defense to turn back dragons AND a revenue stream large enough to build enough gryphons to destroy the dragon base, and that will require you to take out the other large enemy base to get their rich gold mine.

While the game can be a bit challenging to control, it actually ended up being easier than I remember. If you're reasonably comfortable with RTS theory then Warcraft II is worth a play.

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Mon Dec 03, 2018 11:06 am

Partridge Senpai's 2018 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat

1-20

21-40

41-60

61. Iconoclasts (Steam)
62. Serial Cleaner (Twitch)
63. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PSVita)
64. Hokuto Ga Gotoku [Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise] (PS4)
65. Pokemon Picross (3DS)
66. 3D Picross: Round 2 (3DS)

67. Vampyr (PS4)

I thought this game looked cool, and I'd heard good things about it, but I honestly went into this game more or less blind. Given how that could very much be setting myself up for failure, I enjoyed the hell outta this game. I played the game on a PS4 Slim, and I beat it without killing any NPC characters and it took me about 35-40 hours.

Vampyr follows the story of Doctor Johnathan Reid, a combat medic just returning to London from the French front in the final days of the first World War. He wakes up after being thrown in a mass grave with an unquenchable thirst for blood, and ends up feasting on the first human he sees, which is unfortunately his sister Mary. With barely any time to grieve for the sister he just unwittingly murdered, he is chased from the scene by vicious vampire hunters. This begins his quest to not only learn about who made him a vampire and why, but also how to bring relief to London from the horrible plague of the Spanish Flu. Vampyr really goes out of its way to take its own twist on the concept of a secret society of vampires, and I really enjoyed the world building and overall narrative. The guilt Dr. Reid feels for murdering his sister gives him a very good grounding point as a character, and is a very clever narrative conceit for why he isn't just some mass-murdering maniac now that he has such powers of unlife.

The main narrative/gameplay gimmick that sets Vampyr apart from something like Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines (other than the better performance and combat) is how you gain XP. While, like VtMB, you only really gain XP from doing quests (you do gain XP from combat in this, but barely any at all), the other main way to gain XP is by drinking blood from (and killing) NPC characters. As you go through the game, your "mesmerize" level goes up, and once it hits the level of a certain NPC, you can mesmerize them, take them into a shadowy corner, and drain them like a juice can for a BIG boost of extra XP.

You also get far more XP from them if you take time to talk to them and learn about them through dialogue choices, eavesdropping, and asking other characters about them. You can honestly spend a good few hours JUST talking to people once you hit a new area if you're so inclined, as there are plenty of people to talk to, and it's all voice acted quite well. You don't have to if you don't want to (you can just mash square to skip the dialogue if you so please), but the amount of XP you get for learning the extra facts about characters really starts to add up, as does the XP you get from their quests, so interacting with them on some level, while optional, is highly recommended even if you're just gonna eat 'em all eventually XD. The game's combat isn't the most difficult thing in the world, and you can make up for low levels by upgrading your weapons a bunch, but the combat is certainly involved enough that it can be veeery tempting to take out a few NPC's to get your levels up to a point where they perhaps should be. The game also has a Bloodborne-style auto-saving system, so you only have one save file and you cannot go back on any decisions you make.

And letting NPC's live for story reasons (like because you don't wanna kill anyone, like I did) isn't the only reason to let them live. Districts have an overall health rating that goes off of how many people in it are still alive as well as how well they are (characters can get sick and you can give them medicines you make to make them well again). The higher the rating, the lower prices are in that region's stores. However, should a district get below 50% health, that district is fallen to the plague. A fallen district loses ALL it's remaining NPC's (they go "missing"), so their quests effectively disappear if you haven't done them yet, and the district gets filled with lots of more dangerous enemies as well. A district can also fall if no one is killed but everyone gets too sick with serious illnesses. Illnesses develop every time you go to bed, and you need to go to bed to level up (think of it like leveling at a bonfire in Dark Souls), and an illness will slowly get worse over several days until it reaches level 3. If a lot of characters in a district have level 3 illnesses, the district can also fall, but it takes quite a while to get to this point, so you don't actually NEED to be constantly going back and forth, playing doctor and delivering medicine every time you go to sleep. You have time to wait until it gets bad-bad-bad if you really care that much.

The combat is like if Yakuza borrowed Bloodborne's combat (but not the difficulty) and aesthetic but swapped the Victorian Lovecraft for 1918 London Vampires. The combat is far more like Bloodborne in the sense that you have a primary melee weapon, an offhand weapon you can use for stabbing to collect blood (mana) or stun enemies that can also be a firearm, and a dodge move all connected to a stamina bar that you gotta let refill before doing tons of stuff again. The enemy variety is more like Yakuza in the sense that there aren't a ton of really crazy and outlandish bosses like Bloodborne has. A lot of the enemies you're fighting have fairly recognizable abilities and while they are usually quite a danger to you, there isn't a ton of enemy variety. More or less all of the sub-bosses are just very strong versions of existing enemies, but the big bosses thankfully do have more unique elements to them that make them stand out a bit more.

I played this game on a normal PS4, and it REALLY shows. The game is quite a bit like Bloodborne again (at least how it originally was) in that this game has some feckin' LONG load times. There aren't that many, thankfully, but when you're going into a new map (i.e. inside a building) or going back outside a building, the loading times can approach like 20 or 30 seconds. Also, if you're running from area to area without really stopping, the game will stop to load in the new area. The framerate also has some problems, especially when lots of NPC's are on screen, but it honestly never really affects the gameplay. I would normally totally expect a game like this to have the combat really suffer from the framerate, but the combat sections were always really well optimized for me and I never had any problems. It's more-so when you're running around crowded safe-NPC areas that it will jump and hiccup a bit, but even then it's never to a really annoying effect, just a noticeable one.

The presentation is good, but a bit affected by the hardware. This is definitely more of a "AA game" compared to a AAA game. Like, if this were a higher budget title, it'd probably have several outfits for Dr. Reid to wear, the character animations during dialogue would probably be a bit more extensive, there'd probably be more voice actors. That said, what's here is still very well done. It's far from something like Red Dead 2 as far as production value is concerned, but it's still a game that looks and sounds nice.

EDIT: Bogus reminded me of something very important: the difficulty modes! I played through the game on normal mode, but the game got patched a few months after its Summer launch to add in two new modes: story mode and hard mode. Hard mode REALLY emphasizes the sacrificing NPC's for XP mechanic. Enemies gave barely any XP before, and now they give even less as well as hit far harder, so you really need to carefully consider whom you're going to eat and when, because you're almost certainly going to need to. On the other hand, Story mode takes a very Nintendo approach of letting you basically turn off the combat (and make story fights super easy), letting you enjoy the story and decision making even if you don't like action games. I love it when games do stuff like this <3

Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is probably one of my favorite games I've played this year. It's almost certainly my favorite game I've played that released this year (granted I've played like, 5 of them including this XD ). The combat is super fun, the story is well told and engaging, the world is familiar but new. It's all around an excellent game, and it's left me super excited for the next project this team will take on ^w^

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Mon Dec 03, 2018 11:47 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote:I never could emulate Bug Honey (Famicom) very well

What were you using? I'd like to get this game and play it on the RetroFreak (eventually).

Agreed with your thoughts about Monster World IV (I think) -- I played the game via Steam, and it was delisted whilst I was about halfway through which killed my save. The perils of digital gaming! I do have it on the VC so I may give it another go soon. My daughter enjoys it, which is no surprise.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:18 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:
prfsnl_gmr wrote:I never could emulate Bug Honey (Famicom) very well

What were you using? I'd like to get this game and play it on the RetroFreak (eventually).

Agreed with your thoughts about Monster World IV (I think) -- I played the game via Steam, and it was delisted whilst I was about halfway through which killed my save. The perils of digital gaming! I do have it on the VC so I may give it another go soon. My daughter enjoys it, which is no surprise.

I tried it on my PSP both with and without a translation patch. In all instances, the graphics during the “breakout” sections - it is a very weird game, BTW - were garbled, and the game crashed at the end of the second level. It is one of those (perhaps intentionally) annoying video games from 1980s Japan, and it’s not really the sort of thing you want to play through repeatedly. Accordingly, I’m planning on picking up a physical copy and giving it a go on my Retron 5.

Monster World IV is pretty solid. Again, it looks amazing, and I can see why your daughters would enjoy it. The gameplay and is pretty simplistic, though, even by Wonder Boy standards. It isn’t a bad game, it just isn’t a great one.

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