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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Tue May 14, 2019 1:15 pm

1. Dusk (PC)(FPS)
2. Project: Snowblind (PC)(FPS)
3. Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition (PC)(FPS)
4. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
5. Wolfenstein 3D: Ultimate Challenge (PC)(FPS)
6. Destiny 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
7. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (PC)(FPS/RPG)
8. Destiny 2: Warmind (PC)(FPS/RPG)

9. Destiny 2: Forsaken (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (PC)(Rail Shooter)

11. Castle Werewolf (PC)(FPS)
12. Project Warlock (PC)(FPS)
13. Castle Crashers (PC)(Hack and Slash)
14. This Strange Realm of Mine (PC)(FPS)
15. BioShock Remastered (PC)(FPS)
16. BioShock 2 (PC)(FPS)
17. BioShock 2: Minerva's Den (PC)(FPS)

18. Blood (PC)(FPS)

With Blood: Fresh Supply finally out on Steam and GOG, I decided I'd go back and revisit an old classic that I had sadly missed the first time around. Sure, I've played Blood II, but it's terrible. I didn't want to let that be my one experience here. With this release, I'm glad I didn't let the bad taste of the sequel get to me. Now the Fresh Supply does include the two expansion episodes, Cryptic Passage and Post Mortem, but I haven't gone through them yet. I figured though that since I've officially beaten the original four episodes, I should go ahead and record my thoughts, then revisit when I finally get around to beating the add-ons.

If you are big on FPS, this game doesn't need an introduction. I'm sure a couple of you are scratching your heads though and asking, "What's Blood?" It's that red fluid in your body. Human motor oil, you know? As for the game, it's a First Person Shooter built on the Build Engine by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive. It's one of the principle trilogy of Build Engine games, held up along with Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior despite there being other games designed using it, such as Witchaven, the PC release of PowerSlave, and even William Shatner's TekWar. We don't talk about TekWar.

In Blood, you play a demonic gunslinger named Caleb who starts the game being double crossed by his demon boss, Tchernobog. He returns to life centuries later with the sole purpose of killing his old boss and every freaking minion that happens to get in his way, which is a lot of them. Tchernobog's got a whole cult, an army of demon critters, and loads of traps at his disposal, as well as his boss mobs that took out Caleb's old crew of pals. Each of the four original episodes involves Caleb going after either one of the bosses or eventually Tchernobog himself, who reveals he had Caleb killed because he knew he'd be back and murder everyone in his wake, thus becoming a great font of souls that Tchernobog plans to feed off of...at least that is until Caleb pumps him full of dynamite and buckshot. Yeah, you probably shouldn't piss off your best killer and then act like everything's gonna be all nice-like when he shows back up to wipe the floor with your face.

But enough about plot, how does it play? Well, that depends a bit on your difficulty, but I'll get to that in a bit. First things first, Blood has fantastic level design. Each new level feels like a direct continuation of the last, so every episode builds on itself. This leads to fantastic results, such as a train station in E1M2 leading to a train level in E1M3, which you crash to arrive at a carnival in E1M4. I absolutely love how this is handled, and the levels are sometimes mazelike but structured in a way where you'll steadily unlock easy paths to backtrack as necessary. I never felt stuck in the base game, there was always something new to go check out and push on, and levels sometimes feel open enough that you don't have to go in a linear approach.

Yes, the levels are dark, and you'll probably get a little tired of looking at the same grey stonework over and over again, but this is alleviated partly through the use of humor. Yeah, Blood is a dark comedy, and Caleb is having a ton of fun murdering whatever gets in his way and making movie references. For example, E4M3 features a furnace room where Caleb mentions A Nightmare on Elm Street. E4M4 is a massive homage to the Friday the 13th film series, complete with a reminiscent soundtrack. The level is even called Crystal Lake. References to other horror media is found throughout, from choking hands that shout "I'll swallow your soul" out of the Evil Dead series to references to Edgar Allen Poe's poetry.

The weapons add to the mayhem and fun too. Caleb has a thing for fire, and multiple weapons can be used to ignite enemies. He also likes explosions, so you better get comfortable lobbing dynamite around, because it will likely save your ass more than once. The weapon I tend to favor is of course a double-barrel, sawed-off shotgun, because it pumps enough buckshot to launch most critters beyond oblivion, but there is also a Tommy gun for when you need to spray and pray, a Tesla cannon for frying some of the big nasties, and even a voodoo doll, because sometimes you just need to make someone feel pain. It's a bizarre mix of firepower that supports self-harm almost as much as it does harming everything else, and it totally works for the chaotic murder-fest that Caleb is unleashing. Also, there's a good chance he's gonna laugh if you blow up enough stuff. You'll probably be laughing with him.

Does it always work? Well, no. Blood has some serious issues with difficulty levels, with enemies going from near worthless to Terminator-esque aimbot snipers depending on what you pick. On the higher difficulties, the general advice is to memorize the location of every enemy in the level and learn what you can skip. Even on the medium difficulties, which is where I default to for a first run, one enemy can put a lot of hurt on you if you don't react quickly or appropriately. You may enter a room and watch yourself immediately drop halfway in health if you're not careful. The Fresh Supply has added in some difficulty tweaks, so you can modify things how you wish, though I haven't played with it enough to say how effective it is.

The Fresh Supply from Night Dive Studios has some other weird bugs right now. I have trouble using the Steam overlay and have to alt-tab out of the game if I want to do something like check my friends list. Certain sound effects are also used by Steam, so I keep thinking I've gotten a message whenever I grab certain items, and the amount of gore fluctuates in a way that Night Dive hasn't been able to fully track because of a lack of consistency. They're working on it, and it's still the easiest way to play Blood in Windows, though if you want a more accurate experience, there is always DOSBox.

Do I like Blood? Hell yeah. I am looking forward to going back for the expansions. I hear at least one of them will create evil mini Calebs if I shatter a mirror. Straight out of Army of Darkness.

Ack's Year of the FPS continues...
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ordinary Gamer Tue May 14, 2019 5:23 pm

The Hong Kong Massacre
Volgarr the Viking
Astro Bot Rescue Mission
The Messenger
Super Daryl Deluxe
The Sexy Brutale


Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - PS4

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Been playing this one on and off again for months, and now I have the Plat. So this is basically a stealth game, but in the style of a game called Commandos that I've never played. My interest in the game came mostly from enjoying ninja stealth games like Tenchu, Mark of the Ninja, etc. The game has a somewhat top down, isometric, perspective to it and a bit of a tactical feel to it. This is because, unlike a typical stealth game, you typically have control over more than one character. You can actually queue up commands for them and then have them simultaneously execute them. Having characters work together like this has cool results. For example, you can set up an ambush for a trio of patrolling guards. The first one walks into a hidden trap set by Yuki (a young female ninja in training), while two of your other characters burst out of hiding and stab the other two guards. If you pull this up off right, all three guards will be dead before they can even react. Sometimes you can pull off other fun strategies too. One character can disguise herself as a civilian woman and distract guards with her feminine wiles, while your other characters sneak past them from behind. The playable characters all have specific strengths and you will have to learn how to leverage them all. For example, your ninjas can't take out samurais, but one of your other characters can. There's even one character who can attack enemies from long range with a rifle, or use his pet to distract enemies

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The game is fairly hard and very punishing. Unlike most stealth games, enemies are smart and have very good vision. That second part will be especially jarring to people used to the practically blind enemies you get in most stealth games. You really have to think your way through every situation as the game is very good at strategic enemy placement making it VERY hard to sneak through certain areas without the right game plan. Also,.every chapter has different optional challenges, including speed runs, something I never even thought I'd ever see in a stealth game. These challenges will force you to play through levels in a variety of different ways. Completing every challenge and going for the Platinum trophy, if you play it on PS4 like I did, is tough but rewarding. Much like Volgarr the Viking, this game advertises itself as a "hardcore" experience. What Volgarr is to 2d platformers, this game is to stealth games. To use a more well known cliche, it's the "Dark Souls" of stealth games. Fortunately, the game does make one concession to players to keep them from hurling controllers across the room. You can save manually at any time. This gives you a lot of leeway to just try different things and not worry if you fail. Also, if you want to cheese your way to that platinum, there is an in game glitch to make the speed run challenges a cinch to complete. Not that I ever stooped to such a thing in getting my Platinum...nope, not me. I'd never even dream of such a thing

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The graphics are nice. It looks...kind of cel shaded. I'm not that great at describing graphics honestly. It all looks appropriately like feudal Japan. The music is good, cinematic at times, and really feels like something out of a samurai movie with a very Asian feel to it. Speaking of which...

The story is a tale involving both samurais and ninjas. It's pretty good. It hits on themes you'd expect if you know anything about samurais and ninjas. The characters are great and the dialog is pretty good. The story is fairly serious and full of drama, though the game does insert some humor from time to time, sometimes in the form of quirky easter eggs for players to find. All in all the game does a good job of making you care about what's going on.

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If there is one flaw to the game, it's that as a port of a PC game, the controls don't feel quite as intuitive when playing on console. Don't get me wrong, it's playable and you'll get used to it. I have a Platinum trophy to attest to that, but I never could shake the feeling that this was meant for mouse and keyboards. Controlling multiple characters is a bit tricky on a controller in some situations, and I've seen videos on youtube of players doing stratagems that I just couldn't pull off on console. I'm not much of PC gamer, but I'd imagine that would be the best way to play this game. You can even see if you look at the screenshots how the interface is a bit different on PC than it is on console. That said though, I still thoroughly enjoyed playing it on console. Just know that there may be parts of the game where you will have to do things the hard way, while someone on PC could probably incorporate a more efficient approach that makes that part of the game easier.

The game is excellent and one of those hidden gems I don't hear people talk much about. On console, I'd rate it a 9/10. And though I haven't played it on PC, just knowing that a mouse/keyboard setup is the one the game was likely designed for, it's probably a 10/10 on that platform. Lastly, the game's title screen is just badass. I'm gonna use a gif here as some of the movement happening onscreen adds to the coolness of this image:

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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Wed May 15, 2019 8:40 am

Games Beaten in 2019 So Far - 23
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. Army Men 3D - PlayStation - January 1*
2. Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished - NES - January 4
3. Mega Man - NES - January 6
4. Mega Man 2 - NES - January 6
5. Mega Man 3 - NES - January 6
6. Mega Man 4 - NES - January 7
7. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - January 7
8. Mega Man 5 - NES - January 26
9. Just Cause 3 - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. Mega Man 6 - NES - January 27
11. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight - Vita - January 27
12. Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space - PlayStation 2 - January 27


February (2 Games Beaten)
13. Earth Defense Force 5 - PlayStation 4 - February 2
14. Fallout 76 - PlayStation 4 - February 3


March (4 Games Beaten)
15. Octopath Traveler - Switch - March 2
16. Resident Evil 0 - PlayStation 4 - March 9
17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - PlayStation 4 - March 10
18. Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade - Game Boy Advance - March 30


April (3 Games Beaten)
19. Moemon - Game Boy Advance - April 5
20. Yoshi's Crafted World - Switch - April 10
21. Wargroove - Switch - April 26


May (2 Games Beaten)
22. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Switch - May 5
23. Battlefield V - PlayStation 4 - May 9


23. Battlefield V - PlayStation 4 - May 9

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Battlefield V was a controversial game upon release to say the least. Fans of multiplayer criticized the game for focusing too much on the single player. Fans of single player criticized the game for focusing too much on multiplayer. History buffs criticized the game for being inaccurate. Misogynists criticized the game for featuring women on the battlefield. With all of that, I wasn't too sure what to expect when I started Battlefield V, but fortunately for me, I don't really agree with much of the criticism at all and ended up having a fantastic time.

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If I were going to agree with any of the criticism, it would be that the game DOES have some historical inaccuracies. For the most part, however, these inaccuracies are creative decisions. The whole point of Battlefield V's campaign is the "untold stories" of World War II. One of the missions has you assume the role of a young Norwegian woman in the Resistance. One has you play as Senegalese soldier fighting for France and encountering European racism for the first time. One - and my personal favorite - has you assume control of a German Tiger commander at the end of the war struggling between his obligation to carry out his duty and the knowledge that the war is lost and his country has committed unforgivable sins. When I first saw that you played as a German commander, I was a bit uneasy. Are they going to try to portray the Germans as somehow less guilty of horrific war crimes? Are they going to just have the player do horrible things to reinforce the point that Nazis are history's shittiest people? Fortunately, however, they didn't do either. They managed to humanize the Germans without sanitizing them. The four characters in the campaign each represent the major archetypes of soldiers. Your character, the commander, is, as I said, struggling with doing his duty despite knowing his country is wrong. The driver is jaded and disillusioned, bitter from the horrific things his people have done in a war they can't win. The gunner is the patriotic party-line toting loyalist who executes traitors without mercy and never questions Germany's righteousness. The loader is the terrified, young recruit who doesn't know what to do, who to believe, or what to trust. They never try to suggest that Germany was right in this war, though, and that's a relief.

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My biggest complaint with the game as far as historical inaccuracies go is their refusal to use the swastika. They make mention of the swastika as a metaphor for German control, but they never use it actually in-game. Everything from uniforms to tanks to symbols on banners in Germany all uses the Iron Cross; there's not a swastika to be seen. Obviously the use of the Iron Cross isn't a problem; it was still a symbol wide used throughout Germany during the war. The problem is the use of the Iron Cross to the total exclusion of the swastika because that is a big point of historical inaccuracy. The Nazis put the swastika up all over Germany. That probably wouldn't bother most people, but as a history teacher, that kind of erasure REALLY irks me.

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I never played the multiplayer as it's just not a feature that really interests me that much, but as for the gameplay in the single player, I was pretty satisfied. I've read that there were a lot of complaints about the accuracy of the weapon models in the game, but while I am a history major, I'm not a gun nut, so I can't speak for how accurate and appropriate the weapon models are. The aiming seemed pretty well polished and responsive, weapons were well detailed, and the firing sound effects are full-bodied and satisfying. The vehicular combat, while fairly limited in most of the single player, is extremely gratifying.

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Battlefield V is definitely not one of the better efforts in the series, but it's still a good bit of fun if you're a fan of World War II shooters. It's definitely not as good as Battlefield 1 was, and it's certainly not the WW2 glory of yesteryear's Battlefield 1942, but the single player is a good experience, and it tells stories that you're not likely to see told elsewhere. That alone won the game some major points in my book considering that I play games for the stories they tell and the experiences they provide. I wouldn't pay any more than $20 for Battlefield V, but if you can find it for that price or less, definitely give it a play.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by MrPopo Wed May 15, 2019 12:01 pm

A couple things for you Elkin. First, did you play Battlefield 1, and if so how does the 5 campaign compare in terms of length and satisfaction? The second, the lack of swastika is entirely because they want to sell the game in Germany without creating an alternate German content patch; the same thing happened with Return to Castle Wolfenstein's multiplayer maps.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Wed May 15, 2019 12:11 pm

Oh, I know why they omitted the swastika. That doesn't change the historical inaccuracy. As for BF1, yes, I've played it. They're about on par, but I think BF5 was a bit more fulfilling.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ordinary Gamer Wed May 15, 2019 7:48 pm

I've seen actual women take issue with Battlefield V's use of them. So I don't understand the "mysogynist" comment. People sure are quick to judge and label these days...which doesn't foster productive conversations between people
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Wed May 15, 2019 8:10 pm

Wait, you've seen women upset that there are women in Battlefield? 90% sure that makes literally zero sense.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Wed May 15, 2019 10:41 pm

I think it’s the reason someone’s upset that matters. Also, it is possible for a woman to be a misogynist.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Thu May 16, 2019 10:53 pm

1. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary (NDS)
2. Reigns (iOS)
3. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
4. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)
5. Castlevania Legends (GB)
6. Yankai’s Triangle (iOS)
7. Mega Man III (GB)
8. Mega Man IV (GB)
9. Mega Man V (GB)
10. Sin & Punishment (N64)
11. Love You to Bits (iOS)
12. Mega Man Powered Up - Old Style (PSP)
13. Mega Man Powered Up - New Style (PSP)
14. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA)
15. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (NDS)
16. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (NDS)
17. Detective Pikachu (3DS)
18. Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
19. Fantasy Zone Gear (GG)
20. Fantasy Zone - The Maze (SMS)
21. Fantasy Zone (Famicom)
22. Fantasy Zone (NES)
23. Kung Fu Master (2600)
24. Kid Dracula (Famicom)
25. Kid Dracula (GB)
26. Fantasy Zone (TG16)
27. Double Dragon V (SNES)
28. Fantasy Zone II (Famicom)
29. Street Fighter: The Movie (PS1)
30. Fire Fly (2600)
31. Pac Man (2600)
32. Extreme Sports with the Berenstain Bears (GBC)
33. Fantasy Zone (PS2)
34. Space Fantasy Zone (TG16)
35. Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Fantasy Zone (Genesis)


I played Street Fighter: The Movie (PS1), Fire Fly (2600), Pac Man (2600), and Extreme Sports with the Berenstain Bears (GBC) for this month’s Together Retro. Two of them are really bad, and two of them aren’t that bad. You can read about them in the Together Retro thread.

Fantasy Zone (PS2) is totally awesome. It is a cel-shaded 2.5D version of the original Fantasy Zone with a lot of extra features including, most notably, a “challenge” mode that lets you play the game’s levels in any order, but with only a single life. It is a great way to practice the main game, and earning money in the “challenge” mode lets you unlock new features, such as the ability to continue, rapid fire, new items in the item shop, and, best of all, four all new levels. Achieving the “good ending in the main game requires unlocking all of the additional, very difficult levels, and then beating an expanded version of the main game. It adds a lot of value and replayability to the game, and the PS2 version is definitely my favorite version of Fantasy Zone.

Space Fantasy Zone (TG16) is an unreleased rail shooter modeled after Space Harrier (which nerds like me will know also takes place in the Fantasy Zone). It is a perfectly fine game that is very easy. (If you just move around a lot, the enemies won’t hit you, and the bosses are pushovers.) Also, the scrolling is ROUGH. The TG16 wasn’t built scale sprites, apparently, and although the game looks and sounds fine - the intro and ending are particularly awesome - I can’t help thinking how much better the game would have been on the Genesis or Super Nintendo.

Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Fantasy Zone (Genesis) is a game hidden in Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf. To access it, you have to hit the ball 100 times on the first hole without landing it in the green. (That’s harder than it sounds, actually.) Once you have failed so miserably at golf, you input a code at the “game over” screen to unlock the game. It is a short score chaser where you pilot Opa Opa, defeat two enemy generators, and the survive for as long as possible. I counted the game as beaten when I defeated the enemy generators and racked up over 10,000 points.

.....

That wraps up the Fantasy Zone series for me! I didn’t quite get to every game, but I have now beaten the overwhelming majority of them. I missed: (1) the Fantasy Zone ports for Japanese home computers (i.e., the MSX, MZ-700, and X6800); (2) the MSX2 version of Fantasy Zone II; (3) the arcade version of Fantasy Zone - The Maze; (4) Galactic Protector for the Mark III; and (5) Fantasy Zone Neo Classic, am enhanced port of the Famicom port of the original Fantasy Zone, for the PS2. I’m most sore about Galactic Protector, but you just can’t play it without a pricey Mark III paddle controller. (One day, maybe... :? ). I also wouldn’t mind playing the MZ-700 and X6800 Fantasy Zone ports or Fantasy Zone Neo Classic someday. I’m perfectly fine skipping the rest, though.

In case anyone’s interested, which I doubt, here’s my ranking of the game’s in the series:

Fantasy Zone II W (3DS/PS2)
Fantasy Zone (PS2)
Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
Fantasy Zone Opa Opa Bros. (3DS)
Fantasy Zone (Arcade)
Fantasy Zone (SMS)
Fantasy Zone (Famicom)
Space Fantasy Zone (TG16)
Fantasy Zone (TG16)
Fantasy Zone (NES)
Fantasy Zone II - The Tears of Opa Opa (SMS)
Fantasy Zone II - The Tears of Opa Opa (Famicom)
Fantasy Zone - The Maze (SMS)
Fantasy Zone Gear (GG)
Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Fri May 17, 2019 7:42 am

Games Beaten in 2019 So Far - 24
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. Army Men 3D - PlayStation - January 1*
2. Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished - NES - January 4
3. Mega Man - NES - January 6
4. Mega Man 2 - NES - January 6
5. Mega Man 3 - NES - January 6
6. Mega Man 4 - NES - January 7
7. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - January 7
8. Mega Man 5 - NES - January 26
9. Just Cause 3 - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. Mega Man 6 - NES - January 27
11. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight - Vita - January 27
12. Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space - PlayStation 2 - January 27


February (2 Games Beaten)
13. Earth Defense Force 5 - PlayStation 4 - February 2
14. Fallout 76 - PlayStation 4 - February 3


March (4 Games Beaten)
15. Octopath Traveler - Switch - March 2
16. Resident Evil 0 - PlayStation 4 - March 9
17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - PlayStation 4 - March 10
18. Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade - Game Boy Advance - March 30


April (3 Games Beaten)
19. Moemon - Game Boy Advance - April 5
20. Yoshi's Crafted World - Switch - April 10
21. Wargroove - Switch - April 26


May (3 Games Beaten)
22. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Switch - May 5
23. Battlefield V - PlayStation 4 - May 9
24. Timespinner - PlayStation 4 - May 12


24. Timespinner - PlayStation 4 - May 12

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Timespinner is a game I've had a handful of friends urging me to play for a good while. I'm normally not the biggest fan of Metroidvania style games, but I have to admit, this one is truly fantastic. I've never had a problem with Metroidvania games, but as a style, it just doesn't usually do it for me. Timespinner, however, is just a brilliant game from start to finish.

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You play as this top-tier waifu chick with blue hair name Lunais who's part of a clan that guards a chronomantic relic called the Timespinner. This clan trains people called Time Messengers whose job is to use the Timespinner to travel to the past to warn the clan about some catastrophe so that they might avoid it. As tensions with a stellar empire attempting to colonize their planet further deteriorate, these Time Messengers have become more and more important, and at the game's start, your character is officially named the newest Time Messenger. Then plot progression happens, and you set off on a quest to kill the emperor all by yourself to avenge your slain clan.

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Timespinner is actually set over two time periods. It takes places in the same area but partly around the same time as the prologue and partly a millennium in the past. Once you reach a certain point in the game, you travel between the two time periods from portals scattered throughout the world. During your adventure, you're armed with two weapons, a pair of close range orbs for bashing enemies and a magic attack based on your orb for foes at longer range. As you explore, you help a stranded raiding party trapped behind enemy lines 1000 years in the past as well as a library in the imperial capital in the present as you investigate what happened in the past and what changed in the present as a result of your actions in the past.

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Mechanically, the game is superb. The controls, both for movement and attack, feel crisp at responsive at all times. The platforming is sublime with only one instance I found to be more annoying than fun. There are numerous orbs that can be collected for use in combat, and each of those orbs can be upgraded to improve their combat ability, crafted into rings for passive benefits, or crafted into necklaces to unlock new magical attacks. The variety of loadout options as well as the relatively short playthrough time and multiple endings in the game create a good bit of replay value. If you find the game too easy, there's a hard difficulty, and if you're fond of speedruns, there's a speedrun mode so you can try to beat your best time. All things said, there's pretty much something for everyone here.

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Timespinner is a fantastic game with a compelling narrative, a beautifully crafted world, and addicting gameplay. The story, revolving mainly around imperialism and the moral ambiguity of independence movements and despotism, is somewhat slow to get going, but once the world building starts to unfold, it's an intriguing plot. The game's cast of characters are wonderfully diverse, but unlike most games, they don't really make a big deal of it. Some characters are gay, and you just find that out in passing dialogue. They're not like J.K. Rowling on Twitter going "HEY GUYS, DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS CHARACTER IS GAY?!?" They do the same with an asexual character, a transgender character, etc. With the importance of representation in games so paramount as time goes on, that kind of thing gets some major props from me even though I'm a white cisgender straight male, the most over-represented demographic there is in gaming. Long story short, this is one of those games that comes along once every few years that really does stand out as something special, and y'all are doing yourselves a major disservice by skipping out on it.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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