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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by ElkinFencer10 Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:26 am

Games Beaten in 2021 - 69
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. God of War - PlayStation 3 - January 1
2. God of War II - PlayStation 3 - January 2
3. God of War: Chains of Olympus - PlayStation 3 - January 3
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta - PlayStation 3 - January 4
5. God of War III - PlayStation 4 - January 6
6. God of War: Ascension - PlayStation 3 - January 9
7. God of War [2018] - PlayStation 4 - January 16
8. Epic Dumpster Bear 2: He Who Bears Wins - PlayStation 4 - January 16
9. God of War: Betrayal - Mobile - January 17
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Switch - January 18
11. Muv-Luv photonflowers* - Steam - January 22
12. Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮ - Steam - January 27


February (5 Games Beaten)
13. Gun Gun Pixies - Switch - February 1
14. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 - February 8*
15. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - Vita - February 13
16. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 - February 17*
17. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Steam - February 23


March (3 Games Beaten)
18. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Steam - March 4
19. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3rd - Steam - March 7
20. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4 - March 21


April (7 Games Beaten)
21. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4 - April 5
22. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 00 - Steam - April 7
23. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 01 - Steam - April 10
24. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 02 - Steam - April 11
25. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 03 - Steam - April 13
26. Neptunia Virtual Stars - PS4 - April 18
27. Before Your Eyes - Steam - April 18


May (9 Games Beaten)
28. New Pokemon Snap - Switch - May 2
29. Resident Evil 8: Village - PS5 - May 8
30. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Switch - May 15
31. Torment: Tides of Numenera - Xbox One - May 18
32. Pepsiman - PS1 - May 20
33. Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo: The Card Fighters - Switch - May 20
34. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure - Switch - May 23
35. Planetscape: Torment - Steam - May 26
36. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Switch - May 31


June (17 Games Beaten)
37. Hentai vs Evil - Switch - June 1
38. Troll and I - Switch - June 2
39. Zombie Army 4: Dead War - PlayStation 4 - June 5
40. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Switch - June 6
41. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16 - June 7
42. Puyo Puyo 2 - Game Gear - June 17
43. Yakuza 0 - Playstation 4 - June 19
44. Neptunia Shooter - Playstation 5 - June 20
45. Little Samson - NES - June 22
46. Tiger-Heli - NES - June 23
47. Blaster Master - NES - June 23
48. Gun-Nac - NES - June 24
49. Rollerblade Racer - NES - June 25
50. Marble Madness - NES - June 25
51. Metroid - NES - June 25
52. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch - June 26
53. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA - June 28
54. Metroid II: Return of Samus - Game Boy - June 29


July (15 Games Beaten)
55. Super Metroid - SNES - July 1
56. Where's Waldo? - NES - July 1
57. Metroid Fusion - GBA - July 2
58. Neptunia ReVerse - PlayStation 5 - July 3
59. Tetris Effect: Connected - Series X - July 3
60. Battletoads - Xbox One - July 4
61. Chicken Police: Paint it Red! - Switch - July 5
62. The Falconeer - Series X - July 7
63. Astral Chain - Switch - July 10
64. Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus - NES - July 12
65. Skull and Crossbones - NES - July 12
66. Sky Kid - NES - July 12
67. Top Gun - NES - July 12
68. Top Gun: The Second Mission - NES - July 13
69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13


69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13

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Mega Man 7 is a game that I never heard much about when I was growing up. It was a fairly late release in the SNES lifespan, it always seemed overshadowed by the Mega Man X series as far as 16-bit entries went. It didn’t make it into the first Mega Man Legacy Collection, but it did make it into Legacy Collection 2. Still, though, having played through the six NES games a few years ago, I figured it was worth playing through, and I gotta say, I’m glad I did.

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Mega Man 7 is very much just the NES games but in 16-bits instead of 8-bit as far as gameplay goes. If you’ve played those games, just imagine it with SNES graphics, and you’ve pretty much got it. Like the NES games, the actual stages are the hard part of the game for the most part with the eight robot masters being pretty easy once you figure out their attack patterns. The exceptions to this are some of the bosses in Dr. Wily’s castle at the end. The last three bosses, specifically, were about to make me pull my hair out, especially the final Dr. Wily fight.

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Frustrating bosses aside, the biggest issue I had with the game was slowdown. There typically wasn’t an enormous amount of slowdown, but it was definitely frequent and noticeable enough to stand out as worth mentioning. Truthfully, the game’s biggest flaw is that it’s just more of the same. Especially upon its release, the Mega Man series was suffering from the same problem that plagues Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed today - repetitive yearly releases that don’t really change that much. Mega Man 7 is a solidly good game, but it doesn’t really do anything to stand out from the previous mainline entries aside from being on more powerful hardware, and it just doesn’t manage to be as cool or addicting as the Mega Man X series.

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Mega Man 7’s good. Honestly, it’s really good. It’s stale, though. The first few NES games felt fresh because Mega Man was new, and the Mega Man X games added enough in the way of mechanics and plot elements to feel exciting and distinct. Mega Man 7 doesn’t have either of those things going for it. There’s a lot to be said for “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but when you’ve already not only fixed but improved upon it, you really shouldn’t go back, and that’s what it feels like Mega Man 7 did. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it just feels like a step back rather than forward or even to the side.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by prfsnl_gmr Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:13 pm

Awesome reviews, Elk. I’m happy to see you catching up on some of my favorite games from my youth, such as Sky Kid and Top Gun.

…..

First 30
1. Horace (Switch)
2. Ghostrunner (Switch)
3. Mickey’s Adventure in Numberland (NES)
4. Mickey’s Safari in Letterland (NES)
5. Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis)
6. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Picross (3DS)
7. World of Illusion starring Mickey & Donald (Genesis)
8. Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (Game Gear)
9. Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (Game Gear)
10. Legend of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (Game Gear)
11. Portal 2 [co-op] (PS3)
12. Operencia: The Stolen Sun (Switch)
13. The Knight of Queen (Switch)
14. Q.U.B.E. - Director’s Cut (PS3)
15. What the Golf?! (Switch)
16. Prune (iOS)
17. Kenshō (iOS)
18. For the Frog the Bell Tolls (GameBoy)
19. Holedown (iOS)
20. King’s Field (PS1)
21. My Friend Pedro (Switch)
22. MO: Astray (Switch)
23. EQI (Switch)
24. Foxyland (Switch)
25. Carrion (Switch)
26. QUBE 2 (Switch)
27. Aaero (Switch)
28. Portal 2 (PS3)
29. Alwa’s Awakening (Switch)
30. Alwa’s Legacy (Switch)

31. Mega Man 11 (Switch)
32. Superliminal (Switch)
33. Shantae & The Seven Sirens (Switch)
34. Halo 3 (360)
35. Legacy of the Wizard (NES)
36. Robo Warrior (NES)
37. Blaster Master Boy (GB)


Although published by Jaleco in the US, Robo Warrior was developed by Hudson, and originally released in Japan as Bomber King, a spin-off of Hudson’s Bomberman. (With it’s more serious tone, Bomber King is like the original Bomberman: Act Zero.) Hudson released its sequel in Japan as Bomber King: Scenario 2, but Sunsoft published the game in the U.S. as Blaster Master Boy, the first ostensible sequel to Blaster Master. (Since Robo Warrior was released a year before Blaster Master and since Blaster Master Boy was released two years before Blaster Master 2, the Bomber King games are, in a sense, the first and third games in the long-running Blaster Master series.)

I played Robo Warrior for this month’s TR, and I wrote about it a lot in the TR thread. In short, it has solid mechanics, good graphics, good music, and terrible, tedious design. Not recommended.

Blaster Master Boy, on the other hand, is really great. It fixes, literally, everything that was wrong with the first game, and it is easily one of the best top-down action games on the GB. Great graphics, great sound, fun levels, memorable boss fights…the game really has it all. Playing a bit like the overhead sections of Blaster Master stretched out to game length and sprinkled with a few elements from Bomberman, Blaster Master Boy is just a lot of fun. (It is dragged down a bit by some “dark” levels towards the end, but if you go into it knowing that you need to stockpile lanterns, you’ll be OK.) Highly recommended.
Last edited by prfsnl_gmr on Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by PartridgeSenpai Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:28 am

You are shockingly kind to Mega Man 7, Elkin XD
A good balance of opinion compared to my review from a few months back, I suppose X3

---

You're really making me wanna try Blaster Master Boy, Prfsnl. That sounds great ^w^
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by ElkinFencer10 Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:22 am

Haha, well, as popo will tell you, my opinions on games often deviate from the norm.

Games Beaten in 2021 - 70
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. God of War - PlayStation 3 - January 1
2. God of War II - PlayStation 3 - January 2
3. God of War: Chains of Olympus - PlayStation 3 - January 3
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta - PlayStation 3 - January 4
5. God of War III - PlayStation 4 - January 6
6. God of War: Ascension - PlayStation 3 - January 9
7. God of War [2018] - PlayStation 4 - January 16
8. Epic Dumpster Bear 2: He Who Bears Wins - PlayStation 4 - January 16
9. God of War: Betrayal - Mobile - January 17
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Switch - January 18
11. Muv-Luv photonflowers* - Steam - January 22
12. Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮ - Steam - January 27


February (5 Games Beaten)
13. Gun Gun Pixies - Switch - February 1
14. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 - February 8*
15. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - Vita - February 13
16. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 - February 17*
17. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Steam - February 23


March (3 Games Beaten)
18. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Steam - March 4
19. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3rd - Steam - March 7
20. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4 - March 21


April (7 Games Beaten)
21. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4 - April 5
22. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 00 - Steam - April 7
23. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 01 - Steam - April 10
24. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 02 - Steam - April 11
25. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 03 - Steam - April 13
26. Neptunia Virtual Stars - PS4 - April 18
27. Before Your Eyes - Steam - April 18


May (9 Games Beaten)
28. New Pokemon Snap - Switch - May 2
29. Resident Evil 8: Village - PS5 - May 8
30. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Switch - May 15
31. Torment: Tides of Numenera - Xbox One - May 18
32. Pepsiman - PS1 - May 20
33. Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo: The Card Fighters - Switch - May 20
34. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure - Switch - May 23
35. Planetscape: Torment - Steam - May 26
36. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Switch - May 31


June (17 Games Beaten)
37. Hentai vs Evil - Switch - June 1
38. Troll and I - Switch - June 2
39. Zombie Army 4: Dead War - PlayStation 4 - June 5
40. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Switch - June 6
41. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16 - June 7
42. Puyo Puyo 2 - Game Gear - June 17
43. Yakuza 0 - Playstation 4 - June 19
44. Neptunia Shooter - Playstation 5 - June 20
45. Little Samson - NES - June 22
46. Tiger-Heli - NES - June 23
47. Blaster Master - NES - June 23
48. Gun-Nac - NES - June 24
49. Rollerblade Racer - NES - June 25
50. Marble Madness - NES - June 25
51. Metroid - NES - June 25
52. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch - June 26
53. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA - June 28
54. Metroid II: Return of Samus - Game Boy - June 29


July (16 Games Beaten)
55. Super Metroid - SNES - July 1
56. Where's Waldo? - NES - July 1
57. Metroid Fusion - GBA - July 2
58. Neptunia ReVerse - PlayStation 5 - July 3
59. Tetris Effect: Connected - Series X - July 3
60. Battletoads - Xbox One - July 4
61. Chicken Police: Paint it Red! - Switch - July 5
62. The Falconeer - Series X - July 7
63. Astral Chain - Switch - July 10
64. Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus - NES - July 12
65. Skull and Crossbones - NES - July 12
66. Sky Kid - NES - July 12
67. Top Gun - NES - July 12
68. Top Gun: The Second Mission - NES - July 13
69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13
70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14


70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14

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Mega Man X was the series’s debut on the Super Nintendo as well as the start of the “X” sub-series of games. It’s also, however, probably the best game in the entire Mega Man franchise, at least of the ones that I’ve played. I know a lot of folks look at spin-off games as inherently inferior to the main series games - I know I’m guilty of that with Pokemon and Resident Evil - but in this case, those people would be wrong; Mega Man X is definitely a cut above even the best of the first seven main series entries.

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The game takes place sometime in the 22nd Century about a hundred years after the events of the main series. Dr. Light created a successor android to Mega Man known as X that was supposed to be able to think, feel, and make his own decisions just like a human being. Obviously this presents the risk of making the Terminator movies real, and Light realized that. Because he estimated that it would take 30 years to test X fully to ensure that he wouldn’t violate the cardinal robot rule of “Never hurt humans,” and he knew he didn’t have 30 years of life left in him, he put X in a capsule that would do some kind of auto-test and instructed that the capsule not be opened until the tests were complete. Fast forward a bit, and Dr. Light’s fears have come true; Dr. Cain, who discovered X in the ruins of Light’s lab, creates a group of sapient robots called Reploids, and one of those Reploids, Sigma, has gone berserk and raised a Reploid army to try to wipe out humanity. X, along with his robot mentor, Zero, set out to stop Sigma and his Reploid army led by a group of robots called Mavericks. Basically, Sigma is the new Dr. Wily, and the Mavericks are the new Robot Masters.

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Just like the core Mega Man series, you’re able to pick any Maverick to fight first, each drops a weapon, and each is weak against another Maverick’s specific weapon. For the most part, the gameplay is exactly what you’ve come to expect from Mega Man but polished to perfection and with a few key additions. You can grab hold of walls and perform wall jumps at will - something that makes parts of the platforming much more fun - and you can also perform a dash and a charged up shot from your X-buster. Those additions, however, kind of get overshadowed by how absolutely perfect the controls are. Everything feels tight, responsive, and finely tuned. If you die here, it’s almost always your fault; no blaming the controls on your own shortcomings here.

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The 16-bit sprites are absolutely gorgeous, and the soundtrack manages to keep the classic sound and style while adding in some of the more advanced audio effects made possible by the SNES hardware. In every way, Mega Man X is the perfect 16-bit upgrade of the NES Mega Man games even more so than Mega Man 7 despite the fact that X came out a few years earlier. The levels are among some of the best designed in the series, and the same goes for the bosses. My only real complaint with the bosses is that there’s a huge difficulty gap between some of them. A couple of the Mavericks, I was able to beat without taking a hit, no problem whereas others took me several attempts before I could really get into the groove with them. That’s literally my only complaint with the entire game, though.

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Mega Man X is the perfect action platformer. Honestly, excluding Metroidvanias since I think they’re kind of a separate sub-genre (like how you wouldn’t compare Xenosaga with Mass Effect even though they’re both RPGs), I’m pretty comfortable saying that it’s the greatest action platformer ever made. It’s definitely the best one that I’ve played. I certainly underestimated this game expecting it to be really good but not jaw-dropping like Mega Man 7 was, but Mega Man X just blew me away. I’m now quite looking forward to jumping into some of the other Mega Man X games.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Ack Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:52 pm

1. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (PC)(Adventure)
2. Revulsion (PC)(FPS)
3. Nonogram - Master's Legacy (PC)(Puzzle)
4. Sekiro (PC)(Action-Adventure)
5. Grim Dawn (PC)(Action RPG)
6. Grim Dawn: Ashes of Malmouth (PC)(Action RPG)
7. Grim Dawn: Forgotten Gods (PC)(Action RPG)

8. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage (PC)(FPS)
9. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)
10. Shrine (PC)(FPS)
11. Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (PC)(Adventure)
12. Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (PC)(Action)
13. Red Alliance (PC)(FPS)
14. The Forest (PC)(Horror)
15. Pixel Puzzles: Japan (PC)(Puzzle)
16. 12 is Better Than 6 (PC)(Top Down Shooter)
17. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)

18. An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire (PC)(RPG)
19. Port of Call (PC)(Walking Sim)

20. NeonCode (PC)(Walking Sim)
21. Carrion (PC)(Adventure)
22. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (PC)(Walking Sim)
23. Helltaker (PC)(Puzzle)
24. Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr (PC)(RPG)

25. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch)(Platformer)
26. Treachery in Beatdown City (Switch)(RPG)

Calling Treachery in Beatdown City an RPG isn't entirely accurate, as it's more a hybrid of beat 'em up and RPG, but the RPG system feels like the core while the best 'em up elements are how it handles its combat...with menu-based trappings, so more RPG influence there. It's like River City Ransom, Hybrid Heaven, and Final Fantasy in am even more linear 8-bit fashion. Yes, it's a throwback game, but it had a sense of humor about itself that makes it stand out in a pack of indie and "indie" games that are so prevalent in today's game market.

The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. You decide it's a good idea to try and help rescue him, despite the obviously corrupt mayor, local law enforcement, biker gangs, and general douchebags that wander the streets of what might have at one point been a fair city. Your characters are the good guys, but they're not always "good" guys, and misunderstandings are just as likely to result in fist fights as the insults and trash talk you regularly engage in with almost everyone you meet.

You get three fighters, only one of which is playable at any time. One is a heavy brawler, one a medium mix, and one a light and fast striker. Since health carries over between fights, you must manage who you play as until you can struggle to the next fight, which adds an element of strategy in managing your team, because you probably won't know who you're fighting ahead of time. Would the grapple-heavy brawler work better, or the fast punch and kick user? Hint: it's never the brawler. He's the worst character.

Combat is handled in a beat 'em up view, but you engage in combos to build up power points. This enables you to do bigger, more powerful moves, while short regenerating bars of energy let you string these attacks together for big combos. Execute a successful combo, and you earn more points for later combos, inflict possible status effects, do heavy damage, and knock enemies over, giving you potential breathing space. The same technique is used for items as well as the grappling system, which forms a series of grabs, directional changes, and throws.

Unfortunately, grappling opens you up to a lot of counters, breaks, and generally getting your ass kicked. That's why the brawler isn't as useful, because his fighting style is prone to getting his butt kicked. Even though he's a hardier character, his failure rate is higher for attacks, so he ends up the weakest character. If your other two are too weak to use, you better hope you can limp along to the next save point.

The save points are one time use affairs, but they heal all characters to full. These points are represented as food carts, specifically Farooq's DAMN Halal. Farooq is pretty much the only character who can give you crap and not get into a fight with you. But hey, it's good Halal.

Unfortunately, the game is not fully formed. Only a couple of chapters are available, and while the developer is working on more, there is no ETA for the next portion. It ends on a cliffhanger, and no, we have not yet gotten to fight the ninjas. Hopefully soon.
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elricorico
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by elricorico Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:00 am

1. Cosmic Star Heroine (NS)
2. Boom Blox (Wii)

3. Grandia (NS)


I finally finished Grandia tonight, I've been playing since shortly after my Limited Run copy of the remastered collection arrived. About 40 hours of gameplay.

I remember trying out Grandia on an emulator years ago, but not making it more than 4 or 5 hours in due to the slow start. This time I pressed through the slow start and enjoyed most of this game very much.

The PS/N64/Saturn period was when I gamed the least, so despite being a big RPG fan through the 8 and 16 bit eras, I didn't experience many of the great RPGs from the PlayStation. I think this one would have easily been a favourite had I been actively playing and collecting back then.

This is a brightly coloured, more cheerful than average RPG, light hearted for the most part, sometimes silly, but has a good enough story to keep the action moving. The characters are pretty likeable, even if some are a bit shallow. The battle system is fun and just different enough to stand out from the crowd. Quick moving, with a little extra strategy that comes from character positioning and counters/cancels. If you get the hang of it many enemies, even bosses, can have a high percentage of their attacks cancelled. Levelling is also a little different, with a higher emphasis on weapon and magic type that encourages you to use more of your skills.

I had a couple of complaints; first, the maps can be a bit too maze-like. Your view is fairly zoomed in,so it is easy to feel that areas start to look the same and it can be disorienting. Second, this game went too long. I think it could have been compressed by 5 to 8 hours of playtime. Maybe that is the busy adult speaking, I might not have felt the same had I played this back in the day when I had more game time available.

I personally think that the 16bit era was the golden age of RPGS, but the more I get to experience PlayStation RPGS the more I can see the argument for the 32 bit era. This one sits right up with Suikoden for me. Now I need to find a few shorter games before committing to something like this any time soon!
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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by MrPopo Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:58 am

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

First 50:
1. EYE: Divine Cybermancy - PC
2. Legend of Grimrock - PC
3. Legend of Grimrock 2 - PC
4. Shovel Knight - Wii U
5. Yakuza: Like a Dragon - PS4
6. Yoshi's Island - SNES
7. Vectorman 2 - Genesis
8. Super Mario Sunshine - GC
9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest - GC
10. Bomberman '93 - TG-16
11. Cannon Fodder - PC
12. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei - Saturn
13. Dragonborne - Game Boy
14. Rock n' Roll Racing - PC
15. The Lost Vikings - PC
16. Blackthorne - PC
17. Contra III: The Alien Wars - SNES
18. Bravely Default II - Switch
19. Axelay - SNES
20. Ryse: Son of Rome - XBOne
21. Killer Instinct (2013) - XBOne
22. Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition - PC
23. Thief: The Dark Project - PC
24. Killer Instinct - XBOne
25. Killer instinct 2 - XBOne
26. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth - PC
27. Thief 2: The Metal Age - PC
28. Wing Commander II - PC
29. Wing Commander III - PC
30. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - Switch
31. Shadow Man Remastered - PC
32. Wing Commander: Privateer - PC
33. Salt and Sanctuary - Switch
34. The Elder Scrolls: Arena - PC
35. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall - PC
36. Resident Evil Village - PC
37. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Switch
38. Metaloid: Origin - Switch
39. SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions - Switch
40. Metro Exodus: The Two Colonels - PC
41. Metro Exodus: Sam's Story - PC
42. Panzer Paladin - Switch
43. Returnal - PS5
44. Dark Void Zero - DSiWare
45. Panzer Dragoon Saga - Saturn
46. Magic Knight Rayearth - Saturn
47. Cathedral - Switch
48. Final Fantasy VII Remake: INTERmission - PS5
49. Eterium - PC
50. A Street Cat's Tale - Switch

51. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling - Switch
52. Banner of the Maid - Switch
53. CrossCode - Switch
54. Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency - PC
55. Ultima Underworld - PC

Originally planned as a standalone title and clumsily added to the Ultima universe for marketing reasons, Ultima Underworld is a seminal game in the history of video games. It came out in 1992, a few months before Wolfenstein 3D, and featured a 3D world with elevation changes, bridges over chasms, seamless transitions between its eight floors, large dialog trees, and a large number of environmental doodads that can be interacted with. It ran like dogshit on most machines at the time, but it laid down a massive number of firsts, not just for the CRPG genre, but for games in general. Now, this would be worth mentioning if it had been a terrible game, but it's also quite well put together. It's certainly not perfect, but it's quite playable for someone willing to learn slightly nonstandard controls.

The story is that you get teleported back to Britannia into the bedroom of the daughter of a baron, and a mysterious figure is like "ha ha, you're too late". Then the guards burst in and assume you did it. The baron decides to throw you into the Stygian Abyss and lock you in; if you can find his daughter (who apparently was seen taken there) and bring her to the door you'll be let out, otherwise you're assumed to be guilty. Yes, very strong standards of proof here. You then begin dungeon crawling and trying to find the daughter. It's fairly thin, but there is a bit of a late game twist to give some more context on why the events happened.

The game has a real time combat system that was fairly novel at the time. You hold right click in the main window to pull back a swing, then let it go. Depending on which third of the screen you're in will determine if it's a stab, slash, or chop, with each weapon doing different damage for each. Magic is cast through assembling runes; you get a rune back early with a handful of runes; opening the bag lets you add them to a slot on your bar. Once the runes are assembled you can click on it to cast. A handful of spells are discovered in game, while most are in the manual. This ends up being too cumbersome to allow for magic as primary combat. But the utility is fantastic, so you'll want to invest in your spellcasting ability for that.

One of the things that sticks out is how much there is available to do in game. Normally you're used to dungeon crawlers being full of just monsters to murder and a handful of traps/puzzles. This game features a fairly large number of friendly NPCs, with about half being in the traditionally "enemy" races. These NPCs provide a large number of clues for collecting the various items you'll need to complete the game, so you'll want to make sure a creature is hostile before you attack it. These conversations feature fairly deep dialog trees, sometimes including free text entry for questions (which is hit and miss; sometimes you have to make guesses rather than just relay clue you got from somewhere). You can even trade with many NPCs for some of their gear. This bartering system is pretty jank, though, as you never get to see what things are worth and just have to guess. Fortunately you only ever need to engage with it once to get a key item (so you can "overpay" if you want). You don't need anything else from NPCs because there's a ton of treasure in the dungeon itself.

The dungeon layouts are pretty well designed overall, though the last two levels have some painful layouts to navigate; they go deeper into mazelike narrow corridors that take much longer to fully map (not to mention the hazards). Fortunately the game has an excellent automap that features the ability to add your own notes to the map. It even has a chunk to the side of every map so you can use a system of letter on the map an then a detailed description on the side.

Ultima Underworld is damned impressive for when it came out . The controls are a bit rough for modern audiences, though when you realize that it actually has a pretty reasonable context sensitive feature it gets a bit smoother. Fortunately since the game doesn't really need you to handle high speed action the clumsiness isn't too bad (aside from some of the jumping sections before you get high enough to just use levitate). I highly recommend you give it a try; it's frankly more advanced than games we would see years later.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:46 am

Awesome reviews, guys. I really enjoy reading these.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by marurun Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:56 am

Elricorico, so glad to see someone else play and enjoy Grandia. It's beloved in Japan and somehow just passed the US by. Sure, it got a PS1 localization, but there were reasons that might have put people off (mostly the voice acting).
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Raging Justice Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:20 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Haha, well, as popo will tell you, my opinions on games often deviate from the norm.

Games Beaten in 2021 - 70
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. God of War - PlayStation 3 - January 1
2. God of War II - PlayStation 3 - January 2
3. God of War: Chains of Olympus - PlayStation 3 - January 3
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta - PlayStation 3 - January 4
5. God of War III - PlayStation 4 - January 6
6. God of War: Ascension - PlayStation 3 - January 9
7. God of War [2018] - PlayStation 4 - January 16
8. Epic Dumpster Bear 2: He Who Bears Wins - PlayStation 4 - January 16
9. God of War: Betrayal - Mobile - January 17
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Switch - January 18
11. Muv-Luv photonflowers* - Steam - January 22
12. Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮ - Steam - January 27


February (5 Games Beaten)
13. Gun Gun Pixies - Switch - February 1
14. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 - February 8*
15. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - Vita - February 13
16. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 - February 17*
17. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Steam - February 23


March (3 Games Beaten)
18. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Steam - March 4
19. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3rd - Steam - March 7
20. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4 - March 21


April (7 Games Beaten)
21. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4 - April 5
22. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 00 - Steam - April 7
23. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 01 - Steam - April 10
24. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 02 - Steam - April 11
25. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 03 - Steam - April 13
26. Neptunia Virtual Stars - PS4 - April 18
27. Before Your Eyes - Steam - April 18


May (9 Games Beaten)
28. New Pokemon Snap - Switch - May 2
29. Resident Evil 8: Village - PS5 - May 8
30. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Switch - May 15
31. Torment: Tides of Numenera - Xbox One - May 18
32. Pepsiman - PS1 - May 20
33. Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo: The Card Fighters - Switch - May 20
34. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure - Switch - May 23
35. Planetscape: Torment - Steam - May 26
36. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Switch - May 31


June (17 Games Beaten)
37. Hentai vs Evil - Switch - June 1
38. Troll and I - Switch - June 2
39. Zombie Army 4: Dead War - PlayStation 4 - June 5
40. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Switch - June 6
41. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16 - June 7
42. Puyo Puyo 2 - Game Gear - June 17
43. Yakuza 0 - Playstation 4 - June 19
44. Neptunia Shooter - Playstation 5 - June 20
45. Little Samson - NES - June 22
46. Tiger-Heli - NES - June 23
47. Blaster Master - NES - June 23
48. Gun-Nac - NES - June 24
49. Rollerblade Racer - NES - June 25
50. Marble Madness - NES - June 25
51. Metroid - NES - June 25
52. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch - June 26
53. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA - June 28
54. Metroid II: Return of Samus - Game Boy - June 29


July (16 Games Beaten)
55. Super Metroid - SNES - July 1
56. Where's Waldo? - NES - July 1
57. Metroid Fusion - GBA - July 2
58. Neptunia ReVerse - PlayStation 5 - July 3
59. Tetris Effect: Connected - Series X - July 3
60. Battletoads - Xbox One - July 4
61. Chicken Police: Paint it Red! - Switch - July 5
62. The Falconeer - Series X - July 7
63. Astral Chain - Switch - July 10
64. Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus - NES - July 12
65. Skull and Crossbones - NES - July 12
66. Sky Kid - NES - July 12
67. Top Gun - NES - July 12
68. Top Gun: The Second Mission - NES - July 13
69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13
70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14


70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14

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Mega Man X was the series’s debut on the Super Nintendo as well as the start of the “X” sub-series of games. It’s also, however, probably the best game in the entire Mega Man franchise, at least of the ones that I’ve played. I know a lot of folks look at spin-off games as inherently inferior to the main series games - I know I’m guilty of that with Pokemon and Resident Evil - but in this case, those people would be wrong; Mega Man X is definitely a cut above even the best of the first seven main series entries.

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The game takes place sometime in the 22nd Century about a hundred years after the events of the main series. Dr. Light created a successor android to Mega Man known as X that was supposed to be able to think, feel, and make his own decisions just like a human being. Obviously this presents the risk of making the Terminator movies real, and Light realized that. Because he estimated that it would take 30 years to test X fully to ensure that he wouldn’t violate the cardinal robot rule of “Never hurt humans,” and he knew he didn’t have 30 years of life left in him, he put X in a capsule that would do some kind of auto-test and instructed that the capsule not be opened until the tests were complete. Fast forward a bit, and Dr. Light’s fears have come true; Dr. Cain, who discovered X in the ruins of Light’s lab, creates a group of sapient robots called Reploids, and one of those Reploids, Sigma, has gone berserk and raised a Reploid army to try to wipe out humanity. X, along with his robot mentor, Zero, set out to stop Sigma and his Reploid army led by a group of robots called Mavericks. Basically, Sigma is the new Dr. Wily, and the Mavericks are the new Robot Masters.

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Just like the core Mega Man series, you’re able to pick any Maverick to fight first, each drops a weapon, and each is weak against another Maverick’s specific weapon. For the most part, the gameplay is exactly what you’ve come to expect from Mega Man but polished to perfection and with a few key additions. You can grab hold of walls and perform wall jumps at will - something that makes parts of the platforming much more fun - and you can also perform a dash and a charged up shot from your X-buster. Those additions, however, kind of get overshadowed by how absolutely perfect the controls are. Everything feels tight, responsive, and finely tuned. If you die here, it’s almost always your fault; no blaming the controls on your own shortcomings here.

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The 16-bit sprites are absolutely gorgeous, and the soundtrack manages to keep the classic sound and style while adding in some of the more advanced audio effects made possible by the SNES hardware. In every way, Mega Man X is the perfect 16-bit upgrade of the NES Mega Man games even more so than Mega Man 7 despite the fact that X came out a few years earlier. The levels are among some of the best designed in the series, and the same goes for the bosses. My only real complaint with the bosses is that there’s a huge difficulty gap between some of them. A couple of the Mavericks, I was able to beat without taking a hit, no problem whereas others took me several attempts before I could really get into the groove with them. That’s literally my only complaint with the entire game, though.

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Mega Man X is the perfect action platformer. Honestly, excluding Metroidvanias since I think they’re kind of a separate sub-genre (like how you wouldn’t compare Xenosaga with Mass Effect even though they’re both RPGs), I’m pretty comfortable saying that it’s the greatest action platformer ever made. It’s definitely the best one that I’ve played. I certainly underestimated this game expecting it to be really good but not jaw-dropping like Mega Man 7 was, but Mega Man X just blew me away. I’m now quite looking forward to jumping into some of the other Mega Man X games.


I really like the Mega Man X series, it's the main reason I'm currently playing Smelter (among many other games as well). Smelter is a game that clearly is influenced by the series, as well as Actraiser. I don't think MM X is the greatest action platformer ever...far from it, but it is a classic.

I generally view MM X and MM X4 as the best entries in the series. Fitting, given that they each one kicked off separate eras of the series, with subsequent entries trying to recapture the magic of those two games. My only issue with MM X 1 was some bosses as you mentioned. I hated the spider bot fight. MM X 4 is much more balanced in this regard, with better designed boss fights. Maverick Hunter X on the PSP is a nice re-make of MM X with some extra features. It's not necessarily better than the original, it's arguably worse in some ways. However, it brings some nice new content to the table (like a playable Vile)

What you said about spinoffs is interesting. I generally like them better than the parent series. I think the MM X series is far superior to the classic series and while the Castlevania series was always fantastic, I didn't really become a big fan until Symphony of the Night came out, which felt like a spin off game with new gameplay mechanics and a non-Belmont protagonist. I get tired of the same old thing, so it's fun when spinoffs shake things up

I've been waiting for what seems like eons for the fan made Mega Man X Corrupted to come out, which is a love letter to the SNES games, while also incorporating some elements of the Playstation entries.

marurun wrote:Elricorico, so glad to see someone else play and enjoy Grandia. It's beloved in Japan and somehow just passed the US by. Sure, it got a PS1 localization, but there were reasons that might have put people off (mostly the voice acting).


Grandia is excellent, quite possibly one of the greatest (and underrated) JRPG combat systems ever and such a charming cast of characters. That English dub though...ugh. I have found that the game seems to get overshadowed by its sequel, a great game but lacking the charm of the original IMO. Both games recently got re-released and remastered....,which reminds me I need to go and buy that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6pW1M4Szso
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