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Gucci
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by Gucci Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:42 am

Despite my enjoyment with Doom 2016 and Eternal main game, the first of the two DLCs of the latter I couldn’t finish it.

Maybe it’s because I got burned out since I played the games back to back, or maybe it’s because they throw just about everything at you at a rate that feels like it’s purposely frustrating/tedious I don’t really know.

Do they really need to throw two Marauders and two Doom Hunters during the same “scenario” and then throw in an Archvile for good measure? Screw it: let’s throw in one of those totems to boost everyone up. Did you say spirit to make one of those aforementioned demons more powerful? Sure why not!
I own too many hoodies jackets hoodies and DS games and I’m not ashamed!
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Raging Justice
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by Raging Justice Tue Jun 15, 2021 3:31 am

I'm done with Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I've simply grown tired of its dickish level design, spongy enemies who have way too much health, the grindy nature of the game with you having to spend money to increase your pitiful stats as well as wasting money to unlock features that other Metroid style games have by default. The three character feature of the game is obnoxious, because you can only switch characters at save points. So if you encounter something you can't overcome, you have to backtrack to a save point to get the character you need.

Other things that annoy me, when you unlock a warp spot the game does NOT mark it on your map for you, so you will completely forget where it is. That along with inconveniently placed elevators make backtracking a pain in the rear. Some rooms are so annoyingly designed that you don't WANT to traverse them again. Also, you are always scrimping for health in this game. You can rest at save points, but only a finite number of times. You can find candles to get your health back, but there's few of them in the game and you can only use them once.

The game is also buggy, even with the recent patch. Lastly, the more I play it the more I realize it doesn't really bring anything interesting to the now overly saturated Metroid genre. The ability to switch between three characters as well as getting to buy upgrades when you die are the only things that stand out, but as I've noted these features can actually be annoying.

The game is just annoyingly designed, and while this will appeal to "hardcore" types who LIKE that sort of thing, I don't. I'm not the young, patient gamer I was years ago. I can only tolerate so much crap before I just stop playing something. Plus, there are FAR better Metroid games out there. I actually wish they'd release that Record of Lodoss War game with Deedlit on consoles so I could try it.
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nightrnr
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by nightrnr Tue Jun 15, 2021 4:14 am

I'm going to put this out there.

I have given up Theatrhythm Curtain call:...
But only for Ultimate Score songs. I have come to accept that I will never have the skill nor the reaction speed to effectively attempt (much less master) that difficulty.

It's also an awesome rhythm game though. So I'm still glad I picked it up.
...just another lost soul...
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by BoneSnapDeez Tue Jun 15, 2021 12:40 pm

wow looks pretty hard glad you made an account to tell us about it!!
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Raging Justice
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by Raging Justice Wed Jun 23, 2021 1:55 am

So I just played through a few levels of Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX a little while ago. I'm not very familiar with the Alex Kidd series, but based on this game maybe that's a good thing. This is the most bland, uninteresting, 2d, platformer I've played in a while. This is a crowded genre right now. There are tons of similar games on the indie scene, not to mention other older games being remade or repackaged for a new audience, much like this game. The Monster World series is making a serious comeback for example

There's neat looking upcoming titles too like Berserk Boy

I've played some excellent 2d platformers of late, like Kaze and the Wild Masks and Smelter (which I hope to finish soon). Earlier this year I also played the awesome Dogurai. Those games all have something cool or fun about them. I don't know if Alex Kidd eventually gets good, but the little bit I played was really, not fun or interesting at all

Meh

On another note, I'm giving Astalon another shot. For all my complaints, there is something oddly addicting about it. I may still end up giving up on it. If not, I guess the next time I mention it will be in the Games Beaten thread.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by PartridgeSenpai Wed Jun 23, 2021 6:14 am

I'm giving up trying to beat ending D of Drakengard 3. The rhythm game is just way too damn hard for me. I've also psyched myself out about it to the point that even thinking about it during the day has begun to give me genuinely sickening anxiety, so I'm making the executive decision to live with the 3 endings I otherwise got and just call it done. Perhaps someday I shall try again, but for now, I'm closing the book on that game for the sake of my health ^^;
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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Ninjamaster
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by Ninjamaster Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:44 am

I gave up on Death Stranding for Ps4 after five hours....too boring in single player! :(
My collection Updated 2021: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=31763
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Raging Justice
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by Raging Justice Sat Jul 24, 2021 6:24 am

Ninjamaster wrote:I gave up on Death Stranding for Ps4 after five hours....too boring in single player! :(


A Hideo Kojima game that is boring? What a shock. I don't think I ever played anything of his that held my attention with its endless cut scenes and dialog and outdated, clumsy, stealth mechanics. Although I do like Zone of the Enders 2. That game is pretty fun whenever the action kicks in

Anyway, my newest contribution to this thread is Smelter, a game that really disappointed me because I wanted to love it, but after putting it down for a while, then picking it up again and once again finding myself wanting to put it down...well, here I am posting in this thread. I guess this will be like a mini review of the game, sort of what I do when posting in the Games Beaten thread. Though obviously, this is a review from someone who hasn't actually finished the game. So here we go:

Smelter - Played on PS 4

Genre-mixing is an interesting thing in video games. It's ultimately a gamble, as a game that tries to do many things can ultimately fail at pleasing anyone. Jack of all trades, but master of none. I think it's important for a game to know its target audience, and a game with multiple genres can feel like a game that doesn't really have a target audience...or can't decide what it actually wants that audience to be. I think when you have a game that wants to blend multiple genres, you should take the safe route. That means keeping the difficulty at a reasonable level. The Sly Cooper games do this fairly well blending platforming, stealth, and various mini games testing you in different ways. Valiant Hearts is a puzzle game with some action elements, but the action parts are generally not too demanding. The game never forgets that it is first and foremost a puzzle game. This is where Smelter fails

What drew me to this game was the Mega Man X style, action platforming stages. I feel like they blend elements of the SNES era games as well as the Playstation era games. Now, as someone who loves platformers and beat 'em ups more than any other genre (maybe you can throw in JRPGs too, but I sometimes find them too time consuming and in some cases, overly complicated), I enjoyed these stages. They are fairly long by MM X standards, and feature great gameplay. The game has an elemental system in place whereby you have different elemental forms (kind of like armors for Mega Man X) with different abilities. As you unlock these forms, they give you different ways to maneuver through stages and fight enemies. Basically you can switch between these forms at will using one of the shoulder buttons. They each have their strengths and weaknesses.

Throughout stages you will also find collectibles if you explore (with much of the classic, walk through fake wall/floor/ceiling motif typical to the genre), currency-like resources from killing enemies, as well as hidden challenge areas. The challenge areas are fun, often requiring you to master some ability to get through platforming challenges and combat challenges. Completing these challenges, amassing resources from your kills, and finding the collectibles will help you in upgrading your abilities and...other things, I'll get to that later. So they have a practical purpose.

The game also has a "smelting" system. Basically, you have this weird thing that is like a glowing green, arm/hand thing, sticking off of the body of Eve (the character you play as) like an extra appendage. It almost looks like a tail honestly. You can use it to grab and interact with things in the environment. It sometimes comes into play with the platforming, like grabbing a pole and vaulting off of it. I guess it's sort of like...bionic commando in a way. Sometimes when you finish off an enemy, it'll glow green, signaling that you can grab a.k.a. "smelt" it to gain some health back.

You also have a kind of super meter you build up and can use it to unleash a fairly damaging attack that can hit multiple enemies in a straight, horizontal line in front of you.

There are boss fights in this game, but I only encountered one. It was fun and well designed, but the boss was a bit spongy in terms of health. I had to shoot it so many damn times.

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Overall, I LOVE Smelter as a Man Man X clone. As an action platformer in the vein of those games, it's immensely fun. Even the music is pretty cool and also gives off some Mega Man X vibes. While I'm praising the game, I'll also bring up the story. It features a cast of wacky characters, most of which you'll see in the game's awesome anime intro. It also has this weird sort of biblical aspect to it, as it builds off of the story of Adam and Eve. Given that it's 2021 and everything is about girl power now, the game's opening moments show ADAM, not Eve, eating an apple. DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY! Some sort of calamity ensues, separating the two. Eve ends up having to enlist the help of a character who claims to be an angel (but looks more like a demon) to try and find Adam, who is now missing. This leads to a comical sentai/magical girl anime moment as the two fuse. The demon...I mean angel, affixes itself to her head as a mask, while also enveloping her body in some sort of armor/super hero suit and the adventure begins. As you play through the game, you find that Smelter (the demon...I mean angel) has some sort of world conquest thing going on, which supposedly is all about helping her find Adam. I got the sense that he's manipulating her, or is at the very least not making all of his intentions clear. but I'll never know. Some other characters come into the story as well with their own motivations, including some sort of evil queen who seems to be the main villain Battletoads style

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So getting now to the BAD parts of the game. I'll start with something fairly minor. The controls are not quite as tight and responsive as the Mega Man X series. They are by no means bad, but I had to get used to them. There's a certain...stiffness to them, almost like the game had just a tiny bit of input lag. You also can't double tap the d-pad to dash, you have to hit a button. Overall, Eve doesn't move quite as quickly and fluidly as X and Zero. Also, I ended up remapping the controls. I found the default setup a bit awkward, and ending up switching the shoulder buttons for dashing and smelting. The game also has this annoying thing where the circle button confirms things and the x button cancels, kind of like Japanese Playstation games I guess. It's annoying and always threw me off.

Minor control issues aside, the side scrolling levels are a blast. Sadly, Smelter couldn't just stop there. It also has these RTS/Tower Defense style elements in it. From what I've read, this is inspired by the Actraiser games, which I have never played. You build structures, get resources, populate your structures with troops, and fend off enemy attacks - which are usually focused on destroying your structures. All the while, you control Smelter, who can fly around the map and also attack enemies to help your troops. You have to be a bit careful with him though, as enemies will target him instead of your buildings if they find him too annoying. There are various places on the map that you'll need to assault while also defending your own structures. The places you're assaulting are basically the side scrolling levels that you play through. You sort of have to break down their defenses before you can enter the level.

Here's where things get problematic. For one thing, the way the game explains everything is a little confusing. I didn't fully understand troop and resource management at first, even after the tutorials. Eventually I got the hang of it though. What annoyed the hell of me though, is the fact that once you trigger enemies to start attacking your structures, THEY...NEVER...FUCKING...STOP. It's one attack after the other. You don't get a chance to breath and if you don't have good enough defenses, it's like the game never actually gives you the chance to build them up. Essentially, you need to make sure you have enough defenses to withstand nonstop, endless, assaults BEFORE you start triggering enemy attacks. Otherwise, you can feel kind of screwed. Hopefully, you have a back up save you can reload or you'll feel helpless watching enemies completely wreck all of your shit. It's infuriating

Also, there are various things on the map that will get in your way when trying to build your stuff, until you acquire the ability to destroy them and replace them with your structures. Adding to that are story based NPCs that will often occupy a strategic spot on your map where you could have built something useful, which is also annoying. Even more annoying to me was how the NPCs just stand there doing nothing when you're getting attacked. Often times they are generals in your army. You'd think the devs could have made them into some kind of cool "hero" unit, moving around fighting enemies and helping your troops...instead of standing there...in your way...being useless.

On the plus side, there are upgrades you can get for your structures that can make your troops a bit stronger by infusing them with elemental abilities. This is where the resources and collectibles from the levels come into play. Also, if you are diligent in exploring the side scrolling levels you can find schematics for a fairly powerful weapon that makes the RTS/Tower defense portions of the game a bit easier. There are also some things you can find while flying around the map that can help you in various ways both in the RTS parts and the side scrolling levels. They are sort of like passive upgrades - more troops you can summon, increasing the chances of you smelting enemies in the side scrolling stages, etc. Still, I eventually found myself annoyed with these RTS/Tower defense parts of the game. I just wanted to get back to running, jumping, dashing, swinging around Bionic Commando style, and killing bad guys with my bullets and melee attacks. You know...action platforming. Sadly, this is not the only way Smelter gets away from the fun business of running around pretending you're playing a Mega Man X game.

At some point in the game, you'll enter stages where instead of getting some sweet, sweet, platforming action...you're controlling Smelter, like you do in the RTS/Tower defense parts of the game. Except now, the focus is entirely on him flying around and shooting enemies. Essentially, the game becomes a schmup...and a fairly difficult one at that. Now granted, this isn't a genre I excel in. So maybe it's a cakewalk for some people, but I didn't come into this game expecting (or wanting, for that matter), schmup gameplay. There are these obnoxious enemies that move like the frikking Flash that keep trying to rush you and swarm you, while other enemies are shooting projectiles at you. After these fairly long and tedious sections, you get to a boss and the game goes into full on bullet hell mode. Now you have a boss shooting tons of projectiles at you in patterns, while enemies are surrounding you and attacking you. Adding even more of a "fuck you" from the developers, if you die, you start these sections all the way from the beginning. Also, while playing through these parts you will constantly hear the, "you're being attacked right now" warning sound. Unlike the side scrolling levels, time doesn't stop during these shooter sections. That means that the RTS/Tower defense portion of the game is still going on. Your army is getting attacked, and you CAN'T help them because you're playing through this shooter level.

Both times that I stopped playing Smelter, it was at this part of the game. Already a bit irritated by the RTS/Tower defense stuff, the addition of these shooter levels just annoyed me even further. This time I decided I'm not picking it up again. Get your shitty, RTS/Tower Defense, bullet hell, crap out of my Mega Man X game DAMNIT!!!

Okay, we went from review to rant :lol:

It's such a shame, there's a sexy and fun, side scrolling, action platform game here that you just want to have a good time with. Yet you're constantly getting cock blocked by the RTS and shooter parts of the game that you wish would just leave you alone.

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Smelter's not a bad game, just not quite what I want it to be. It might appeal more to you if you love Tower Defense or shmup gameplay.

Oh well, I can still look forward to this game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrPQj3GQjbM
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Segata
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by Segata Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:31 am

Ys IX.

Love the series in general but getting worn out on the modern Ys formula. Not to mention the poor performance on Switch when more demanding games run better. I'm just done with the series until they drop the party bullshit.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games You Gave Up On 2021

by ElkinFencer10 Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:27 am

I don't know if I'd say I gave up on it per se, but I started Mega Man Zero and have quit at least for the time being. After playing 11 consecutive Mega Man games, I'm just a bit burnt out on the series for the moment lol
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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