Media Videogame thread

you need to play minecraft dungeons. it is amazing. i personally enjoyed it more than hades. it takes the minecraft formula of using the things you find to survive in creative ways, and translates it to a dungeon crawler experience. it is hard. it pulls its punches for exactly the tutorial and the first level. everything after that is brutally difficult. a new player will probobly die a lot if you try to brute force your way through it. instead, you are encouraged to use the items you found in combination with each other to create a strategy greater than the sum of its parts. minecraft dungeons is unfair, but it gives you the tools to be unfair back, if you are creative enough to use them. yes, other dungeon crawlers have customization, but it takes a backseat to the core gameplay loop. in minecraft dungeons, gear customization IS the core gameplay loop. this is a game that WANTS you to exploit it. your opponents are not fighting fair, and it dosent expect you to do so either. it takes the creativity you exercised in minecraft, and has you use it to overcome impossible odds once more, this time on the battlefield. like minecraft, it takes patience and perseverance to beat it, but exercising them gives you more than enough tools to succeed. like minecraft, your resources go together in more ways than crafting. in a world full of hostile and dangerous threats, all it takes to succeed is a little patience, and a little creativity. and that is why minecraft dungeons is a masterpiece. it translates what makes minecraft special into a genre that should not be compatible with those core features. amazing game, you should definitely play it.
 

Hera

Make a move before they can make an act on you
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PUPL Champion
wanted to post this eariler but mons and palworld discourse got in the way

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above is a list of games i played in 2023 and near the end of 2022. usually i just talk about it with friends but they don't really care about videogames all that much.

i wrote a lot more for each game but got bored and never finished it, so here are just some quick thoughts on the various games:

-general ratings: 25-27 i felt meh about, 16-24 i liked but had issues with, 28 i didn't like, and evverything else i enjoyed
-chain of memories is the only game on this list i actively disliked, only played it because i'm a completionist and wanted to play it to understand the rest of the kh games
-super mario rpg is not worth 60 bucks and i think having to pay 60 bucks on this game soured me on it a lot more than if it was worth like 30 bucks
-pizza tower is a well crafted game but personally not for me, i gave it a shot since a friend said it was good but i never really liked the fast 2d platformers focused on speed
-pokemon scarlet is a fucked up game with a big amount of flaws, but since i'm a mons fan with very low standards when it comes to the franchise i enjoyed it. would hope gf improves next time though because a triple aaa game releasing in the state scarlet was and only getting worse performance wise with each dlc is horrible
-engage is such a weird game because i love so much about it (the characters, the graphics, the gameplay) and i hate so much about it (the story, the pacing, the villians, most support lines being boring) that i'm really mixed on the game as a whole, but i did decently like it and rushing through chapter 20-26 all in one night was extremely memorable
-dqm dark prince has a similar issue as engage; i loved the gameplay loop and the graphics but i hated the story and characters. there was no real reason to make psaro a silent protagionist and instead the game forces you to do these things you don't want to do and gives you the most annoying examples of the illusion of choice in a videogame (e.g when you say no to pretty much every major decision in-game they accuse you of lying and move on with the conversation)
-wonder's fun but a bit overrated imo, the game has meh level design apart from the wonders so levels are heavily reliant on their wonder being good to actually be good. it's also really easy which makes it rather forgettable in my eyes, cause i usually value a challenging platformer more than a causal platformer. still a good and fun game though
-started feh this year cause of engage and i am loving it, apparently i had an account years ago so that gave me a nice head start in terms of clearing content and pulling for new units, and despite all the stupid powercreep after a few months i got to a point where i never felt like i lost because i didn't spend enough money. it's weirdly balanced and fun despite having a shitton of powercreep; just avoid summoner duels like the plague
-rayman legends is a game i never got around to beating as a kid so i bought it on sale and had so much fun with it. despite being a short platformer it's decently challenging with great level design with challenges giving you repeatable content, will defintely try to 100% it someday
-p5r is the better game objectively but i had way more fun with p5s. one of my biggest issues with p5r is the stupidly long amount of downtime between palaces (12 hours in between 4th and 5th palaces!) and p5s cuts that down to like an hour max which means jumping back into the game after downtime feels more like a needed break than a slog. i also never tried a warriors-esque game before this one and it was so much fun to cut down enemies in this game
-three hopes might be the first time i got punished by the game and actually enjoyed it. i got the "bad" ending and didn't have a save so i couldn't go back, but knowing i was locked in just made me more detirmined to finish the game. it's even more fun than i had with strikers and i really wish the deleted content was implemented somehow
-i spent 3 months on death wish and those were some of the best 3 months of my lifes when it comes to videogames, i truly felt accomplished after 100%ing death wish despite all the bs it can throw at you and i never felt like levels were out of my control or relied on rng to get past them, literally everything in death wish is just a massively fun skill check

this year i'll try to play the other persona games (already finished p4g, loved it), some more fire emblem games a bunch of jrpgs in my backlog, and try some rouge-likes this year (loved hades as well).
 
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has anyone else played much angband? i love roguelikes but particularly *bands, i recently won frogcomposband and have played quite a lot of tome.
 

Mr. Uncompetitive

Ugh Cough! Cough! Splutter!
is a Contributor Alumnus
Wow hey hello! I've also been meaning to do this for a while like Hera, but here is every game that I played this year!!!

The left graphic is games I beat for the first time in 2023, the right one is every game I played a significant amount of in 2023. Games are roughly sorted within tiers. I do have an E and F tier, but I omitted them just to keep things clean~

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And for those who feel like reading my messy thoughts on the games, here they are in the rough order I played them
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Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993)
System: PC Engine CD, has some ports on Wii and PS4
Developer/Publisher: Konami
Completion Notes: Played the default route, saved Maria and Annette. Got Richter's ending, played about 50-50 with both Richter and Maria.

Widely considered the best of the “Classic Vania” games, I thought Rondo was very good but still clearly a notch below the two kings in Super and Bloodlines. Rondo is definitely the biggest of the Classic games, sporting the most levels (many of which are optional), branching paths, two characters (both of whom are fun to play as, with Maria being a lot less stiff in movement and having some more flexible weapons), animated cutscenes, detailed spritework, more methodical boss encounters, and CD-quality audio for both voice acting and music. This certainly makes for a great Castlevania game, but Rondo’s controls are unfortunately just like the NES games: Jumping is stiff, there is no dedicated button for special weapons, and you can only fling your whip forwards (the extra movement options like the backflip aren’t especially useful imo). Also, while sprites are big and pretty, it also makes Richter a pretty easy target for enemies. Ultimately, Rondo really missing anything to really set it apart in terms of gameplay and its overall vision: It has neither Super’s sense of atmosphere nor Bloodlines’s flashiness / commitment to its settings. Rondo’s levels and setpieces are good, but they feel a bit generic and not nearly as interesting as the ones in Super and Bloodlines.

Rondo is definitely not the best Classic Vania in my book, but it’s probably the best entry point besides maybe Super; it’s about on par with Super and (imo) Bloodlines in difficulty, but Maria can certainly make the ride a bit more comfortable, and the game’s production values and sheer amount of content should definitely make it more appealing to most gamers. 8/10 (Great!)

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Goodbye World (2021)
System: Modern Systems / PC (I'm playing on Switch)
Developer/Publisher: YO FUJII / Flyhigh Works

I first played this at PAX East 2023, I think it was at the same booth as No Longer Human (VERY excited for this game). Despite quickly realizing that this was a short game that I probably could’ve played the entirety of at PAX, I decided to buy a copy when I got home to support the devs. Anyways, it’s a comfy story about game deving and the anxieties that come with it, framed around a cute puzzle platformer minigame inspired by early Game Boy games (thank god, someone who actually understands the appeal from Super Mario Land 1). I really love the visuals too, its look and animation style are definitely inspired by Mother 3, while the Game Boy game is kinda like Mario Land meets Trip World. Not a ton to be said about it, this is something best experienced for yourself. I enjoyed it and would recommend even though it’s a bit pricey (but like, if you treat the game as a movie its value seems fine by me). 8/10 (Great!)

If you plan to play this game, MAJOR CONTENT WARNING. (idk how this got an E rating)

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Tetris DS (2006)
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
Completion Notes: Finished standard mode (200 lines)

I don’t know if I should bother counting this but I did see the credits. The final Tetris game released while Nintendo had console rights, Tetris DS’s NES aesthetic makes this a take on Tetris I can get behind, I’m also not as bad at Tetris as I once thought (the fact that pieces insta-lock upon hard dropping them rather than being movable like in TGM2 helps a lot for someone like me who likes to press buttons). Music was pretty good too. Fun time all around. 7/10 (“This is a good video game”)

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Castle of Illusion (1990)
System: Sega Genesis
Developer/Publisher: Sega

I really dig games like Super Mario Land: Games released early in a console’s life that are short, not particularly hard (but still not easy), and a bit jank, but whose graphics, sound, and overall feel evoke a sense of nostalgia. My fav Youtuber Derek from Stop Skeletons From Fighting perfectly described this phenomenon by comparing these sorts of games to vinyl records, in comparison to the late releases which have far more detailed graphics. I don’t think Castle of Illusion is as accidentally brilliant as Super Mario Land (one of my favorite games ever), but it’s definitely the closest game I’ve seen to recapturing that magic. Castle of Illusion is certainly a good-looking game for 1990 given it crisp sprites, but its colors also have a bit of a faded look to them, giving of a sense of the game’s age unintentionally (I consider that a positive, really gives it that vinyl record feel). I played the game on a CRT, so I'm only just noticing how grainy the game looks without the CRT dithering lol. The soundtrack is simple, playful, and pretty catchy, but occasionally lends itself to forming a strong atmosphere and mood to the levels (favorite tracks are the Forest, Library, and Ending themes). The controls are tight, although it takes a bit to get used to holding Jump in order to damage enemies. The levels and bosses don’t do anything too crazy, but they’re just engaging enough with the setpieces to keep the game memorable. Above all, they’re nicely themed, especially the toybox and library aesthetics.

Castle of Illusion is a simple game, but it's also a game that evokes a sense of nostalgia for times me and many of us weren’t even alive for. Not just the early 16-bit age either; its subdued presentation makes it feel very much like the 1920s-40s Golden Age of Disney. Looking back on this game, I’m kinda interested in revisiting or even speedrunning it (I hope it has some good speed tech), so maybe this game’s score will go up in the future, who knows? 7.5/10 (“This is a good video game”)

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Dynamite Cop (1998)
System: Arcade / Dreamcast (I played on Dreamcast)
Developer/Publisher: Sega
Completion Notes: Finished the standard campaign

When I was going over my Backloggd to see what I played this year, I saw Dynamite Cop and thought "Wait…I played this game???"

I dunno, it was an alright beat ‘em up that lasted maybe 30 minutes (yes I used all the continues they provided, oh well). It was fun but mindless, controls were pretty stiff, and it wasn’t quite as eccentric as I had hoped (the voice acting was bad lol but not quite goofy enough to be impressive). Solid way to kill some time I guess. 6/10 (Enjoyable)

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Yoshi's Island (1995)
System: SNES, been ported a bunch on GBA, Wii U, and Switch (but I'm playing on SNES)
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
Completion Notes: Beat the game, not gonna bother with 100% I'm not good enough for that lmao

Speaking as someone who is not a Mario fan, I think Yoshi’s Island is a great game. Shocking, I know! I really enjoyed the more varied and open-ended level design, and I was also really surprised by how challenging the game gets despite being very forgiving by Mario standards (saving every level, a health system, etc.). Koji Kondo is a pretty overrated composer imo, but the Yoshi’s Island OST is definitely his best work. Alas, just like all his other games, there just aren’t enough songs in the game, so I still decided to mute the game and listen to a Youtube vid whenever I got stuck on a hard level. And dear god I am NEVER 100%ing this game lol. 8/10 (Great!)

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Burning Rangers (1998)
System: Sega Saturn
Developer/Publisher: Sonic Team/Sega
Completion Notes: Beat the game, didn't really care about rank or how many people I rescued

Burning Rangers, a Sonic Team project developed in between the more well-known Nights and Sonic Adventure 1, is commonly cited as one of the very best games on Sega Saturn and a hidden gem of the early 3D era. It also commands an outrageous secondhand price, with NA copies costing $700 (Note: EU copies are $200 and the game was not properly optimized for PAL, so they should run okay on a North American Saturn). But like every expensive retro cult classic, I am here to play it and ruin everyone’s day.

Burning Rangers is not a good game at all. I wouldn’t exactly call it bad, but I would call it an unfinished mess. (At this point I am going to copy a lot of things I said in my Backloggd review because oh god I have so much to whine about)

This game some great ideas and moments, high-ish production values given its anime cutscenes, full voice-acting, and multiple vocal songs, but it just doesn't come together into a meaningful experience.

The gameplay is mostly a mess. As cool as the idea of having voice-guided navigation, it's still very easy to get lost due to not having a minimap, and the final level does not have a dedicated button for getting instructions (the game does not tell you this, but in most levels you can press X and Kris will tell you roughly where to go). Additionally, the idea of having jetpacks for platforming is neat and certainly makes it a bit easier in a time when 3D cameras were still wonky, but it's way too loose and imprecise and the camera sucks. It's fun most of the time since a lot of the levels are these open mazes with few enemies (read: fine but nothing special), but whenever the game tries to make you do more precise platforming it quickly becomes a mess. That massive climb section in the middle of the final stage was so horrendous that I decided to listen to the Super Pitfall theme because I was reminded of the AVGN describing how the last thing you want to do is fall down in that game. The muddy graphics with drab color choices do the game no favors either.

Combat kinda stinks too. Most bosses devolve into mindlessly firing off charge shots until you win. During the first boss of the final level, I don't think I moved at all to dodge attacks, I just kept blasting until I somehow won. The final boss is great though. I don't know if the game tells you this, but I found out in the final battle that if you stand still your character will auto-lock onto the nearest enemy. Pretty innovative I suppose since OoT and its Z-Targetting didn't exist yet.

But while the above highlight that Burning Ranger's core game has lots of problems, it really is the unfinishedness of it all that is so infuriating. You have full voice-acting, but it is incredibly wooden, I'd imagine due to a lack of voice direction. The soundtrack has some AWESOME vocal themes in We Are Burning Rangers (English ver), Burning Hearts (Japanese ver; yes the vocalist is indeed Mr DAYYYTONAAAAAA Takenobu Mitsuyoshi), and I Just Smile (English ver), and a few solid instrumental tracks like the final boss theme Heartbreaking Encounter. However, 90% of the gameplay HAS NO MUSIC. It's quite telling too since the only non-boss gameplay sequence with music is one segment of the final level (song is a main theme remix called Burning Ship to Take Off) which is probably the coolest part of the game. You have this cast of colorful characters that pretend to be interesting, but the reality is that we know very little about them and our ability to directly interact with them is very limited. You have all these people you can rescue and plenty of characters within each level and attempts that twists, but there really isn't much of a plot to be invested in. The final climax comes out of nowhere and feels very unearned, and again, the lack of characterization really hampers the experience. I don't think it's too much to ask since Sega's rival Nintendo managed to make a game with plenty more character interactions several months earlier in Star Fox 64.

And of course, worst of all, the game's length. I don't mind short games, and the levels are rather long, but there's only 4 of them, and the game is over within a few hours due to it being pretty easy outside of the last level. When you consider how much this game is pretending to do on an aesthetic and plot standpoint (on top of there being a scrapped multiplayer mode), I can't help but shake the feeling that this game was very very rushed due to the Saturn's imminent demise

The truly fascinating part about Burning Rangers is that Bulk Slash predates this game by about 6 months, and it achieves much of what Burning Ranger wanted to do but so so so SOOOO much more effectively: Voice navigators with more personality, level design that mixes openness with an arcade feel, vertical movement options (in this case a flying mech instead of a jetpack), a half-decent camera system, much better combat and bosses, actual music...it's insane to me that this never got localized because it could've been a true killer for 1997.

Seriously, if you are considering playing Burning Rangers, play Bulk Slash instead. 5/10 (Ehhhhhh)

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Sonic Advance 2 (2003)
System: GBA
Developer/Publisher: Dimps / Sega
Completion Notes: Beat the game with Sonic (I've previously beaten the game with Cream. No, I'm not getting the True Final Boss LOL)

Perhaps the first Sonic to move the needle away from pure platforming and straight into “game plays itself” territory. While Sonic moves insanely fast, you really don’t need to provide much input besides holding left for most of the level and jumping or switching directions occasionally. When you need to do something more involved, it often feels like a cheap hazard you could never have seen coming. This game was one of my childhood demons; I remember me and my brother struggling to get past Zone 5, the infamous Sky Canyon Zone. It’s filled with bottomless pits and almost requires you to be comfortable with the game’s trick system (it’s functionally just an air-dash). Now that I’m older, the two Acts weren’t too bad since the dashes you need to accomplish are pretty simple. While the first four bosses are pretty easy, I never managed to get past the Zone 5 boss as a kid (4th image here). Unfortunately, it’s still plenty aggravating as an adult; the boss’s arm can instantly kill you on contact, but it moves haphazardly so it’s tough to land a hit on the capsule while also not getting killed yourself.

Thankfully, Zones 6 and 7 are pretty smooth sailing after the anxiety of dealing with Sky Canyon (though still a slight challenge), and their bosses are a bit tricky; I would say they get annoying, but least they don’t insta-kill you! The final boss is legitimately great; you need to spindash off of an elevated platform and, with good timing, hit him RIGHT IN THE FUCKING HEAD! YEAH! It also has what is honestly one of my favorite final boss themes in any video game. The rest of the soundtrack in this game is damn good, taking a lot of cues from ‘90s EDM, such as the techno track Hot Crater Act 1 that shifts into a livelier direction for Act 2. My favorite stage theme is Techno Base; Act 1 is great of course, but Act 2 is straight up a Techno/Jungle track with an Amen Break sample. In a GBA game. Of course, anyone who has spent time playing flash games in the ‘00s or early ‘10s knows the iconic boss theme and pinch boss themes, and while I am NEVER going to 100% this game, the Secret Boss theme is phenomenal as well (love the effect it generates by mixing vibratos and staccatos)

I played Sonic Advance 1 last year and that game. While that game was MUCH more involved on a platforming standpoint and not a game that succumbs to playing itself, it was also very in one ear and out the other, with a pretty low difficulty (outside of the shockingly hard Egg Rocket 1) and an unremarkable soundtrack. Advance 2 is not a game I would call “good” under a reasonable conscious: There’s very little player agency despite the incredible speeds the game puts you through and, when there is, it tends to be something stupid. But at the end of the day, it is a fun and very aesthetically pleasing experience and at least MUCH more memorable than Advance 1. 6.5/10 (Enjoyable)

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Elevator Action Returns (1994)
System: Arcade and Sega Saturn, Sega Saturn version recently got ported to all modern systems.
Developer/Publisher: Taito
Completion Notes: Beat the game with Edie, used both of the continues provided

A CLEAN 2D Action game. You play through linear and highly vertical levels where you run around closing doors...I know it sounds boring, but trust me, the execution is so well done. While your movement allows you to play at a fast pace, the game’s design encourages you to play more strategically. Honestly, this game feels like a precursor to games like Katana Zero, one of the my Top 10 favorite games ever, in that you can have bursts of movement, but it is best to approach your battles wisely so you don’t get killed. Soundtrack isn't amazing but it's still some good jazzy instrumentals (fav track was definitely the final stage's Blow Up); what's most noteworthy about it is that the official OST rearranges the music a bit and adds transitions to give it more of an “Album Experience”, so give it a whirl if you feel so inclined.

The game is pretty short so it’s hard to justify its price tag on modern stores, and I know I haven't done the best job of selling this game, but I’d highly encourage y’all to play this if you are at all able to. 8.5/10 (Great!)…to be honest this is very close to a 9.

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Thunder Force V (1997)
System: Sega Saturn and PS1 (PS1 version is called Perfect System and has some changes, but I'm playing the Saturn version)
Developer/Publisher: TecnoSoft
Completion Notes: 1CCed with the Good Ending

Thunder Force V is a very good Shmup that, while distinct from its predecessor Thunder Force IV, can’t really escape its shadow.

Thunder Force IV is probably the best Shmup of the 16-bit era which flashy spritework, well-themed and intense (if memorization-heavy) levels, a simple but pretty satisfying weapon system, and an INCREDIBLE soundtrack. Like I can’t stress this enough, Thunder Force IV has one of the greatest soundtracks in any video game. Its brilliant combination of FM Audio and Metal singlehandedly proves that the Genesis’s soundchip is not strictly inferior to the SNES. Underneath the flexing of TFIV’s visceral sound is some really catchy melodies, with no better example than the game’s most famous track, Metal Squad. And for the nerds who care about the music theory, there are several songs that use odd time signatures.

Right off the bat Thunder Force V's soundtrack is excellent...and yet it's still inferior to IV's. The age of CD Audio was well under-way by the time of V’s release, and V unfortunately couldn’t craft a sound anywhere near as punchy as IV’s brilliant usage of FM Synths, not to mention V’s songs have, imo, weaker melodies. Still...the game has plenty of excellent tracks, favorites include Legendary Wings (Stage 1), Steel of Destiny (Stage 5), and Electric Mind (Stage 6). Unfortunately, it is a bit telling that the best track in V (Duel of Top, the Stage 5 Boss) is a rearrangement of a song from IV (Lightning Strikes Again) that arguably wasn’t even a Top 5 song in that game.

Gameplay has changed up a good amount since IV, but it still ends up being pretty centralized. IV’s gameplay heavily revolved around Hunter, since it homed in on everything, dealt good damage, and had crazy range. Hunter is still good in V, but funnily enough, the best weapon V is a reworked version of IV’s worst weapon, the Free Way shot. In IV, this was a spread shot that positioned itself based on what direction your ship was currently moving in, but it was pretty weak and very finnicky. In V, it now creates a conical range that will autofire at any enemy that gets within that range for insane damage, damage increasing the close your ship is to the enemy. When you combine this with a new mechanic that allows you to sacrifice your options in exchange for greatly improved firepower, you can easily rip bosses to shreds…which you’re really going to need to because the bosses in this game are absolutely brutal.

While Thunder Force IV is at least mostly doable with insufficient weapons, V really requires you to have a good weapon if you are not planning to get clobbered, but it turns out that the best weapon, Free Way, just tears through most of the enemies even if it is really fun. There are still some early-game sections that I absolutely could not do deathless, maybe even at all, if I didn’t have the Free Way. And even if you play perfectly, the final boss sequence is just plain brutal: Attacks are extremely difficult to dodge, the fight is very long, and there’s a hidden time limit on the final phase that locks you into the Bad Ending if you mess up :/ Thankfully I got the good ending, but yikes, I did it by the skin of my teeth.

Thunder Force V is still a very fun time and has much of what made Thunder Force IV great…but I really feel like you should play Thunder Force IV first (V might be easier to get far in, but IV is imo easier to beat, the final boss in V is just disgusting). 7.5/10 (“This is a good video game”)

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Clockwork Knight (1994)
System: Sega Saturn
Developer/Publisher: Sega
Completion Notes: 1CCed it lol

One of the launch titles for the Saturn, I played through it and recorded my playthrough since I was thinking of doing a video essay on Astal and the early days of the Saturn. Anyways, this is easily the most “whatever” game I played this year. The toy box aesthetic is a cool idea, but in practice its early 3D look is tacky. Soundtrack has some nice vocal tunes and a few songs I remember, but nothing that really impressed me. The gameplay is a pretty standard platformer with a short melee attack and a run button; your jump is pretty floaty and the third level introduces slippery surfaces which is always a pain to deal with. There are some cool ideas here and there like those water taps, but at a mere four worlds and two levels per world, the game can be blasted through in a couple of hours. You’ll have to do that anyways since the game not only lacks a save feature, but also lacks infinite continues! Not that it matters, since there’s a minigame you can grind for a bit to grab a ridiculous number of extra lives and invalidate any such fears (I beat the game without using a continue fyi).

I get the sense that Clockwork Knight was supposed to be the Saturn’s equivalent to Castle of Illusion, an early Genesis game that is a short and easy romp, but a fun one that really shows off its system’s capabilities. So, for the killing blow to Clockwork Knight’s appeal…did you know that this game came out AFTER Donkey Kong Country? A game that also uses 3D model sprites for a 2D Action Platformer, but has more unique level designs and tons of secrets that amount to a game that will last you several times longer than Clockwork Knight (and also has a save feature!). And that game was released on the 16-bit SNES. How embarrassing! Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired for THAT blunder. 5/10 (Ehhhhhh)

Wrote about it in much more depth here. Don’t have much more to add, a really cool gameplay idea and a nice aesthetic, but ultimately neither element is good enough to elevate this game into something truly great. That title screen song is still fantastic though (and still sounds like an Eyepatch Wolf song). 7/10 (“This is a good video game”)

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Touhou Luna Nights (2019)
System: All modern systems, I played on PC
Developer/Publisher: Team Ladybug / Playism
Completion Notes: Beat the game and the Extra Stage

Played this one with GatoDelFuego and CryoGyro! I am not really a MetroidVania fan because I hate getting lost in video games, but I really enjoyed this one. I had already loved Team Ladybug's previous game in Shin Megami Tensei Synchronicity Prologue (even if it hasn't held up as well as I thought) and this just seems like the next step forward on all counts. The pixel art is even more polished, the levels are bigger and more interesting (but the game still clocks in at a tight 6-8 hours, so it doesn't overstay its welcome), and the soundtrack is of course reinditions of various Touhou songs (my personal favorite tracks were Stage 2's The Maid and the Pocketwatch of Blood with its tempo (and time signature?) switches and Stage 4's The Young Descendent of Tapes). Much like Synchronicity, the levels are pretty linear so you very rarely will get stuck or lost while playing, and upgrades are intuitive and come at a pretty regular pace.

The gameplay revolves around the ability to slow down and freeze time, and it's generally incorporated pretty well in the level design (some objects only move or move in reverse when time is frozen), and there's a particularly neat upgrade where you can platform using your frozen knives. Taking inspiration from Touhou, there's also a grazing mechanic, where getting close to, but not touching, enemies and attacks heals you and refills your MP and time gauges, and it's especially nuanced since it only triggers once per attack and doesn't heal you if time is frozen. These combat mechanics all come together to make for some EXCELLENT boss fights. The designers are able to go pretty wild with the boss design, but it still remains fair because of how much leeway the graze heals gives you and how Snail Time and time freezing help a ton with dodging attacks. The wide variety of mechanics, on top of whatever upgrades and weapons you find leads to a lot of different combat styles; I myself used the slide kick a ton since it has some invincibility frames and is great for poking through walls of bullets and used time freeze as a way to safely charge up Snail Time and heal, while Cryo and Gato tended to focus more on finding which attacks were easiest to graze normally.

The consensus all three of us came to was that Luna Nights is a game with very high highs but also some rough lows. In my opinion, it just comes down to Luna Nights overextending with its mechanics and designs when it didn't need to. The enemy placement in the late-game just becomes obnoxious to deal with, I sometimes found it helpful to avoid combat and just run past every enemy to the exit. I also really don't like how your normal attack uses up MP; I get that they wanted to do it to make MP more useful and to balance the extremely powerful Ancient Sword, but it just becomes far more annoying to have to refill it whenever it ends up draining out. It was also odd that the Extra Stage of all places was giving a Dash upgrade. Still, even if I don't have a personal appreciation for Touhou like I do with Megami Tensei, I had a great time with Luna Nights. 8.5/10 (Great!)

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Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth (2009)
System: WiiWare
Developer/Publisher: M2 / Konami
Completion Notes: Beat the game on default settings (no Classic style)

Wasn’t really a fan of this one, to me this is the worst of the ClassicVania games I’ve played so far (this, 1, JP and US 3, Super, Bloodlines, Rondo, and Belmont’s Revenge). Level design was fine, the controls were decent but are unfortunately more constrained than Super and Bloodlines, but the game was still mostly fun to play. The graphics look tacky, and the sound design is horrible, filled with either sounds ripped straight from Bloodlines or stock sounds that took me out of the action (they even use the Cartoon Splat sound, at least they didn't use the Boowomp sound)...but this is a WiiWare game, so I can’t be too harsh. The soundtrack on paper is great, it’s entirely composed of arrangements of past Castlevania songs using Konami’s Arcade Soundfont, with some occasional deep cuts (the standout being New Messiah). But it’s frustrating that there weren’t any original songs, since the arrangements were done by Manabu Namiki, a contender for THE greatest video game composer of all-time (like, just listen to the tracks he did for Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label around the same time as Adventure Rebirth…we were ROBBED god damnit).

What really brings this game down is its length and difficulty. Rebirth gets pretty damn hard as it goes on, about as CV3 in my opinion (read: harder than every other Vania game). And yet, you are stuck you’re your standard three lives with very few opportunities to get a 1-up, Game Overs bring you back to the start of the level, and there is no saving in this 2009 WiiWare release. But the real killing blow is how LONG these stages are OH MY GOD. STAGE 5 IS LIKE 10+ MINUTES LONG. WHY. And unfortunately, the number of checkpoints do not at all reflect the length of the stage; there are 4 checkpoints per level, and in those later stages, the space between them gets pretty agonizing. I spent so much of my playtime just throwing my head against the wall trying to beat Stages 4 and 5. And yet…I still enjoyed the game, because it’s still a classic Castlevania game, and not one that contains anything so difficult it’s basically impossible (see: Belmont’s Revenge). It’s not really the “hidden gem” of the Castlevania franchise that people make it out to be and it’s definitely not the best game to play for someone new to Castlevania, but I suppose ClassicVania should give this a whirl if they haven’t already. 6/10 (Enjoyable)

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Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995)
System: SNES, has a GBA port and been rereleased a ton, but I'm playing it on SNES
Developer/Publisher: Rare / Nintendo
Completion Notes: Beat the game, didn't collect all that much stuff (maybe a few Kremkoins)

Beat the game with barely any collectables, I might use the Pirate Panic cheat to play Lost World levels. I think the soundtrack is very good, albeit not one of the all-time greats in my book (Stickerbush Symphony is a classic of course, also really like Mining Melancholy). The difficulty of this game was a bit all over the place, some levels were challenging but manageable while others (namely Hornet Hole) were just plain brutal. However, I still really really like the fast and loose way the game plays, as well as its wide variety of level themes. Definitely much better than what I played of DKC1 and Returns. 8/10 (Great!)

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Picross 3D (2009)
System: Nintendo DS
Developer/Publisher: HAL Laboratory / Nintendo
Completion Notes: Got a perfect on every puzzle besides the final Gold puzzle (which I still haven't cleared...)

There is sooooo much content to chew through in this game and yet somehow I played pretty much all of it (save for the last Gold level). The gameplay is pretty simple and flip flops between super easy and super frustrating, but it’s still addicting, nonetheless. The music was pretty eh, played the game on mute most of the time. Cute game, great way to pass the time while bored on the bus or a train or something…that is, if you’re someone like me who still uses their DS a ton lol. 7.5/10 ("This is a good video game")

Did a big ol' review on it here. This game has only grown on me since my initial review. I think its sense of style is incredibly captivating, it's a simple enough game that I sometimes just pick up and play it whenever I'm in the mood. I pray it gets a proper rerelease someday. 9/10 (One of my favs)

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Parasite Eve (1998)
System: PS1
Developer/Publisher: Squaresoft
Completion Notes: Beat the main game, not sure if I'll do Chrysler Building but I'm leaning on no

(I beat this in January 2024, but I played most of this in 2023 and planned to beat it that year, so I'll count it here)

The beginning of Parasite Eve is just incredible. Its brilliant extension of the ATB combat system by adding top-down movement into the equation, including dodging enemy attacks and getting into their range, is so much fun in concept, plus needing to strategize a bit with the limited inventory and the survival horror elements, as well as building a sense of tension with a plot that left plenty of open questions and hooked the player effectively.

Parasite Eve doesn’t really follow through on this.

Dungeons become a bit of a drag since items can be hidden in pretty random locations. This is bad enough, but you’re playing on the PS1 with super muddy graphics (even if the animations are really smooth throughout the game, almost Ghost Trick-like) and the interaction hitboxes are quite finnicky. What ends up happening is that you run around every room mashing the X button until you finally find something you can interact with, but since you’re constantly mashing, you’ll inevitably skip key dialogue on accident. Not that it really matters, because the story doesn’t really follow through on the groundwork it builds at the start of the game. The villain is very whatever, the reveals about Aya aren’t all that shocking, a lot of side characters have potential but don’t really get satisfying arcs, and there are points when the tension just melts away and you’re left with WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON???? character reactions and that really stupid plot contrivance during the final battle.

The combat also gets annoying as the game goes on. Regular enemies love to inflict status effects on you that you’ll need to quickly cure. You need to be a bit smart about your ammo consumption, as your melee weapon has a ridiculous windup that makes it easy to whiff…but if you farm for ammo for a dungeon or two (i.e. use your annoying af melee weapon), you’re pretty much set on ammo for most of the game. I learned this lesson the hard way when I suddenly ran out of ammo on a late-game boss fight. I stockpiled ammo during the dungeon afterwards and had far no trouble with ammo management on the later bosses. Don’t get it twisted though, the general combat can still be a fun time when it’s not being annoying, the bosses are generally great and I really like the idea of the melee weapon when the enemies actually co-operate (especially since it can steal items), but the ammo system doesn’t really make the game more interested even if it’s cool on paper. Neither does reloading weapons (pretty much amounts to randomly getting stunned for like 3 seconds during combat because you can’t keep track of how much ammo your gun holds while in battle), nor the strict inventory system (Your inventory is full. Your inventory is full. Your inventory is full.). The one unique mechanic I did really like was the Tool system that allows you to scrap old weapons/armor for upgrades.

Music is by the icon herself, Yoko Shimomura. It’s nothing special by her standards, but it’s still pretty good, fav track is definitely the normal battle theme Arise Within You. One last thing I want to touch on are the non-standard Game Over sequences (QTEs?) that occur after a few boss fights and aren’t explained well to a blind player at all to the point where I decided to consult a guide.

*Ahem*

WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

I enjoyed my time with Parasite Eve overall and I’m glad I played it, but I’m really hesitant to call it a good game. Honestly, the fact that I’m thinking about trading it in because it’s a valuable game on a system I don’t collect for is probably enough of a sign that this wasn’t something I loved… 6.5/10 (Enjoyable)

There’s a number of other games I played a significant amount of but didn’t finish or I otherwise feel like I haven’t properly beaten them. I will probably do proper review of some of these, but for the time being here are some (hopefully) shorter thoughts on them:

Castlevania Belmont’s Revenge: Been playing it on and off but I think I made some significant headway on it this year. I’ve seen some people praise this game a lot but the general consensus seems to be a lot more mixed than I was expecting. Really surprising, I think it’s a game with great level design, level theming, and of course an excellent soundtrack; you've of course got the classic New Messiah, Praying Hands, which has an outstanding intro, and my personal favorite track Original Sin. The common complaint seems to be with the much slower movement compared to the rest of the franchise, but I thought the game was designed around it and still played as well as any most older Vania games…

Then I got to the Soleiyu fight (penultimate boss). It’s pretty much impossible. 6.5/10 (Enjoyable)

Mystic Warriors: Played through this with my brother, by which I mean we credit fed through the entire game, so I'm not considering it as a game I've properly beaten. Not much to say about it, it’s a spiritual successor to Sunset Riders and it too is a pretty solid action game from Konami’s ‘90s run. The one standout quality of the game is its soundtrack; it’s a fantastic example of the Electronic/House influences present in mid-90s Arcade games. Stage 8’s Majestic Fortress is absolutely the best song, probably one of the most overlooked songs in all of retro gaming, although I also really love Stage 2’s Life and Lodge and Stage 6’s On the Blind Track. A little odd this game has never seen a rerelease. 7/10 (“This is a good video game”)

MUSHA: A Shmup released somewhat early in the Sega Genesis’s life. There’s unfortunately not much to be said about the game itself, the history behind this game’s developer and its place in the world of retro gaming discourse (it’s the 2nd most expensive “conventional” game on the Genesis) is far more interesting. The game is relatively easy as far as Shmups go until the final level, which is hard as hell and I haven’t yet been able to beat it. Music is pretty great, standout track is definitely the first stage theme Fullmetal Fighter. The gameplay and soundtrack of this game would get completely eclipsed by Thunder Force IV’s the following year, but it’s a fun time in its own vacuum. 7/10 (“This is a good video game”)

Shinobi III: A pretty fun 2D action-platformer with good stage variety, solid spritework, a soundtrack by the legendary Yuzo Koshiro (the highlight of course being Stage 4’s Whirlwind), and some fun combat that balances fast-paced movement with sections that are best performed more methodically. Unfortunately, the controls for the double jump are AWFUL so I haven’t been able to get past the first screen of Stage 6…if I figured them out I could probably beat the game idk. 7/10 (“This is a good video game”)

Marvel vs Capcom 2: I am horrendous at fighting games, I sunk like a dozen hours into Marvel vs Capcom 2 and yet I’m still nowhere close to beating it, and yet I can still confidently say this game is absolute blast to play. After messing around with it a bit, it has an incredible game feel and is surprisingly intuitive even if you’re largely just mashing and praying like I am. The soundtrack is outstanding (if you're unfamiliar, check out River, Clock Tower, Carnival, and of course Take You For A Ride) the spritework from various series surprisingly blends pretty well together, even against fully 3D backgrounds, and it's got maybe the greatest announcer in any video game. It’s Mahvel baby. 8/10 (Great!)

Ys Book 1 and 2: I finished Book 1 but haven’t finished Book 2 yet. Ys, perhaps even more than Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, is the game that really defined what the modern JRPG is like. Action RPG gameplay. High quality CD audio for most of the soundtrack, even if it’s a bit generic by modern standards (I’ll shout out Palace of Destruction and Ruins of Moondoria as some highlights). Animated cutscenes. And 20 minutes of actually decent voice acting. Keep in mind, this game came out back in 1990, well before the anime boom and even before the likes of Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon all put voice acting on the map. You’ve got some VAs from the He-Man cartoons, an appearance from a true voice acting legend in Jim Cummings (the official VA for Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Taz, and Pete, though the video game nerds know him best as Dr. Robotnik in Sonic SatAM), and even the very first voice acting appearance of Debi Derryberry (was later the voice of Jimmy Neutron and Zatch from Zatch Bell).

Actually playing it though…uhhhhhhh……

This game has a very tight pace, but it also requires a ton of grinding (that thankfully goes by pretty quickly). The combat involves just ramming straight into enemies, which is a bit of a crapshoot and will lead to you getting killed a lot, but at least you can save at any time and you can autoheal if you’re outside a dungeon. It’s also super easy to get lost in this game, there have already been several instances where I to pull up a guide in order to avoid banging my head against a wall any further. I think this game is good fun if you’re in a state where you’re making smooth progress. In those moments the game’s tight pacing works really well and it’s a fun time to play while you’re listening to a podcast or in a voice call. But man…the rough patches in this game are roooough. 6.5/10 (Enjoyable)

Bulk Slash: Got up to Stage 6. 3D action game that avoids many of the problems that plagued Burning Rangers. Camera is always locked behind your character and the game plays kinda like the all-range segments from Star Fox 64, which makes movements and combat quite intuitive. Rather than having multiple jumps, you can swap between a flight mode and a grounded mode. There’s an actual soundtrack that’s pretty good, levels are more compact and are focused on various objectives, the fan translation with amateur voice actors is fun (I didn’t know any of the VAs besides speedrunning community icon Edobean...had no idea she did VA work and she sounds very different from her distinct speaking voice lol), and the graphics are a lot cleaner and nicely blend 2D sprites with the 3D environments and models. My only real complaint is that the game doesn’t allow you to save level progress (you only save upon beating the game), and the late-game gets quite tough, but otherwise this game is just everything Burning Rangers wanted to be. 7.5/10 (“This is a good video game”)

Batsugun: Playing this for the first time this year. Arguably the first Bullet Hell ever made? (although Recca is also an ancestor to the genre). It’s relatively easy as far as Bullet Hells go, but I’m still really bad at it lol, I’ve gotten some runs past the halfway mark but haven’t had much luck beyond that. Fun for what it is and surprisingly short (which does mean restarting is quick) 7/10 (“This is a good video game”)

Neon White: About halfway through the game. Echoing Amaranth’s post, this game is fantastic and it’s super fun to hone your skills and improve your time. I’m really surprised by how much I love it since I rarely play First-Person games, but I think what helps is how stripped back the controls and gameplay are; I can very easily play this on my controller and feel fairly comfortable (although the aiming isn’t perfect which becomes problematic for a few of the Ace Ranks). I think it helps that some of my irl friends have played this game too so I can compare times against them. Got past the first boss, will hopefully play more in 2024. Also, the writing and story, while not exactly “good”, is way better than people have claimed. 9/10 (One of my favs)

Pokemon Black 1: First replay since the game came out in 2011. Still a fantastic game after all this time thanks to its tight pacing. An RPG beatable in 15 hours sounds awesome in my book (it took me another 15-20 hours to clear out the postgame, Hall of Fame, and Cynthia), and it still gives you lots of customization and side content even if it’s not quite as much as BW2. Soundtrack is incredible but you already knew that. The story is bad though, really don’t understand why people say this is the best Pokemon story when Sun and Moon’s was very obviously better. Lovely game to play if you mash through the story. 9/10 (One of my favs)

Pokemon Black 2: First replay since the game came out in 2012. I’ve always recognized Black 2 as a great game. For whatever reason, though, I didn’t think it was anywhere close to my favorite Pokemon game, and it wasn’t until replaying it that I could really put my finger on my issue with it. While Black 2 is definitely a more content rich game and with a much better Pokemon selection than BW1, I think its pacing is significantly worse than BW1. BW1 has a pretty smooth progression of Dungeon -> Gym -> Dungeon -> Gym -> etc until the end. BW2 paces the gameplay in service to its story, which results in this mess where you sometimes go hours on end between gym matches and sometimes gym matches happen in relatively short succession of one another. You end up jumping all over the map of Unova, and even when you finish the 8th Gym, you have like 5+ hours to go (in a 25ish hour game) before you get to the end credits. And the story is…I guess better than BW1 but still not good? I think the Purrloin concept was interesting on paper but I didn’t connect with Hugh as a character at all, that really is his only character trait. The attempts to flesh out the characters don’t really work since they have as much personality as a slice of white bread (besides Charles, we love Charles).

I haven’t really felt much motivation to play the postgame, there’s a ton of things to do, but it’s not very focused like BW1’s postgame campaign that I just don’t want to keep track of all the content. BW2 is a bigger and better game on paper, and for most people, but for me it comes across as bloated…though it’s still a fun time lol. 8/10 (Great!)

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel: I’m still playing it baby. Best game ever when you’re winning, terrible piece of garbage when you’re losing. Monetization is getting a bit worse but it’s still pretty great overall. Oh, and the new music is incredible and somehow even better than the music we already had. The highlights from this year are Keycard 11, Climax 11, Climax 12, and all of the World Championship Finals songs (which honestly is even crazier than the Pokemon World Championship theme). If anyone wants to get indoctrinated into Yugioh, gimme a holler. 8.5/10 (Great!)

Slay the Spire: Finished a run a while ago, came back for more (got up to Ascension 9?) Even more of a luck fiesta than Yugioh and not nearly as fun. And yet, I still played it so much this year (like 30 hours within the span of less than a month) that I had to put my foot down and uninstall this damn game because I wasn’t even having fun with it at that point. I mean…it’s kinda fun when you’re winning so I guess that counts for something. Very generous 6/10 (Enjoyable)
 
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lay the Spire: Finished a run a while ago, came back for more (got up to Ascension 9?) Even more of a luck fiesta than Yugioh and not nearly as fun. And yet, I still played it so much this year (like 30 hours within the span of less than a month) that I had to put my foot down and uninstall this damn game because I wasn’t even having fun with it at that point. I mean…it’s kinda fun when you’re winning so I guess that counts for something. Very generous 6/10 (Enjoyable)
this is a fun review because its a similar experience to how i play sts but i think that makes it really enjoyable. very turn your brain off and just do some runs until you get a good one that puts your brain on overdrive. its cool to see different viewpoints to that type of game tho. do you think this is just a sts problem or a roguelike problem?
 

Mr. Uncompetitive

Ugh Cough! Cough! Splutter!
is a Contributor Alumnus
this is a fun review because its a similar experience to how i play sts but i think that makes it really enjoyable. very turn your brain off and just do some runs until you get a good one that puts your brain on overdrive. its cool to see different viewpoints to that type of game tho. do you think this is just a sts problem or a roguelike problem?
I think the problem is that I'm a Yu-Gi-Oh player, and the Hearthstone-inspired gameplay of Slay the Spire is not nearly crazy enough to satisfy me (One Step From Eden is my roguelike of choice; the gameplay in that game gets absolutely bonkers and you'll typically converge to a satisfying build by the midgame, and if you don't you'll probably get killed very quickly lol). It's pretty tame and I've had difficulty making a really crazy build (I typically play Silent Shiv builds because they feel the most Yugioh-core); it sucks that you're incentivized to play very defensively because of the shield mechanic. I do get the appeal of fishing for that one perfect run, but there are just other easy-to-pick-up games I'd rather be playing
 
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bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
I think I've officially reached the point where I'm done playing games for the foreseeable future. Yesterday I had an opportunity to hang out with my high school friends, and most of it was pretty enjoyable. At some point, I felt like something was wrong. On paper, nothing was. One of my friends had made a point that I don't play what I say I've enjoyed and that I haven't done and played a number of games that I own. To be fair, I've given most of them a fair shot, but I can also see where he's coming from. I've said before to my friends that I'm not a fan of some of the games they play, but since I constantly feel unneccessarily guilty for having hard time wanting to try new things, I get myself in these situations where I remember I have all these PS4 and Switch games that I just never played and have no interest in playing. I still have no interest in upgrading consoles, either. What's bothering me is twofold- for starters, I'm starting to believe that I'm too attached to my own nostalgia for the games I do like to the point where it's maybe an actual problem, but that's the kicker- is it actually a problem, or am I letting my friends' comments get to me too easily and my own insecurity is the problem instead? Arceus forbid I don't want to play "actual" single player games like you do and prefer to play games that have multiplayer content but still have single player options. Maybe- hear me out- maybe I don't feel like becoming hyperfixated and having a literal panic attack upon the mere thought of trying out some of what my friends enjoy. Heck, I wouldn't even have some of those games if it wasn't for me being able to find them for dirt cheap, if not free as a result of, say, a Christmas or birthday gift for example.

That leads me into my second issue- even if I can feel comfortable playing what I want to play without my borderline guilt complex (and possibly my OCD, but that would be more of a topic for the Neurodiversity thread) making me feel self-conscious about my decisions, on top of all of the gripes I've discussed in this thread recently about modern releases, and AAA developers to some extent if I recall. I still think that my friend(s) wanting to call me out on some of my contradictory takes like this is just their way of telling me that I shouldn't waste money on games I won't play, which is certainly a valid argument. But between this, my pre-existing gripes, and me wanting to complain about my opinions more than ever before, and the teeny, tiny problem that is other people being able to see when you're online, what you're playing, and how long you've been playing individual games, because that doesn't feel like a privacy violation at all, I don't see why I should keep trying to make this work.

But hey, it's not like anything will ever get better when the modern AAA gaming landscape is just going to become overpriced AI-generated cash grabs made by robots and under-paid workers struggling to make ends meet. I'd rather my nephew never play video games at all when he's old enough at that rate. Mark my words, eventually indie games will suffer the same fates when the Indie Game Hype Cycle dies down, and what ethically moral choice would there even be anymore?
 
So I've recently started getting back into Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Zombies (prestiged today actually). Got to Round 27 on Nacht Der Untoten, great map, and wanted to ask for those who have played zombies before, what's your favourite map, and what's your go-to setup on said map?

For example, my favourite map is Origins. My go-to setup perk wise (I mean let's be honest, with the ability to get all perks realistically you just go all perks but limiting to 4) I go Juggernog, Stamin-Up, Speed Cola and Double Tap Root Beer (Including the free 5th perk from the challenge, prooobably Mule Kick or Electric Cherry), in terms of guns I'd go Ice Staff & Anointed Avenger, probably Boomhilda as 3rd with Mule Kick.
 
Yall seen Sony's statement on the PS5

It's not even 3.5 years old, was unavailable for the majority of that time and is already in its later stage of life?

If Sony made a passable revision and a price drop, that would already help a lot. The slim is just the original PS5, but a little smaller and frailer, compared to the huge design changes that the previous slim models have brought alongside being majorly more power efficient, cheaper and more robust, the PS5 slim is just dissapointing

I think the biggest reason for this however is just how badly the gaming industry deteriorated. Triple A games have gotten worse over many years, but we reached a breaking point were only very few AAA games are actually decent, let alone good. Decent, new releases are indie games, which can be played on weak to moderatly powerful PCs easily

If Sony went the way of Nintendo in the 80s, would become restrictive with what they'll allow on their platforms and issue out some quality control standards, that could pressure publishers and large developers to actually give a fuck

Or maybe we just reached a point were consoles like the PS5 have lost their purpose. PC gaming has become very accessible, the Switch has a specific niche, the PS5 is a Gaming PC without any of the utility
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
Yall seen Sony's statement on the PS5

It's not even 3.5 years old, was unavailable for the majority of that time and is already in its later stage of life?

If Sony made a passable revision and a price drop, that would already help a lot. The slim is just the original PS5, but a little smaller and frailer, compared to the huge design changes that the previous slim models have brought alongside being majorly more power efficient, cheaper and more robust, the PS5 slim is just dissapointing

I think the biggest reason for this however is just how badly the gaming industry deteriorated. Triple A games have gotten worse over many years, but we reached a breaking point were only very few AAA games are actually decent, let alone good. Decent, new releases are indie games, which can be played on weak to moderatly powerful PCs easily

If Sony went the way of Nintendo in the 80s, would become restrictive with what they'll allow on their platforms and issue out some quality control standards, that could pressure publishers and large developers to actually give a fuck

Or maybe we just reached a point were consoles like the PS5 have lost their purpose. PC gaming has become very accessible, the Switch has a specific niche, the PS5 is a Gaming PC without any of the utility
Generation 9 is such a joke. And what makes that sentence even funnier is that for once I'm not referring to Pokémon. I will say that this news doesn't surprise me in the slightest: 2012 marked the beginning of an industry-wide shift that not a lot of people talk about where hardware revisions have started recycling between companies every four years instead of a new console generation lining up with the platforms released within it.

2012-13: Wii U, PS4, Xbox One
2016-17: PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, Switch
2020-21: PS5, Xbox Series, Switch OLED

The Wii U's commercial failure definitely has something to do with this, don't get me wrong, but the important part to focus on with that list is how so far, it's alternated between Nintendo and the Xbox/PlayStation duality each time- for example, if Sony and Microsoft have something in one year of the pattern, Nintendo would have something in the other year that doesn't match those other two companies. Conventional wisdom would then tell you, "okay, that means 2024-25 would come next, with the release of Nintendo's Switch successor console and the premium versions of the PS5 and the Xbox Series". But now, with Sony's statement and Microsoft's multiplatform strategy, it looks and feels like both companies are struggling to keep up with the existing momentum of the Nintendo Switch, an eighth generation hybrid platform that runs considerably worse, because consumers have made their voice heard and stated they would rather support accessible and more importantly affordable hardware that carries more variety in how it can be played. It doesn't help that Sony and Microsoft would rather lay off their employees instead of try and cut costs elsewhere, either.

I think what I'm trying to say here is that dedicated console generations appear to be on their way out, or at least aren't as sustainable as before. PC gaming has stuck around for decades with relative ease, compensating for the meme that is "the PC 2" with modern games being able to be supported with upgraded specs and graphic models, and the Switch arguably benefits from the fact that it's not a true eighth generation or ninth generation platform, instead being a mixture of the two much in the same way I'd expect the Switch's successor to be able to compete with the eventual Generation 10 consoles. For the time being, the state of the industry seems to indicate we can expect the PS5 and Xbox to get their premium revisions in 2024 while Nintendo's worst kept secret finally releases in 2025.
 
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not exactly a video game per say, but you need to check out Minecraft's YouTube channel. it is hilarious. particularly the series' where they show you how they make Minecraft. some of my favorite lines are:
-I am the sentient computer back from.. lets call it heaven
-Caves and mountains go hand in hand, in that I have been banished to both to atone for my crimes
-minecrafts update aquatic was made to make minecrafts oceans more fun to drown in
I promise you, you will not regret it.
 
I just discovered the final boss theme of baldis basics. now, before you listen to it, take a few guesses as to what it will sound like.
you were wrong. this is way too epic for a parody game boss that most people who play the game wont even see. why did so much effort go into it?
 
got Unicorn Overlord digitally then was in walmart and seen (didnt expect my local one to have it) physically and was like "...... okay, sir."

*edit* didnt get it physical cus life fees, but wish i knew lmao. strategy rpgs is my bag.
 
Has anyone here played balatro... whats your rating of it? I kinda want to play it but it feels too rng even for a roguelike deckbuilder
 
I know this is a hard sell, but I believe that the best horror game of all time is Baldis Basics, which is hilarious, because it was made in a game jam, is a parody of the genre, and all of its characters are flat pngs. but it has such a unique approach to horror that makes it scarier than any horror game.

from the start, it does not pretend to be anything else. It might not say it is a horror game, but its twist is comically poorly hidden. not to mention that anyone coming into it probobly already knows at least a base level of what it is about. now, the second you answer the question wrong, a whole 90 seconds into the game, it finally takes off its fake mustache. now, when you read "I hear every door you open", the horror game genre has instantly conditioned you to expect a jump scare, scary sounds, and/or a drastic change in tone and graphics. but the game does none of those things. it does something far scarier. instead of scary music or creepy ambience, you are greeted with the scariest sound any video game has ever had.
Slap
Slap
Slap

no matter who you are, you instantly recognize this sound as a threat. but it is much more effective than any sound a creature of the darkness can make. in game, you have experienced it all. dragons, magic, gods, and you have been hurt by them all. but that was in game. no one comes across dragons in their day to day lives. but the threat of physical violence from an actual person is something that very few of us have not been exposed to. any sound the most horrifying eldritch abomination can make is nothing compared to the slap of a ruler, something that we are all trained to fear. and acompanying this is no music or creepy ambiances. these could do nothing to enhance the memory of abuse that this sound triggers. and as baldi gets closer to you, the sound becomes louder and louder. this marks a trend of Baldis Basics threatening you with things that target you instead of your character.

you see, most horror games immerse you in a world, so that the threat of dying in that world matches the fear of dying in real life. but in the end, you know that this game cannot affect you. you can die as many times as possible, and it wont affect you in the real world. but this isn't true. there is one way games can hurt us in the real world. by making us lose. this is what Baldis Basics understands, and this is what it weaponizes. the only immersive thing in the game is the slap of the ruler, and that is not meant to immerse you so much as it is meant to put you on edge. the graphics are unrealistic and the voices are barely recognisable. this means that baldis basics does not immerse you in the game. normally, this would be a critical failure for a horror game. but for Baldis basics, it is perhaps the thing most critical to its success. at no point during the game do you think you are playing anything but. which means the threat this game offers is front and center. the only thing that this game can do to you is have you lose. and since this does not immerse you in the world of the game, you recognize losing as just that. you fully understand the one thing this game can do to you. which means that if you lose, it affects you more than any other game. by not immersing you in the world, it immerses you in the experience of the chase. and this is where Baldis basics gameplay comes in. this game has so many moving parts that it effortlessly overwhelms you. you are always one wrong move from death, and if any character catches you, it very well may mean the end. while baldi is the only threat on paper, all the other characters in the game are designed to make it easier for baldi to catch you. and they accel at this role. this games characters come together to make a truly anxiety inducing experience. when any character encounters you, it is all you can do to pray baldi dosent show up, and when you encounter baldi, another character could easily spell doom. you feel helpless as everything falls apart, and that is what a good horror game should do. and as the game goes on, it only gets harder and harder to escape Baldi, until he eventually becomes faster than you. and when you finally collect the last notebook, and reach the exit, you are slapped in the face. as it gets drawn out more and more, you hope with all your heart that the next exit will be the last. and one more character comes into play. look at arts and crafters, and you will be teleported to the start. along with baldi. a baldi that is faster than you. the game is pulse pounding, anxiety inducing, and terrorizing in a way no other game is. instead of horror tropes, it uses things that scare you in real life. and that is why Baldis basics is the best horror game ever.
 

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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)
System: PS3 / Xbox 360 / PC (I played on PS3)
Developer/Publisher: PlatinumGames / Konami
Completion Notes: Beat on Normal

Just finished this one tonight alongside GatoDelFuego ; he is pretty familiar with the game and played the game on Hard (previously beat the game on Revengeance), I am not as familiar with the gameplay but have gotten plenty of story spoilers from watching clips of this game online.

I'm a big fan of 2D Action games, but I haven't really played many 3D ones, let alone a game developed by Platinum. Metal Gear Rising is definitely not an easy game at first and took some time to get used to. Parrying in this game not having a dedicated button and instead requiring to do deliberately mash forward while pressing light attack definitely took some time to get used to. Once I did, I started to notice that the parry windows are VERY generous and it's easy to just mash the parry and take out enemies without much issue; according to Gato this problem persists on higher difficulties too. Parrying still doesn't really help you when you're getting ganged up on by multiple enemies, especially the bulky ones and the ones that nearly-impossible-to-avoid fire missiles at you. It's in these moments you have to deal with the camera, which is just...uh...very not good! You can press R2 to focus on an enemy which does help, but the camera can still swing wildly when the enemy is moving and the screen is still focused on Raiden, which makes it difficult to see on-coming attacks or if you're capable of safely moving away from an enemy (the most egregious examples of this being the Metal Gear fight at the end of Stage 3 and the otherwise fairly easy Armstrong fight). When the combat works, it is pretty satisfying slice through enemies, parry their hits, and throw in the occasional dodge or run to reposition yourself, but there are a few too many instances of overly bulky jobbers that just become agonizing to fight.

There's also stealth sections in this game which...don't really make sense in a game that focuses on action? The late-game ones (the ones in Sundower and Armstrongs' stages) unfortunately do require you to grind your pacing to a halt and play very slowly and carefully to get some stealth kills, since the combat segments you do after getting caught are absurdly difficult otherwise. Most of the boss fights are pretty good though, even if I am a bit desensitized to the theatrics of this game after seeing so much gameplay on Youtube and so much discussion online; favorite by far was the Sam fight, really liked the atmosphere, the music, and figuring out some good strategies for handling his attacks (don't bother parrying when he loses his sword, you get much more of an opening if you dodge him instead). Armstrong was almost great too, but the instant-kill Blade Mode sections and the absurd amount of health items you get after clearing one of those sections (as well as how much damage you can deal off of random cutscenes) kinda sours it for me.

On that note, I will say I'm disappointed (but not surprised) that the internet gaslit me into thinking this game's plot has substance, coherence, and entertainment value beyond a few key cutscenes. I really don't much about any of the political/intellectual themes in this game; they're just kinda blurted out without really being dived into. The only other Kojima games I've played are Snatcher and a little bit of MGS1, but those games are just oozing with interesting worldbuilding and detail that the games do a great job focusing on. The plot of this game is also pretty disjointed; stuff just kinda...happens? Especially the transitions from Stages 2, 3, and 4. There's all these villains that we just don't get enough of an opportunity to care about. Monsoon and Mistral just show up and talk for like 2 minutes before you kill them, while Sundowner and Armstrong don't really get a lot of presence outside of their boss cutscenes; Sam I think just barely gets a pass. I know their cutscenes are "iconic" and meme'd a lot, but as someone who watched all those cutscenes 10 years ago, I was honestly expecting them to have some characterization outside of those cutscenes. Someone who watched a Youtube of the Mistral boss fight will have about the same interest and connection with the character as someone who played the entire game, and that's not really good in my eyes...Honestly though, if you don't take the story too seriously and don't expect the story to be comedy gold with goofy characters either, I think you'll be in for a fun enough time.

The vocal themes are pretty legendary at this point lol. honestly didn't get to hear them that much in-game because I was in a Discord call while playing this game and also had to focus on the actual combat, and I will admit they've become pretty overplayed for me since I listened to them a ton in high school (hypocritical because I still listen to and love some TWEWY songs), but they're still a lot of fun and I will admit to just randomly singing them at home when my head is empty. Rules of Nature is good and all but it's honestly not even close to favorite lol. For my favorite, I think I'd give the nod to either Red Sun or Stranger I Remain, although I really like The War Still Rages Within, The Only Thing I Know For Real, I'm My Own Master Now, and of course It Has To Be This Way. Unfortunately I didn't really care for any of the non-boss battle music (besides the credits theme of course).

I understand I'm complaining a lot, but I really do want to be clear: Metal Gear Rising is a good game. The story is enjoyable enough for what it is, the combat at its best is very satisfying, and the boss fights are generally solid. However, if you plan on giving this a game a shot, please keep your expectations low and do not fall for the overhype this game gets online. To be honest, watching cutscenes of this game out-of-context or the many many parodies of the game that exist online will be a more entertaining experience than playing the game. 7/10 ("This is a good video game")
 
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GatoDelFuego

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When the combat works, it is pretty satisfying slice through enemies, parry their hits,
I have watched a few videos on the game's combat system over the years and was really looking forward to trying it all out again after mastering bayonetta and sekiro. I realized that without all the optional upgrades (my save files were wiped), and the dedication to go _truly_ deep and practice to perfection....the combat just wasn't that interesting. It was fun to mash the occasional enemy and try to challenge myself with the bosses, but the majority of the game I just found myself going "yeah...this is just...the same gameplay over and over".

So the game's highs were fun, but the lows were very sloggy and it wasn't as fun as i expected to experience together. Which meant that ACTUALLY the best part of the game was the cutscenes and memes...Which meant that the majority of this game's fun can get experienced by somebody on YouTube. This game may have honestly gotten too popular for its own good! Not that I mind, the memes around it are great. But it was kind of sad to realize the game that I enjoyed 8 years ago isn't the same game. Oh well, it's not a GOAT tier.
 
A Shin Megami Tensei IV review i made in hopes of spreading The Plague to you, the reader (yup, that's right), so that my kind (smt fans) may absorb others like us into the sect. If you read this sentence, you're already marked, sorry.

No spoilers, by the way.

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cool ass box art

If you're into SMT online circles and communities people will often praise IV as "the best megaten game". I really disagree in a way that makes me feel that these people have a stockholm syndrome like attachment to the game, almost like the curious case of pokemon fans and modern generations, but instead the cope is fueled by jealousy and or hatred for the much more popular Persona series (which is actually a spinoff of SMT, which some might not know), i imagine.
Anyway.

Gameplay - Combat

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screenshot i got from google
Right off the bat, this game (series, really) has THE COOLEST party mechanics i have ever seen in videogames. You start out alone, but you can recruit... your enemies, the demons, to fight for you. Yeah, every single guy you fight can be convinced to join you, either by making them beg for their lives, or just paying them off with money, HP, SP, etc. You can recruit every single enemy you fight in game, except for the final bosses (lame detail, if you ask me), with each one having unique sets of spells, elemental affinities and stats. However, although you level up at a fair rate, your allies do not (this is intentional). They will quickly lag behind, which encourages you to recruit new ones when you get the chance, or... fuse the useless ones into something new. You can fuse two demons into a completely new one, who will inherit everything the sacrifices had. No demon is truly useless when you can fuse them off to make better allies. And that's honestly really fucking awesome. I love that aspect a lot.
New to this game, however, are partners. Partners are a 5th party member with their own HP and AI, who will use a skill they know at the end of your turn. Some are generalists, some are pure damage dealers, support, healing, etc. The only fault to this is that the one you get at the start of each battle is random out of the ones travelling with you, so you may end up with a terrible partner for the current situation, with nothing you can do about it. More on that in a second.

As for the combat, SMT IV returns with the press turn system from Nocturne, which is basically the following:
  • One press turn per team member (up to 4)
  • If you pass, crit or hit an enemy's weakness, you consume half a turn. This behaves like a normal turn, except passing won't give an extra turn again
  • Missing an attack, your attack being nullified punishes you by consuming 2 turns. If your attack is drained or reflected, you lose all of your remaining press turns and the enemy's turn begins.
  • The exact same rules apply to the enemies as well!
Press turn rewards strategizing against your enemy correctly and, in theory, making balanced builds (so it'd punish not investing into agility/luck) and making sure your side's resistances are equipped for the task at hand. Keyword in theory.
A core mechanic introduced in SMT IV is Smirk. If your character performs an attack that only consumes half a turn or forces the enemy to lose their own turns, they may Smirk. This is where we're starting the trend of terrible balance decisions. Smirk gives your next basic attack a 100% crit rate, your next attack is 100% accurate, stupid high evasion that feels like 75%+ until the end of the next turn, and a general stats boost. But, like i said, your enemy can abuse the exact same thing too; you'll often find yourself in a situation where an enemy crits, chaining off of the damage and extra turns to leave your team half dead, and then you'll be scrambling to hit them back through their ridiculous evasion and extra boosts. To make it worse, lots, and i mean LOTS of enemies in this game know attacks that have a high crit rate. This is a genuinely unfun thing to go against in normal battles due to not only how common it is but the limited counterplay that you probably couldn't do anything to prevent in the first place.

Case in point:
1710365422118.png

very real screenshot
Walter knows fire element skills. The first boss in the game nulls fire. You roll Walter when beginning the battle. Walter eventually uses a fire skill. The boss nulls it and will probably smirk. He crits someone, nearly killing them, then gets a free extra turn to keep going with his high-power attacks (which may crit again). If you're not outright dead, it's probably unrecoverable at this point.
There was nothing you could have done to prevent it, and it was purely up to luck.

It's also not very useful, all things considered. It gives you a flat ~20 stat boost to everything, which falls off as you go. Magic builds do not recieve much out of it besides a one time boost, and physical/dexterity (the ones that can crit) builds would probably rather use something than their pitiful basic attack. It's really only impactful because of the evasion.

Gameplay - Exploration

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If you're a masochist that enjoys poison swamps and wandering because you don't know where to go, this game is for you. Although SMT IV's dungeons are quite well crafted in terms of level design, fun, and uniqueness, the overworld map is completely fucking horrendous to traverse at any point in the game (i'd show a picture, but it'd be spoilers). You literally get NO CLEAR DIRECTIONS in a map of narrow roads that takes AGES to go through. If you don't want to wander aimlessly, you'll have to try and make sense of what some NPCs tell you to do, and eventually stumble your way to the place you're supposed to be at. I really can't stress how shit it is. Everyone who played this game will tell you that.
On a more positive note, finally ditching random encounters SMT IV has overworld enemies that you can attack to initiate a fight. Pretty cool, don't think anyone dislikes that

But uhhh yeah dungeons are pretty good. They're fun to traverse and have their little tidbits and hidden stuff. Some may open up new paths once you've progressed in the story or activated some sidequests. They all do their job to be unique in visuals and gameplay. My favourite dungeon is the Chaos Realm, the last dungeon in the game for both the Neutral and Law routes.

Plot/Writing

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This is one of the key factors as to why people praise this game. Your every choice in dialogue affects your alignment: Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. After a certain point, depending on your alignment, the game's last stretch will present yourself to you in a way that reflects the ideologies you showed throughout your playthrough. The obnoxious part is that Neutral can be quite hard to get without guides.

The themes of religious benefits and extremism, freedom of expression, the right to uphold your ideas, much moral ambiguity and the cyclical nature of conflict and humanity's mistakes as a whole are pretty well portrayed (my favourite parts were the Reverse Hills, White Forest and Tsukiji Hongwanji since they do a very good job at showing that there is truly no "correct" answer to the many conflicts throughout), i do think. The writing is pretty strong in this game, though at some points they could've done certain aspects better. Strong overall in my opinion. The Law ending is especially good. There's also another ending, the White ending, which is essentially nihilism. A lot of people will tell you that it's the most correct one out of the 4 within the context, and i honestly do think that morally you can easily make the argument for it. This game, back when i played it, made me view religious pseudo-fascism in particular in a different light (particularly the Blasted segment & the Law ending). I'm dead against it and i'd fight it if it ever came to risk of being installed into my country, that hasn't changed, but it's still very interesting to think about as an instrument of "unity" as argued by one of the central characters to the plot. As for Chaos (specifically the Infernal and Mikado segments), it also changed my perspective on anarchy a little, which previously was a completely incomprehensible ideology to me. Much like previously although i do understand why you'd embrace it, i still do not endorse it in the slightest. Neutral was fine. I liked that it's extremely open ended, full of uncertainty. It does not have anything to do with what you'd see in centrism nowadays i don't think
Don't wanna get spoilery so won't elaborate much, which in retrospect may make me look like a weirdo rightoid. I hope it doesnt come off as that though

Graphics

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(i could not find a good screenshot of a pure 3d environment, but there's some in the exploration section)
For a 3DS game it holds up surprisingly well. It makes good use of the limited capacity of the system by mixing in the 3D environments with 2D visual novel-like elements, namely for areas with NPCs or during cutscenes. I really love it.

Unfortunately, before this game's development started, the lead artist for the series quit permanently. They didn't get a new one immediately, so a lot of the demons' designs have extremely inconsistent styles and quality due to how many people participated in making them. Particularly, i think the final bosses' designs are terrible.

I'm not a fan of the UI's monochrome in the battle. The sound design isn't great for it, so that may be giving me bias, though i don't think it contrasts very well with some elements.

Soundtrack - The Big One

Hands down the best soundtrack i've heard in all of my time playing videogames. Just look at the fucking album art. It's so good

1710369493927.png

This game's soundtrack, by Ryota Kozuka (goat), is absolutely PHENOMENAL in compliementing and enhancing the feel and atmosphere of every single one of this game's atmospheres. It's impossible to describe if you have not played the game, because that's where it truly shines. From medieval tunes to weird atmospheric tracks, sick rock themes and whatever else. Here's some of my personal favourites, in no particular order:

Unparalleled OST, if you ask me.

Balance - The Ugly One

Gonna be real here, this game's systems are fundamentally broken. Stats scale too high in lategame and are inconsequential in the early game, enemies die too quick. Every boss past the 2nd one will die in a few turns. As a tradeoff, early game enemies can one or two shot you.
Remember when i said you'd be forced to distribute stats wisely? It doesn't matter. Just dump it all into magic or dexterity. Magic clears everything fast consistently, while dexterity is the objective best for the endgame: Desperate Hit is the strongest skill in the game, with 450 power (the highest tier of magic spells have ~250), always hits neutrally, hits 5 times, and can crit. Just one of those crits can make you smirk and gives you extra turns. Scales off of dexterity. Antichton is Megidolaon (strongest Almighty skill) + Debilitate (lower all stats) combined. And so on.

Famously, the first boss in the game is the hardest one. By far. Here's a chart i made that reflects my opinion on the game's difficulty as you progress:
1710370311005.png

pretend the x axis is time and y is difficulty i made this in 2 minutes in paint

In my first playthrough, i one shot the final bosses lmao

Misc

It sucks that there's no dyad (pick 2) fusion. It's been a staple in the series since SMT 1, and instead we have a really clunky and bad to use system. Sucks. The "Hard" difficulty is only accessible in NG+ and is even worse on balance. Just jacked up stats.

When you black out, you can pay an excrutiatingly large sum to revive. That's pretty good, i think. What isn't is that you can use play coins to revive instead of money.

Completing the demon compendium is really annoying because of fusion errors, rare happenings that give you a completely unexpected result. The Hero and Zealot races are exclusive to fusion errors.

TL;DR

Kinda cool if you dont mind bad and unfun gameplay (IMO)
6.5/10 the soundtrack, plot and visuals carry it hard
It's worth getting into to experience the what-if/sequel to it, SMT IV: Apocalypse. Completely different setting, story, protag, etc. It's my favourite game of all time. Has it's faults but the gameplay is the most fun i've ever had in a single player game
 

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)
System: PS3 / Xbox 360 / PC (I played on PS3)
Developer/Publisher: PlatinumGames / Konami
Completion Notes: Beat on Normal

Just finished this one tonight alongside GatoDelFuego ; he is pretty familiar with the game and played the game on Hard (previously beat the game on Revengeance), I am not as familiar with the gameplay but have gotten plenty of story spoilers from watching clips of this game online.

I'm a big fan of 2D Action games, but I haven't really played many 3D ones, let alone a game developed by Platinum. Metal Gear Rising is definitely not an easy game at first and took some time to get used to. Parrying in this game not having a dedicated button and instead requiring to do deliberately mash forward while pressing light attack definitely took some time to get used to. Once I did, I started to notice that the parry windows are VERY generous and it's easy to just mash the parry and take out enemies without much issue; according to Gato this problem persists on higher difficulties too. Parrying still doesn't really help you when you're getting ganged up on by multiple enemies, especially the bulky ones and the ones that nearly-impossible-to-avoid fire missiles at you. It's in these moments you have to deal with the camera, which is just...uh...very not good! You can press R2 to focus on an enemy which does help, but the camera can still swing wildly when the enemy is moving and the screen is still focused on Raiden, which makes it difficult to see on-coming attacks or if you're capable of safely moving away from an enemy (the most egregious examples of this being the Metal Gear fight at the end of Stage 3 and the otherwise fairly easy Armstrong fight). When the combat works, it is pretty satisfying slice through enemies, parry their hits, and throw in the occasional dodge or run to reposition yourself, but there are a few too many instances of overly bulky jobbers that just become agonizing to fight.

There's also stealth sections in this game which...don't really make sense in a game that focuses on action? The late-game ones (the ones in Sundower and Armstrongs' stages) unfortunately do require you to grind your pacing to a halt and play very slowly and carefully to get some stealth kills, since the combat segments you do after getting caught are absurdly difficult otherwise. Most of the boss fights are pretty good though, even if I am a bit desensitized to the theatrics of this game after seeing so much gameplay on Youtube and so much discussion online; favorite by far was the Sam fight, really liked the atmosphere, the music, and figuring out some good strategies for handling his attacks (don't bother parrying when he loses his sword, you get much more of an opening if you dodge him instead). Armstrong was almost great too, but the instant-kill Blade Mode sections and the absurd amount of health items you get after clearing one of those sections (as well as how much damage you can deal off of random cutscenes) kinda sours it for me.

On that note, I will say I'm disappointed (but not surprised) that the internet gaslit me into thinking this game's plot has substance, coherence, and entertainment value beyond a few key cutscenes. I really don't much about any of the political/intellectual themes in this game; they're just kinda blurted out without really being dived into. The only other Kojima games I've played are Snatcher and a little bit of MGS1, but those games are just oozing with interesting worldbuilding and detail that the games do a great job focusing on. The plot of this game is also pretty disjointed; stuff just kinda...happens? Especially the transitions from Stages 2, 3, and 4. There's all these villains that we just don't get enough of an opportunity to care about. Monsoon and Mistral just show up and talk for like 2 minutes before you kill them, while Sundowner and Armstrong don't really get a lot of presence outside of their boss cutscenes; Sam I think just barely gets a pass. I know their cutscenes are "iconic" and meme'd a lot, but as someone who watched all those cutscenes 10 years ago, I was honestly expecting them to have some characterization outside of those cutscenes. Someone who watched a Youtube of the Mistral boss fight will have about the same interest and connection with the character as someone who played the entire game, and that's not really good in my eyes...Honestly though, if you don't take the story too seriously and don't expect the story to be comedy gold with goofy characters either, I think you'll be in for a fun enough time.

The vocal themes are pretty legendary at this point lol. honestly didn't get to hear them that much in-game because I was in a Discord call while playing this game and also had to focus on the actual combat, and I will admit they've become pretty overplayed for me since I listened to them a ton in high school (hypocritical because I still listen to and love some TWEWY songs), but they're still a lot of fun and I will admit to just randomly singing them at home when my head is empty. Rules of Nature is good and all but it's honestly not even close to favorite lol. For my favorite, I think I'd give the nod to either Red Sun or Stranger I Remain, although I really like The War Still Rages Within, The Only Thing I Know For Real, I'm My Own Master Now, and of course It Has To Be This Way. Unfortunately I didn't really care for any of the non-boss battle music (besides the credits theme of course).

I understand I'm complaining a lot, but I really do want to be clear: Metal Gear Rising is a good game. The story is enjoyable enough for what it is, the combat at its best is very satisfying, and the boss fights are generally solid. However, if you plan on giving this a game a shot, please keep your expectations low and do not fall for the overhype this game gets online. To be honest, watching cutscenes of this game out-of-context or the many many parodies of the game that exist online will be a more entertaining experience than playing the game. 7/10 ("This is a good video game")
Maybe it's just because I played through the game on M+K, but I never had problems with the camera. My biggest problem with the game overall is the difficulty spike.
The first good chunk of the game can be dealt with very easily; you click the buttons and kill stuff. On anything below hard, this is an almost 100% guarenteed successful way to deal with standard enemy encounters, and the first boss isn't particularly hard. The problem lies in how blade wolf will IMMEDIATELY kick your ass and hand it to you on a platter if you try and do this. On any difficulty, you NEED to parry for this fight, which is a mechanic that was never incentivized to be used up until now, and that you might not even know existed unless you played through the slow, boring tutorial of the VR missions. After that, you are again not incentivized to parry even through Mystral, which is more about enemy management than 1 on 1 parrying, up until the fight against Monsoon, which punishes you for your lack of parry skill (which you probably never developed in the first place) a LOT harder than blade wolf ever could. What follows is more enemy encounters, a refight of Monsoon like 10 minutes after you just fought him, more enemy encounters, and then Sundowner is an absolute pushover. He's been hyped up as this massive threat the entire story, but he dies in like 3 hits to a half-maxed sword. You need to actively avoid destroying his shields to make the fight fun.
Post-sundowner is when the game shines. I legitimately think that the content after this fight is fantastic. It's well balanced and fair on almost every difficulty. Sam is a fantastic boss, one of my favorites of all time, and Armstrong is a great climactic end to the good (albeit relatively unserious) story. The problem lies with the fact you have to get OVER 70% OF THE WAY THROUGH THE STORY before the game can shine, which for a lot of people is way too much.
I do legitimately like this game, and I wish the game didn't have these fundamental flaws so I could add it to my "perfect games" list. But the fact that the game is clearly balanced around the hard difficulty, with the others being more of an afterthought, hurts it so much. Had I done my first playthrough on hard, I would not have had any of these problems. The game's story treads a thin line between serious and unserious. Some short game segments are fantastic (the dwarf gekko section is one of the best things in the franchise's history) and the music is not only fantastic, but great for storytelling reasons, as the lyrics show not only more about the characters, but also their similarity to raiden. Overall, I do agree with a 7/10 rating. It might have gone up had the game compelled me enough to practice the mechanics and maybe do a revengeance run.
 

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The first good chunk of the game can be dealt with very easily; you click the buttons and kill stuff. On anything below hard, this is an almost 100% guarenteed successful way to deal with standard enemy encounters, and the first boss isn't particularly hard. The problem lies in how blade wolf will IMMEDIATELY kick your ass and hand it to you on a platter if you try and do this. On any difficulty, you NEED to parry for this fight, which is a mechanic that was never incentivized to be used up until now
Yes !

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