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G&T 52 Games in a year challenge!
Questor
PAX Aus Tabletop [E]Melbourne, AustraliaRegistered User regular
PAX Aus Tabletop [E]Melbourne, AustraliaRegistered User regular
52 GAMES IN A YEAR CHALLENGE!!
Have done this on other forums and thought it could be a fun challenge to do here:
Welcome to the 2021 thread for GnT (and anyone else for that matter, but I'm posting it in GnT so.....!) that fancy trying to play 52 games in a year to whatever they decide is some form of completion. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - either claim a post and update on your progress or keep posting your completions and then do a final count post at the end of the year! Even if you're not gonna make it to 52 it's a good way to record all your completions/failures/hates and give others your impressions or maybe get some info from them on said game!!
How do I take part?
Claim a post! Write down the game and your thoughts about each one in this format for your post:
1: NAME - DURATION PLAYED
# INSERT INFO AND COMMENTS HERE - Maybe a rating?
The edit the post with each completion. I like to do a new post for each game then link to that post in my first 'meta-post'
How do I know when I've completed a game?
Up to you, it could be completing the game or playing 10hrs+ if it no ending or a multiplayer game. Replays count as long as all the games are completed in 2021
Do I have to record time?
No. But you can if you like!! If so you could potentially see how long you’ve spent on games this year and then wonder how you got away with it!
Do I have to review or comment on the games I complete?
No but it'd be nice to give a few words or maybe a quick score. Full blown reviews or mini-reviews aren't necessary and will just make it an incredibly big post, though they will be anyway.
Do episodic games count as a single game or X amount of games?
That's up to you. It's alright to count something like Life is Strange as one or five games. Your choice.
Can I finish a game I started in 1992 and count that?
Yes.
What should I do once I've completed the challenge?
Shoot me a PM! If it takes off and people keep me updated I'm more than happy to maybe sort out a prize system?
Is there a deadline?
End of the current year!!!!
People who have completed the challenge will be posted here, please send me a PM once you’re done or if I’ve missed you as it’s hard reading through them all as they end up being recorded everywhere!!
Have done this on other forums and thought it could be a fun challenge to do here:
Welcome to the 2021 thread for GnT (and anyone else for that matter, but I'm posting it in GnT so.....!) that fancy trying to play 52 games in a year to whatever they decide is some form of completion. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - either claim a post and update on your progress or keep posting your completions and then do a final count post at the end of the year! Even if you're not gonna make it to 52 it's a good way to record all your completions/failures/hates and give others your impressions or maybe get some info from them on said game!!
How do I take part?
Claim a post! Write down the game and your thoughts about each one in this format for your post:
1: NAME - DURATION PLAYED
# INSERT INFO AND COMMENTS HERE - Maybe a rating?
The edit the post with each completion. I like to do a new post for each game then link to that post in my first 'meta-post'
How do I know when I've completed a game?
Up to you, it could be completing the game or playing 10hrs+ if it no ending or a multiplayer game. Replays count as long as all the games are completed in 2021
Do I have to record time?
No. But you can if you like!! If so you could potentially see how long you’ve spent on games this year and then wonder how you got away with it!
Do I have to review or comment on the games I complete?
No but it'd be nice to give a few words or maybe a quick score. Full blown reviews or mini-reviews aren't necessary and will just make it an incredibly big post, though they will be anyway.
Do episodic games count as a single game or X amount of games?
That's up to you. It's alright to count something like Life is Strange as one or five games. Your choice.
Can I finish a game I started in 1992 and count that?
Yes.
What should I do once I've completed the challenge?
Shoot me a PM! If it takes off and people keep me updated I'm more than happy to maybe sort out a prize system?
Is there a deadline?
End of the current year!!!!
People who have completed the challenge will be posted here, please send me a PM once you’re done or if I’ve missed you as it’s hard reading through them all as they end up being recorded everywhere!!
+4
Posts
1. Control
A fun SCP-esque shooter game that had a pretty good story going until it had the weakest and most abrupt ending I've seen in a game. Great powers, great accessibility features, but I don't want to play it anymore.
2. Succubus Affection
Let's not beat around the bush. It's a porn game with monstergirls, you know what that's all about. Some platforming and combat with various abilities from "defeated" foes. Technically beat it first with some others but I didn't want to start the list with a smatter of smut.
3. Eroico
Another porn game but this one has some very difficult Ghosts and Goblins gameplay so it felt very punishing at times. Especially bosses.
It helps that these games are all fairly short, so they're incredibly beatable and bite sized. This might be more games touched/beaten in this week alone than all of 2020.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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The gameplay is Valkyria Chronicles meets Werewolf/Mafia. You play short levels with turn-based combat while ascending a tower. Each time you decide to go up to the next level, you have to decide which of your teammates is the traitor. The plot is thin but interesting. Overall, it's a game with a lot of interesting ideas that doesn't really doing anything with them in the end. Getting the True Ending is kind of annoying as it requires at least two playthroughs, possibly more if the RNG dislikes you.
2. Xenon Valkyrie+ (PS4) - 30 hours - Defeated all secret bosses, saw True Ending, earned the Platinum
Roguelite platformer with pixel graphics. Fun game, but there is very little carried over between runs. The gameplay is pretty unforgiving until you get the hang of things and how far you can make it is as dependent on the RNG as it is on skill.
3. Hitman (PS4) - 44 hours - Earned all trophies
4. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PS3) - 7 hours - Beat on Hard difficulty, earned the platinum
5. Trails of Cold Steel III (PS4) - 35 hours - Full replay
6/7. Hitman 2 (PS4) - 90 hours - All trophies
8. Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) - 115 hours - Platinum trophy, almost all DLC trophies
9. What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4) - 2.5 hours - all trophies
10. Samurai Warriors Chronicle 3 (PSV) - 125 hours - Platinum
11. Trails of Cold Steel IV (PS4) - 131 hours - Platinum
12. Far Cry 5 (PS4) - 76 hours - Platinum, all DLC trophies
13. Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) - 24 hours - Platinum
14. One Finger Death Punch 2 (PS4) - 14 hours - Platinum
15. Sea of Solitude (PS4) - 5 hours - Platinum
16. Port Royale III (PS3) - 12 hours - DLCs
17. Far Cry New Dawn (PS4) - 26 hours - Platinum
18. Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare (PS3) - 10 hours - 100% single player completion
19. Mars: War Logs (PS3) - 16 hours - 100% completion
20. Narco Terror (PS3) - 8 hours - 100% completion
21. Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus (PS4) - 30 hours - 100% completion, NG+
22. Get Even (PS4) - 10 hours - Platinum
23. Rebel Galaxy (PS4) - 35 hours - Platinum
24. My Time at Portia (PS4) - 67 hours - Platinum + post-endgame story missions
25. Arcania: The Complete Tale (PS4) - 39 hours - Platinum
26. Vikings: Wolves of Midgard (PS4) - 80 hours - Platinum
27. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PS3) - 15 hours - Platinum
28. Tales of Vesperia (PS3) - 175 hours - Platinum
29. Doom (2016) (PS4) - 60 hours - 100%
30. Subnautica (PS5) - 25 hours - Platinum
31. Demon's Tier+ (PS4) - 5 hours - Platinum
32. Just Cause 2 (PS3) - 60 hours - Platinum
33. Control (PS5) - 40 hours - Platinum + DLCs
34. The Surge (PS4) - 42 hours - Platinum + DLCs
35. Hitman 3 (PS5) - 28 hours - Platinum + all trophies
36. Nex Machina (PS4) - 35 hours - Platinum
37. Battle Princess of Arcadias (PS3) - 40 hours - Platinum
38. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (PS4) - 155 hours - Platinum + DLCs
39. Door Kickers: Action Squad (PS4) - 15 hours - Platinum
40. Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 (PS3) - 120 hours - Platinum
41. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw (PS4) - 30 hours - Platinum
42. Code Vein (PS4) - 50 hours - Platinum
43. Ni no Kuni 2 (PS4) - 115 hours - Platinum + DLCs
44. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry (PS4) - 5 hours - 100% trophies
45. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (PS4) - 18 hours - Platinum (two playthroughs)
46. Vampire: the Masquerade - Coteries of New York (PS4) - 10 hours - 100% trophies
47. Vampire: the Masquerade - Shadows of New York (PS4) - 7 hours - 100% trophies
48. Torchlight 2 (PS4) - 65 hours - Platinum (two playthroughs)
49. Umineko no Naku Koro ni 2 (PS3) - 150 hours - Platinum
50. Uncharted - Golden Abyss (Vita) - 30 hours - Platinum (two playthroughs)
51. Sky Force Reloaded (PS4) - 40 hours - Platinum
52. Resident Evil 2 (2019) (PS4) - 35 hours - Platinum (five playthroughs) - 40 hours - 100% trophies
Edit: Currently working on Yakuza: Like a Dragon. On chapter 5.
Edit 2: now chapter 8.
Edit 3: I think I'm starting to regret picking a sprawling JRPG for the first game.
Edit: Chapter 10. I'll replace all these edits with a recap for the game when I finish.
Edit45: I've finally reached the endgame (I think), but it requires so much grinding that I've beaten several games in the meantime. I'll list them here so I dont forget, and then flesh everything out to look nice and neat later:
Hitman 3 (10 hours)
Resident Evil 7 (12 hours)
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
So far though I have done:
1.Quest for Glory 1 VGA: probably 6 hours or so? Counting some playing around with other classes. Pretty good RPG mechanics, story is still very basic, puzzles are ok but short, but often have multiple solutions depending on class and skills known. Combat a bit lame but not too intrusive. Minimal Sierra bullshit which is nice.
2.Conquest of the Longbow: also probably 6 hours or so
Good story, very atmospheric, good characterization for a game this short. Some puzzles have multiple solutions, and there are multiple endings depending on how you solved them (though most depend on whether you convinced certain npcs to help you or just straight up mugged them for their stuff.). Not too much BS, but you can accidently miss one time events at the overlook if you accidently exit the wrong way, forcing a reload. There are a few points where you just have to wander around the forest waiting for an random event as well, but its not too terrible except in one early game instance that has you need to wander into one specific unmarked area to progress the story.. Also one annoying timed maze area, but it is potentially skippable. As a note though, this is a game you WILL have to either print a manual or have the PDF open on your phone. Multiple puzzles require reference materials in the manual.
3.Space Quest 4:
Not too bad, it wasn’t spectacular, and not terrible either. Some of the humor didn’t age the best, there was one instance where the pc has to dress as a woman to solve a puzzle and a clerk he is buying a dress from calls him a sicko which is pretty not cool. That aside, one refreshing thing is that this was one of the first Sierra games that has no “dead man walking” dead end scenarios. Unfortunately they still had to include something annoying, so you get time code mechanics. Tip: any time you enter a time pod for the first time take a screenshot, you will need the code on the dash later to come back to that time period. Other than these issues, this is a pretty decently entertaining game that doesn’t swing for the fences but doesn’t have too much annoying sierra crap either.
Also doing some cleanup on Warframe updates I never engaged with, like the lich system. And replaying some ‘90s PC classics.
Currently on the docket:
1. Final Fantasy 10 Remaster - 30 hours so far.
The current couch "co-op" game the wife and I are playing. These days it's easier to play a single player game and pass the controller to whoever isn't entertaining the baby.
2. Europa Universalis 4 - ~1400 hours so far
If I ever get a campaign to the 1821 end date I would consider that beating the game. Maybe this year...
1. Overwatch
2. Nonogram galaxy
3. Smile For Me
4. Bowser's Fury
5. Demon's Souls
6. Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth
7. Bravely Default 2
8. Melvor Idle
9. Leaf Blower Revolution
10. Synergism
11. Final Fantasy 14
12. Rogue Legacy 2
13. Twelve Minutes
14. Last Epoch
15. Deathloop
16. Life is Strange: True Colors
17. Metroid Dread
18. Deltarune Chapter 2
19. Nuclear Blaze
I don't remember the collectibles being that bad, but it's genuinely pretty difficult to get the top rank on all of the challenges.
Had an itch to replay some Ace Combat games after playing Project Wingman. Ace Combat 4 is still very good, especially the whole Yellow 13 story sprinkled throughout the game. Lots of fun missions, a good selection of planes and weapons, gameplay is tight, and has a killer soundtrack. Has some really good comms chatter, too. That said, I think it feels a bit more dated than I remember my first time playing it. Ace Combat 5 and 0 I think have better gameplay and comms chatter and the stories are more relevant to you directly as the player. That said, still a classic.
It turns out I’m spending more time on it than any of the adventure games I have played so far just because having hard time limits and an elder-scrolls style build by use skill system together with being able to import into the next game really sets off my OCD.
I’m like “damn it I need a maxed out throwing skill and all the basic stats high enough to beat QFG4 even though theres no actual way I will use any of that finishing this actual game. But if I let 16 days go by without it its no takebacksies.”
Game has tons of charm, though. The various character feel much more fleshed out and less cardboard compared to QFG1.
Decided to keep going after Ace Combat 04 and do a replay of Ace Combat 5. My thoughts on Ace Combat 04 turned out to be correct, I think. Ace Combat 5's story was stronger because it was more personal, and your wingmen really brought a lot to the table. I also liked the unlock tree the game introduced, where you have to earn points with a plane to unlock the next plane in the tree. On the other hand, I think the unlock progress was way too slow and I think it's kinda lame that your wingmen don't give you progress down those trees if you assign them the respective plane. I think I only ended up unlocking like 4 planes throughout the entire campaign. There's a bunch of different trees, so it's not like there's not plenty of variety even with just the starter planes for each branch, but it felt like I only scratched the surface of what was available. I get that they probably did it to promote replayability, especially with the Ace system, medal system, and how relatively short the campaign is, but still kind of a bummer. Also, I did like being able to assign planes to your wingmen, but I dunno if it ever felt like it made much of a difference in-game. Same with the in-game squad commands, it always felt like they basically generally just followed me around and targeted whatever they wanted no matter what command I gave them. I do think they ended up doing noticeably more than the friendly AI planes did in previous games, like, they're actually out there shooting planes and blowing stuff up and whatnot, but kind of arbitrarily. Anyway, all small nitpicks, it's still a damn fine game that I'd easily recommend to anyone. Well, I'd probably recommend Ace Combat 7 first, just because it's the newest game in the series and therefore the shiniest, easiest to get up and running on modern PCs/consoles, and has the most gameplay refinements over its predecessors, but if someone liked that, then Ace Combat 5 would be a no brainer and worth the effort of getting set up.
Edit: Oh, forgot to mention, this game seemed a lot stricter about ammo management than Ace Combat 04. I think part of it is Ace Combat 04 really emphasized the return lines, where you'd cross and go back for more ammo. I didn't see anything like that in 5 other than some mission related return lines you used to end the mission. It's also possible it was just me using planes with lower ammo counts because I was trying to unlock stuff in the plane trees. Anyway, I definitely ended up using my gun instead of missiles a lot more than I did in 4.
This game was very good. I have heard people say it is the best Sierra game, I don't know that I would go that far (QFG4 and Gabriel Knight exist, after all), but its probably top 5 easily. First the flaws - Skills can be a bit grindy at times. You don't really need to grind them to max (a base new character in the next game starts at 100-150 which is no where near the 200 - 250 that you can end the game with). Still its tempting to grind a bunch because of the other problem - There are 16 days before the endgame sequence starts. This actually ends up being quite a bit. The game is a bit too forgiving here, there are a few major things to do - class quests, there are 4 elementals that attack the city you have to beat with item puzzles, there's a quest that basically links several locations in the desert, etc. However, I still ended up with several days that I didn't really have anything to do, so rather than waste them I went and ground out combat or skills. I don't think any of it was actually necessary to finish the game, and I would probably have been better off not grinding out so much, but when you have 3 days to kill an elemental and you kill it the first day you hate to waste whole days sleeping away. The game would have felt a lot tighter to me allowing maybe 12 or 13 days instead of 16. Also the other big flaw in the original version is the town layout, but the AGD version fixes this - set simplified alleys in the game, get a map ASAP, and you never really have to worry about it.
Now the good - The characters in this game are full of life and very likable. You visit them over and over, and they all have personalities - very much not the 1 visit and done NPCs of QFG1. Even the bad guys ooze personality. The end game sequence is pretty cool and moves along quite well, the narrative is a bit slow to get started but interesting once it does. The different class paths are what you would expect from a QFG game, alternate solutions and class specific areas. I took magic as a fighter so I got to do the fighter and wizard quest lines. Both were very neat. There was very little sierra bullshit at all, if there is any way to end up in a dead man walking situation I didn't find it, I wouldn't be surprised if some exist but you would probably need to go out of your way to (IIRC in the original version you could intentionally miss the caravan and get stuck, the remake fixed this). All in all a pretty damn good adventure game.
Note: I played the AGD interactive VGA remake of the game. AGD is a non-profit company that started making a fan remake of KQ1 and eventually got a noncommercial license to remake several unupdated EGA text parser sierra games in the style of the official sierra VGA remakes, along with access to some of the original developer notes and design documents. While there are some purists, I believe at this point the AGD version is generally preferred and recommended by the community as the definitive version.
2. Prodeus - 10 hours (PC)
3. Morkredd - 6 hours (XBX)
4. Immortals Fenyx Rising - 43 hours. (XBX)
5. The Pathless - 6 hours (PS5)
6. Cyber-Shadow - 9 hours (XBX)
7. The Medium - 8 hours (XBX)
8. Donut County - 2 hours (XBX)
9. Axiom Verge - 10 hours (XBX)
10. Ys IX Monstrum Nox - 30 hours (PS5)
11. Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood - 6 hours (XBX)
12. Bleed 2 - 1 hour (XBX)
13. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - 10 hours (Switch)
14. Ghosts 'N Goblins Resurrection - 6 hours (Switch)
15. Endurance - 8 hours (XBX)
16. Metal Slug 3 - 1 hour (XBX)
17. Raging Justice - 2 hours (XBX)
18. Genesis Noir - 6 hours (XBX)
19. Narita Boy - 6 hours (XBX)
20. Doom Eternal The Ancient Gods 8 hours (XBX)
21. Outriders - 35 hours (XBX)
22. Bladed Fury - 3 hours (XBX)
23. Rain on Your Parade - 3 hours (XBX)
24. Crash Bandicoot - 5 hours (PS5)
25. R-Type Final 2 - 3 hours (XBX)
26. Timespinner - 6 hours (XBX)
27. Raiden IV X MIKADO Remix - 3 hours (XBX)
28. Resident Evil Village - 10 hours (XBX)
29. Olija - 6 hours (XBX)
30. Kaze and the Wild Masks - 6 hours (XBX)
31. Forgone - (PS5)
32. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - (PS5)
33. Scarlet Nexus - (XBX)
34. Omensight - (XBX)
35. Ender Lillies - (XBX)
36. CrisTales - (XBX)
37. The Ascent - (XBX)
38. Raji: An Ancient Tale (XBX)
39. Death's Door - (XBX)
40. Vigil: The Longest Night (Switch)
41. Planet Alpha (XBX)
42. Assassin's Creed Valhalla (XBX)
43. Flynn: Son of Crimson (XBX)
44. The Artful Escape (XBX)
45. Superliminal (XBX)
46. Metroid Dread (Switch)
47. Tales of Arise (XBX)
48. Mighty Goose (XBX)
49. In Sound Mind (XBX)
50. Apsulov: End of Gods (PS5)
51. Dusk (Switch)
52. Rez Infinite (PS5)
Four, Five, and Zero are probably the only AC games that I would unreservedly call masterpieces. AC6 had great gameplay, but ugh, those cutscenes. AC7 is mostly solid, but didn’t get the memo that nobody’s fighter pilot daydreams involve drones. And I don’t know what they were even trying to do with Infinity. Whereas, it’s fairly clear that somebody watched a triple-feature of Behind Enemy Lines, Firebirds, and Les Chevaliers du Ciel at home the night before the inaugural design meeting for Assault Helicopter Horizon.
Yep, I started up Ace Combat Zero. I'll probably finish it up on Friday, since I've been spending my evenings on anime. After that, I think I'll hit up Gamestop and get a copy of Ace Combat 6 for like $10. I played it once like when it came out, but not since then, so I'm curious how it holds up in light of my multiple playthroughs of 4/5/0 and 7. I'll also have to bust out my 360 and hope it still works, lol. And then after that, either try out that PSP one or do another replay of AC7.
I also don't think I minded the drones that much, personally. I liked that they filled a role between helicopter/vtol and actual piloted jet.
Another adventure game, pretty good. Story and setting were very good and interesting. The only real problem I had with it was that there was so much backtracking - you never really get "done" with an area per se, at one point you even have to go back to the first screen of a game, and also some times solutions will be locked off to you until you reach a point where you can solve a puzzle (for example, a door locked that opens when you reach the point in the story you need to go in it, or a jukebox that doesn't work until it does.) Also a couple of items were a bit of a pixel hunt and didn't really stand out against the background as much as they could have. All in all a good effort though.
Shadow of the Colossus but (thankfully) much shorter with killer music. I would have killed for a map and the movement and gameplay get repetitive, but how often do you get Tibetan throat singing in a game.
edit: I guess we're keeping track of the count, so this was #4 for me for the year.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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Backlog clearing efforts have been set back somewhat by my discovery of how many old, dependable veterans of my '90s PC library could be called back to active service using Steam, GOG, and Humble. But I'm closing in on restoring democracy enlightened autocracy to the Periphery in Battletech. And in Just Cause 3, I've liberated all of the remarkably varied landscape of Medici except some story-related fortresses, so it's probably time to actually start the story missions. Since the rebels clearly haven't gotten the memo that they could just cut off power and water and parcel delivery to these landlocked redoubts and sit around sipping mojitos until they see white flags wafting in the breeze.
The shmups I have lined up next should be fairly quick completions. At least, up to my bullet hell standard which does not include any tenacious pursuit of one credit clears or "true ending" fanservice cutscenes involving saunas and strategically-placed towels. Thanks, but I'm good with "well, we shot all the things, now let's shoot the credits as they roll." Aaaand, back to the menu.
I finished up FFXV and Wreckfest over the holidays so Im counting those. :P
1- FFXV (60hrs) I think this was my first Final Fantasy since X, possibly my first JRPG since then as well. The whole J-pop boy band road trip was just too intriguing to pass up, and my interest hinged on the 4 ChocoBros till the end. Combat was acceptable, magic was mostly disappointing and felt a bit like a chore, the story was good but not quite great as some important events felt undercooked. I was playing the base game I believe with no DLC, which I hear addressed some of the patchy story.
I think I just want more games with dudes getting along and being nice to each other, haha.
2- Bad North (20hrs) Island defence against attacking barbarians! Buying permanent skills and upgrades to your units as you work your way to their central island. Its got a clean distinctive style, and they added a retry feature to what would have otherwise been an unforgiving roguelite.
3- Wreckfest (40hrs) Im not usually keen on racing games, but I can put that aside when mashing your opponents vehicle into a mangled wreck is an alternate win-con. I mean you can win races by weaseling out ahead and driving clean… Or you can just not hit the brakes on that hairpin turn and T-bone the guy in front. I found myself lol’ing pretty often, after giving someone a pit maneuver, and watching the chaos in the rear view. Stress relief!
4- Frostpunk (30hrs) A RTS worst case scenario simulator. Something has caused a new ice age, and you must lead a remnant of Londoners to a new home in the cold north. Managing heat around a central furnace and staving off hunger and frostbite. Add sawdust to bread and probably enforce some child labour, 8/10.
5-Furi (8hrs) Some games are just better with a nice coffee, and this is one of them. A series of twitchy boss sword fights and bullet hells, with expositional downtime in between. I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing. Or the main character design. Or most of the color pallets. But the music and the fighting and the caffeine!
I'd played all of the earlier Hitman games, but this was my first experience with the new trilogy. In some ways it was much easier than the earlier games because the Opportunity signposts a lot for you, but each individual level was also much larger than before. I thought the new disguise system struck a nice balance between the way it was in Absolution and the earlier games. It's still kind of ridiculous, but it's a series signature, so what are you going to do? Probably my biggest criticism is that while they put a lot of effort into the scenery and details of each location, the NPCs felt pretty much the same wherever you went.
I also didn't realize when I started that the entirety of this game (trophies and all) was included in Hitman 2 as well. Oops.
Maybe joining this thread will help I say foolishly.
Indie NES style Ninja Gaiden, difficult on the level of Cuphead or Celeste. If you have Xbox GamePass, download this right now.
9 hours, 365 deaths.
Played this despite thinking the old God of War games are pretty mediocre because it's short and I'm trying to clear my PS3 backlog. Being a remaster of a PSP game, this game is stripped down. The only thing I can really say I appreciated about it was that it didn't have any of the instant death platforming sections that a lot of the games in the series have.
Not sure what to think about this one. It feels a lot like a secret Silent Hill 2 remake, complete with Akira Yakaoka writing some songs for it, but it is not as good. Relentlessly dark in content but never actually frightening.
8 hours
Extremely light physics based puzzle game. Kind of like a reverse Katamari Damacy.
2 hours. This is what gamepass is for.
Have 9 clears so far, doubt I'll make it much further than that. Been trying to get a clear in every primary/secondary pairing. Haven't touched the Melting stuff yet, tho, because I did a run of it and was just super confused about how everything clicked together. Anyway, it's pretty great. The different banners all feel distinct and have different playstyles and the pairings actually make a pretty big difference in how you have to approach your builds as the run goes on. The three floor thing is pretty cool, too. Anyway, had fun with it, wouldn't have checked it out if it wasn't on gamepass and Ben didn't talk it up during the Giant Bomb GOTY stuff.
Also currently playing some Spiritfarer, but I don't know if I want to finish it. The characters and themes and art in that game are fantastic, but it is not a fun game to play.
I was going to do QFG3 next, but I accidently deleted my install for it a couple of hours in and didn't feel like restarting... Will probably go back to it later.
Anyway, QFG4. This game was originally released in a very buggy state. In fact there was one bug that for many computers meant you couldn't get past the first area. Another rather obnoxious scripting error meant that you could lock yourself out of a required item if you slept in the inn 5 times without ever going downstairs after midnight, which is a totally non-obvious thing to do. After 5 times the character downstairs you were supposed to meet would permanently disappear. Because of this a lot of players never really gave QFG4 much of a chance. Fortunately, over the years these issues have been resolved, and IIRC the current GOG version is pretty bug-free (though it wouldn't hurt to stay up late and check the bottom of the inn in the first few days just in case.)
That being said... This game is really good. Probably in the top 2 or 3 sierra games, maybe #1 depending on how you feel about Gabriel Knight. The downsides... It has a little bit of the same pacing issue as QFG2 but not nearly as bad, but there are a couple of instances where a particular event doesn't happen until a few days in the game so you can be left wandering a bit. In this case no biggie, usually spending a night or two at the inn will move things along. The other thing is that some content is class-gated and/or skill gated, so there's a few really cool things you'll probably end up missing unless you replay. One particularly cool thing requires you to be a paladin, which is import-only, you can cheese this fairly easy (if you beat the game as a fighter you can reimport the same character as a paladin) but it would be nice to be selectable at character creation since Paladins do have some unique content. Notably the game doesn't really care what game you import a paladin from, it happily accepted my qfg2 end save and bumped up the appropriate stats.
So now that the few quirks are dealt with... the good? Well, one of the best villains of any adventure game, the big bad is probably one of the most... human... villains in an adventure game of this type. To say too much would be a spoiler (though you'll probably figure it out by the second or third time you meet them). Puzzles are easy enough to figure out on your own for the most part without being overly easy (and at the same time without relying on moon logic or outright bullshit for difficulty). The town is interesting - you get a hostile greeting, but through the story you believably develop friendships with the townspeople, who by and large are compelling characters.
So a solid recommendation on this one for anyone who likes adventure games.
If you are desperate for a Metroidvania... You can still do better than this. Last quarter of the game is painfully unfun.
On replay though I am a little let down, the characters are mostly pretty one note and the story veers pretty badly into ridiculous jrpg nonsense towards the end. I remember thinking the battle system was very cool but it works out to be basically just an exercise in using the right character against the right monster type for the early-mid game, and then just going ham with doublecasting Ultima at things for the end game.
We did not end up 100%ing the game, but we definitely did more than when I beat it last time nearly 2 decades ago. Got the celestial weapons for everyone other than Wakka and Lulu, beat the Omega weapon and dark Valefor. After all the grinding necessary to do that the endgame was laughably easy. During the battle to get inside Sin our 1 year old daughter stole the controller and ended the fight by button mashing until she fired off Valefor's overdrive.
We loaded up X-2 and played through the tutorial but as it seems the game has switched from true turn based combat to the atb system we put it back down again. Instead it looks like the next game on the agenda is Fire Emblem Three Houses.
I had already played this about two and a half years ago, but the game contained so many references to the earlier five games that I hadn't played that I decided to go play those before moving on to Cold Steel IV. With that done, I decided to replay this to refresh my memory of the plot and to get the references I missed the first time.