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Post by dsparil on Jun 16, 2020 14:32:05 GMT -5
Samsara Room (iOS, First Time) Cube Escape: Seasons Cube Escape: The Lake Cube Escape: Arles Cube Escape: Harvey’s Box Cube Escape: Case 23 Cube Escape: The Mill Rusty Lake Hotel (macOS)
I found out that the Rusty Lake series that The White Room is part of isn’t just the games that have Rusty Lake in the title, but also include the developer’s Cube Escape series so it’s really the fifteenth game and not the fourth. I played Rusty Lake Hotel first thinking that was the actual start only to find out that it’s actually eighth.The Cube Escape games were originally Flash escape room games, but with the EOL of Flash at the end of the year, the mobile versions are the way to go long term. They are free, but some of them have ads.
It doesn’t make sense to really pick apart each on individually because they’re fairly short and have have similar game play. They’re supposed to be part of a Twin Peaks-esque setting centered around the eponymous lake and they do feel thematically consistent partly because they have many recurring elements. Certain parts of The White Door do make more sense now. It feels less like some elements are underdeveloped and more like that they’re better explained in other games. The main negative is that they do feel weird for the sake of being weird sometimes both visually and in the puzzles. There’re also occasionally grotesque in a way that feels unnecessary.
Samsara Room - This was the first game the team developed and predates the RL series proper so it's like the Akalabeth of the series. The remake is the latest game in the series and ties it in better with the others. Like The White Room, it has a touch first mobile interface although it isn’t used to as good effect as there’s fewer opportunities for little extra actions.
Time: 0:52 Rating: 7
CE: Seasons - An interesting first game and the most ambitious until Case 23 four games later. You’re in the same room in 4 different seasons with certain aspects only being used in certain seasons.
Time: 0:36 Rating: 7
CE: The Lake - Really simple and consisting of a single cabin room. Super slight and very short.
Time: 0:08 Rating: 6
CE: Arles - As an homage to Van Gogh, this doesn’t have much to do with the other games.
Time: 0:20 Rating: 7
CE: Harvey’s Box - You’re trapped inside a box this time for reasons never explained. This feels like the absolute most inexplicable game and is full of really weird stuff. Also, you need to be able to read music to finish.
Time: 0:28 Rating: 6
CE: Case 23 - The most directly Twin Peaks-y game, it follows a detective over 4 short chapters. The last one is timed which is a little annoying, but you get unlimited chances.
Time: 0:53 Rating: 7
CE: The Mill - This last free game before the first paid one is back to the smaller scale of the others. You’re in a three floor mill this time although it isn’t longer than the other short games.
Time: 0:20 Rating: 7
Rusty Lake Hotel - The first major game, this sees you play as the unseen steward of the eponymous hotel. The odd twist is that all the guests and staff are anthropomorphic animals, and the meals you need to create require killing one of the guests in their room each night. These of course take the form of an “escape” room (you can’t leave until you’ve killed them) with each room having a theme. The rooms feels substantially more cohesive than the others in the series as they have a theme linking the puzzles together.
Time: About 2h Rating: 8
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jun 18, 2020 14:17:39 GMT -5
Question, if I played it on a collection do I cite the original platform or the collection's platform?
Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy on Switch, First Time, around 12 hours) I started Collection of Mana and going through the three games. Haven't played this series save for maybe Sword of Mana (which I learned was a remake/retelling of FFA recently) but didn't care for it back then but giving the series a proper go now. Final Fantasy Adventure is an enjoyable Action RPG that reminds me of Zelda for the dungeon crawling. Quite a creative game for its time, enjoyed its interaction with different weapons. I also got a chocobo to ride as well. It isn't as polished as a Zelda game though. To be fair it did came out prior to Link's Awakening. The hit detection wasn't great and I wish you didn't talk to NPCs or open chests by walking up to them. It is also easy to get lost/stuck. All I'll say is, make sure to buy nothing but keys and mattocks. Some reason doors lock again while you explore dungeons.
6/10
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Post by dsparil on Jun 18, 2020 14:30:53 GMT -5
The way you have it is the "correct" way. It's hard to tell if a game is emulated or not in this type of situation, but I assume it is unless there's information to the contrary
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Post by dsparil on Jun 19, 2020 8:40:31 GMT -5
Does anyone have any thoughts on whether an expansion like Final Mission for FFX-2 or Future Connected for XBC should count separately from the base game? In both cases, they fit the general rule for DLC and expansions. My inclination is yes because of that. The wording in the DLC and Expansions section would be "New content created for a re-release may be counted separately from the base game if it fulfills general DLC and expansion requirements."
I don't have strong feelings one way or the other to be honest. It's going to come up much sooner rather than later since I'm onto Future Connected myself, and I'm certain other people are going to play it.
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Post by zerker on Jun 19, 2020 16:33:49 GMT -5
Personally, I'd say it's fine too... and I'm not even planning to play Future Connected.
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Post by Digitalnametag on Jun 19, 2020 17:30:29 GMT -5
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen PS4 FTP 24 hours
We finally get the first game in the series! I liked the other two a lot but was a bit worried when NISA announced they were publishing this instead of Atlus. Thankfully the localization is well handled outside of one random and inappropriately dropped f-bomb. Game play is a little simpler here than in the sequels (not that the sequels are very complex) and I think overall the cast of the other games are more interesting. The protagonist of Prelude is kinda boring too in comparison to Haku. Still the story held my interest. Plus now I finally have context for all the characters that show up in the other two games! Kinda makes me want to replay Mask of Deception.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jun 19, 2020 17:55:31 GMT -5
Oh didn't realize Utawarerumono came out. Of course it sold out everywhere. The way you have it is the "correct" way. It's hard to tell if a game is emulated or not in this type of situation, but I assume it is unless there's information to the contrary I"ll do this for collections and Minis. Standalone stuff like Sega Ages on Switch I'll just treat them like ports.
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Post by zerker on Jun 20, 2020 16:23:11 GMT -5
Yay! I finished: XCOM 2 (Linux; First time) - including War of the Chosen and all other DLC. Steam says I played 50 hours. SO GOOD. 10/10. I've uploaded my end-game stat screenshots to my home page, along with a few misc other things.
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Post by dsparil on Jun 22, 2020 11:52:47 GMT -5
Damascus Gear: Operation Osaka (Switch, First Time)
An okay rogue-like although you pretty much need to be sold just on mecha-based action-RPG to handle the repetition. The first game, Operation Tokyo, was strictly mission-based on six maps so the move to a rogue-like is a total reworking of the game structure. This still has a Diablo-esque loot system with base equipment possibly having additional enhancement. The one quirk is that the categorization of equipment into Common/Uncommon/Rare/Legendary is based on their relation to your rank rather than quality.
The rampaging autonomous robots of the first game (RAGE) were basically defeated in the interval between the games, so the point this time around is to pay back a giant inherited debt. That’s a storyline element rather than an actual goal as I don’t think it’s actually possible to raise enough money on your own. The story is stronger this time around with some twists, although I do wish it had some more. You also have an android assistant that adds some personality.
The game is divided into days until your debt is due with your main action of the day being either delving into depths of the Saikyo City Cosmopolis (an experimental city within Osaka) to fight the overly defensive robots there or battle in the arena to raise your rank which lets you go deeper into the dungeon and get better equipment. Arena battles are fairly quick, but the dungeon crawling can get fairly monotonous. Each level only takes a few minutes to clear with rooms where you fight mecha connected by empty corridors. You occasionally encounter special types of levels and fight a “boss” every tenth, but you’re mostly in bland sea of concrete. There are some environmental changes but not enough.
Aside from the format shift, there are some additional changes. You now have a character level which gives you points to put into five categories with stat enhancements and skills being awarded at certain values. There’s also new weapon types and equipment attributes, but the chainsaw is easily the best one once you get the right skills from either the weapon itself or character enhancement. That’s more of an end game thing, but the last quarter or so was a total breeze including the final bosses. Chainsaws are low damage but attack very quickly and are significantly less affected by the recharging weapons need.
Despite the monotony, I did think this was fun overall since there’s not a whole lot of games that let you tear up mecha with a chainsaw while also attacking them with laser strikes from orbit. This also doesn’t have any of the miscellaneous issues I had with the first game like the horrible escort missions, or enemies laying an infinite number of mines.
I finished in about 27.5h.
Rating: 7
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch, Replay)
I love the original XBC, and it’s great to see a new version since the New 3DS couldn’t manage the full visuals. I recently saw that the New 3DS was even created for it so that’s saying something. The new character models look great, and allowing for more expressiveness during cutscenes does add a certain something the original could lack. The graphics are decent undocked and don’t seem to use the floating resolution that XB2 had and instead keeps things at a higher but still sub-720p resolution. Some of the cutscenes seem like they could be the full 720p, but it was fairly infrequent.
Like I said in the general thread, Expert Mode lets you keep so much experience that would be lost otherwise, and the routing to objectives makes the filler quests significantly less annoying. I can’t even imagine how much time was saved from those two things! I don’t think these changes are going to make someone that doesn’t like the concept of a “single player MMO” suddenly like it, but they do go a very long way to letting you focus strictly on new content instead of grinding.
I finished in 83:04.
Rating: 9
Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected (Switch, First Time)
I liked Future Connected overall, but I still came away a little disappointed. Monolith said that this was created to give Melia’s story more closure than it does in the main game which it does do adequately with some occasional nice touches. However, it also feels like it’s in an awkward place between being a simple extra map and a full expansion. It’s content rich for the size of the map, but it’s also missing some features like skills and feels a little compressed. You do at least still have Heart To Hearts in the form of Quiet Moments that are fully voiced and don’t have affinity requirements so that is an unqualified improvement. Overall, it is a nice little epilogue but the emphasis is on little.
I finished in 9:56.
Rating: 8
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Post by halftheisland on Jun 22, 2020 13:30:16 GMT -5
Question: What would count as "finishing" Dynasty Warriors 9 for the purposes of this challenge? If it's like the others in the series, I assume completing one of the main stories (Wei / Wu / Shu / Jin) will let you see the credits, technically meeting the criteria, but just want to be sure.
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Post by dsparil on Jun 22, 2020 15:46:07 GMT -5
Question: What would count as "finishing" Dynasty Warriors 9 for the purposes of this challenge? If it's like the others in the series, I assume completing one of the main stories (Wei / Wu / Shu / Jin) will let you see the credits, technically meeting the criteria, but just want to be sure.
That is a good question as this is not a situation that comes up often. Getting to the credits is more of a general guideline than a hard and fast rule. In the case of multiple stories selected from a menu as opposed to branches presented in-game, my inclination is that they should be treated as scenarios that must be completed if they do not have content overlap. For DW9, this question does seem to be moot as there appears to be a single main story unlike 8 for example.
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Post by halftheisland on Jun 22, 2020 17:43:12 GMT -5
Question: What would count as "finishing" Dynasty Warriors 9 for the purposes of this challenge? If it's like the others in the series, I assume completing one of the main stories (Wei / Wu / Shu / Jin) will let you see the credits, technically meeting the criteria, but just want to be sure.
That is a good question as this is not a situation that comes up often. Getting to the credits is more of a general guideline than a hard and fast rule. In the case of multiple stories selected from a menu as opposed to branches presented in-game, my inclination is that they should be treated as scenarios that must be completed if they do not have content overlap. For DW9, this question does seem to be moot as there appears to be a single main story unlike 8 for example. That's helpful, thanks. Once I'm done with 9 I was planning going back to 8 anyway so good to know for that one. To be honest, given the amount of time I've spent in 9 already I could probably rattle through all the scenarios in 8 and clear up some of the additiional content in the time it's going to take to complete 9 from one perspective.
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Post by alexmate on Jun 26, 2020 8:19:08 GMT -5
The Darkness II (Xbox 360, time taken 7hr 30 Est. - both endings, first time) Really nice follow up. Maybe a bit less ambitious with it locations, but I really enjoyed it.
Rating: 8
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Post by dsparil on Jun 26, 2020 9:09:54 GMT -5
Cube Escape: Birthday (iOS, First Time) Cube Escape: Theatre (iOS) Rusty Lake: Roots (macOS) Cube Escape: The Cave (iOS) Rusty Lake Paradise (macOS) Cube Escape: Paradox Chapter 1 (iOS) Cube Escape: Paradox Chapter 2 (iOS)
Having finished all the Rusty Lake games now, I’m not sure how I feel about them collectively. Individually, they are generally good quality escape room and adventure games, and the developers are clearly working towards something. However, there’s way too much filling in of backstory and not enough forward movement. I suppose that it’s better than having a bunch of wheel spinning, but it’s still annoying in its own way even if you didn’t start playing these in 2015 and had to deal with the quickly increasing release times between them. There’s still so many loose ends some of which go back to Seasons!
I get the feeling that the developers maybe didn’t have a solid plan beyond background details until Case 23 which introduces Det. Dale Vandermeer’s investigation of Laura Vanderboom’s murder as the real start of the plot. However, out of the four games that star him (Case 23, Birthday, Theatre, Paradox), Case 23 and Paradox are the only two games out of fifteen that directly move the plot forward. Two others, The Mill and The Cave, are at least parallel. The White Door is still a “backstory” game but just barely.
Considering that the total playtime for the entire series is about fifteen hours with a full price of $15 for the paid portions, they’re a pretty good value. I’d be really nice for a collection or maybe even a remake that reorganizes everything into a more cohesive and organized fashion though.
CE: Birthday - This is a flashback to Dale’s ninth birthday. It’s short and mostly simple.
Time: 0:30 Rating: 7
CE: Theatre - A sort of dream sequence based on a “real” event, the gameplay revolves around various plays as the title suggests.
Time: 0:40 Rating: 7
Rusty Lake: Roots - This tells the multigenerational story of the Vanderboom family. It’s divided into 33 single location events involving various members of the family. It’s easily the most ambitious game in the series to this point both in plot and puzzles. It largely succeeds although major parts of it still haven’t really been touch upon again despite being released nearly 4 years ago.
Time: About 3h Rating: 8
CE: The Cave - The most complex of the free games, this is divided into two main areas only the first of which the eponymous cave. The second half is a little confusing at first but a bit clearer once you figure out the general premise.
Time: 1:10 Rating: 8
Rusty Lake Paradise - This introduces the previously unmentioned Eilander family and their home on Paradise Island. The game is divided into ten chapters named after and based directly on the Plagues of Egypt. This is the earliest game in the chronology as it takes place in the late 18th century. The gameplay is interesting, but it feels the most superfluous from a story perspective. A bit is added to the mythos, but not as substantially as in Roots.
Time: About 3h Rating: 8
CE: Paradox - This is divided into a free Chapter 1 and a paid Chapter 2 along with a 20 minute live action short film. This finally returns to Dale after two and a half years(!). He unsurprisingly finds himself in a locked room and needs to get out. It’s a little cute that elements of the short film that are animated like the game are live action in the game. Being almost two years out from this game—the series had no releases in 2019—it’s frustrating that this still hasn’t been continued. Unlike the other CE games, this is available on PC but oddly not on GOG.
Time: 1:02 for Ch.1, 1:29 for Ch. 2 Rating: 8
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Post by dsparil on Jun 26, 2020 17:51:31 GMT -5
Hakoniwa Explorer Plus
A truly bizarre action RPG that isn't quite an ecchi game, but it is pretty crass and is almost like a parody of them. The gameplay is pretty simple with small dungeon areas made up of discrete screens presented isometrically. There's a variety of distinct weapon types with weapons and armor needing frequent repairs. There isn't much plot to speak of and most of the enemies are some type of sexy ___girl. The art style is really low resolution, and this is just so completely ridiculous that it comes off as goofy more than anything. This seems like it was made by just one person excluding the audio, and there's definitely a certain feeling of idiosyncrasy to the whole thing.
I finishing in 3:18:09.
Rating: 7
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