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Post by dsparil on Sept 8, 2020 8:27:37 GMT -5
Picross 2 (Game Boy, First Time)
This is a very unique release in the entire Picross series. For one thing, nearly every single puzzle is actually 4 15x15 sections so it's basically entirely made up of small scale Micross puzzles. This does allow the resulting image to be more detailed than in the previous GB outing and a sensible way to handle the lower resolution screen while still going bigger than Super Picross. Plus, if you treat each 15x15 as an individual puzzle, you're getting over 800 total! There's also a set of "Quick Picross" puzzles every 3 levels which spell out a sentence which the fan translation changes to English. You can also tell that there were absolutely no plans to ever release this outside of Japan as a sizable number of the puzzle subjects would have to be changed for cultural or content reasons. This is an absolute must play for anyone that enjoys picross! It consumed so much of my free time for the last few weeks. The one negative is that the whole collection is basically the same difficulty, but that also makes it easier to plow through.
I'm going to skip over the 8 NP volumes for now as the UI feels way too "slippery" to the point I was getting actively annoyed by it.
Rating: 9
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Post by toei on Sept 8, 2020 17:45:56 GMT -5
Hadn't been playing games for the past few months, but I just finished Twinkle Tale (Genesis) for the first time. Great game.
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Post by JoeQ on Sept 11, 2020 7:36:09 GMT -5
Portal (Windows) - Replay, Time: 8.6h (Steam timer) Review: it's Portal Rating: 5/5Did a couple of playthroughs and beat all the challenge maps to get all the achievements. Alphabet Challenge: ABCD-FGH-J-LM--P-RSTUV---Z Number Challenge: --2-------
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Post by Digitalnametag on Sept 11, 2020 19:12:41 GMT -5
Fairy Tail PS4 FTP 30 hours
So earlier this year I bought a Humble Bundle with most of Hiro Mashima's manga for around $25. This included all of Fairy Tail which I finished a few weeks back. I thought it was okay. Worth the $25 but definitely not something I would pay for by individual volume. Gust being one of my favorite developers I went ahead and bought this game.
The problem with adapting Fairy Tail is the obscene cast size and story-lines slightly more complex than the average Shonen manga. Practically every major story scene in the game features 'invisible' NPCs due to the impracticality of modeling every minor character. This is however distracting especially early on in the story when you should be seeing 30 or so characters and only 6 are important enough to get character models. A lot of major events are turned into anime stills and narration. The story of the source manga is a mess anyway with plot holes and poor planning abound so when you adapt that into a lower budget game what you get is a mess. The story will not make sense unless you are familiar with the source manga.
Game-play wise it plays much like an Atelier game without the synthesis. You have requests to go on and improving the guild and your characters is decent fun. A shame that the game is so poorly balanced. The battle system could have been interesting. It features a grid and gives you moves that can push and pull enemies around so you can line them up for attacks. If only you had a reason to. Characters get a lot of different moves with varying grid patterns but if you just spam your hardest hitting attacks you will win regardless of any strategy. Enemies receive no benefit or detriment from where they stand so moving them around is ultimately pointless. Sigh. At least the character models and attacks look nice!
For comparison let's take a look at this years Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Easily one of the best adaptations of Z story wise. Sure the game was mediocre as a whole but the cut-scenes looked great. Dragon Ball has an exceptionally simplistic story-line. Pretty much every arc can be boiled down to one central big bad. You don't have a lot of extra side characters for story exposition. You don't need to be familiar with the early half of Dragon Ball to jump in. Also given this is about the 1000th adaptation of Dragon Ball Bandai Namco has had a few years to practice and clearly sunk a bit of money into Kakarot. Fairy Tail on the other hand has characters galore and a much lower budget. Gust does a great job with the character models in game and the animated cut-scenes look good. The story was just way too much to adapt. Maybe if they had focused on one major arc instead of three. I can see why they picked these arcs from a game-play perspective given how easily they let Gust convert it into an Atelier-like loop.
And then we have the extremely predatory DLC. Dozens of costumes (for $3.50 apiece!) and characters that probably all should have been in the game to begin with. Of course the last few Atelier's have been bad like this too... Makes that Pokemon DLC for $30 seem really reasonable. So who is this game for? Pretty much just fans of Fairy Tail who also happen to like low budget RPG's. Which is apparent in how poorly the game sold everywhere. I had decent fun with it but would really struggle to recommend it to anyone.
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Post by zerker on Sept 12, 2020 14:39:04 GMT -5
I finished Darksiders III (Windows via Wine on Linux; First time) yesterday. It had a lot of mixed reviews, but I rather enjoyed it and thought it was a worthy addition to the series. Never did upgrade any weapons past +9 though. 8/10.
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Post by personman on Sept 12, 2020 16:15:26 GMT -5
Heck, I haven't done this in a good while.
Mass Effect (Steam/PC, replay, 40 hours)
I've missed this series and couldn't resist grabbing them once they came to Steam recently. I was curious to see how I felt about them after so many years and I think I can confidently say the first one still holds up alright, about the same level as the first Kotor really. Just like that game its sloppy but has a lot of heart and broke new(ish) ground. I'd say the thing that bothered me the most was the writing, like in the beginning I think someone forgot that Shepard was supposed to be a good guy despite choices and you can make them a complete sociopath with the renegade options which just makes me laugh, someone with a rank like that threatening civilians would get court marshaled in a heart beat. I really didn't care to talk to Liara or Ashley either since they are so stilted toward flirtation even when you pick the neutral options. Later on in the more dramatic scenes things feel rather flat with everyone waiting their turn to talk but thats kinda expected.
Otherwise, its the same old Mass Effect. I did all the side content this time and didn't mind it because I just played on normal and I pretty much never died. Though it did get rather dull towards the end when as a Solider I could just stand out in the open and tank everything mindlessly. I feel this series really needs to be played on higher difficulties unless you want to breeze through it, which I guess its good the option is there for those who just want story. I've already carried myself over to Mass Effect 2 and I'm gonna punch it up a little bit.
And after all these years the Mako is still the best bouncy castle.
Rating: 8
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Post by toei on Sept 14, 2020 14:12:12 GMT -5
Claiming Pocky & Rocky 2 (SNES), first time.
Coincidentally, I started playing just before the new game (which looks like it's more a remake of the first Pocky & Rocky to me) was announced. I've always been drawn to this game's visuals, it's a very charming world, but gameplay-wise it's lightweight and a bit boring and the level where you ride the dragon is completely awful.
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Post by dsparil on Sept 15, 2020 7:45:41 GMT -5
Picross e (3DS, First Time)
I've played all the Picross e games to some extent although I haven't technically finished any of them. This is a pretty bare bones edition. You get about 150 puzzles divided between Normal and Free modes in either 10x10 or 15x15 sizes, and that's it. Can't really fault a $6 release too much though.
I finished in 7:15.
Rating: 7
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Post by dsparil on Sept 15, 2020 11:32:37 GMT -5
Star Ocean (SNES, First Time)
Star Ocean is one of the most impressive SNES games, but It has a lot of unfulfilled potential. The story set up is interesting in being a blend of fantasy and Star Trek, but there's so little story in general and the final section feels completely tacked on and is totally unnecessary. It is almost entirely fantasy in practice and feels like an episode of one of the Star Trek adventure games stretched out to the length of a short RPG with little added to the middle. The combat is okay and fast paced, but it isn't anything particularly great either. I suppose that at the time, its real time but not action combat was fairly unique, but that also ends up putting it in a weird position where it's too fast to be tactical while lacking the hands on feel of an action RPG. I guess it mainly doesn't compare well to spiritual predecessor Tales of Phantasia. In trying to push beyond that, Tri-Ace just made a less fun game overall.
I finished in 14:16.
Rating: 6
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As a side note, I played the remake up to the start of the second to last part, and it just makes a mess out of everything. The combat in particular is a huge downgrade. This single biggest issue is that you can't hold onto a single target! It's constantly shifting to whatever is closest to you and there doesn't seem to be anyway around this without manually retargeting over and over again. There's semi-auto and auto settings and I can't tell what the difference even is between them. The party AI is also pretty bad and gets itself killed constantly. Ambush and pincer battles are also just part of the regular encounter set for an area so they happen all the time and are significantly more dangerous than in the original since you start out stunned. The R version also bumps up the HP of enemies which definitely does not pair well with the constant target switching. I wouldn't be surprised if there's other stat changes. The skill system revamp just makes everything even more complicated and in need of a guide. The change to a standard world map is also a loss without anything gained. There's a few real improvements like new characters starting out with more skill points, but they're minor overall and can't compensate for the awful combat.
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Post by alexmate on Sept 16, 2020 10:06:39 GMT -5
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (XBOX 360, 1st playthrough. Time taken 8 hours estimate) I'm not sure of the exact playtime, but it took me longer than I expected. This is a great looking game, it just lacks the magic touch, there's not really anything flawed about it apart from the camera angles and I found it more difficult than I expected.
Rating: 7
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Post by dsparil on Sept 17, 2020 9:55:06 GMT -5
Mary Skelter: Nightmares (Switch, First Time) Mary Skelter 2
Finally got around to MS2 and finishing off MS:N to the new true ending. I previously wasn’t sure if I had screwed myself over by playing the games out of their intended order, but I hadn’t.
After being thoroughly underwhelmed by Moero Chronicle H, these two are significantly better. MCH had a nice dungeon crawler engine, and it’s good to have it attached to something that isn’t drowning in fan service to the point of ridiculousness. There’s very little of that here although there is a smidge. This leans much more towards horror and the macabre although it isn’t really trying to be scary. There’s some good area variety, and the job system is pretty good in keeping your customization choices manageable. Unused party members also keep up fairly well so you can swap between them without taking a big hit in strength.
I could go on and on (and did originally), but I want to focus specifically on having these two games link together. Simply put, Nightmares has a much better plot overall which makes the sequel feel like more of the same without having a strong story to drive it forward. It does make some gameplay changes and additions so it doesn’t feel totally superfluous, but if I had played them in the intended order, I’m not sure if I would have moved on to the prequel. 2 basically only exists to set up the real ending of Nightmares, and also seems to semi-assume that the player is familiar with the general setting since it glosses over some things. Conversely, the gameplay in 2 is more refined than Nightmares so it’s a step backwards in someways to play them the in the intended order.
It would have made more sense to force the order and backport the gameplay changes and additions that are appropriate. That very bizarrely wasn't done as the changes aren't huge and wouldn't have upset the balance of the original or anything. It also would have helped for 2 to just have a better plot. I did enjoy both regardless, and it was an interesting experiment but not one that was 100% successful.
I finished in 33:59 and 37:44.
Rating: 8, 7
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Post by JoeQ on Sept 19, 2020 5:13:25 GMT -5
Binary Domain (X360) - First time playing, Time: 24:26:50 (Cakewalk: 4:39:57, Survivor: 9:56:20, No Mercy: 9:50:33) A coverbased shooter from Sega's Yakuza team. The gameplay is fairly standard Gears of War stuff, but fighting the destructible robots makes it fun and engaging enough to rise above. Fun scifi action movie story, characters and pacing too. Did three playthroughs on Cakewalk, Survivor and No Mercy to get all the (singleplayer) achievements and best ending. Rating: 4/5Alphabet Challenge: ABCD-FGH-J-LM--P-RSTUV---Z Number Challenge: --2-------
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Post by dsparil on Sept 19, 2020 17:18:18 GMT -5
Super Mario 64 (Switch/N64, Replay)
It's Mario 64. Super iconic and with a great set of opening levels, but it starts to tip into being overly frustrating and less fun towards the end. You're really not supposed to blow through the required number of stars in 2 days, and leisurely working through it over months like I did at my mom's work is really how you should.
Rating: 8
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Post by dsparil on Sept 20, 2020 5:38:09 GMT -5
Super Punch Patrol (Switch, First Time)
Wow, a new game from Bertil Hörberg that doesn't come years after the previous one! Slightly dumb title aside, this is a well made Streets of Rage clone that returns to the monochromatic graphics of Gunman Clive. The visual style is also very reminiscent of Tom of Finland although on the less adult end of his work. It's not clear if that was an intentional decision (I'm leaning towards yes based on some of the enemies), but the developer did acknowledge the similarity on Twitter. You get a choice of three characters although Adam stand-in Anders is more like Final Fight's Haggar. The gameplay is basically identical to SoR and even features an elevator section before the final boss. This is a hard game (a wrong move could result in losing 75% of your health) with the difficulty levels only controlling how many lives you start with and credits that you have. I barely managed to finish on Easy which is 4 lives and 5 credits; using a credit restarts the level. Practice is 9 and 9 which was much easier, but Normal is 2 and 3 and I don't think I'd be able to complete it like that. Hard is a ridiculous single life to start and no credits!
Rating: 9
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Post by Digitalnametag on Sept 20, 2020 18:01:10 GMT -5
Valkyria Chronicles Remastered PS4 FTP 25 hours
Finally got around to playing this. The first Valkyria Chronicles is pretty well regarded and I can see why. The graphic design is beautiful. The story is a decent riff on World War II (but with Valkyrie err I mean Valkyur..) and the characters are likable. Game play has some frustrating moments but for the most part is fun. I wish the minor characters in your squad got more development and that maps encouraged better usage of units but from what I read some of this is addressed in the sequels. I picked up 4 for $20 when I started playing Remastered and I purchased 2 digitally years ago on sale for like $5. Might give one of them a shot after 13 Sentinels.
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