HG101 2023 Game Finish Challenge

[dsparil]

Welcome to the HG101 2023 Game Finish Challenge!

This is a friendly competition to encourage people to finish games that they have started. Posting your thoughts is encouraged as is discussion no matter how long or short. Consider including a rating too, but that's 100% optional. Make sure to read all of the rules. This might seem like a lot of rules, but most are an accumulation of changes and clarifications from previous years. Unusual situations will be taken on a case by case basis. I will very likely be posting frequently, but I will not be counting my postings for competitive purposes.

When determining rankings, the reference time is taken from the Main Story time on How Long to Beat, GameFAQs total playtime divided by two, non-speedrun play throughs on YouTube and the reported time in order of preference. Please see this post for more information.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you are unsure if a game truly counts as completed, ask first and someone will likely know the answer. Some narrative games have what are functionally mid-game credits for various reasons. A few examples include the Zero Escape series, Octopath Traveler, Lost Sphear and Bravely Second.

Rules are the same as last year. Any new ones or changes will be indicated with a — and italics.

Post Formatting

- The name of the game must be in bold and optionally in green. The platform must also be included.
- Please use the game’s English name even if it is not officially available in English.
- If the game is for a computer platform, use the operating system name e.g. DOS, if the platform can generally be considered a PC. Older systems such as the C64 or Apple II may simply use that instead.
- If the game is part of an official emulated release, please include both the original platform and the platform of play.
- Please include your playtime if it is readily available using the game or system's timer.
- Include whether this was a first time completion or a replay.
- If including multiple games, please put them in alphabetical order. If you are also including some thoughts, this text may break up the listing.

General Rules

- A game must be able to be completed. It must either have a win state such as an ending or a set of challenges such as scenarios. In most cases, getting to the credits is an obvious indication, but this is not always the case.
- In order to be counted, a game must have been completed in 2023 regardless of start date.
- A game may only be counted once per person. Multiple people may claim the same game.
- Any difficulty is acceptable as long as it does not leave out a significant amount of content.
- A game does not need to be 100% completed.
- Using an early “failure” ending e.g. the White ending in Shin Megami Tensei IV, does not count. However, “bad” endings do count if they end at roughly the same point as “normal” or “good” endings.
- Simultaneous co-op is always allowed. If a co-op mode uses separate turns, please play at least half the game.
- New Game Plus modes are acceptable as long as they are played to at least the normal ending. These are counted as replays.
- Posting a screenshot is encouraged but not required.

Cheating, Glitches, and Save States

- The use of cheat codes is not allowed.
- The exploitation of major glitches is not allowed.
- The use of save states in emulators is not allowed except to suspend the game to resume later.
- In general, please play the game as intended.

Ports/Remakes/Remasters

- Simple ports, remakes and remastered versions i.e. graphical updates do not count separately.
- Games with substantial changes over the original do count separately.

DLC and Expansions

- In order to count separately from the base game, DLC and expansions must be accessible either from the main menu or completely separately and not exclusively in-game.
- New content in rereleases, remakes and remasters may be counted separately if it fulfills the general requirements for DLC and expansions.

Hacks/Mods

- Bug fix and gameplay adding modifications are allowed, but please list any that are used.
- Simple mods do not count separately from the base game.
- Large scale modifications that function as a new game do count separately from the base game.

Looping Games

— Infinitely looping games that consist of a single screen with a fixed level layout e.g the original Pac-Man or a fixed enemy formation e.g. Space Invaders do not count.
— Infinitely looping games with a level progression regardless of length count.
— Fixed or infinitely looping games only require a single loop if difficulty and not content is the only differentiator.

Arcade and Arcade Style Games

- A maximum of 2 credits per stage may be used if the game allows for credit feeding i.e. you get revived exactly where you died after continuing. This does not mean that only 2 credits can be used total per stage. For example, a game with 7 stages has 14 credits available.
- Games that use checkpoints or restart the level do not have a credit limit.

Fighting Games

- A minimum of 8 characters must be used in arcade modes or the entire cast if less than 8.
- If multiple characters must be selected, only one character must differ between each play through.
- Dedicated single player story modes are also acceptable.
- Fighting game updates may count separately from the base game only if it was released as a new arcade cabinet or home release and was not available as or equivalent to downloadable updates. Different sets of 8 characters must be used for multiple updates to all count.

Open-Ended Sim/Civ Style Games

- As previously noted, there must be some type of victory condition or a set of scenarios.
- Games that simply continue on indefinitely may not be counted.

Shareware Games

- Episodes count as separate releases if they were available for purchase separately. It is possible that each episode will have a separate executable if this is the case but it is not guaranteed.
- All episodes must be played in order to be claimed even if they count separately.
- One small exception is the Commander Keen series as episodes 4 and 5 are a sequel to 1 to 3. In that case, both sets may be played independently. Keen Dreams and Aliens Ate My Babysitter may also be played independently.

Sports / Racing Games

- If there is a story or career mode, beating this is enough.
- If there is a tournament mode, completing the highest level is required.
- For a game like Mario Kart where the tracks are divided into “cups”, completion of all cups is required.
- Different top speed settings will be considered to be different difficulties e.g. MK CCs. Any speed may be used unless substantial content is only available on higher settings.

Visual Novels, Kinetic Novels and Interactive Movies

- Visual Novels must have branching paths at a minimum in order to be counted. Simulation elements or other types of gameplay are not required.
- Likewise interactive movies are acceptable.
- Visual Novels with no gameplay elements at all, Kinetic Novels, may not be counted.

[dsparil]

The rankings will go here.

[dsparil]

The list of all games will go here.

[dsparil]

Jisei: The First Case HD (Switch, First Time)

The first game in a trilogy of VNs about a psychic "detective"; he's not a detective here but seems to be one in the later games. For some reason the third game hasn't been ported to Switch, but there was a long gap between the first two ports. This is a very short murder mystery (~1h) and most of the interactivity is fake. The later two games seem like they're better and this is more of an introduction. For positives, this does actually have full voice acting, and the plot is twisty enough. For the price, Soul Slayer is still the best option.

Rating: 6

[Apollo Chungus]

Duke Nukem 3D: Alien World Order (Nintendo Switch; First Time; 1 hour 37 minutes)

I'm gonna start off the year with the most recent Duke 3D expansion, which is well-timed considering all the Duke Nukem-related leaks going on at the moment (such as the 2D platformer incarnation of Forever, the cancelled Duke Nukem 3D Reloaded fan remake, and the cancelled Endangered Species hunting game). This expansion was made exclusively for the 20th Anniversary World Tour edition published by Gearbox for PCs and consoles, and while it's unfortunate that it has to be associated with Gearbox's chicanery, I do like how it was put together by members of Duke 3D's original dev team such as level designers Allen Blum & Richard "Levelord" Gray and music composer Lee Jackson.

I also dig the core concept of this expansion, which sees Duke travelling around the world to stop another alien invasion. Structurally, it operates a lot like The Birth in that you aren't experiencing a journey played out across a series of stages (i.e. the ending of one level is the beginning of the very next), but playing through a series of self-contained stages with each one taking place in a new country. These vary between specific places such as Amsterdam and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and more abstract tourist-like representations like "Bloody Hell" being an funhouse take on the UK (ignoring the much more famous funhouse take regularly being worked by Dan Douglas) and Egypt getting depicted as entirely deserts and pyramids in "Mirage Barrage".

This does allow for more unique gimmicks in the level design; ferrying back and forth in one stage to activate switches, having multiple puzzles to choose from, and seeing cool tricks being pulled off when you get high on pot. However, it also results in stages that often bleed together, and I find it hard to remember the difference between the Russian and French city levels beyond what language is written on the signs. And most of the challenge comes from throwing lots of enemies and mini-bosses at you, except for the final boss which is hysterically easy because it only has a flamethrower but stays far enough away for you to easily blast it.

It's a perfectly fine set of Duke levels, but I'd say it's my least favourite of the expansions. I feel its concept fizzles out quickly and there isn't a lot done with most of the locales beyond some extremely broad setting stuff, compared to what Duke It Out In D.C. managed to do with its "based on real places" stages. I might even say The Birth is better despite its rubbish final level, simply because of its existence as a polished collection of all the cut or originally unfinished maps. Admittedly, this expansion could also be treated with low expectations, as a bonus episode in a new port - but then it's the gang getting back together to put out something new. I'm not sure how to feel about it, I guess.

[dsparil]

Ghost Manor (TurboGrafx-16, First Time)

Yet another poor platformer from ICOM.

I finished in 1:22:14.

Rating: 5

[dsparil]

Camp California (Turbografx-CD, First Time)

I hesitate to call it good, but it's actually mostly competent which puts it above all the other US exclusive platformers minus Turrican.

I finished in 01:46:27.

Rating: 6 but a high 6

[Woody Alien]

Let's do this in 2023 too!

He Needs His Medicine (PC Windows, first time, about 25 minutes)

The year is not off to a good start with this free "horror" "game" on Steam. The devs seem to make these little horror/comedy games, but this doesn't seem scary or funny and it's really repetitive and uninteresting despite being so short. The story is about some guy trying to become a bird and turning himself into a horrible bird/man mutant. Our character needs to make him a medicine by picking up random stuff (including bleach and an old shoe) and combining them, in order to see the six different endings depending on the effect it has on the creature. It says "press E to interact" but it's never stated anywhere that you have to drag and drop the ingredients with the mouse, and I had to check the Steam forums because I thought the game was bugged, so I'm baffled that they can't even communicate something so simple.

In the hands of other people this could have been surreal, creepy and thoughtful, but this is just dumb: the endings are very short and stupid, the voiced creature sounds like an old man, the humor is unfunny and the horror is a pathetic jumpscare that doesn't even work. Don't waste your time with this, and the other titles by them don't seem that much better.

3/10

B.I.O.T.A. (PC Windows, first time, about 6 hours)

A metroidvania by the same Italian author of Ghostly Matter that I reviewed for the site a few years ago. A special squad lands on an asteroid where a biological agent mutated the miners and wildlife into weird monsters and they need to clean it before it comes to Earth and wipes everyone out, or something like that.

This is much shorter and less complex that that game, for both good and bad. There's no puzzles or adventure elements this time, just run-n-gun action and a few platforming challenges, and even as a metroidvania it is quite linear since there are no new abilities, and unlocking new areas is subordinate to find the wallet enhancements to buy items needed to go further (e.g. a robot to traverse the radioactive area, fuel to power a mech, etc.) and the usual keycards. You can choose among a few characters, but they are all mostly the same and one has abilities that are clearly better than the others, so... However, being much more compact, it has almost no backtracking, also since you can teleport to the HQ whenever and save the game at almost all times. I see it as a plus. Also it's fairly stylish with a cool synth soundtrack and a nice pixel art that comes in different palette flavors, and many more to be unlocked, though I wish the secrets were also gameplay stuff and not just cosmetic items. It's not reinventing the wheel or anything and it could have been more interesting, but it's reasonably entertaining, fun and never overstays its welcome (though maybe some not-platforming segments like the shmup section are overly long). I got the bad ending so maybe I'll try it again in the next days.

7/10

no idea what B.I.O.T.A. means though, I'll ask the guy!

[Apollo Chungus]

RoboBlitz (Xbox 360; First Time; 2 hours 40 minutes)

This is a pretty cool puzzle platformer from very early on in the Xbox 360's life, so early in fact that it not only had to use a texture compression technique to keep the file size under 50MB (that seriously used to be the biggest a XBLA game could be) but it came out on the same day as the original Gears of War - making it the second released game to run on Unreal Engine 3. I remember reading about it way back when in old Xbox 360 gaming magazines and decided to try the demo out of boredom, which I enjoyed enough to buy the full game.

You play as a robot who has to activate the various areas of a space station in order to power up a big laser and fight off space pirates, which takes the form of six worlds with three stages each. Each world has a unique mechanical focus, such as solving a certain type of puzzle, navigating an environment or platforming, and each level elaborates upon that focus. You have the ability to check out five of the six worlds in any order, and you can collect materials in order to purchase optional weapons and upgrades that make playing the game a bit easier. There's a surprising amount of options left up to the player, and I really appreciate that.

Most of the levels are quite fun to do, and are snappily paced enough that even though it might take 5-10 minutes to beat one, they don't feel too quick or too padded. That said, I'm not keen on the bosses you have to fight at the end of each world are rather annoying. They offer unique puzzles to take them down, but often end up being quite awkward and long-winded. They also take up the entirety of the worlds' third stage, so there's effectively only 12 regular levels to mess around with, which is a shame. Still, I enjoyed my time with this and I'd deffo recommend it if this sounds interesting. It can be played on the post-360 consoles as well and is available on Steam too.

Sniper Elite III (Nintendo Switch; First Time; 6 hours 47 minutes)

Ever since I played and really enjoyed Sniper Elite V2 back in June, I'd been wanting to check out more of the series. However, the games are pretty expensive on the Switch and rarely ever go on sale, so I never got round to doing so until the eShop Christmas sale meant I could finally grab something without spending €40. I went with Sniper Elite III - both because it's the next one (lol) and because the Switch port includes all the DLC missions by default. I'll probably write about those missions at a later date since they can be played straight from the menu at any time and I only wanted to discuss the main game.

It carries over the same gameplay from V2, letting you sneak around and shoot folks with your trusty sniper rifle, but it expands upon that by offering much larger, more open-ended stages. You can complete mandatory objectives in various orders, stumble across optional objectives, and find sniper hideouts that give you a tactical advantage among other things. This gives the game a different kind of rhythm, a scrappy stealth action affair where you have to keep quiet instead of pot-shotting everyone since you'll basically alert the entire area to your presence.

The whole vibe of sneaking around past soldiers, maybe taking a couple out with a silenced pistol before you're either caught or start using your sniper rile to kick things off, is really compelling. (Oddly enough, it reminded me to scenes from the Robin of Sherwood TV series when the Merries are sneaking into somewhere. I even had the Battles theme playing in my head for a lot of my playtime.

With the larger levels, I feel the pacing dragged a little. Individual stages are fine and there's a lot done to ensure they're structurally distinct from one another: big sprawling locales are followed up by tight linear areas, some stages offer way more optional objectives than others, they all play around with their unique spaces differently. But overall, I sometimes wished that they were a couple more linear short stages that I could complete within 20 minutes or thereabouts, rather than the 40-60 minutes it takes to complete a single level.

All that really means is that this isn't Sniper Elite V2 again, and that's also a big strength about the game. It takes the same gameplay and does new things with it, making for a wicked good new adventure that offers more complexities and new vibes the previous outing wasn't going for.

[spanky]

Mega Man X3 (SNES via jailbroken Analogue Super NT, Replay)

X3 is part of a trio of Capcom SNES games released pretty late in the system's life along with Final Fight 3 and Breath of Fire 2. This was early 1996 or so. I remember a magazine ad featuring the three games and the text read "LONG LIVE THE SUPER NES" or something like that. As a SNES diehard and holdout, this really spoke to me and I played all 3 games via rentals.

While I appreciated the games greatly, part of me recognized that the system's best days were behind it. Breath of Fire II was pretty but had an insane encounter rate and bizarre translation. It wasn't a patch on Square's efforts. Final Fight 3 was fun, but most of it's innovations had already been done by the Street of Rage series and it didn't have the style of that series. And finally, Mega Man X3. Mega Man X, in my opinion is one f the finest SNES games and one of the finest games across the entire Mega Man series. X2 is a lesser game and X3 is a pretty big nose dive in quality though we are a long way off from the nadir that is X6.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way. X3 has some brutal difficulty, at least early on. Enemies do tons of damage and you really feel that unupgraded health bar. Some of the common enemy types, like the thing that dual wield maces are infuriating to deal with (your charge shot just bounces off it due to the way it's hitbox is designed) and this game probably has the craziest respawn threshold I've seen in a game. We are talking NES Ninja Gaiden 1 levels here - you back up even slightly and that enemy is going to reappear. The game tries to balance this out by letting you temporarily call in Zero to play as him. Zero seems awesome at first. He has a max health bar and a powered up buster and can even use his lightsaber. To offset this, he has a larger sprite, can't be upgraded and only has one life - if you lose him, you lose him for good. To top it all off, he can't go through any boss or mid boss gates (barring one). This means you can't even play him through half of an entire level. Once I collected a few upgrades I found myself never using him. It's too bad he ends up being an afterthought, but the later games rectify this. Bosses are extremely brutal as well. You are going to have to find yourself hopping around a bit, collecting what upgrades you can, and testing out bosses until you can find one you can actually beat with the X buster. They really don't mess around in this game and pick up new attack patterns when low on health.

This game has a ton of backtracking due to the amount of items in each stage. There doesn't really seem to be a great recommended order, which some people could find challenging I guess. Speaking of the upgrades, I don't really care for the fully upgrades buster in this one. The super shot you can use when charged to red is very slow coming out and difficult to pull off in a pinch. The hidden gold armor is a nice touch though. There's also quite a bit of variation as to what bosses you'll fight in the final fortress depending on how you handle some of the optional bosses you encounter throughout the game.

Aesthetically the game looks good as you'd expect a late era Capcom SNES game to look. The boss designs are actually very cool and there's nothing that feels stupid or low efforts. The CX4 chip allows for some goofy wireframe effects that just drove the price of the cartridge up and really don't add a ton. Musically...it's one of the worst sounding games in the series. Very shrill tunes that are memorable only in the worst ways possible. Some of the tracks sound like parodies of video game music too me.

I'm not a giant fan of this one. It already feels like this series is going through the motions...At the end of the day though, it's still a Mega Man game which means it's better than like 90 percent of the stuff out there so I can't be too hard on it. 7/10.

[halftheisland]

Wow, I completely lost track of this in 2022, life and other priorities just seemed to get in the way of gaming. Treated myself to a Steam Deck for Christmas though, so definitely getting a lot more in and hopeful to get back into the swing of things this year.

To start things off - the first of these I started around Xmas/New Year 2022 so not sure if it counts but including anyway for the practice


Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition (PS4, first time, 60 hours)

Other than a brief and frustrating encounter with Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2, this is not a series I've been terribly familiar with, but it's certainly one that I'll be looking at with interest in future as I loved this from start to finish.

I'm sure this isn't news to those familiar with Dragon Quest games, but absolutely everything about this was a joyous experience. The bright and beautiful graphics, engaging character designs, bombastic orchestral score and absolutely stellar translation all combined to make this a delight to play.

Gameplay-wise it seemed to avoid the need for constant grinding that put me off VIII - perhaps it's a testament to how much I enjoyed the combat that for a lot of the early game I was actually seeking out enemies to fight rather than avoiding them. Having all the enemies visible on the map really helped with this, as by the time I reached the endgame I knew I was relatively overleveled and was able to just avoid what would have been easy but frustrating fights.

The plot admittedly is very cookie-cutter JRPG - destined hero, ancient evil, loyal band of companions, etc. etc. - but as I mentioned above what really made this stand out was the translation. The use of various style of colloquial English, if a little stereotyped in places, nonetheless gave a real flavour and sense of character to each of the regions you visit. The absolute barrage of puns worked really well for me, although I appreciate that's a YMMV situation for many.

Despite being one of the longest games I've completed in a long time, this never felt like a slog and I was sad to see it end. I did decide after 60 hours not to engage with some of the Tickington or post-game stuff, but the core experience start to finish was an incredible one.

9/10

Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC/Steam, first time, 40 hours)

It's been a long, long time since I've been addicted to a game like this, to the point where every spare moment was spent playing it. Even though I thought I was done with it after finally completing the main campaign, as I type this up I'm thinking about booting it up and going back in to do just one more ship.

The core mechanic of breaking up ships of ever-increasing size and complexity is just incredibly compelling, and I never really tired of seeing huge chunks of ship successfully peel off and head to the correct destination. What really made this work, I think, is the simplicity of having just three "bins" for items - furnace for metals, processor for nanocarbon, barge for valuable objects. By avoiding too much complexity in terms of how to process items, it kept the flow constant and I always knew what I was aiming for.

The ships themselves grow from relatively simple small craft to screen-filling behemoths, and I loved the 3D spatial puzzle of starting with what seems an impossible task and reducing it to something manageable. The later addition of complexities around safely decompressing sections of the ships and figuring out how to detach and decommission certain systems in a safe and efficient order added some welcome variation.

Perhaps a slight complaint in that the campaign, enjoyable as it is, has some odd pacing and felt like it ran out of steam towards the end. Certainly in my game, the last 4-5 hours were a bit of a slog trying to secure various components for (plot spoilery reasons).

Not really anything to do with the game, but this was the first big game for my Steam Deck where I really appreciated the extra control options. Being able to map various functions to the back triggers as well as the more standard buttons really helped and felt very natural.

Some quick notes on other bits and pieces - graphically the game was fine I guess, I liked the slightly broken down/rustbucket style of the vessels, and there was nice visual clarity in terms of cut points, dangers etc. Soundtrack was definitely a highlight, a sort of ambient americana which fit very well with the gameplay and story. Hard to define but the "feel" of the game was really nice - ships come apart with a satisfying chunkiness and there was a strong tactility to manipulating pieces around.

Another 9/10 I think, good start to the year!

[spanky]

halftheisland You mentioned you didn't bother with the post game stuff. So you just stopped after beating Mordragon? If so, I'd recommend you continue on if you're up for it. It seems like post game content but the third act of the game is the real finale in DQXI. It's also a good deal more challenging, I actually had to grind there whereas I could pretty much do the first two acts on autopilot.

[excelsior]

Death's Door (Switch, First Time, 9:48)
Death's Door puts you in the role of one of a Grim Reaper like character, tasked with collecting souls of those ready to pass on, though the protagonist quickly finds his own soul, and immortality at risk.

I'd read that Death's Door was a nice combination of gameplay elements of Dark Souls and The Legend of Zelda series, however I found it's much more of the former, with little influence from the latter. There are a few unlockable items used to explore gated areas, but let's be clear these are pretty uninspired and uninteresting abilities, that are mostly alternate versions of themselves. From the Dark Souls series there's much more influence in the combat system which focuses on simple enemy tells and time based roll-evading.

On this point the combat is solid, though not executed with the precision of FromSoft's works, but it does benefit from being a great deal easier than those games, whilst also not overstaying it's welcome as those inevitably do, granting players a similar experience in a more accessible package. The run time will be in the realm of ten hours for anyone who wants to beat the main storyline only, with only moderate difficulty. The biggest drawback from its combat is an over-reliance on gated enemy wave points, which are used to extend the game as they are found between areas of exploration and puzzles. There's a limited number of enemies, and the combat isn't strong enough for these to offer more than a distraction.

The exploration is perhaps the games best feature, as a good job has been done of hiding secrets, which are almost entirely optional, creating a feeling of being rewarded. There's items of significance relating to the lore and characters found within, along with weapon upgrades and optional combat areas to be discovered. Though you are able to upgrade your magic and health points in the game this was surprisingly also only possible through finding a number of hidden shrines. When in dungeons though even exploration can suffer as there is often too long found between restart points. There's a mechanism where collectable seeds can be planted in pots found along your way as the only method for health regeneration, but these pots are often thoughtlessly placed near a restart point, or somewhere with no enemies in sight. There's a feeling that the development team was more comfortable in designing quiet moments of discovery rather than action-based segments.

Visually a nice job is done here, evoking a similar brooding tone to the Souls games whilst often undercutting it with some humour, which at least provides a fresh personality.  I enjoyed the isometric perspective as it granted a diorama effect to the environments, though this viewpoint does show its limits in being able to present the onscreen action. There's also occasional moments where the field of view is too great to comfortably see quite what needs to be seen, and handheld mode is almost entirely a write off.

Despite being overall an enjoyable time, Death's Door's biggest issue for me is in being rather ordinary and derivative. The action is solid, the exploration is nice, but moment-to-moment gameplay isn't always focused on the greatest strengths here. For me I found it did fill a gap in my library in offering a light and short Soulslike experience, and sometimes just being enjoyable is enough even when there's nothing new to see.

Score - 7/10




spanky & halftheisland - I'd like to weigh in on DQXI also if I may. I must admit my feelings are conflicted on the post-credits third act. Though I believe it should absolutely be given a good chance as it exhibits the combat system to the fullest potential not previously seen, I do think it compromises the storyline found in previous acts. Personally I have to draw a line and consider it to be non-canon in order to appreciate the game to a greater degree.

[halftheisland]

Jan 6, 2023 7:25:14 GMT -5 spanky said:

halftheisland You mentioned you didn't bother with the post game stuff. So you just stopped after beating Mordragon? If so, I'd recommend you continue on if you're up for it. It seems like post game content but the third act of the game is the real finale in DQXI. It's also a good deal more challenging, I actually had to grind there whereas I could pretty much do the first two acts on autopilot.

Ah that's good to know, yeah I pretty much stopped after beating Mordragon. I definitely need to take a break from it for a little while but if it's more substantial than I thought then I'll definitely go back and clear it up at some point this year (even noting excelsior's concerns).

I'd definitely like to explore the combat systems in more depth - the first two acts I pretty much took a straightforward three offensive/one healer approach, and I definitely felt I never really had to explore the potential of the buff/debuff abilities.

[dsparil]

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion (Switch, First Time)

The nicest thing I can say about Crisis Core is that the porting is excellent. TOSE really wanted people to know they did the remake, and they should be proud of their Switch work. It looks great and always runs well. It almost seems like a test bed for a VII Remake port for Switch. The only issue is that the video quality of the FMV is inconsistent which was also an issue for FF VII, VIII and IX so I wouldn’t knock this one for that. The weird thing in this case is that this is after Square’s “oops we lost all the source materials” point, but one or two videos seem like they were literally taken from the PSP game and upscaled a smidge.

The point for this game existing in the first place is to be a prequel to VII, and it’s only partially successful. The story has a similar problem to VIII’s. Individual moments can be good, but the overarching story feels like an incomplete outline that was only partly expanded upon. This really shows in the wildly varying lengths of the chapters with one from the mid-game being literally 15 minutes including the cutscenes. The ending is actually one of the best done parts, but getting there is a bit rough.

The gameplay itself is standard action-RPG fair, and a change from the original which used a weird menu-based combat system. The problems is that the main story is never really all that difficult and enemies usually die in one hit if weak to an element. You’re also somewhat pushed into working on the 300 missions that are accessed via save points since that’s where most of the Materia and equipment are found. The bulk of the game’s content in those missions, but they’re super repetitive battle areas and only take place on five or six different maps.

So, this is probably the best port of a game that isn’t all that good to begin with. I’m assuming that creating all the missions took away from work that could have gone into the story as they also contain many enemies exclusive to them. This is a game torn between being a story heavy prequel to VII but also a game that can be played in short bursts on the go which resulted in neither being especially great. Considering that all the voice acting was redone, it would have been nice if some extra story could have gotten added too.

I finished in 18:14:31. I finished 50% of the missions, and I guesstimate that I spent half the time on those.

Rating:6