I've held off on it for ages because I keep compulsively coming back to it but I'm finally going to write about this even though I haven't quite finished the post-game.
This is a charming but somewhat flawed 3D action adventure game. You play as an alien prisoner who has escaped from a crashed prison ship with the titular Maw, a purple blob that eats things to gain their powers (how original). But unlike Kirby the Maw grows larger after consuming large amounts of matter which gives the game a sense of progression despite not affecting the gameplay apart from the ends of levels being gated by it.
This is Final Fantasy XV to a tee for me. There's no real narrative verve to what's happening, too much of it seems to be happening to make flashy nonsense happen on screen and to try to evoke some kind of cheap emotional response from you. The ending of XV when NoctisThey are "emotional moments" but with no real narrative purpose or impact on the story). It's all just delays and re-positioning characters for no narrative reason other than "we like the effect."
Again, J.J. Is so caught up in the "surprise" of a given moment that he absolutely refuses to build to anything. Forget "therefore" storytelling, it's endless stream of "and thens" and then some nonsensical "buts" where suddenly something comes out of nowhere.
For drama/true blue story moments are built off expectation and understanding. Even the simplest ones.
November:
Game 46: Clustertruck (PC): Clustertruck is a level based first-person platformer. In order to reach a levels end you jump from truck to truck because the floor, the walls and every other object in the world that hasn't four wheels is deadly for you. The sense of height and speed while jumping is great. The air control in the game is just floaty enough to feel great. I like the minimalistic presentation and the soundtrack. And there are moments which feel like an failed attempt at stage diving when you try to jump on two trucks and they split up for whatever reason and you fall to the floor. But there are also a few things I didn't like about Clustertruck. I never had a sense about the height of the figure I control. It doesn't matter most of the time but there are a few instances where you have to jump through a gap and what looked like a jump that should've been succesful results in a restart of the level. And sometimes a shadow or some sort of orientation where you're going to land would have been helpful. The abilities are a little bit of a wasted potential. I only got to try a few but I don't think that would change my impression that only two (maybe one or two) abilites are useful and the others are just there to goof around. Overall though, I really love Clustertruck and can't recommend it enough.
Game 47: Until Dawn (PS4): See my LTTP for my thoughts.
Game 48: Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS): Never played a Dragon Quest before. The DS ones are a tad too expensive for me here in Europe and I rarely come around to buying iTunes Card to get them for my phone. But then this game got finally localized I took my first step into the series. In DQ VII your playing a time travelling fisher-man's son who together with his friends saves different islands in the past in order to make them appear in the present. One notices that one of the main guys behind this worked on Chrono Trigger. While the story doesn't really continue until hour 50 or so, the short-stories on the islands are really nice. The art-style is your typical Toriyama-DBZ-look, hate or love it, I like it. Besides the main theme the soundtrack didn't do it for me sadly. Battlesystem is nice though switching between FFXIII and this, it is unusual to see the numbers not leaving triple digits but I can live with it. The numbers got bigger and that counts. Sometimes the game can be a little tedious when you have to walk from A to B and back to A to B to C to A to B but that never bothered me that much because it always felt like I was making progress.
Dragon Quest VII can be a hard one to get into but if you do it, it is worth it.
Game 49: Final Fantasy XIII (PC): Maybe it were low expectations or a fatigue for open-world games but I really liked Final Fantasy XIII despite its reputation. The battle system is a ton of fun, graphically it still looks really nice though the framerate is all over the place with no way to fix it. The story is about crystals as is Final Fantasy tradition. I couldn't really follow it since I played over the span of 9 months. The soundtrack is nice, too. It being linear didn#t bother me much. Though more narrow than older FF games it did open up at about the same time as its predecessors.
Game 50: The Beginner's Guide (PC): I don't really know what to make of it.
Currently playing: Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
I've sent the OP 2 dms with my post in it, any chance i could be added to the wall of fame? Thank you ^.^
My list
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=218391827
Second page for the third year in a row.
2014 post available here, total of 112 games finished in 2014
2015 post available here, total of 119 games finished in 2015
Game 1: Final Fantasy XIII-2 - started on 27.12.2015, finished on 07.01.2016 (19:18) - ★★☆☆☆
Game 2: Emily is Away - started on 08.01.2016, finished on 08.01.2016 (0:46) - ★★★☆☆
Game 3: Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren's Call - started on 08.01.2016, finished on 11.01.2016 (3:59) - ★★★★☆
Game 4: Mario no Super Picross - started on 19.12.2015, finished on 12.01.2016 (33:07) - ★★★★★
Game 5: Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones - started on 13.01.2016, finished on 15.01.2016 (4:53) - ★★★★☆
Game 6: Her Story - started on 17.01.2016, finished on 17.01.2016 (2:41) - ★★★★☆
Game 7: To Be or Not To Be - started on 18.01.2016, finished on 22.01.2016 (10:09) - ★★★★☆
Game 8: Mario's Picross - started on 12.01.2016, finished on 22.01.2016 (10:16) - ★★★☆☆
Game 9: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - started on 22.01.2016, finished on 08.02.2016 (71:55) - ★★★★★
Game 10: Pony Island - started on 09.02.2016, finished on 09.02.2016 (2:40) - ★★★★★
Game 11: D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die - started on 09.02.2016, finished on 10.02.2016 (8:53) - ★★★★☆
Game 12: Sepia Tears - started on 10.02.2016, finished on 10.02.2016 (2:13) - ★★☆☆☆
Game 13: The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 - started on 10.02.2016, finished on 15.02.2016 (19:10) - ★★★☆☆
Game 14: An Octave Higher - started on 16.02.2016, finished on 16.02.2016 (7:18) - ★★★★☆
Game 15: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - started on 17.02.2016, finished on 18.02.2016 (3:16) - ★★★★☆
Game 16: Asphyxia - started on 18.02.2016, finished on 18.02.2016 (4:35) - ★★★★☆
Game 17: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - started on 24.02.2016, finished on 10.03.2016 (30:01) - ★★★★★
Game 18: Remember 11 - started on 11.03.2016, finished on 18.03.2016 (25:17) - ★★★★★
Game 19: Super Win the Game - started on 19.03.2016, finished on 19.03.2016 (5:08) - ★★★★☆
Game 20: The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns - started on 22.03.2016, finished on 22.03.2016 (1:08) - ★★★★☆
Game 21: The Elevator - started on 22.03.2016, finished on 22.03.2016 (0:33) - ★★★★☆
Game 22: The Blind Griffin - started on 23.03.2016, finished on 23.03.2016 (2:10) - ★★★★☆
Game 23: Nachtigal - started on 23.03.2016, finished on 23.03.2016 (1:22) - ★★★☆☆
Game 24: Taarradhin - started on 24.03.2016, finished on 24.03.2016 (0:51) - ★★★☆☆
Game 25: Ristorante Amore - started on 24.03.2016, finished on 24.03.2016 (2:41) - ★★★★☆
Game 26: Those Without Names - started on 25.03.2016, finished on 25.03.2016 (1:03) - ★★★☆☆
Game 27: Cupid - started on 25.03.2016, finished on 25.03.2016 (4:20) - ★★★★★
Game 28: Who is Mike? - started on 26.03.2016, finished on 26.03.2016 (0:45) - ★★☆☆☆
Game 29: Embers of Magic - started on 26.03.2016, finished on 26.03.2016 (0:30) - ★☆☆☆☆
Game 30: Green Eyed Monster - started on 26.03.2016, finished on 27.03.2016 (1:05) - ★★★★☆
Game 31: Dust: An Elysian Tail - started on 20.03.2016, finished on 28.03.2016 (12:55) - ★★★★★
Game 32: Perceptions of the Dead - started on 28.03.2016, finished on 28.03.2016 (0:26) - ★★★☆☆
Game 33: Autumn's Journey - started on 29.03.2016, finished on 30.03.2016 (2:17) - ★★★☆☆
Game 34: Is This the Life? - started on 30.03.2016, finished on 30.03.2016 (1:11) - ★★★★☆
Game 35: Venti Mesi - started on 31.03.2016, finished on 31.03.2016 (0:44) - ★★★★★
Game 36: Pillars of Eternity - started on 19.02.2016, finished on 05.04.2016 (48:16) - ★★★★☆
Game 37: Eve: Burst Error - started on 01.04.2016, finished on 11.04.2016 (~25:00) - ★★★★☆
Game 38: Mario no Picross 2 - started on 22.01.2016, finished on 12.04.2015 (45:25) - ★★★★★
Game 39: Quell - started on 12.04.2016, finished on 14.04.2016 (4:34) - ★★★★☆
Game 40: Treasure Adventure Game - started on 14.04.2016, finished on 16.04.2016 (12:01) - ★★★★☆
Game 41: Squarecells - started on 16.04.2016, finished on 18.04.2016 (4:40) - ★★★★★
Game 42: Fate/stay night [Realta Nua] -Fate- - started on 11.04.2016, finished on 20.04.2016 (30:31) - ★★★★☆
Game 43: Unmechanical - started on 18.04.2016, finished on 21.04.2016 (3:32) - ★★★★☆
Game 44: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - started on 22.04.2016, finished on 03.05.2016 (38:42) - ★★★★☆
Game 45: Forgotten, Not Lost - started on 03.05.2016, finished on 04.05.2016 (0:37) - ★★☆☆☆
Game 46: The Great Palermo - started on 04.05.2016, finished on 04.05.2016 (0:39) - ★★★☆☆
Game 47: Fate/stay night [Realta Nua] -Unlimited Blade Works- - started on 04.05.2016, finished on 13.05.2016 (21:25) - ★★★★☆
Game 48: Fate/stay night [Realta Nua] -Heaven's Feel- - started on 14.05.2016, finished on 22.05.2016 (30:22) - ★★★★☆
Game 49: One Thousand Lies - started on 22.05.2016, finished on 26.05.2016 (6:17) - ★★★★★
Game 50: Ori and the Blind Forest DE - started on 22.05.2016, finished on 29.05.2016 (11:53) - ★★★★★
Game 51: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - started on 22.05.2016, finished on 30.05.2016 (11:30) - ★★★☆☆
Game 52: Picross DS - started on 19.04.2016, finished on 17.06.2016 (43:13) - ★★★★★
Game 53: Picross e - started on 11.06.2016, finished on 18.06.2016 (8:34) - ★★★★★
Game 54: Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- - started on 29.05.2016, finished on 22.06.2016 (66:20) - ★★★★★
Game 55: The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine - started on 22.06.2016, finished on 28.06.2016 (26:47) - ★★★★★
Game 56: Picross e2 - started on 18.06.2016, finished on 28.06.2016 (10:44) - ★★★★★
Game 57: Professor Layton and the Curious Village - started on 28.06.2016, finished on 03.07.2016 (9:24) - ★★★★☆
Game 58: Picross e3 - started on 28.06.2016, finished on 06.07.2016 (9:42) - ★★★★★
Game 59: Batman: Arkham Asylum - started on 03.07.2016, finished on 09.07.2016 (11:55) - ★★★★★
Game 60: Copoka - started on 09.07.2016, finished on 09.07.2016 (1:07) - ★★★☆☆
Game 61: Sunrise - started on 09.07.2016, finished on 09.07.2016 (1:06) - ★★★★☆
Game 62: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - started on 09.07.2016, finished on 15.07.2016 (8:25) - ★★★☆☆
Game 63: Lily of the Valley - started on 15.07.2016, finished on 15.07.2016 (1:14) - ★★★★★
Game 64: Picross e4 - started on 06.07.2016, finished on 19.07.2016 (14:50) - ★★★★★
Game 65: Pillars of Eternity: The White March - started on 16.07.2016, finished on 24.07.2016 (17:05) - ★★★☆☆
Game 66: Moirai - started on 24.07.2016, finished on 24.07.2016 (0:10) - ★★☆☆☆
Game 67: Life is Strange - started on 24.07.2016, finished on 30.07.2016 (17:26) - ★★★★★
Game 68: Adventures of Pip - started on 30.07.2016, finished on 02.08.2016 (7:41) - ★★★★☆
Game 69: Katawa Shoujo - started on 03.08.2016, finished on 14.08.2016 (26:17) - ★★★★★
Game 70: Picross e5 - started on 19.07.2016, finished on 16.08.2016 (12:31) - ★★★★★
Game 71: Batman: Arkham City - started on 08.08.2016, finished on 25.08.2016 (24:02) - ★★★★★
Game 72: Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star - started on 25.08.2016, finished on 27.08.2016 (4:29) - ★★★★☆
Game 73: Picross e6 - started on 16.08.2016, finished on 12.09.2016 (24:23) - ★★★★★
Game 74: Club Nintendo Picross - started on 12.09.2016, finished on 18.09.2016 (6:46) - ★★★★★
Game 75: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies - started on 28.08.2016, finished on 21.09.2016 (34:14) - ★★★★☆
Game 76: Echoes of Aetheria - started on 27.08.2016, finished on 23.09.2016 (19:12) - ★★★★☆
Game 77: Club Nintendo Picross Plus - started on 18.09.2016, finished on 02.10.2016 (12:41) - ★★★★★
Game 78: My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess - started on 02.10.2016, finished on 09.10.2016 (8:32) - ★★★★☆
Game 79: Umineko: When They Cry - started on 24.09.2016, finished on 02.11.2016 (69:55) - ★★★★★
Game 80: Guru Logic Champ - started on 03.11.2016, finished on 12.11.2016 (13:51) - ★★★★☆
Game 81: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice - started on 02.11.2016, finished on 27.11.2016 (43:06) - ★★★★☆
Game X: Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past - started on 23.09.2016
Game X: Pokemon Picross - started on 16.10.2016
Game X: Pic Pic - started on 12.11.2016
Game X: The House in Fata Morgana - started on 27.11.2016
Dropped games:
Game X: Wolfenstein (2009) - started on 24.12.2015, dropped on 13.01.2016 (4:29) - game glitched out on me during one of the boss fights, managed to corrupt all saves I kept. I didn't like it enough to start from scratch. :\
Uncharted 4 3/5 really?
Uncharted 4 3/5 really?
Uncharted 4 3/5 really?
I very well may revise my score to 2/5.
It's a terrible excuse for a game with very solid tech and eyecandy.
I've been meaning to play the SNES FF titles for ages, and this 52-game challenge is really doing wonders on hitting my backlog, so here we go!
There's something about the music and 2D sprites in the SNES era that I just love, and this game nails them both! I enjoyed the story, and all of the crazy places it went. The characters were fantastic, and easily held my interest.like the inside of the planet, and on the Moon!The last area had some pretty nutty monsters, and the last boss was crazy! It took a few tries (and a little extra level grinding) to be able to take him down. I figured out a pretty good strategy/rotation for the fight, and then right before his death things went haywire, and two party members went down (including my healer). It didn't look like I would be able to recoup, so I just went for the kill instead of re-stabilizing, and luckily finished off the boss with one character alive (and with less than 1000 HPs). What an exhilarating fight! The ending wasIt felt a bit like Game of Thrones in the sense that characters were dying or going missing all the time - No one was safe! There were a few great twists, like killing the dragon that turned out to be Rydia's mom ... whoops; finding out that my father was a Lunarian; and that Golbeze was my brother!All in all, it was a fantastic experience, and I can't wait to play the others!pretty standard, but it was nice to see where everyone ended up.
As a side note, there were a bunch of names that were familiar to me (having played VII & IX), and now I'm curious to find out if they are indeed the same people, or just same names.
Got a chance to help out with some beta testing for GulAtiCa's upcoming game "Drop it!". Although it hasn't released yet, the game is finished enough to get a good impression of the gameplay.
This is another puzzle game, a genre I'm particularly fond of. Overall, a fun and challenging game. There's quite a bit of content – about 150 levels if I remember correctly! The level difficulty has a nice balance throughout the game, with a variety of easy to hard challenges, with the caveat that some require a bit of chance to complete. The music is pretty chill - I love the groovy techno song, as well as the song that sounds like it could be found in a mega man game. The backgrounds look nice, and I especially like the colorful disco and the space ones.
This one has been a series of quick mental exercises that I've been coming back to each day. It isn't the most exciting game, but the challenges and records keep me interested for now as I try to beat my previous scores.
Update:
I played this one daily for about 6 weeks, and then started losing interest. It offers a nice challenge, and I feel like it definitely made a positive impact on my mental speed and problem solving, but in the end it feels like work more than fun, and I'm going to move on to another game.
This is my first Animal Crossing game. I liked the intro cab ride, and how it gets you into the story. I got situated in town, checked out my new house, and got to work for Tom Nook. Finished paying off my house by selling fruit and radon items that feel out of the trees. Tom Nook just built an addition to my house and I'm now I am in debt again! I feel like there should be quests or something from the other inhabitants (for better money than selling fruit), but I haven't had any help requests. I did meet a pesky insurance salesman, and he's not leaving me alone. I feel like I've hit a wall of some kind, and not sure what there is to do now?
I adore everything about this game. From the title music "To the Stars", which got ample playtime (from leaving the game on the title screen just to listen to it) before and after playing the actual game, to the characters which were humorous, to the gameplay which never got old, to the storyline's 3 arcs. It was one of the games that captured my attention completely while playing, and digged at my brain when I wasn't. I was afraid that I would tire of the gameplay midway through since the underlying concept was very consistent all the way through, but I never did. There was enough variation in the levels (even when replaying a particular one due to the randomly-generated ships's layout), as well as the enemies, that the levels were always a thrill. The countdown timer for additional enemies encouraged efficiency in strategy, and the collectibles added further challenge/reward. I loved this one enough play it again to 100% it before moving on to the next game, and will definitely come back for the New Game +
This game, my goodness, talk about a hidden gem! I don't know if it wasn't marketed well or if I was just oblivious to it, but I nearly missed this one. Thankfully a sale and recommendations by fellow GAF members was enough for me to pick it up, and then I forgot about it. Many months later I was watching football (somewhat, since my players weren't in the game) and I went foraging through my folder of games on the Wii U to see what I could play while "watching". I came across this one again and gave it a shot, and was immediately captivated. If you enjoy tight platformers with super chill music, then this is your jam! I ended up going for a 100% in this one as well.
Interesting puzzle game, with a game mechanic that allows for multiple solutions to a puzzle. Naturally, it starts off somewhat easy and then ramps up in difficulty. It started getting very tricky near the end, usually requiring tons of trial and error. It was pretty satisfying, and worthy of it's price.
This one took a bit of work to get a good feel for the game mechanics. The courses are fun, and it plays real smooth. The music is a plus, and overall I found it a great game to play on the game pad while watching football. The game definitely increased in fun as I mastered a few particular mechanics: landing a trick without crashing; getting a speed boost with landing on the upper part of the ramp; and finally, following an incredibly precise path to make it to the end of the really difficult courses.
This was another great game to chill out on the game pad while watching TV. Again, this one had a little bit of a learning curve, but once I mastered the landings and tricks it became a real pleasure. Curve is quickly becoming another one of my favorite indie devs.
I hesitated including this one in my list since I'm been playing it nearly every day since it released in 2014. After much consideration, I ended up including it since in addition to playing it this year, it was also one of my most played games this year - and so I felt it deserved a spot in my list. To be fair, I listed only this year's playtime for this year's 52-game challenge log (while my total playtime makes it the most played game on the Wii U for me at over 600 hours)!
For me, this is one of those games I can just jump right into, any day, for any duration of time, whether by myself or with friends, sober or not (hah). I regularly play it when I'm home for lunch, and the minute or two between races is incredibly conducive to multi-tasking. I've eaten meals, studied for exams, browsed GAF/twitter/facebook, researched and set my fantasy football lineups, etc in the downtime between races.
My only gripe is the lack of Battle-Mode arenas. A large chuck of my high school game-time (back in the day) were devoted to multiplayer battle mode in Mario Kart 64 (and multiplayer 007, of course). I'm hoping for their addition in the Switch version/port/whatever, and then the game will be perfect.
Main post
That's it for me this year lol. Gonna save up completion of a few games for 2017 (need to focus on other stuff right now anyway). My two big goals are:
1. Beat the first nine mainline Dragon Quests, and
2. Beat all of my PS+ games (so I can drop it lol)
Wow, congratulations on finishing a truly crazy number of games!