General Gaming ~*D1P's Games of 2021*~

[Brian]

Yakuza Like a Dragon - 7/10 - The transition away from Kazama and the battle system was always going to be difficult but for the most they did a good a job.  I like the new battle system and job system. Unfortunately this allowed the Devs to introduce grinding dungeons. Yakuza games aren’t short. The last thing I want to do is grind.  Add the fact that the grinding was all back loaded so you go through a bulk of the game never having to grind. I hate when devs artificially lengthen their games by bullshit level spikes. I also didn’t care for the cameo appearances in the game. 

[SaysWho?]

Days Gone -- Played through this lovely game again. Yes, it has plenty of glitches, and if you're used to Sony's typical polish, it'll take a little while to get used to. But once you do, you're in for a ride. Every side activity is fun, whether it's burning nests, taking down enemy camps (all of which have good level design, making stealth/combat fun in any of them), finding NERO checkpoints, gaining trust with camps, and of course, taking down hordes. In fact, attracting a horde to a nearby camp is way too fucking fun, and some of the largest hordes are in areas littered with environmental weapons and obstacles that you can use to shave off their numbers. I can't wait to see what a PS5 horde will look like.

 

Astro's Playroom -- I'm two short trophies away from a platinum. The game controls SO well. I'd love another Astro game on VR. There's something with the bot personalities that is so damned endearing. Also, as weird as it may sound, you want to go into the game with no spoilers as the game celebrates Playstation history, and it's much more fun to encounter this stuff as it comes. Since it's a pack-in game, play the damn thing once you get a PS5!

 

 

2021 Games

 

Demon's Souls Remake (2nd playthrough)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Trials and Tribulations

Days Gone

Astro's Playroom

[Keyser_Soze]

I beat The Medium again, to get the 1000 points. I think it's worth playing a second time once you see what happened just to work out the details of the story. I thought the story was good (some people didn't like the ending but I didn't have an issue with it). If you like Troy Baker he's pretty good in this, kind of outclasses everyone else. Other than that my impressions remain the same as the stuff in the 'The Medium' thread.

[Brian]

SackBoy a Big Adventure - 9/10 - fantastic level design, removal of LBP floaty controls, great music, and ton of replay value makes it the best launch game. Sumo’s best game to date 

[dualhunter]

Finished Generation Zero. I didn't play it when it first came out and I don't even remember what the problems were at launch. There are still some bugs, I got stuck numerous times but when I couldn't get unstuck, fast travel got me out. There were phantom ticks (basically mechanical headcrabs) that couldn't be destroyed but they'd disappear when you get close to them so as long as you don't waste ammo on them no big deal (the update this month might have fixed this). Today I fell under the terrain for the first time. There was water under the mountain and you can't swim. Normally it puts you back on the shore but here it just kept dropping me back into the under mountain lake until I manage to fast travel somewhere else. Despite these issues it was mostly enjoyable.

 

I didn't try the new missions that were added this month, I'd already hit the level cap (strangely level 31) and was almost done so I didn't want to add more optional stuff. I only played single player which can be annoying at times. You can't pause the game even on single player so if you need to eat, bathroom break, answer the phone, etc your best bet is to finish/escape from combat and then either fast travel to a safe house or crouch or prone in a building or some grass. Flares and EMP don't distract/disable for very long so sometimes fighting the larger machines is annoying in single player. If you're playing alone you should probably stick to Adventure difficulty and disable difficult scaling.

 

I got it during the last Steam holiday sale because it was finally cheap enough to take a chance on and I was quite pleased with it. If you avoided it because of the launch issues give it a try. Note that the performance in the initial areas is higher than most of the map so even if you're getting a good framerate at the beginning that might not hold later. I think the update might have helped since there is a runway area that initially slowed to a crawl (probably because of all the light sources) but wasn't so bad today though still a bit choppy. 

 

If ever you don't feel like finding a safe way down a cliff, just jump to your death, use an adrenaline shot to revive yourself and then some medkits to heal. It's much faster than walking 

[BloodyHell]

Completed Control and all of its DLC. 

Completed The Medium last week.

Completed Secret of Mana. Need two trophies for the platinum.

Completed Bowsers Fury with my wife over the last week or so.

 

Started playing Gears of War 5 Coop with a friend. Having a blast. Going to take a bit, he can only play a couple of hours per week. Game runs so good on Series X.

 

Still playing Tales of Zestiria, im near the end. That game thankfully isn't nearly as long as I expected. Im near the end of the third and final chapter.

 

I just beat the 3rd temple in Persona 5. I love this game, but I can only play in small doses. Im not even sure how many temples there are, but I know P4G was long, and took me forever.

 

Curse of the Dead Gods is my current main focus. Shocked and delighted to get such a great game that I didn't know existed until the day it released!

[Phaseknox]

I just finished The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors in one sitting. It’s a remaster of the SNES classic The Ninja Warriors, they apparently had to change the name for legal reasons. It’s an entertaining old school 2D side scrolling beat-em-up with colorful pixel art/sprite graphics, fun combat and cool music.

 

2021 games

Cyberpunk 2077

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors

[GameDadGrant]

3 hours ago, Phaseknox said:

I just finished The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors in one sitting. It’s a remaster of the SNES classic The Ninja Warriors, they apparently had to change the name for legal reasons. It’s an entertaining old school 2D side scrolling beat-em-up with colorful pixel art/sprite graphics, fun combat and cool music.

 

I'll have to check that one out sometime. I enjoyed the SNES game decently enough. 

 

I kinda wish I had the chance to play the original arcade version. That game was THREE SCREENS WIDE. Like, wow. I thought the X-MEN arcade game was crazy big with just *two* screens...!

[Phaseknox]

4 hours ago, GameDadGrant said:

I'll have to check that one out sometime. I enjoyed the SNES game decently enough. 

 

I kinda wish I had the chance to play the original arcade version. That game was THREE SCREENS WIDE. Like, wow. I thought the X-MEN arcade game was crazy big with just *two* screens...!

Yeah, I really liked the SNES game back in the day which was a sequel to the arcade game and improved in a lot of ways. The remaster is the same game but with better graphics, and two new unlockable characters.

 

I grew up in the arcades (I’m 51), and remember seeing the arcade version of The Ninja Warriors for the first time and how cool it was being in ultra widescreen with three screens. But that really was the best aspect of it as it was a fairly basic side scrolling action game at its core. I liked the arcade versions of Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi a lot more at the time. But the SNES version of The Ninja Warriors had three selectable characters, and better levels and combat. Playing the remastered version now was a nostalgic trip down memory lane that I really enjoyed.

 

As I get older I find myself enjoying retro style 2D pixel art games more than I have in a while since they bring me back to my earlier days of gaming. Hanging out in arcades are some of my fondest memories as a kid/teenager, and playing games on my NES/SNES and Master System/Genesis were some of my favorite gaming times.

[GameDadGrant]

@Phaseknox

 

Right on, man. Yeah the arcades were rad back in the day. You’re a good decade older than me but I do still have fond memories of those. And totally agree about arcade Shinobi, that game was awesome. 
 

I’ll have to check out this Ninja Warriors remake!

[Brick]

Bested Red Dead Redemption last night after many many years of it being in my backlog, playing it for a few hours, and then getting distracted by other games, and then not touching it for years and saying I'd get back to it at some point. Well I finally did! I can see why many people gave it Game of the Year, although from 2010 I'd still prefer Mass Effect 2, and my personal game of the year for 2010, Super Mario Galaxy 2.

[Brian]

Pikmin 3 - 7.5/10 - first Pikmin game. While I liked it overall, the basic formula never changed so I am happy it is a short game. 

[crispy4000]

14 hours ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

Pikmin 3 - 7.5/10 - first Pikmin game. While I liked it overall, the basic formula never changed so I am happy it is a short game. 

 

As much as I liked Pikmin 3, 2 was better for its light rogue-like elements (before that sort of thing was popular).  It feels longer though, so I wouldn't recommend it to you if you thought 3 got somewhat stale.

 

Oh, and just to say it, 3's final boss sucked.

[Phaseknox]

I finished Crossing Souls. It was a decent little top down view 2D pixel art comical adventure with combat, platforming and puzzles. The majority of the game offers a fun comedic lightheartedness with good pacing and a reasonable challenge, but things get a little too dark and serious near the end and the platforming and trap challenges become frustratingly difficult along with the last few bosses. The story, characters and ending were just ok, the environments/levels, gameplay and humorous 80s references throughout were the best aspects of the game.

 

2021 games

Cyberpunk 2077

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors

Crossing Souls

[Brick]

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare has been laid to rest. I think the western aesthetic works really well for a zombie game actually. The old timey, single fire weapons makes things more tense than a fully automatic, modern game would. Probably also why I think the gunplay in The Last of Us 1 and 2 work well because you don't have a fully automatic gun until the end. Makes you really pick your shots.

 

 

Next up: Bloodborne

[Nokt]

Omori - 5/5

 

I guess I haven't kept this updated very well, but

 

Sonic Mania - 3/5

Halo 4 - 3/5

Environmental Station Alpha - 3.5/5

Hollow Knight - 4/5

Dark Souls III - 4/5

 

I'm pretty much just keeping track of all the games I beat and recording my thoughts about them on GG. Neat little way to track the games you beat, 100%, etc. You can create lists and thats how I'm basically tracking everything I beat this year. Got the idea from a friend who is trying to complete 100 games by the end of the year. I think he is 20 or so games in.

[crispy4000]

 

Glad I finally got around to it after all these years, and waited to play it with improvements on PC.  Moguri Mod is great, if not perfect.  There's some flashing effects during battles that don't quite cover the full widescreen area they should.  But overall, I was happy to play a 20 year game that looked ~1080p on my 4K TV.

Visuals - Awesome, even in 2020.   I like the vibe and color scheme of Chrono Cross slightly more by comparison, but there's no denying the art in FFIX is classic Square on their A-game.  It's drabber than I expected, but the backdrops get wildly inventive.  They fill that world with all sorts of cartoony humanoid creatures alongside alien monster designs.  I don't think many games would attempt this today, let alone pull it off as well as Square does.

 

The overworld is still real ugly, but that's to be expected.

 

Battles - I like what they were going for.  Classic FF ATB system, but with Abilities learned by equipment and new status effects that challenge the norm of most JRPGs I've played.  The problem is that those Abilities are either a) useless, b) status effect focused, or c) game breaking (Auto-Regen and Auto-Haste just make everything else null).  But you still feel bad for not swapping equipment out so that everyone can learn most things.  

The encounter rate is low, which is good, but probably also because combat is slow.  It's unrecognizable from the snappy speed of FFVI.  Fewer encounters means they try to create difficulty in other ways beyond balancing the leveling.  Enemies get a lot of auto-death attacks, stack multiple status effects in single attacks, etc.  It's a bit contrived.

 

Story - Perfect balance of clichéd feel-good bits at the onset, to crazy shifts in tone part-way through.  The stakes don't always feel as high once it starts going further down the rabbit hole though.  As for characters, it does a great job developing Garnett, less so the others, IMO.  There's a few cringe parts with the writing, but they're minor bumps in the road.

 

Music - Not the most inspired in the series, but definitely still good.  Sound libraries feel like a throwback to Sega Genesis at times, which seems a bit odd.  The orchestration in CG cutscenes is stellar though.

 

Overall, it's a great game.  Took me about 60 hours total, with most of the side quests.  Play it for the world building, the strange places it goes, and the upscaled art.  But use speed-up boosters to help push along the battle system, mini-games and side-quests.  It's harder to tolerate without them.

 

9/10 in its modern form.  8/10 as it was back in the day, for the lack of respect for your time.

[Nokt]

13 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

FFIX

 

Glad I finally got around to it after all these years, and waited to play it with improvements on PC.  Moguri Mod is great, if not perfect.  There's some flashing effects during battles that don't quite cover the full widescreen area they should.  But overall, I was happy to play a 20 year game that looked ~1080p on my 4K TV.

Visuals - Awesome, even in 2020.   I like the vibe and color scheme of Chrono Cross slightly more by comparison, but there's no denying the art in FFIX is classic Square on their A-game.  It's drabber than I expected, but the backdrops get wildly inventive.  They fill that world with all sorts of cartoony humanoid creatures alongside alien monster designs.  I don't think many games would attempt this today, let alone pull it off as well as Square does.

 

The overworld is still real ugly, but that's to be expected.

 

Battles - I like what they were going for.  Classic FF ATB system, but with Abilities learned by equipment and new status effects that challenge the norm of most JRPGs I've played.  The problem is that those Abilities are either a) useless, b) status effect focused, or c) game breaking (Auto-Regen and Auto-Haste just make everything else null).  But you still feel bad for not swapping equipment out so that everyone can learn most things.  

The encounter rate is also low, which is good, but probably also because combat is slow.  It's unrecognizable from the snappy speed of FFVI.  Fewer encounters means they try to create difficulty in other ways beyond balancing the leveling.  Enemies get a lot of auto-death attacks, stack multiple status effects in single attacks, etc.  It's a bit contrived.

 

Story - Perfect balance of clichéd feel-good bits at the onset, to crazy shifts in tone part-way through.  The stakes don't always feel as high once it starts going further down the rabbit hole though.  As for characters, it does a great job developing Garnett, less so the others, IMO.  There's a few cringe parts with the writing, but they're minor bumps in the road.

 

Music - Not the most inspired in the series, but definitely still good.  Sound libraries feel like a throwback to Sega Genesis at times, which seems a bit odd.  The orchestration in CG cutscenes is stellar though.

 

Overall, it's a great game.  Took me about 60 hours total, with most of the side quests.  Play it for the world building, the strange places it goes, and the upscaled art.  But use speed-up boosters to help push along the battle system, mini-games and side-quests.  It's harder to tolerate without them.

 

9/10 in its modern form.  8/10 as it was back in the day, for the lack of respect for your time.

I really need to replay this. It's been years since I've completed one of the PS1 era FF games. IX is probably my favorite of them.

I'm not exactly sure what was lost in the source code that they lost, but I know backgrounds were one of the items. It's sad to hear because this game could look so much better, but I hear Moguri is awesome. A few of the songs are my favorite in the series. I agree about the characters, but honestly I wouldn't really want someone like Amarant to get more time. His back story is already boring and the one section you spend time with him is awful. I really enjoyed Vivi and Freya's sub plots, Eiko probably could have used more time.

[crispy4000]

6 hours ago, Nokt said:

I really need to replay this. It's been years since I've completed one of the PS1 era FF games. IX is probably my favorite of them.

I'm not exactly sure what was lost in the source code that they lost, but I know backgrounds were one of the items. It's sad to hear because this game could look so much better, but I hear Moguri is awesome. A few of the songs are my favorite in the series. I agree about the characters, but honestly I wouldn't really want someone like Amarant to get more time. His back story is already boring and the one section you spend time with him is awful. I really enjoyed Vivi and Freya's sub plots, Eiko probably could have used more time.

 

Amarant sucks as a character.  He would have been a decent recurring villain, but it made no sense for him to join your party.

 

Eiko does too, IMO.  Her backstory is all good, but her schtick for Zidane is grating.

[crispy4000]

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)

 

Pretty solid game, all in all.  Not as good as a Mario game proper, but fully fleshed out to feel like a substantial game in its own right.  It has a 3D Land philosophy of short, bite-sized level, which makes it a great portable game if you get the Switch version.  You can manipulate the camera a bit more than the Captain Toad mini-games in 3D World, which allows them to scale up the complexity a bit.

 

I really like its approach to hidden items/objectives in each level.  It's the perfect amount, far from the excess of Mario Odyssey's secrets.  I could see myself coming back to it occasionally just to try for what I missed.  Some of it's much harder than you expect, which I appreciated.

Overall, it's pure Nintendo vibes.  The Switch version has more content than the Wii U version apparently, but I don't regret beating it on the platform I owned it on.

 

8.5/10

 

2021 games
Hades - 10
FFIX - 9  (8 without speed boosters)
Captain Toad - 8.5

[SaysWho?]

Sackboy: A Big Adventure -- Must-have if you have a PS5

 

It's a lovely platformer which, if you've played Super Mario 3D World, will seem familiar to you. Up to four players co-op, plus online play or a mix of couch co-op/online. Like plenty of platformers, it introduces new concepts all the time and gets tougher, but I think part of the joy is how fun and weird the world is. It's got the same humor, imo, as Media Molecule's LBP games, and each level has plenty to find.

 

You can find blue orbs, which allow you to progress further into the world, unlock boss battles, and create a sketch book for each world.

 

You can find "Collect-a-Bells," which you use to get more costumes for your sackboy.

 

You can find new costume parts and skin colors in each level.

 

And if you get enough points or unlock enough (not sure which), a genie pops up in the level which allows you to accumulate a ton of Collect-a-Bells.

 

The lady and I unlocked most costumes in our runthrough, and there's bonus content once you complete the game that I didn't know was there. It will require you to have mastered much of the game.

 

Just a ton of fun and a worthwhile purchase. Have fun!

 

 

2021 Games

 

Demon's Souls Remake (2nd playthrough)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Trials and Tribulations

Days Gone

Astro's Playroom

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

[crispy4000]

Link's Awakening where you automatically croak and die every 60 seconds.  You reach safe houses where you can restart from.  If you liked the trading or puzzles in LA, you'll be right at home here.

It's just very short.  I beat it in 1.5 hours.  There are some upgrades I could go back for, but they kind of don't matter.  It's easy enough to beat with almost none of them.  Final boss is cool, but its also the only interesting enemy in the game.

 

Play it if you've already got it.  (It was given away through EGS)  Or maybe buy it for $2 if you want a short, chill Zelda-like.  Otherwise, no need to bother.

 

7.5/10

2021 games
Hades - 10
FFIX - 9  (8 without speed boosters)
Captain Toad - 8.5
Minit - 7.5

 

[Fizzzzle]

Playing Lost Odyssey right now. I haven't played it in probably 10 years.

 

Some things I like better than I used to, some things are more grating. The voice acting is wildly inconsistent, even inconsistent within the same characters sometimes. I still like the battle system, though the fact that white magic always basically goes last in turn order takes a while to get used to. You have to heal proactively rather than reactively, which is kind of annoying. 

 

As for story, I still stand by that the general plot is hokey and the villains are pretty much cartoons, but it absolutely shines in character moments. 1000 Years of Dreams absolutely hits harder than it did the first time around, probably because I'm older. Though they do break the flow of gameplay a little too much, especially early on in the game, when it feels like you're getting one every 15 minutes. Some of them are absolute tear jerkers, though.

[Best]

On 4/9/2021 at 3:35 PM, Fizzzzle said:

Playing Lost Odyssey right now. I haven't played it in probably 10 years.

 

Some things I like better than I used to, some things are more grating. The voice acting is wildly inconsistent, even inconsistent within the same characters sometimes. I still like the battle system, though the fact that white magic always basically goes last in turn order takes a while to get used to. You have to heal proactively rather than reactively, which is kind of annoying. 

 

As for story, I still stand by that the general plot is hokey and the villains are pretty much cartoons, but it absolutely shines in character moments. 1000 Years of Dreams absolutely hits harder than it did the first time around, probably because I'm older. Though they do break the flow of gameplay a little too much, especially early on in the game, when it feels like you're getting one every 15 minutes. Some of them are absolute tear jerkers, though.

 

Wow. I played that game with my brother when it initially released and have very fond memories of it. We never completed it but I remember the dream sequence being really touching and memorable. I basically forgot about it until I read your impressions. 

[Phaseknox]

I finished Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, it took me 130 hours. While the overall gameplay loop was a bit repetitive, it was fun. I wouldn’t have played it for 130 hours if it wasn’t.
 

I enjoyed playing as Kassandra doing assassinations, clearing out bandit/soldier camps/forts, fighting mobs of enemies and constantly taking on bounty hunters/mercenaries. The occasional conquest and ship battles added a little more variety to things as well.

 

I didn’t find the main storyline particularly strong, it was the side quests and their mini-stories that were the main draw of the game for me.

 

2021 games

Cyberpunk 2077

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors

Crossing Souls

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

[SaysWho?]

Ratchet & Clank (2016) - Nice

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - 69

 

Playing Tools of Destruction now. Over time, this is becoming my favorite one, although the low-res textures from the early PS3 days are pretty bad. In some ways, the plainer PS2 look of UYA looks better just because you don't have all those attempts at HD textures that look blurry. At the same time, it's probably an unfair comparison since I played UYA on the PS3 collection which cleaned things up and upscales to 1080p (though it renders at 720p).

 

2021 Games

 

Demon's Souls Remake (2nd playthrough)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Trials and Tribulations

Days Gone

Astro's Playroom

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Ratchet & Clank (2016)

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

[CastlevaniaNut18]

First game of 2021 completed. 122 hours in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I’ve done all the main stuff and all side stuff except for the mushrooms and the glitches events. 
 

I’ll continue the quest when the first expansion releases next month. 

[Nokt]

I finally, after 2,700 deaths, beat the final chapter in Celeste. Literally had more deaths in that chapter than all of the main story and b-sides. Probably won’t attempt c-sides. 
 

Great game though. 5/5

[SaysWho?]

Tools of Destruction - Nice

Crack In Time - Nice, and I forgot how much fun the Clank puzzles are

 

2021 Games

 

Demon's Souls Remake (2nd playthrough)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Trials and Tribulations

Days Gone

Astro's Playroom

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Ratchet & Clank (2016)

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time

[dualhunter]

Finished Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. Took me 3 hours to 100% it and it wasn't as funny as the Rock Paper Shotgun suggested but it was still a fun Zelda like and I didn't have the as much frustration as the RPS reviewer. There were plenty of mildly amusing moments but the first thing that made me laugh wasn't entirely part of the game. New PC with new Bluetooth adapter and I had some issues with my Switch Pro controller where the character would occasionally continuously attack. I encountered a new enemy and end up dying seemingly because of the controller issue. In actual fact, you can also attack with the right stick instead of the usual attack button and I needed to adjust the deadzones for the sticks on the controller. The enemy that killed me makes your direction controls reversed so it wasn't actually a controller issue, but the enemy making it difficult to dodge. The other time I laughed was near the end, there's a funny way to get a game over.

 

Again it's a short game so the price might seem a bit high if you compare it to a typical modern full priced long game but if you compare to say A Link to the Past, the price seems fair if you like that kind of game. I like games that you can progress at a brisk pace without been slowed down with endless filler so I don't have any regrets. My main complaint is that with the controls. The top face bottom (Y on Xbox) doesn't do anything, the bumpers affect your character but don't do anything useful. I would have preferred the left face button (X) for attack instead of the right one (B) but the problem is that you eventually get 3 useable items (one of which is your weapon) and you have to hold the left button (X) to switch between them. So why didn't they just use more buttons? The main action button for checking things and initiating dialog doubles as the dodge button, so the other 3 face buttons could have been used for each of the 3 equipables. The need to switch between weapons during boss fights was the main complaint of the RPS review and while I didn't find it that annoying, it's still a bit odd.

 

If you like 2D Zeldas and you don't mind short games, give it a try on Steam or Switch. 

[SaysWho?]

Into The Nexus -- This is a bite-sized R&C that gives some of the best things about R&C (the arena, a large explorable level that allows you to find items on the ground or with a strong enemy that you can trade for bolts and goodies, several paths leading to different objectives, weapons upgrading by use and through raritanium) and gives it to you in a bite-sized game that tries to still have a big story. The Clank gameplay involves 2D gravity-controlling movement, and it's really good.

 

What holds the game back is there was clearly a smaller team on this, so the 30fps, while easy to play with the 2016 R&C since it doesn't drop frame rates, is prohibitive here since there are plenty of frame rate hiccups, slowdown, and screen tearing. Plenty of glitches as well. Still, if you liked Tools of Destruction and Crack in Time, I recommend this game. It's probably the least played of the Future games due to its size and release date (released around the time the PS4 launched), but it's good.

 

Braid -- Never played this until now.

 

In 2021, I still found the puzzles clever. Yes, there are plenty of A-HA! moments, and thank GAWD I only needed help on a few puzzle pieces. The Witness made me feel so dumb despite the fact that some of the solutions really did seem extremely complicated to me, so doing most of Braid by myself felt good.

 

I won't post spoilers, but I found the subtext of the game to be kind of weird? It just felt detached, particularly when you have a game that has stars that look like Mario stars and "princess in another castle" references for each world. However, the simplest story that was present -- finding the princess -- was really good, particularly the ending and how they go about showing it to you through the gameplay and your ability to reverse time.

 

 

2021 Games

 

Demon's Souls Remake (2nd playthrough)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Trials and Tribulations

Days Gone

Astro's Playroom

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Ratchet & Clank (2016)

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time

Ratchet & Clank Future: Into The Nexus

Braid

[crispy4000]

On 4/25/2021 at 2:47 PM, SaysWho? said:

Braid -- Never played this until now.

 

In 2021, I still found the puzzles clever. Yes, there are plenty of A-HA! moments, and thank GAWD I only needed help on a few puzzle pieces. The Witness made me feel so dumb despite the fact that some of the solutions really did seem extremely complicated to me, so doing most of Braid by myself felt good.

 

I won't post spoilers, but I found the subtext of the game to be kind of weird? It just felt detached, particularly when you have a game that has stars that look like Mario stars and "princess in another castle" references for each world. However, the simplest story that was present -- finding the princess -- was really good, particularly the ending and how they go about showing it to you through the gameplay and your ability to reverse time.

 

The narrative was always the worst part of the game.  It inspired countless indies to be overwritten and stuffed with try-hard symbolism that almost never lands.  I'm glad indies nowadays have mostly moved past its influence.

Speaking of which, that "simplest story" actually has hidden layers of meta bullshit underneath it.  There's an easter egg that attempts to tie all its cryptic bits together into something coherent.  But how you get to the hidden plot twist is also obtuse as hell.

[crispy4000]

Fantastic game on the whole.  Presentation is ace, the pinball take on exploration is fun, and the boss sections are very creative.  It's the most chill Metroidvania I've played, which isn't a vibe I normally associate with the genre.  Reminds me of what was good about Lost Winds 2 in some ways.

The only things holding it back are the power-ups.  Unlike other Metroidvanias, you don't feel like your new abilities aid traversal all that much.  It's a bit of a shame, since there are no shortcuts through the map outside of a transit network called the Beeline, which can only be entered at certain points.  I feel like a sequel could improve this aspect a lot, and get a lot more creative with how else to control/influence the ball.

 

I finished with about 85% of everything.  Not sure if I'll go back for 100%, but I'm pretty happy with the experience on the whole.

 

8/10

2021 games
Hades - 10
FFIX - 9  (8 without speed boosters)
Captain Toad - 8.5
Minit - 7.5

Yoku's Island Express - 8

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Just beat Mafia: The Definitive Edition. I never played the original, but had gone through II and III years prior. This one was solid. And good thing I didn't remember much from Mafia II, so I didn't see the ending to the original coming.

 

2021 games:

 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PC)

Mafia: The Definitive Edition (PC)

 

Hopefully this year, I play more games. I know I'll be diving into RE VIII on release day.

[Best]

7 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Just beat Mafia: The Definitive Edition. I never played the original, but had gone through II and III years prior. This one was solid. And good thing I didn't remember much from Mafia II, so I didn't see the ending to the original coming.

 

2021 games:

 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PC)

Mafia: The Definitive Edition (PC)

 

Hopefully this year, I play more games. I know I'll be diving into RE VIII on release day.

 

Good, job. I'm trying my hardest to beat Valhalla and I'm roughly over 50 hours in. I now just want to beat the "campaign" and get ready for RE V8. I hope I have enough time, lol.