Re: What Video Games Did You Play? [2021 Edition]

[Enail]

Heaven's Vault - This was a cool little game, very different from other things. It took me longer than a game that size usually would just because it took more mental concentration so I landed up playing it in quite short bursts.  The translation wasn't quite as sophisticated as I'd have hoped for, sometimes it felt like you were just rearranging puzzle pieces, and you didn't really get to do any archaeology yourself so much as you got given the conclusions, but it was still really satisfying to build up a vocabulary and piece together what something might mean based on how components were used elsewhere. The pace was slow enough to be frustrating at times, and some things were a little too mysterious, but the mysteries were very compelling, both historical and the present. And I liked the way they interwove current situations and history.  I did two playthroughs, but your vocab persists in new game + and the translations get longer, and there's still things I didn't get to try and elements I want to know more about, so I might well play it a third time.

[bomaye]

23) Golden Axe (Sega Genesis Port on PS3)

Still gotta pop the online co-op trophy but did the rest, which was a local co-op playthrough with two controllers and then a no-continue save states playthrough.

Was a so-so game overall, really short and the controls were kinda stiff but the little combos you could do were cool. Solid for an early Genesis-era/pre-SNES release beat'em up.

24) Virtua Fighter 2 (PS3/100% Trophies)

A mostly-easy trophy list but hooooo-leeee shit, that ratchets up in difficulty very quickly. I did not beat the Arcade Mode and was definitely intimidated by the size of the move list and really the idea of playing any more of it.

[bomaye]

25) Revenge of Shinobi (PS3 Port/100% Trophies)

Save stated the hell out of this. An okay game for its release date. There is a lot of cheap hits from stuff you can't see off-screen until the last second. The worst thing is the finicky double-jump, which doesn't work half the time and when it does, doesn't let you ajdust in mid-air like modern double jumps do, and that is aggravating

[bomaye]

26) Gunstar Heroes (PS3 Port/100% Trophies)

Still wild fun. I prefer the boss fights, weapon combinations and Health-meter here to Contra but I do prefer Contra's running-and-gunning through normal enemies and Contra's respawning in place.

[bomaye]

27) Comix Zone (PS3 Port/100% Trophies)

'90s EXTREME as fuck. Game's made for save states. Way too punishing.

[bomaye]

Hell yeah, found a boosting partner and popped the multiplayer trophies for the Grid 2 Platinum

[bomaye]

28) Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS Remake)

Took me about 36 hours. This game is usually lauded as one of the best DQ games. I think the general concept and the villains were great, playing through multiple stages of the Main Character's life and working in tragedies they experienced was really good. I thought it didn't focus enough on the side characters, there was a lot more they could've done with them story-wise and I actually wanted to get to know them more because of how interesting the growing-up mechanic was. The Monster collecting mechanic was a good and bad point to me at the same time, it was fun collecting monsters and seeing what new attacks they'd learn but on the opposite end, it added a lot more grinding to the game because if you wanted to use something new, you had to train them up to a reasonable level before you could. Also on a personal level, I hate when games expect you to remember those things you couldn't access before and go "Oh yeah, I need to go there" and the second half of the game was very heavily based on this, so I hit up FAQs just to figure out where to go next more often than not. Really good game and would've really stood out on the SNES had I played it back then, it reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy IV.

[KMR]

Bravely Default 2 (Switch)

A proper sequel and nice breath of fresh air after the disappointment that was Bravely Second. I beat everything except the last secret boss, who I probably could have beaten if I tweaked my jobs set-up and tried a few more times, but the fight was so long and tedious with no specific reward, and I was getting burned out on the game by that point, so I opted not to bother. I enjoyed the story, and the job system in these games is always fun and engaging. What was nice about this game was that job leveling was a lot faster than in previous games, which encourages a lot of mix-and-matching of skills from various jobs and allows for a lot of versatility and experimentation.

The one thing that was frustrating me was that the second tier of job progression (which is optional but come on, I'm totally playing these games for the job system) was locked behind a series of very difficult boss challenges, and for many of those fights, my default job set-up was not sufficient, so at first the fights seemed almost impossible without requiring either a major restructuring of my set-up or abusing specific cheap combos. I don't like it when games force you into specific strategies to be successful, and the gap in difficulty between these fights and the main game content was disturbingly large. Turns out the game really wants you to have a dedicated tank to soak damage for a lot of these fights, so when I turned my spell-caster into a tank, it helped a lot and I managed to beat all of these. I just resent the game a little for forcing me to do that and not letting my typical strategy be a viable option.

[bomaye]

Bravely Default was one of those 3DS games that I always meant to play but never did get to it.

29) PS3 Port of Nights Into Dreams (100% Trophies)

Chill and comfy as fuck. Can see the bones of some Sonic Adventure stuff in this.

[bomaye]

30) Bleach: Soul Resurreccion (PS3/Platinum)

Like 5 hours to see the end-credits and 250 to pop the Platinum. Four Ultra Rare trophies and easy to use as a podcast game though. Pretty much a Dynasty Warriors-like anime game (it's not made by Koei-Tecmo so not quite the same), has a good combat flow to it but leveling up and completing every mission with every character was a huge pain.

[Werel]

Heaven's Vault - This was a cool little game, very different from other things.

I've been meaning to try this - it looks really cool! Definitely in the "different from other things" category.

I've played a few good games this year, mostly thanks to finally buying a PC:

Disco Elysium (PC)

I don't even know what to say about this game, other than that it is probably my favorite RPG I've ever played, and one of the best pieces of storytelling I've ever encountered. It's completely unlike most other games - there's no real combat mechanism other than luck (and you can count on one hand the number of "combat" encounters), leveling up is structured around having & completing "thoughts" and internalizing new identities, and the focus is really on figuring out how to exist in the game's world as the protagonist, whoever you decide he's gonna be. It's beautiful, haunting, sad, hilarious, and completely, totally compelling.

This is also one of the most poignant pieces of political/dystopia writing I've ever read/played; I couldn't stop thinking about the game world for weeks, and at times it called me out as a political entity so strongly I felt ATTACKED (like, if you pick too many milquetoast dialogue options, you get the achievement "World's Most Laughable Centrist" ). It makes you think about and interact with neoliberalism, leftism, fascism, and racism in ways beyond what will let you stay in whichever ideological comfort zone you exist in - it disturbed and scared me how well the game made you sympathize with the wealthy neoliberal union buster, for example. And I will never, ever forget the text for when you complete a certain Thought:

Mazovian Socio-Economics:

Anyway, 10/10, strong recommend to anybody who likes games that are heavy on text and thinking (also, the art! Holy shit! It's beautiful!)


Subnautica (PC)

This game is SO MUCH FUN. I'm a scuba nerd, and it simulates the experience of hovering around underwater PERFECTLY, except you also get to do the fun survival crafting and exploration of alien ecosystems that makes video games fun. I spent most of a day choosing the perfect kelp grotto to build my underwater base in, and setting up my windows so that they'd have the perfect view of the cathedral-like underwater rock formations nearby. It's an immersive world to the max, and just a lush, gorgeous digital space to exist in. One of those games that makes you wish you could go live inside it for a while. Heavy recommend for anybody who enjoys survival and/or exploration games, or worldbuilding and alien ecosystems.

[bomaye]

31) Metroid Zero Mission for the GBA
32) Metroid Fusion for the GBA

I'm playing the three 2D Metroid games I've never played before Dread comes out.

Zero Mission was mostly a really good remake of the first Metroid, which I find unplayable by today's standards (honestly, it was probably unplayable by the SNES's standards). Grafting Super Metroid onto original Metroid was a stroke of genius. The additional content, especially the stealth sections, didn't do too much for me.

Fusion was a surprise. I knew it was one that divided Metroid fans, but I really liked it. It's very linear (maybe even slightly too linear for what I wanted) but I still liked set missions and then being able to explore a little bit on the side, made the game feel focused. It also felt like I collected maybe 80% of the items but it only came out to 61%, I was really surprised. There was a few later bosses that I felt were relying more on cheapness than anything.

The controls were pretty awkward for both, but the GBA missing two buttons from what the SNES had meant they had to get a bit creative with how they used things. Some of the button combinations were definitely arthritis activators.

Next up, the 3DS version of Samus Returns, which was made by the same team that's developing Dread.

I want to replay both of these games eventually to hit for the 100%. Maybe I'll do that after Samus Returns.

[bomaye]

33) Metroid: Samus Returns for 3DS (14:35:14, 100%, Normal Mode)

Effing great game. This is exactly what I want a Metroid game to be. Searching for collectables and backtracking was rewarding, and I loved the scanning feature meaning not having to parse through a faq at the end to see which collectables I missed. I liked the melee counter mechanic, was surprised how easy it was to die in this game, and still didn't like the boss fight battles as much, though at least the checkpoints made it easy to get back at it and recognize patterns quicker.

I appreciated the tie-in to the GBA games at the end, and was not a big fan of the end-boss (that thing just wouldn't die)

[bomaye]

31a) Metroid Zero Mission for GBA/100%

I went back and with guide assistance, 100%ed the game, including the hard-time shinespark jumps, which were mostly only hard because I didn't understand how to properly use the controls.

[bomaye]

32a) Metroid Fusion for GBA/100%

And went back and 100%ed Fusion with a guide. Was easier to collect everything compared to Zero Mission but more of a hassle trying to find your way around.

[bomaye]

33) Donkey Kong '94 for GB

Still timeless despite being on the game boy, still great.

[bomaye]

34) Hey Pikmin! for 3DS

Kirby's Mass Attack with a very fitting Pikmin coat of paint. Also a little Yoshi's Island and sounded a little Donkey Kong Country. I prefer Pikmin this way as a puzzle platformer than as a strategy game, it removes the thinking element and is a chill play. Probably my favourite part is how they collect enlarged everyday objects and Olimar tries to guess what they are (like an Ink Pen is a "Peace Missile" and a Pawn chess piece is an "Unassuming Lighthouse") and they're amusing little write-ups. I hope more Pikmin games are made like this

[bomaye]

35) Kirby Triple Deluxe (100%) for 3DS

Kirby Super Star gameplay is always comfy and adding collectibles made it even comfier <3

[bomaye]

36) Metroid Dread (100% Items) on Switch

Game clock was about 12:25:00ish but the real clock is longer because of how the clock works.

This was a 9/10 game that sometimes sunk into 8/10-or-lower levels. The Metroid formula is still addictive as fuck, movement is super fast and fluid (I love the slide) and the story was fun (I'm REALLY glad I played Fusion before this came out, it's a direct sequel). The EMMI/robot chase segments sucked, they were trying to make things scary by having an invulnerable enemy who can one-hit kill you chase you around, but you could rarely ever counter it so instead of being scary, it was just annoying as you ate death after death while waiting for it to spawn away from you the next time so you could get back to the fun parts of the game. Also I felt the bosses and mini-bosses hit a little too hard (Samus Returns was similar) but it wasn't too bad because they let you respawn really close to try again.

I'd say this super interesting as vaporware because usually vaporware gets built up in such a way that things get overhyped, but we just kind of vaporware popping up out of nowhere and it was mostly just as fun as the previous games, so I'm impressed in that sense too

[bomaye]

37a) Metroid Dread (04:31:51, 30% Items Hard Mode)

Think I destroyed my thumb on this one. Below 4 hours on Hard Mode is the best ending. Close, but I assume I need to learn sequence breaks to get it.

[bomaye]

37b) Metroid Dread (03:20:15 Hard Mode)

Damn, actually gonna unlock everything in a Metroid game for once

[bomaye]

37c) Metroid Dread (03:02:xx Normal Mode) for Switch


Awriiight, unlocked all the things now.

[bomaye]

38) Joe & Mac (Easy)
39) Magical Drop 2 (Medium)
40) Spanky's Quest
41) Psycho Dream
42) Super Valis IV

All on the SNES Switch Online. Super Valis IV and Spanky's Quest were okay until the last levels, then it cranked the bullshit up to high (I used save states to finish these off). Magical Drop is simple but fun, reminiscent of Tetris Attack. Psycho Dream is a mediocre Castlevania rip-off where you get hit a little easily and weapon power-ups will actually send you back to the beginning of the power-up chain if you collect too many of them. Joe and Mac was the best of this bunch, decent action platformer but pretty short.


43) Dr Mario 64 (Both Story Modes)

On the just-released N64 Switch Online. I've never played a Dr Mario before. It's just a touch more complicated than something like Tetris or Panel de Pon, I don't think I've ever had a game make me feel dumber than when this game was whooping my ass because a mistake or two could ruin an entire round and you knew when you'd made them like a millisecond after you did it.

[bomaye]

44) Yoshi's Story (N64 on Switch/All Levels)

I played this back in the day but not extensively. Pretty easy, though I did die a few more times than I expected to (a few OHKO enemies, especially a fish in the water level). I like the scavenger hunt aspect of this game and how unlocking levels is based on it, I probably beat the game about 7 or 8 times unlocking them all. Like a solid 6/10 chill platformer.

[bomaye]

45) Wario Land II on 3DS Virtual Console/Game Boy Colour (100%). Mostly fun as you can't die, but boss fights and some stages are annoying as hell when trying to 100% because you are coin collecting.

46) Mario Kart 64 on Nintendo 64/Switch Online Fond memories of this game, but it did not age well. The AI is not tuned to be very fun, the tracks can be a little wild to play and the single player GP modes can be half-past impossible to win on the later levels.

47) Winback: Covert Operations on Nintendo 64/Switch Online (Good Ending). If this had a short checkpoint system like Uncharted, it would be barely playable. The prehistoric cover system was clunky as hell (I recall hating it the first time around too) but once you get into a rhythm, it can be fun when played as a sort of puzzle game.

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