Games You've Beat 2020

[MetalCaveman]

4 hours ago, Thursday Next said:

 

Thought the game looked interesting, but I seem to remember seeing a clip of the bosses and they were all just waifu pole dancers which seems a bit dull.

 

There IS one boss that's basically just a poledancer.  But there's also Spiky Knight of Doom, Giant Ice Knight of Doom, Furry Knight of Doom, and Straight Outta Bloodborne.  

 

The anime aesthetic is why I got interested in the game in the first place, but I can see why that may be an issue for some people.  

[Hot Heart]

On 9/6/2020 at 1:35 AM, TheMightyEthan said:

Control: AWE

 

Between the base game, Foundation, and AWE, I'd saw AWE is by far the weakest part.

 

That was my concern after reading a few comments on it. I hoped it would be a bit more interesting than it sounds. Then again, I don't really know anything about Alan Wake, I just found the idea of a Remedy-verse intriguing. I guess I should play it at some point because I still love the overall lore.

[TheMightyEthan]

It doesn't really do anything lore-wise to really expand Control or Alan Wake. All it really does is provide some glue to put them together, but it's way more glue than was really necessary since, given the nature of Control, Alan Wake fits in pretty nicely anyway.

[Mister Jack]

Blasphemous

 

This is the most metal game I've played in a while. It's a 2D soulslike/Metroidvania game with an emphasis on platforming, but the platforming is more about ledge grabbing than double jumping if you know what I mean. The sprite animation is some of the best I've ever seen and premise of the game's story kept me intrigued. Blasphemous takes place in a land called Cvstodia---which is heavily based on Spain---and the people who live there are hardcore zealots for their religion. Their religion is fictional but it's so obviously based on Catholicism that you'd have to be stupid not to see it. Before the beginning of the game's story, a supernatural event called the Grievous Miracle fell upon Cvstodia and transformed the people who live there into monsters based on their religious guilt and their desire for punishment and pain. You play as a former holy knight known only as The Penitent One who decides he's had enough of the Grievous Miracle's shit and sets out to find a way to end it once and for all, which puts him at odds against a country full of twisted, tortured people who want the miracle to continue at all costs because they see their own pain and suffering as penance for their sins.

 

So yeah, pretty fucked up premise and totally up my alley. Most of the enemies you fight in the game are either hooked up to some kind of torture device, self-flagellating, or so malformed that every second they continue to exist looks like agony. This is also hands down the goriest Metroidvania I've ever played. The Penitent One has all kinds of gruesome deathblows that go from decapitation to disembowelment, with plenty of pixelated blood and guts to spare. It might come across as juvenile in another game, but in this one it fits the bleak and violent tone of the setting perfectly. Remember the Crusades? The Spanish themed soundtrack is also fantastic.

 

A while back I actually would have had quite a few complaints about Blasphemous. A bad map system, not enough checkpoints or warp points, bad voice acting, and some game breaking bugs were all problems back at release. However, they have recently put out a free update that not only fixes pretty much all of these problems and more, but also adds a bunch of new game+ content. It also redubbed some of the English voices and even added a Spanish voice acting option. I haven't listened to the new English recordings, but given the setting and tone of this game I immediately switched to the Spanish dub, which is terrific and fits the game perfectly.

 

The only real complaint I have about the game's current state is something that is inherent to its design. It has a lot of Prince of Persiaesque instant death spike pits. There are more shortcuts in the game after the update so you don't have to backtrack as much as you used to if you fall on some spikes, but boy does it still suck when one missed jump can set you back on 10 to 20 minutes of progress. I easily died to the spikes more than anything else in the game, including bosses. I still recommend Blasphemous, but that's something to keep in mind.

 

Oh yeah, one other thing I really liked is that this is a Soulslike that gives you a more reasonable punishment for dying. As much as I enjoy Bloodborne and Nioh, losing all of your accumulated exp when you die really sucks and can lead to way too much frustration. When you die in Blasphemous, you get to keep your exp but your magic bar's maximum cap is reduced and you earn future exp at a slower rate until you can return to your grave to claim your "guilt". The more you die, the more guilt you have to retrieve. If you end up with too many graves to manage, you can get rid of them all by either defeating the area boss or finding certain statues spread through the map and paying them a fee with your exp to remove them. This feels way more fair than how most Soulslike games punish death.

Edited September 12, 2020 by Mister Jack

[toxicitizen]

Control but also Alan Wake and, fuck it, Quantum Break too, I guess, even though that was a month ago.

 

So yeah, my anticipation for Control sent me into a bit of a Remedy binge. Man, I love this studio.

 

I replayed Quantum Break about a month ago and honestly don't have much new to say about it. It's a ton of fun, I'm still salty it didn't get a sequel and it's the real Max Payne 3, don't @ me. Those TV show episodes are still the worst thing about the game, though. I mean, look. Every time I replay Alan Wake I make it a point to stop and watch every single one of the Night Spring episodes in their entirety. They're great! And I also loved the hell out of all those Dr. Darling videos in Control. So it's not like I don't get or like what they're going for here, but fuck if I know why they thought it was a good idea to break up the gameplay with boring, 20 minutes long episodes about characters that ultimately barely affect the game. I'm assuming it has something to do with the TV boner Microsoft had at the start of the generation but it just doesn't work.

 

Anyway, I burned through Quantum Break in like 2 days so I ended up deciding to replay Alan Wake as well. I waited until the last minute though, so I didn't manage to finish it in time for Control's launch and only got around to playing the last episode today, because I finished Control last night and wanted to at least finish replaying the base game before doing the AWE questline.

 

Alan Wake is one of my favorite games ever and I almost wish I hadn't replayed it because it had been long enough that I had forgotten a lot about it and it didn't quite live up to my memories of it. I still thoroughly enjoyed it once I got into it but it was kind of a shock at first. Time has not been kind to this game and its flaws were way more obvious to me now. The good is still so good, though. I just love the atmosphere of this game. I stopped not just to watch every episode of Night Springs but also to read every manuscript page I found. Also, that rock concert set piece is still the coolest fucking thing ever (or at least it was, I'll get back to this in a bit). It's not mechanically interesting or impressive in any way, you're just fighting off waves of enemies. But everything about it just makes me go "FUCK YEAH!" every damn time. It especially helps that Old Gods of Asgard fucking slaps in a wonderfully cheesy way. I was actually looking forward to it the entire game lol. Not gonna bother replaying the DLC episodes. I probably would if I was still waiting for Control but they don't really add anything to the game and aren't that great.

 

So that brings us to Control. It was a long year waiting for this to get out of Epic Jail but boy was it ever worth it. It has everything I love about Remedy's games only it's about twice as long as they usually are, has a borderline metroidvania structure with an open map full of hidden areas to find and it's basically an SCP Foundation game. I mean, what's not to love? I also love that Poets of the Fall got an entire room dedicated to their usual cameo song this time lol.

 

Much like Alan Wake, I fully immersed myself into this one. I read every document, watched every video, and listened to every audio log. And even after 20+ hours I want more. There's just something about Remedy's games, going all the way back to Max Payne, that feels like they were made specifically for me. I feel like Sam Lake just gets me, man. I went in with pretty high expectations and the game still somehow managed to surpass them.

 

Also, finally going through the Ashtray Maze was an incredible set piece that topped even the rock show from Alan Wake. The weird and impossible level design alone would have made it a blast to go through, but they didn't stop there. The fuckers knew what they were doing! When I entered the maze, put on the walkman, and was treated to a new song by Old Gods of Asgard, I knew I was about to experience something special.

 

 

Now on to the DLC. I think I'm gonna have to take it slow and savor it (which I've been doing with the main game) because I'm not ready for this ride to end. Especially since, this being a Remedy game, I don't expect to ever get a sequel...

[TheMightyEthan]

Paper Mario: The Origami King

 

I quite liked it a lot. I know many people found it disappointing, but I've never played a Paper Mario game before so I really didn't have anything to compare it to. It was charming, funny, and I enjoyed the puzzle battle system (especially the bosses). It was quite light-hearted (at least in tone, there are a few dark elements of the plot), and that was really nice in this stressful time. I find recently I've been having a hard time playing more action-y games because anything that gets my heartrate up or makes me feel tense right now my brain is primed to interpret as stress/nervousness rather than fun/excitement, so this was a nice, calm, pleasant alternative. My only real complaint is a few of the puzzles were pretty obtuse (to the point where even after I looked up the answer I was like "how was I ever supposed to figure that out?") and the hints tended to be too vague to be helpful when you needed them.

 

Still, it was way better than Tearaway, @The Cowboy JRPGing Poet 

 

I'm not sure how to rate it. My gut says a 4/5 is too low, but 5/5 seems too high since there's not really anything screaming "masterpiece" about it. And if I go 4.5/5 that defeats the purpose of a 5 point system. Ultimately I think it's a good game that happened to be perfect for where I was emotionally at the time that I played it, which I guess in Darkadia terms that makes it 4/5 with a .

 

4/5 

[Mal]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

 

Holy shit, I beat a game from this year.

 

Overall I think Vanillaware has hit it out of the park with this one. Very strong story and character hooks to take you on a journey that is mostly a visual novel  but there is a sizeable chunk of battle segments. For the most part, the battles are not that hard even on hardest setting but there is a casual setting if you just want to blow through the battles. With that said, hardest will get your brain juices flowing and there are some minor difficulty spikes that you might take a bit to overcome.

 

For issues, I only got briefly stuck in the VN portion due to some obtuseness. Battles... some missions has some performance issues. One might pose a problem for a platinum run but if you setup your party correctly, I think it is possible to just brute force through them for a S-rank (I'm thinking about it since again, it is kind of easy for me).

[danielpholt]

On 10/1/2020 at 10:24 PM, TheMightyEthan said:

Paper Mario: The Origami King

 

I quite liked it a lot. I know many people found it disappointing, but I've never played a Paper Mario game before so I really didn't have anything to compare it to. It was charming, funny, and I enjoyed the puzzle battle system (especially the bosses). It was quite light-hearted (at least in tone, there are a few dark elements of the plot), and that was really nice in this stressful time. I find recently I've been having a hard time playing more action-y games because anything that gets my heartrate up or makes me feel tense right now my brain is primed to interpret as stress/nervousness rather than fun/excitement, so this was a nice, calm, pleasant alternative. My only real complaint is a few of the puzzles were pretty obtuse (to the point where even after I looked up the answer I was like "how was I ever supposed to figure that out?") and the hints tended to be too vague to be helpful when you needed them.

 

Still, it was way better than Tearaway, @The Cowboy JRPGing Poet 

 

I'm not sure how to rate it. My gut says a 4/5 is too low, but 5/5 seems too high since there's not really anything screaming "masterpiece" about it. And if I go 4.5/5 that defeats the purpose of a 5 point system. Ultimately I think it's a good game that happened to be perfect for where I was emotionally at the time that I played it, which I guess in Darkadia terms that makes it 4/5 with a .

 

4/5 

 

Edited October 3, 2020 by danielpholt

[TheMightyEthan]

Lol, wow about which part?

[danielpholt]

29 minutes ago, TheMightyEthan said:

Lol, wow about which part?

 

Insulting Tearaway. How dare you sir. 

[TCP]

 

[TCP]

@TheMightyEthan, Last I checked, in Oragami King I couldn't take a picture of my dog's fur and give it to a deer who would then have the pattern of my dog's fur. So, yeah. Sort it out Nintendo.

[TheMightyEthan]

Mario 64

 

Beat this for the 507th time in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, and man it does not hold up anymore, though it pains me to say so. Mario controls clunky, the camera is awful, the level design is simplistic, the list goes on. It was an amazing accomplishment for the time, especially considering no one had ever really made a good 3D platformer before, but it just has not stood the test of time. I almost didn't finish it when I got to 50-some stars and realized there weren't any levels left that I wanted to play to get the last dozen or so to open the door to the final Bowser level, but I pushed myself through because I felt like I should, given how much I've loved this game.

 

I'm not going to rate it, because I don't feel like it's fair to judge it 25 years later.

[Mister Jack]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I got just enough stars to beat it and then immediately moved on to Sunshine rather than going for all 120. I agree with pretty much everything you said. I used to love Mario 64 and I wanted to still love it today but I just don't.

[toxicitizen]

Control: Foundation and AWE DLCs

 

Well, these certainly didn't do much to change my view that single-player DLC that takes place outside the main campaign is rarely all that great. It was more Control but it somehow lacked what made Control so great. I don't know if it was due to me taking a break between the base game and DLC or this just not working as well in short-form, but I just couldn't really get back into it. By the time I started the AWE questline (which is the thing I had been anticipating since starting the game), I was already checked out and ready for the game to be over.

 

There wasn't much going on story-wise but what was there was fine. Foundation touched on some mysterious stuff from a main game side-quest but didn't really resolve anything. AWE obviously fleshed out the Alan Wake connection but here I enjoyed reading the documents about Bright Falls more than the actual events of the DLC. Also, that better be Alan Wake 2 they're teasing at the end because if they blue-ball us again on this I think I'm gonna have a hard time getting excited about anything Remedy makes in the future. Between never getting sequels/closure and every single game being caught in some shitty exclusivity deal, there's only so much I can take.

 

I think I'll just brace myself for the worst and assume that IF Alan Wake 2 is actually happening (as opposed to just more Alan Wake-themed Control), then it's likely the game being funded by Epic's newly-established publishing arm. Which means it'll likely be a permanent EGS exclusive lol. That would be preferable to the game not existing but not by much...

[TheMightyEthan]

I liked Foundation quite a bit, but agree it didn't feel resolved. AWE definitely was underwhelming.

[toxicitizen]

My main issue with Foundation was how formulaic it was. The new powers were cool but "Go there and interact with this altar kinda thing. Alright cool, now do it 3 more times" was just boring to me. Exploring the Oldest House in the main game was great because I never knew what weird shit I'd find around the next corner. Foundation was less interesting to me because it lacked that unpredictability.

 

I'm assuming the whole thing with Former being out of the Astral Plane at the end is sequel bait. Which could be really cool if, you know, they actually follow up on it.

[Hot Heart]

 

Managed my first clear of Hades on run #20. Really pleased after feeling like I blew it on the previous run when I got the final boss to 50% health on my first encounter. Demeter was a welcome addition this run, I finally met Eurydice, and Artemis boons are awesome.

[TheMightyEthan]

Goddamn, I must suck at that game. Even with God mode on I did like 15 runs and never even made it to the second boss.

[Hot Heart]

Well, it is a rogue-lite so a big part was just luck of the build and running into fountains and shops at the right moment. I can try and provide tips that work for me but so much is dependent on your own playstyle, what boons you get, which enemies you face, etc. Plus, I'd have to spoil later bosses.

 

I guess the main things are the obvious stuff you probably know already: heavily focus on getting keys and darkness for the mirror upgrades, use gems to get fountains installed in every area (and the one for switching keepsakes), give nectar to the gods you like boons from (Athena for deflect is great), consider beating Meg with all weapons so you can get titan blood to upgrade your favourite weapon.

 

I have a friend who says he's on about 50 runs and can't quite get over the finish line, so it's not exactly uncommon.

[TheMightyEthan]

AC Odyssey: Legacy of the First Blade

 

This is the first DLC pack for Odyssey. It was fine, but nothing special.

[Mister Jack]

Trials of Mana

 

I'm not really sure how to judge this one. By modern standards it's not very impressive, but as a remake of a game from the 90s I can tell they tried to update what they could without completely losing the spirit of the original. The new graphics, while not mind blowing, are still appreciated because it's a lot more work than just slapping on some higher resolution sprites. The gameplay is still stuck in the 90s with a few added bells and whistles but it's a remake of a 90s game so what do you expect? Unlike the FF7 remake, which is trying to capture a new, modern audience, this game is just trying to please people who were already fans of the original. Does it succeed? I can't really say since I'm not especially nostalgic for the original. The story has no more depth than it did on the Super Famicom and the voice acting is really, really bad, but I just can't bring myself to be too harsh on Trials of Mana because I feel like people who buy it should know what they're getting into. It succeeds at being what it wants to be and doesn't aim for anything higher than being the original game with better presentation and a few QoL adjustments. It's fine, probably worth getting if there's a good sale on it or something, but it's more of a casual time killer kind of game than something you should expect to get sucked into for long periods of time.

[TheMightyEthan]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Fate of Atlantis

 

This is both better and worse than Legacy of the First Blade. It's all about the first civilization stuff, which I absolutely love, so that was good, but it's quest design was entirely busy-work based. Each section is essentially a ruler character telling you "Oh, you need to do this thing? Well I won't let you do that until first you do all these other unrelated things." It feels extremely tedious.

[TheMightyEthan]

Super Mario Sunshine

 

This game is still amazing. Night and day difference from Mario 64. There's still a slight amount of wonkiness in the controls as far as getting Mario to do what you want, but it's so much better than 64. I was actually motivated to keep playing and get more shines even after I had beat the game, whereas with 64 I only slogged through the last 20 or so stars I needed to beat the game because I couldn't bring myself to give up. I'm probably done with it now, but I could definitely see myself coming back to get all 120.

 

5/5

[Mal]

I argue Mario 64 is harder now than back then. So many vtubers I watch get crushed by 64. The camera and controls fights against you a lot. Add in the sparse check points and you just don't have a good time with Mario 64.