Howdy partners!
Since the year is closing out and this is still (ostensibly) a gaming board I thought it might be kind of fun to talk about what we played this year, what our GOTY was, the biggest disappointments, etc.
I didn’t really purchase many new AAA titles this year, I think Elden Ring and The Callisto Protocol were it. Of the two Elden Ring met my expectations and was excellent, and TCP was monumentally disappointing.
I spent most of my gaming budget on indie titles this year, and while I loved Elden Ring it was narrowly edged out by Infernax as my Game of the Year. Infernax was a huge surprise for me, I don’t usually expect much from the indie-retro-nostalgia bait but it blew me away. A love letter to classic NES titles like Castlevania 2, Link’s Adventure, and Faxanadu, it combines gorgeous pixel art with a banger of a soundtrack and a fun story with multiple endings and unlockable characters and I can’t recommend it enough.
A close second would be Cultic; some people have complained that Boomer Shooters are reaching over saturation by now but I play the shit out of every one and I think Cultic is the best of the lot. The shortest way to describe it would be Blood crossed with Resident Evil 4; you’re a cop fighting a crazed cult and demonic monsters in the seventies, there’s a fun arsenal of upgradable weapons, cool levels to explore, and a shitload of monsters to kill, everything a fps ahould have in other words, go nuts.
As far as what I thought sucked ass The Callisto Protocol is the only big letdown I can think of, and I’ve bitched about it enough so now I want to hear what you guys have been playing, what surprised you, disappointed you, and what you recommend.
Cheers all, and have a Happy New Year!
I just upgraded my computer, now I can play some of the newer games. I was on 10 year old hardware, and I was starting to get tired of all the shitty graphics. Along with the new parts I bought Elden Ring, Sekiro, Ready or Not, Killer7 and the Yakuza trilogy.
Throughout the whole year I've been playing through the Rance Series to improve my Japanese. 03, 4, 4.1, 4.2, Kichikuou, 5D, 6, Sengoku and finally Quest. Kichikuou Rance and Sengoku Rance were supremely enjoyable, mainly because I'm weak against strategy games, but I also love me some keks and it is one of the funniest series I have ever played, and I now understand why Sengoku is considered a "God Game". Rance 03 and 6 were pretty enjoyable as RPGs, and I'm still playing through Quest. 5D is one of the weirdest games ever. My Japanese skills now let me read even novels, and I cannot thank these games enough. A warning to those wanting to play them: You must have a really strong stomach for some games, Sengoku in particular.
Other hehoge I played were Beat Blades Haruka (Way too stimulating for me, I cannot play that shit), Toushin Toshi (Pretty fun for a 30 year old game, too bad it runs like dogshit) and Mamatoto (The gameplay and the hero's scenes were good, the villain is really interesting).
I finally finished Dark Souls, my personal game of the year. I also played Dark Souls II, my disappointment of the year, which was a pain in the ass due to the artificial difficulty. I didn't actually finish it because I thought it had cloud saves, but I discovered that it didn’t after formatting my hard drive. I was like 80% in, and I refuse to go through that slog again. I recently started Sekiro, all in Japanese, and I like it so far.
As for multiplayer games, Valorant and COD: Warzone 2 were the main ones. I've been playing Valorant less time each session because I only play it with my friends, and the sweatier ones don't play as much as before. We win a lot on Warzone 2, so it's still fun. I played Lost Ark for a couple weeks, but gave up because I don't have time to grind through such a boring game, I feel like my friend scammed me when I downloaded that garbage. We also played Fall Guys, Ready or Not, and Project Winter.
I also have a message for those who play Japanese games: Remember that you are getting an inferior product 90% of the time if you play the translated versions. It's never too late to start learning the moonrunes, but the sooner the better. Globohomo is putting a ton of pressure on the far east, and I fear they will crack within the next 10 years.
Happy New Year to all!
I made a similar attempt to get through the Rance games maybe last year or so and enjoyed the Rance 1 remake, but I stalled hard on Rance 2. Obviously the original is a very old game (again I was playing the remake) so it might be a bit harsh to say so, but even compared to the first game it seemed to be dogshit. Was I too harsh and should I revisit, or do you reckon 3 is a good point to hop ahead to and play from?
If you're looking for more good Japanese practice, I strongly recommend Full Metal Daemon: Muramasa. I don't think the JAST USA version released last year is dual language so you'll have to buy japanese or sail for it.
Also to get the most out of Sekiro, it's best to learn how aggressive the game wants you to be. That alone will coach you out of the dodging dependency that plagues a lot of players coming to it from Dark Souls.
Rance 02 is more of a remaster than a remake, meaning that the puzzles and the gameplay are quite dated. There’s no new content other than the BGM. Don’t skip it, because a ton of recurring characters get introduced in it. If you get stuck, look at a walkthrough, the game isn’t long at all when compared to the third one.
I’ll look into Full Metal Daemon. I prefer actual games over VNs, but if the story is good I’ll buy it (after trying it out, of course 🏴☠️🏴☠️).
As for Sekiro, thanks for the tip. I noticed that relying on one thing like blocking or dodging would get me nowhere, but I hadn’t seen the perks of being so aggressive.