>>995656 It's me from >>989959, the typesetting volunteer. Drop email to collaborate, a throwaway's fine.

The past four of this year. EarthBound (7/3) - I replay it, and finish it, every year, as a tradition. I don't even know why anymore. I just pick it up starting in June, and I go all the way to the end. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest (7/22) - I beat it for the first time ever, after decades of fighting outside the first town for about six minutes. I confess I used a walkthrough and maps to tell me which way to go next. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had a clue. For Dracula's Ghost, however, I needed no help at all. He is piss easy. The real challenge of this game is the confusion. Hotline Miami (7/27) - Another frequent start-and-stopper. It used to make me rage over how frustrating it was. But one day last month, I got it in my head to try it again, and...I finally got it. It just clicked. The mindless violence and murder puzzle solving was too addictive, no matter how many times I kept dying. I worked at it until it was over. And now, reflecting on the themes, I'm not sure what the experience—ENJOYING the experience, rather—says about me as a person. Why is it so easy to rampage like this in a game without thinking about it? Though I do admit the phone company level bothered me. The one where nobody fights back. Class of '09 (7/31) - Yeah, okay, this girl is a bitch, and every time she talks, she rambles on a soapbox even harder than Indian Velma. But I had to appreciate this game's core principle of "hate fucking everything, no matter what it is." What if Encyclopedia Dramatica became a Millennial high school girl? I got all 15 endings.

>>996775 >EarthBound (7/3) - I replay it, and finish it, every year, as a tradition. I don't even know why anymore. I just pick it up starting in June, and I go all the way to the end. >I don't even know why anymore. It's EarthBound, does it need a why? It's fuckin rad, that's why. Starman Supers from outer space.

>>996785 >Starman Supers from outer space Of course. I have to farm for the Sword of Kings every time I play. And I always get the rest of Poo's equipment, too.

>>995801 You must be confusing me for another anon, I don't know even the slightest bit Japanese.

>>996820 Is Poo ever seen in the loo?

>>997002 Maybe in the Japanese version.

>>997303 Heard Ness is naked in the Japanese version instead of wearing his pyjamas

>>997344 Yes. In Magicant, he originally had no clothes on, following some kind of Japanese mythology.

Wild Guns: Reloaded It depends on what you consider "finished" with a game like this. I beat it on easy, but I did not 1cc it. The game gives you unlimited continues, but you have to restart the stage, so it's not like an arcade game where you can just continue every few seconds. The next goal is to either 1cc it on easy or beat it on normal. This is a remake of a SNES game. It's an arcade-style shooting gallery game in a steampunk western style where you control both your character and the crosshair, but you control both together. It's weird to describe, like a twin-stick shooter with just one stick. It's weird but it works fine when you actually play it. The SNES original is considered one of those hidden gems that are great but rare, so this remake is a great opportunity for Wild Guns to reach more people. The remake adds gorgeous 2D HD pixel graphics, two new stages (which replace one or two original stages on Normal and Hard difficulty respectively), two new characters (a doggo with a combat drone, and your mom). For whatever reason the VS mode and the bonus stages are missing completely. They are nothing special, so it's not a big loss, but what the fuck man, why drop them in the first place? It's not like they were selling the VS mode as DLC or anything like that. It would have been nice if they had at least included the original in the package as well, like how the Cotton Reboot also contained the Sharp X68000 version. As for the game itself, what you see is what you get. If you like this kind of non-stop arcade action you will like this one. The remake is very faithful to the original, so if you liked it you will like this, and if you did not like the original this one probably won't do much for you either.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk This game is Jet Grind Radio 3 in everything but name. Specifically its about 70% JGR, 15% oldschool Tony Hawk, and 15% SSX Tricky. Classic cel-shaded look gives solid, functional graphics with a nice style. Has good QOL upgrades compared to the Jet Set games. Bangin soundtrack. Nice art. A really weird backstory that actually had me pretty hype at the very end for the final boss. It doesn't hold your hand. Tutorials are simple, short, and the game leaves quite a few little things totally unexplained, expecting you to stumble onto them yourself from just playing a lot. It also does that old collectathon-game bit where it dangles something shiny all the waaaayyy uppp theeere and leaves it to to you to figure out how to get it. Difficulty is pretty easy overall, especially once you figure out boost-trick manuals for score. Bosses can be frustrating because of things like hovering just out of reach or requiring attacking them in the middle of a series of precise trick jumps so you miss without frame perfect timing. Fortunately only about three bosses are like this. Once I beat the last boss I still can't put it down. Just cruising around the various city levels, looking for secrets I missed, beating up cops, and vibing to tracks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHn-kdfrVZg is just too fun. I still haven't beaten Devil Theory's 5,000,000 point score on Pyramid Island yet either, and I've got 2 more characters left to unlock. Solid 8.5/10. 10/10 if you itch for that niche JGR type game.

Dragon's Crown on Infernal difficulty with Elf (PS4) I have now beaten the game for real after around 40 hours, using best girl of course. For those who have not played Dragon's Crown, beating the game once is not that hard, but then you get to do all of it again on the next higher difficulty with the same character, keeping all your levels, equipment and quest progression. It's like beating Diablo 2. The third and final difficulty is Infernal and beating it is required to unlock the last piece of the art gallery. I don't really have much to add, other than that it is still one of my favorite PS4 games. I had a 100+ hours save game with all characters that I lost, so the fact that I was willing to start all over again is evidence enough how much I like it. And Elf is a cutie!

>>1002828 Never got the hang of her. Tell me your secrets, thigh-man.

>>1002828 The final art piece is that one with the three goddesses, right? It's been a while since I played that game - I managed to do it with Sorceress and the Wizard, including climbing the Tower of Chaos to Floor 100.

>>1002863 >Never got the hang of her. Tell me your secrets, thigh-man. I don't really have much of an advice, other than stay out of harm and hit hard. My build was centered around bow skills with boots secondary and magic tertiary. Here are some of the moves I like to pull off: < Strong enemy and enough space When faced with a tough enemy I jump in the air and charge up a downwards shot. Most enemies cannot reach me after a double jump, so that puts me out of reach while I prepare a strong attack (she stays up in the air while charging). < Large number of medium to weak enemies When faced with a screenful of small enemies or trash mobs I would charge up an upwards attack. Combined with Impact Arrow and Clone Strike this would fill the entire screen with arrows and cause AOE damage, clearing or almost clearing the entire screen. < Strong and fast enemy When faced with a strong enemy and not enough time or space to charge up an airborne shot I use clone strike on the ground. First I double-tap the d-pad to dash away from the enemy, then I fire my bow. This makes her fire her bow backwards, i.e. towards the enemy. With Clone Strike that's up to five arrows hitting the enemy dead-on, making the attack effectively a shotgun to the face. < A bunch of regular enemies all lined up A charge shot straight through the line. Charged shots penetrate through regular enemies, so this makes for a goodscreen-clearing alternative to an upwards charged shot. It is less effective, but it consumes only one arrow. < Magic I did not find magic that useful to be honest. It's good if I want to create a defensive area for a short time, or if I want to set up some sort of hurt spot for enemies. During the fight against the Ancient Dragon there is a part where he shoots those green sparks at you that you need to hit back. I can cast a small tornado and it will hit any spark that passes through it. Note that the element of the spell changes depending on nearby elements, such as becoming a small whirlpool when standing in water, or being able to shoot fire when standing next to a flame (e.g. from a torch or burning enemy). Useful to take out ghosts at a distance. < Recovering arrows This took me while to understand. You get arrows by hitting enemies, but enemies give more arrows if they have been hit with an arrow. So you could unload three arrows into an enemy, hit it with a kick or two, pick up the arrow and rinse and repeat for effectively unlimited arrows. As long as you balance your shots and your kicks you will not run out of arrows. Should you run out of arrows Ranny will drop you a fresh bundle, so you will never be truly without ammo. Other than that keep dodging. Elf is all about elegance and precision. She is a very quick and versatile character which makes her very fun to play in single-player. You get melee attacks, projectiles >>1002883 >The final art piece is that one with the three goddesses, right? Yes. It was the last art piece missing in my old collection. Now that I had to start over I will still have to beat the game with all the other characters to complete it.

Neon White. FPS speedrun platformer. Kill all the enemies and reach the end of the level as fast as you can. >Quick levels (around a minute or shorter) >10 levels per chapter >Gift hunting unlocked after first clearing the level >Find a gift hidden in the level, feels like easter egg hunting with a mix of puzzle platforming at times as you find + work out how to reach the gift <These gifts are required for interacting with other characters so you basically have to do every level twice >Retrying/Restarting is fast <If you die, it is slower by a bit >All weapon cards can shoot (limited ammo) or be discarded for special moves >Rifle/Dash, SMG/Slam, Shotgun/Dash any Direction, Bazooka/Grappling Hook, Machine Gun/Grenade Launcher, Pistol/Extra Jump >Weapons that explode can be used to launch yourself >Can carry a stack of up to 3 cards (of the same type) alongside another stack of 3 cards >Lots of enemy types most of whom just shoot varying types of projectiles, some form shields, drop ammo, or bounce you up when jumped on <All fairly simple and stationary >Environment obstacles like doors/glass can be broken, water speeds you up, bomb barrels launch you when they explode, mimics disguise as item boxes, tripwire traps that can kill you/enemies or open doors >Story/Characters are nothing amazing, but not terrible at least >Voice acting is fine, but not all dialogue has voice acting and some only have partial voice lines >Collecting gifts and delivering them unlocks more dialogue and side quests >Side Quests usually have an interesting gimmick to enjoy <difficulty can spike in comparison to normal levels >Level design varies by chapter to keep things fresh <some levels are not that clear as to where you should be going so you end up going trial and error through it until you notice the correct path <some gift hunting levels have a big spike in difficulty >Music was usually good, not extremely memorable but nothing too annoying or distracting >controls took a bit to get used to, I played on a controller it had an unconventional control scheme as default, nothing major, just died more than a few times hitting the wrong button to jump Overall, I enjoyed it. It was getting kind of tired around the half wayish point, but the introduction of the bazooka/grapple was a nice change of pace that got me interested again. Still the slow down that comes with doing the gift levels was dragging it down. Some of them are really quite a pain to find/reach, and it made me tired of doing it.

Just finished Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Most people tend to describe it as "Pixar Presents: Dark Souls", but I don't see the similarities. The environments have a lot of side-paths you can explore to find Rots, Spirit Mail, Meditation points, etc - but really each area is just one big loop around, or a hub with various loops - so all in all it's pretty linear. The first area probably has the most divergent paths as you search three distinct paths to find the artifacts you need to summon the bound spirit. The second area is more like a single large hub with a bunch of mini-paths leading to her artifacts, and the final area is just a few Torii gates you have to dash through to find a short environmental section and fight mini-bosses for the artifacts you need. This is the first game for the studio and they were working on a tight budget, and you can really tell in the pacing. Though that being said, it doesn't really detract from the fun and comfiness of the game, and I feel that if they had the time and money to really flesh things out more fully - the game would have overstayed it's welcome. Combat was sufficient, but not really deep. This is where most of the comparisons to Dark Souls comes from - but it's really superficial. R1/R2 are your light and heavy attacks - but you really don't need to use your heavy attacks much since most enemies are more easily dealt by stunlocking them with chip damage. Even on those you can't, dodging behind an enemy as they attack will give you a chance to pull off 3-4 light attacks for more damage in the same time it would have taken you to pull off one heavy attack. As you collect more ROT, you can use them to help you in combat - provided they have enough courage. You can build up their courage by damaging enemies (again, light attacks help more) or by hitting one-time weak spots with your bow to knock off golden courage orbs. These attacks are extremely powerful and can make short work of bosses or hordes of enemies. The only time I found myself really using heavy staff attacks was in conjunction with the "Rot Hammer" ability which could take off almost 1/10th of a boss's health per strike. Limited as these attacks are, the courage still builds up quickly so aside from Toshii's Hunter Aspect (which was a ranged battle for the most part) it made the bosses kind of trivial - at least on normal mode. There's also a Spirit Shield ability which can protect you from all but the most powerful attacks in the game in a 360 degree radius, though each hit reduces your spirit pool - so it acts a bit like Stamina. If you time them right, you can parry attacks for enemy stagger and ROT courage - but it was really needed so I didn't bother to learn the timings. Health regenerates outside of combat, so it's never an issue outside of a few optional challenges and boss fights. Most bosses have two - three flowers which your ROT can harvest for about 1/2 of your health bar, though bosses can hit hard, so it's better to go into it intending to not need them. Otherwise, there's not much in the way of collectables or powerups. Each area has a few Meditation points that can permanently increase your health, or Spirit Mail which are like side quests that open up new areas in the village. You do get a few charms which can provide passive boosts, but they're mostly useless. 90% of the collectables are just ROTs that follow you around, and hats for the ROTs that... do nothing. So that was a bit of a disappointment. The exploration to find them was much more worth the effort - though it was mostly just simple puzzles and some light Uncharted/Tomb Raider-like wall climbing, rappeling, etc. I would have liked to seen it expanded to provide more clever ways of accessing areas. Storyline wise, it's fine. You're a Spirit Guide who has to exercise areas of corruption caused by ghosts that can't move on due to some trauma. Her deeper lore is that she's searching for a way to the Mountain Shrine which will allow her to connect with her dead father, or something, so you have to purify the village and surrounding areas first before you can proceed. There's something going on with corruption or spirit possession in her hand that the ROT is concerned about, but it's never actually spoken about or even referenced outside of a brief scene. Likely a cut portion of the game due to budget, or setup for sequel bait. Kena is likable enough, but one note. If you don't like her at the start of the game for any reason - she'll never get better, and never get worse, because she never grows or learns any lessons. Not that she really has to, mind. It's just a simple cute game about a spirit medium helping spirits move on after a disaster hit their village. The real characters are the spirits you help as you learn their stories. Taro is a good big brother who tried to help his younger siblings survive, and failed them. Toshii was a village chieftan who doomed his village in a misguided attempt to save it - and a pretty understandable "villain". There's also a pair of race mixed lesbians who ran the wood forge that were separated as one of them went off to look for food and supplies and never returned. While they were the worst written spirits, and despite all the [[[current year]]] influence oozing out of them - they're not obnoxiously so. They're just... there, and you could have easily swapped them out with a straight couple and not lost a beat. Which I suppose is about as good as you can hope for these days. Wouldn't be surprised if more people were mad that the characters weren't written as being inspirational for bucking societal trends or because the shaved head chick didn't girlboss Toshii for his bad decisions. She actually didn't have any answers either, and the best should could manage was a fuck-up of her own - ripping out the heart of the forest (a large spirit stone) and using it as a lighthouse beacon to guide her girlfriend home. Then died alone. The game didn't end with any real resolution. At least not for Kena. I'd give it a 7/10. Competent enough to maintain a cohesive and enjoyable gameplay loop that keeps you engaged start to finish, and doesn't spread itself too thin or out for too long - but there's not really much there beyond the cozy and impressive visual design. What was there needed to be fleshed out more, but only to bring later areas on-par with the first areas. I don't think it would have held up with another area or two without substantial improvements to the core loop.

Far Cry 4 >Story The story for the game is a rather simple one. You're going to your homeland to bury your mother's ashes and along the way get caught up in some sort of terrorist scheme. Luckily you're saved by your step-father Pagan Nim. After he gives you a nice meal, you both go off to bury your mother's ashes and fades to black as you're about to shoot some fucking terrorists. >Audiovisuals It's shit. In this 20 minute tech demo, I was experiencing abysmal frame tearing on my PS3. Other than that, it's okay. Also I think there was something broken with the audio as I kept hearing someone screaming in the background. >Gameplay The game wasted 20 minutes of my time doing nothing aside from reading random news articles and letters around the room. And ends just before we get to the good stuff. Overall How did Ubishit think get away with spending $20 million in 2014 for a game that could be completed in 20 minutes? Overall, I give Far Cry 4 a "I wanted to shot some fucking terrorists" out of "At least I didn't pay money for this shit".

Super Mario Party Jamboree leaked before October 17, so I emulated the game. The 4 boards in my screenshot are available at the start, with 7 boards in total. Mega Wiggler's Tree Party is the simple board, Roll 'em Raceway's medium, and Rainbow Galleria and Goomba Lagoon are complex. You unlock extra boards during the game. Jamboree's new gimmick is teaming up on each board with a Jamboree Buddy. Each Buddy does something special. With Donkey Kong you can barrel blast to other spaces, and with Mario you can roll two dice. Buddies let you repeat actions, which helps when buying an item from a shop, or a star from Toad, but doesn't if you pay twice the coins at a toll, or land on a Bowser Space to repeat his event twice. Nintendo did these teams before in Mario Kart: Double Dash, now Mario Party. Players can go 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 turns, and turn minigame help and motion minigames on or off. Minigame selection can be random or by vote. You can set star handicaps for each player, so worse players can still win, and movement speed can be fast or slow. Each CPU player has an Easy, Normal, Hard, and Master difficulty setting. In boards, the left stick opens a menu of reactions, like "yes," "whaaat," "thanks," "sorry," "congrats," "nice," and "betrayal." This menu is locally accessible, but really opens communication between players in Worldwide mode, while limiting the griefing and preventing the grooming that would happen in an unrestricted chatroom. Players looking to test their skills can switch Party Rules to Pro Rules. Under these, players go 12 turns, and at the start, a bonus star is announced, and an item is chosen. No Chance Time spaces stay on the board, and item minigames don't occur. Items in shops are limited in number, stock is shared between shops of the same type, and star stop spaces and their locations are fixed for each board so they are easier to predict. Boo steals a fixed amount of coins, hidden blocks don't appear, the homestretch doesn't have a special event, and players vote for minigames. Jamboree has over 110 minigames, more than any Mario Party. Nintendo adds new minigames, like Luigi Rescue Operation and Yoshi's Mountain Race, and refreshes old minigames, like Platform Peril and Snow Brawl. Minigames are mostly delightful and skillful, and not just filler. The game's meant for multiplayer and it's best with people you know, like your friends, or your family. I play with my family, and if short a player or 2, we will gang up on a CPU or 2. If nobody will play, Worldwide mode lets you play online. If you like Mario Party you will like Jamboree. If not, skip Jamboree. It's a highly replayable Mario Party with high developer effort.

An unreleased Yoshi game for Nintendo DS was in the Pokemon leak. It loops forever, so I "finished" after an hour. https://1fichier.com/?5mb9s30msu15dj8c8vas https://github.com/melonDS-emu/melonDS/releases

The world kept me immersed in the game and i really enjoyed role playing as a bloodthirsty warmonger cavemen. Stalking a group of Udams and killing them in name of your tribe did more for me to finish the game than the story itself. Gameplay is limited since you are constrained to a bow, sledge, bombs and a couple of throwables. It took me 36 hours to finish and "conquer oros" so not obscenely long. This is the second Far Cry game i played and i enjoyed it way more than 4.

>>790791 This game is fucking brutal. I only won, because I got stupid lucky and found class 10 armor and a bunch of Enchant Weapon scrolls.

>>1028051 Why is it that despite being 13% of the population, udams make up 100% of the cannibalism?

>>1028115 I never looked at it that way, but yeah, i enjoyed hunting udams because of how primitive they were. I wish there were more rival tribes on the map rather than animals. If you are not escorted by one of your pets, anything roaming the woods will bother you. This gets boring soon. I also would have liked the endgame to be something like San andreas, were all tribes are scattered and desperate to hold onto territories that you have to go and take. Also there is no romance like in previous games. You clearly should fuck Sayla but the games was rushed before they could implement it or the series was already compromised at this point (4 has a sex scene) There is also no rain/storm cycle except for the snowy area. If you have an itch for a pre historical setting, tribe wars with limited resources and weapons and you don't care for the story, it's a fun time.

Twilight princess: Played it for the first time, and if one word could describe this game, it would be "underutilised". There is so much stuff that is introduced, but barely used. Remember how you can command eagles for instance? It is used exactly once. How about the slingshot? Almost immediately superseded by the bow. Besides it's spread way too thin. The inspiration from ocarina of time is obvious though. The game does however have several cute girls, other than Midna.

>>1032477 Twilight Princess game design mostly fences utilization of each item to its native dungeon, so dungeons feel new, with less repetition, unique mechanics, and different puzzles. Their character develops around their item, instead of all items, so they're one of a kind. Against dungeon bosses, and within dungeons, items get good utilization, especially the Spinner in Arbiter's Grounds and against Stallord, and the Double Clawshot in City in the Sky and against Argorok, where items are utilized very well. The slingshot gets some utilization in the Forest Temple against Walltulas, and as your general long-range weapon through Ordon Village, the twilight, Faron Woods, the Forest Temple, Hyrule Field, Kakariko Village, Death Mountain, and some of Goron Mines, then the bow's supposed to replace it as your long-range weapon, like the Master Sword replacing the Ordon Sword. Dungeons were spread thick, Twilight Princess has the most 3D dungeons in Zelda, and most dungeons are very good. I agree the Hawk Grass could be used more, though Hawk Grass commanding the Twilit Kargarok like a giant hawk was awesome, where Link flies his pterodactyl-like mount through an aerial obstacle course. Congratulations on finishing Twilight Princess.

>>1032499 I just wish that every item was used as much as as the iron boots. Now there is an item that was utilised to it's fullest potential.

Nier: Automata (ending: A) The combat is quite simple, you can almost single-handedly rely on your drone to do the damage for you, or you can mash low or high attack in any order while pressing 'dodge' whenever an enemy flashes red. As a Yoko Taro connoisseur I am certain that all good and evil characters are clearly labeled, and there will not be any big twists at all in the following endings.

>>1033372 Nier: Automata (ending: F) GUYS, DON'T EAT FISH!

>>1033373 It was good though. Exquisite even. The mackerel is Ending K though

Just beat the main story of Control. I liked it enough, but my god is that game over-rated. Just bait for midwits to endlessly fawn over. Before that I finished a replay of the Half Life 2 episodes. Holds up surprisingly well, even if some chapters are a little drawn out for my liking.

>>1033490 I love HL2 so much man, no game recaptures it no matter how hard they try. Industria was such a disappointment

>>1033543 I do want to play Industria, but I also know it's going to let me down, especially if I play it so soon after finishing the HL2 episodes. I also want to try out a couple of the better HL2 mods, just to see what the community could come up with.

>>1033866 Just note the game is 3 hours at most and the ending isn't very good. They wanted it to be so much more but they just ran out of money and had to finish what they had, being a independent five person team and all. They're making a sequel now, and I imagine that will be much closer to the game they wanted to make. Industria feels like a prologue, a test run for an actual game. Kind of like TES1 or Wolfenstein 3D.

Super Mario Sunhine (Whoohoo!) The fludd is quite the addition to Mario's arsenal. However, I feel most of the levels don't utilize it to its fullest potential, several of the stars/shines can be gotten without using the fludd at all, that's at least how it feels. Besides shine sprite count doesn't really matter in the end, to access the last stage you have to beat episode 6 of each stage. I slso would have liked it more if it was possible to get some shine sprites out of order. Been looking at "super mario sunshine eclipse" seems quite cool, might try it out.

>>1033892 Presuming that the sequel lives up to that standard I can at least respect them for trying and not letting it go to waste by not releasing anything at all. Good to know it's only 3 hours though.