madbuk

#337 - NORN9 Var Commons Unfortunately, not as interesting as I was hoping. It had a promising setting, a fairly diverse cast, and at least one of the main three girls you play as was a good character, but the game retreads the same plot threads so many times over the 9 playthroughs you have to do. The only thing that somewhat changes are the characters involved. I was interested the first two or three times when stuff was new, but the 6 playthroughs afterwards definitely dragged on. The true ending didn't feel very substantial or worthwhile either, it barely added more to the story that wasn't already covered in the previous playthroughs. The artwork was good, although the music is pretty forgettable. I do like that each of the three main protagonists have their own personality though, I was beginning to think the protags in otomes would all be clueless idiots that can't do anything for themselves, but Mikoto and Nanimi both go against that I'd say. Koharu was a bit more traditional. I'd say this was better than Amnesia, but not as good as Code: Realize. Rather disappointed overall but I picked it up fairly cheap, so no big loss.

Progress Update: #337 - NORN9 Var Commons Unfortunately, not as interesting as I was hoping. It had a promising setting, a fairly diverse cast, and at least one of the main three girls you play as was a good character, but the game retreads the same plot threads so many times over the 9 playthroughs you have to do. The only thing that somewhat changes are the characters involved. I was interested the first two or three times when stuff was new, but the 6 playthroughs afterwards definitely dragged on. The true ending didn't feel very substantial or worthwhile either, it barely added more to the story that wasn't already covered in the previous playthroughs. The artwork was good, although the music is pretty forgettable. I do like that each of the three main protagonists have their own personality though, I was beginning to think the protags in otomes would all be clueless idiots that can't do anything for themselves, but Mikoto and Nanimi both go against that I'd say. Koharu was a bit more traditional. I'd say this was better than Amnesia, but not as good as Code: Realize. Rather disappointed overall but I picked it up fairly cheap, so no big loss.

#336 - Ys: Memories of Celceta I have never played a Ys game before, so this was all new to me. It felt like a good introductory game - you don't need to know any of the lore or characters, and the systems are fairly simple and easy to adapt to. Seems like a franchise I'll be a fan of if the other games are a bit better, as this game is held back a bit by its story and characters, which are completely forgettable and bland, and the gameplay got a bit repetitive since none of the dungeons require any real thought. There were no puzzles, exploration didn't amount to much because there aren't really any side paths or secrets... If the other Ys games have better stories and more intricate dungeons, then I could definitely see myself playing more of this franchise in the future. I liked the concept of it basically being a collectathon mixed with a JRPG, although it didn't give you as many tools to track the stuff you're missing compared to 3D collectathons with in-depth level collection lists which is a shame. I hear the other Ys games fix this though which is very nice. I'll probably try out Ys VIII eventually, to see what a mainline numbered entry is like in comparison, but it won't be for a while.

Progress Update: #336 - Ys: Memories of Celceta I have never played a Ys game before, so this was all new to me. It felt like a good introductory game - you don't need to know any of the lore or characters, and the systems are fairly simple and easy to adapt to. Seems like a franchise I'll be a fan of if the other games are a bit better, as this game is held back a bit by its story and characters, which are completely forgettable and bland, and the gameplay got a bit repetitive since none of the dungeons require any real thought. There were no puzzles, exploration didn't amount to much because there aren't really any side paths or secrets... If the other Ys games have better stories and more intricate dungeons, then I could definitely see myself playing more of this franchise in the future. I liked the concept of it basically being a collectathon mixed with a JRPG, although it didn't give you as many tools to track the stuff you're missing compared to 3D collectathons with in-depth level collection lists which is a shame. I hear the other Ys games fix this though which is very nice. I'll probably try out Ys VIII eventually, to see what a mainline numbered entry is like in comparison, but it won't be for a while.

#335 - Spec Ops: The Line Years ago, this was a PS+ game that I passed on because at the time I had no interest in it at all. Over the years my tastes have broadened though, and I had kept hearing this was a good game so I ended up buying it anyway, and I'm glad I did. The gameplay has plenty of flaws - my biggest issue with it being the janky run and enemy grenade spam - but the story definitely makes up for the rather lackluster gameplay. I had managed to avoid spoilers for this entirely, and seeing how the story and the characters develop throughout was engaging. The moral choices the game presents rarely have an option that is obviously the "good" choice and I liked that about it. I was dreading FUBAR difficulty quite a bit whilst doing my initial run on Suicide Mission difficulty, as I was dying quite regularly and FUBAR is relatively infamous. Having done it though, it wasn't really that bad. I'd say it's like Uncharted's brutal difficulty if brutal was actually fair. You barely have any health, checkpoints are scarce, but unlike Uncharted it never spawns you into a situation where you're killed immediately after the loading ends. You also have some companions to help out, and they're pretty powerful unlike Elena/Sully/etc. in the Uncharted games who are basically useless. Honestly I'd say I found FUBAR easier than Suicide Mission, probably because I already knew what to expect. This was a bit of a surprise, wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I'm glad they didn't try and milk it and turn it into a franchise though, it works very well as a one off.

Progress Update: #335 - Spec Ops: The Line Years ago, this was a PS+ game that I passed on because at the time I had no interest in it at all. Over the years my tastes have broadened though, and I had kept hearing this was a good game so I ended up buying it anyway, and I'm glad I did. The gameplay has plenty of flaws - my biggest issue with it being the janky run and enemy grenade spam - but the story definitely makes up for the rather lackluster gameplay. I had managed to avoid spoilers for this entirely, and seeing how the story and the characters develop throughout was engaging. The moral choices the game presents rarely have an option that is obviously the "good" choice and I liked that about it. I was dreading FUBAR difficulty quite a bit whilst doing my initial run on Suicide Mission difficulty, as I was dying quite regularly and FUBAR is relatively infamous. Having done it though, it wasn't really that bad. I'd say it's like Uncharted's brutal difficulty if brutal was actually fair. You barely have any health, checkpoints are scarce, but unlike Uncharted it never spawns you into a situation where you're killed immediately after the loading ends. You also have some companions to help out, and they're pretty powerful unlike Elena/Sully/etc. in the Uncharted games who are basically useless. Honestly I'd say I found FUBAR easier than Suicide Mission, probably because I already knew what to expect. This was a bit of a surprise, wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I'm glad they didn't try and milk it and turn it into a franchise though, it works very well as a one off.

#334 - Gran Turismo 5 It is finally over. I'm finally free. I have invested hundreds of hours into this plat, and it is by far the longest and hardest I've ever done. There were many points during this game where I was ready to give up. The licenses and the special events - especially AMG - did their best to try and break my spirit. Thankfully, there was a group of people on Discord who continued to pester encourage me, no matter how much I faltered. I'd like to thank Fear for setting up that support system and giving me my own channel to vent in/post progress/get encouragement, everyone who participated, and also @Sergen for his advice - especially for Eiger. His settings made that event so much easier than the settings I was using beforehand. I admit to using the Vettel glitch to make those 3 events easier. Not exactly my proudest moment, but the rest of this plat was hell enough for me and I just wanted it over honestly. To try and atone for this, I did do the A-Spec level 40 grind legit (play 52-60 hours of the hardest track in the game) whereas I could've glitched it as well and had a much, much easier time (would've still taken just as long though.) Outside of Vettel, the AMG events were by far the hardest for me, as every event is on the Nurburgring, which, depending on the car you use, is a 7-10 minute track and while on some events you have a couple of seconds of leeway, there was one 7 minute event that felt like it required absolute perfection. That one took me a long time, made the Beat Zico trophy that took me 500+ laps in WipEout HD look like a walk in the park. With this game done, every game I played before trophy hunting is now complete. Feels good to finally clean up that part of the backlog at least, even if there are still loads of other games to do since becoming a trophy hunter. For many years I have looked at this game as one of the impossibilities on my list barring me from a 100% completion. I still have plenty of those remaining (Stealth Inc and Binding of Isaac immediately come to mind) but this has given me some hope at least.

Progress Update: #334 - Gran Turismo 5 It is finally over. I'm finally free. I have invested hundreds of hours into this plat, and it is by far the longest and hardest I've ever done. There were many points during this game where I was ready to give up. The licenses and the special events - especially AMG - did their best to try and break my spirit. Thankfully, there was a group of people on Discord who continued to pester encourage me, no matter how much I faltered. I'd like to thank Fear for setting up that support system and giving me my own channel to vent in/post progress/get encouragement, everyone who participated, and also @Sergen for his advice - especially for Eiger. His settings made that event so much easier than the settings I was using beforehand. I admit to using the Vettel glitch to make those 3 events easier. Not exactly my proudest moment, but the rest of this plat was hell enough for me and I just wanted it over honestly. To try and atone for this, I did do the A-Spec level 40 grind legit (play 52-60 hours of the hardest track in the game) whereas I could've glitched it as well and had a much, much easier time (would've still taken just as long though.) Outside of Vettel, the AMG events were by far the hardest for me, as every event is on the Nurburgring, which, depending on the car you use, is a 7-10 minute track and while on some events you have a couple of seconds of leeway, there was one 7 minute event that felt like it required absolute perfection. That one took me a long time, made the Beat Zico trophy that took me 500+ laps in WipEout HD look like a walk in the park. With this game done, every game I played before trophy hunting is now complete. Feels good to finally clean up that part of the backlog at least, even if there are still loads of other games to do since becoming a trophy hunter. For many years I have looked at this game as one of the impossibilities on my list barring me from a 100% completion. I still have plenty of those remaining (Stealth Inc and Binding of Isaac immediately come to mind) but this has given me some hope at least.

#333 - LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens With this, all LEGO games on Vita are now completed. Unfortunately, this ended up being one of my least favourite Vita ones. Hobbit Vita still takes the prize for being the worst LEGO game imo, but this one felt so... bland. There was nothing particularly wrong with it (apart from one bug that softlocked me), it just wasn't interesting. But hey maybe that's a me problem, LEGO Star Wars III and the console version of this were pretty bland too (I did like LEGO Star Wars 2 though). Maybe Star Wars just isn't my thing. The open world sections felt a bit pointless, they were small and all the side missions were generic fetch quests. One thing I will give this game credit for though is while the open world may be lacking, there are a decent number of levels available. More than most Vita LEGO games if I remember right. The story is just a rehash of the movie so I didn't care much, I prefer the LEGO games that have unique stories like Batman 2/3, Undercover etc. (even if they never end up being anything special either lol, at least they're fresh.) It's a shame they've stopped making Vita LEGO games. Their quality was hit or miss, but I've had a good time with most of them. Some of them I even preferred to their console counterparts.