Astray404

Finished Steins;Gate Senkei Kousoku no Phenogram yesterday. It looks like a collection of side stories from different timelines of the original SG. Some chapters add details to the original storyline, others are some "if-story" chapters that have almost no connection with the original storyline.

Difficulty: 1/10

+ Most stories are fun to read, although it seems that there is more than one author, which makes the quality of the text varies a lot;

+ Music;

- The email system. It does not relate to the story at all, so attempting to save/reload to collect all emails are sort of meaningless.

Plat #185 - Nurse Love Addiction

Difficulty: 1/10

It overall looks like a cute Yuri VN for weebs, but after reading all those BEs, it was horrifying as hell. The story has almost no relationship with Nurse Love Syndrome, so no difficulties in understanding the story background without playing the first title.

+ Full voice and awesome artwork;

+ All Good Endings (and the Normal Ending) looks fine;

- Some Bad Endings, similar to Root Letter, are too surreal;

- The medical dictionary is removed in the English version.

Plat #184 - Elden Ring

Difficulty: 5/10

Although it's not as fascinating as DS3 (battle) or Bloodborne (story), Elden Ring is still my favorite game this year so far.
+ Well-designed dungeons such as Stormveil Castle and Miquella's Haligtree;
+ Traveling through the open-world with your mount Torrent while sightseeing is fun;
+ If you have trouble fighting against enemies, switching to another area or doing some leveling becomes a solution;
+ No stupid covenant item farming this time;

- Bad boss battle design. (1) Seems that the Tarnished is a little bit weaker than the Ashen one due to input latency of dodging and using items, but damn, all bosses in this game look like stimulant overdosing, making using melee weapons (except weapons with Frost Stomp or... Moonveil) much more challenging, since it is necessary to give them a stunlock to prevent them from attacking, or you'll have to attack them using spells. For example, Margit and Godrick, two early bosses in this game, fighting with them without summoning NPCs or Ashes makes the battle almost equivalent to the battle against Dancer in DS3, or even harder. (2) Some enemies such as Godskin, some Knights, and some NPC invaders read players' input commands like a cheater. For example, during the battle, right after pressing the , even before the drinking flask action starts, those enemies start to react as they've already known your action.

One more interesting thing, seems that all my friends playing this game told me that their first story-related boss was Margit. However, compared to Margit, is Leonine in Castle Morne more acceptable? Or are we all decepted by Miyazaki?

Cannot access my 2021 PS wrap-up since yesterday (HK region)... Any clues?

Plat #183 - It Takes Two

Difficulty: 2/10

Although I could feel the creativity of this game, it still makes me wonder that how did this game win the GOTY award, since it is not even perfect (or almost perfect) because of the lack of gameplay and I would only rate this game around 8~8.5/10.

+ Innovative experience delivered as a collaboration-focused game;

+ Appropriate amount of comedy atmosphere and memes;

- The puzzle-solving and platforming gameplay are not as impressive as its cinematic cutscenes. Most stages are linear and could be beaten just by running through without thinking about the strategy. The only time I and my friend got stuck was in the winter village stage; 

- Camera angles. It is sometimes difficult to locate my character since he/she is too small. Besides, the camera angle sometimes also ruined my platforming experience. For example, since the camera is too far from my character while playing the Hell Tower, trees near the bottom of the tower would often block my view;

- Story ending. 

Plat #182 - Aer: Memories of Old

Difficulty: 2/10

Got this from the End of Year Sale. Unfortunately, the AS/HK version has "fixed" the glitch, so the trophy Hide and Seek unlocked differently from what the guide states.

+ This game emphasizes the flying experience, which is unique, although there's one stage that requires the player to fly through circles;

+ Details while flying, such as the effect when your character fly through clouds;

- Tedious puzzles that always ask the player to use the lantern to light something that opens a new pathway;

- Weird jumping animation frames that make me feel like wandering on the moon;

- Boring ambient music.

Plat #181 - Neptune Re;Birth1

Difficulty: 4/10

First time playing a title in the Neptune series. It's definitely not a perfect game, but it's fun to watch the story and play.

+ Story and memes. That's why I bought this;

+ Impressive character design. It seems that almost everyone around me who has played this has at least one fav character;

+ Battle system. Looks like a combination of strategy game and turn-based RPG game, although sometimes I need to use d-pad buttons to slightly adjust the character direction;

- No auto-save. In that notorious chapter 2, consecutively fighting 2 bosses without auto-save or retry is horrible. Although there are also consecutive battles in later chapters, they are not challenging as this one;

- Money grinding trophy. It's just... frustrating.