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Madbuk's List of Unfinished Games


madbuk

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Progress Update: #360 - Sayonara Wild Hearts

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Big thanks to @TerraTanium for both convincing me to try this game and giving me the opportunity to as well. It was a lot better than I had anticipated, it's almost like Thumper if Thumper were actually good. It's very stylish, there's a good amount of variety in the gameplay, and I suppose you could argue gold ranks are a bit too lenient but I didn't mind, helped make it a nice and simple experience.

 

I like that the trophy list has you do various unique things in levels, like avoiding all small hearts or getting 0 score, or teleporting 40 times, etc. instead of the list being a generic "get all golds, beat all levels, get all collectibles, plat" like it easily could've been. They actually got a little creative with the requirements, and I appreciate it. The soundtrack was good too thankfully, the game would've been a lot worse if it wasn't.  This is definitely a game I'm considering stacking at some point, had a lot of fun with it.

Spoiler

Retail

Judgment [+2] {+3%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+1] {+1%}

Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles [+6] {+8%}

NEW GAME: Sayonara Wild Hearts [+25] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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Progress Update: #361 - Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles

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A pretty disappointing and unnecessary followup to the previous game overall. The Christmas routes especially kinda undermine the point of one of the routes in the previous game, and offer absolutely nothing new or interesting. Triangle "dates" were kinda fun, especially the ones with the less used characters like Delly/Sisi/Hansel/Watson, and the other 3 routes were easily the best on offer. Cantarella's route was probably the most engaging overall but I have to question why, since it's supposed to take place during the original game, the events of it never get brought up in the original game at all. Because it was made up entirely for this game, sure, but it's such a big and noteworthy event that it doesn't really work since it's never mentioned afterwards.

 

The special epilogues weren't particularly interesting either and again felt like retreads of plots they've already done several times by this point in the series. They've clearly ran out of any new ideas for the main cast, and if they ever decide to do a sequel I think it's time to either drop the romance angle entirely - like they did in Cantarella's route - or at least do it with some of the other characters instead of it being Lupin's crew every single time.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the end of the series, and it's a pretty low point to end it on considering only 3 of the routes (out of 8 - or 13 if you count special epilogues seprataely) are actually somewhat interesting. My next 4 planned visual novels (428 Shibuya Scramble, World End Syndrome, Robotics;Notes Elite, Robotics;Notes DaSH) aren't otome - or even romance related apart from WES as far as I know - so that should be refreshing, I don't know when I'll get around to them though.

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Digital {Excluding PS+}

Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles [+25] {+92%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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Progress Update: #362 - De Blob 2

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I had originally played this years ago on PS3, and i remembered enjoying it quite a bit but also remembered the levels dragging on a lot longer than they really should've. Upon replaying it, the levels are pretty lengthy but I don't think it's unreasonably so. I think I prefer this one to the first game overall, but there's not a huge difference in gameplay between the two. The story is pretty bad, it's just there for an excuse to get you from level to level, which is fine, it serves its purpose well. The time limit was a lot stricter in this game than the last game and I won't pretend I didn't use the time extender cheat code from time to time, these levels are so long that I'd hate to have to fully redo one because I ran out of time.

 

If we ever get a de Blob 3 (I hope we do tbh), what I'd like most out of it is for it to remove the timer, gives us more levels overall but make them shorter in length, have better collectible tracking so you know roughly which area you're missing a style/gallery icon/etc... Release de Blob 3, THQ. You can do it. As a side note btw, I somehow managed to get fastest achiever on this. Nifty. 

Spoiler

Retail

Judgment [+1] {+1%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+1] {+2%}

De Blob 2 [+26] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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Progress Update: #363 - Guacamelee! 2

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Going into this, what I wanted most was even more of a focus on platforming than Guacamelee! 1 had, and to make the platforming harder as well. And that is exactly what I got, so I'm pretty happy with this game. The platforming is still nothing particularly tough but certain sections of it were a lot of fun, like the pollo challenge dungeons, Tule Tree, and even parts of the main progression. The chicken combat seemed like a big selling point of this game but I never really used it tbh, so that was lost on me. Chicken is just too weak compared to your regular human form.

 

The story serves its purpose, it's nothing special but it works and gets you from A to B, which imo as all it really has to do in a game like this. The sidequests felt slightly more obscure as there weren't any yellow !s over people to indicate them, but once you realized a side quest was happening it was pretty simple to figure out what to do to advance it. Overall this game was basically just more Guacamelee! 1 but even better, which makes me excited for a potential Guacamelee! 3 in the future.

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Digital {Excluding PS+}

Guacamelee! 2 [+49] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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Progress Update: #364 - World End Syndrome

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Going to be honest, I did very little research into this before buying it. I had seen quite a bit of positivity directed towards it, I knew it was a romance VN, and I heard it got dark sometimes. I needed something fresh after the amount of otomes I've done though and this sounded perfect, it's basically the exact opposite of an otome. Not that otomes are bad, I enjoy them as well. I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit, I liked that it was character driven instead of plot driven, each route delves into the characters themselves with the actual plot just building in the background (and the way the game handles that is interesting as well). It reminded me of Root Letter in that regard, some of the routes were very personal stories.

 

I also got a strong Persona vibe from it, you go to school and then time progresses and you can choose where to go on a big map and build up social links with the various women in the game, and the game also has a morning/day/night system of progression as well, with each day being playable. The social links only impact which route you go down, there's not really any involved gameplay to be had or enhanced by it, but I don't play VNs for deep gameplay anyway lol.

 

I'd recommend this in a sale, it's definitely not one of the best VNs I've ever done, but it was still an enjoyable time. The cast dynamic and setting is a lot of lighthearted fun, which just makes the serious parts more meaningful.

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Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix [+1] {+1%}

World End Syndrome [+23] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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Progress Update: #365 - 428: Shibuya Scramble

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This was great. It hasn't topped Steins;Gate as my favourite VN, but I don't think anything ever will. It's definitely up there though. I was put off by the live action shots at first, but they grew on me - I prefer the style of other VNs overall I'd say, but I wouldn't be opposed to more like this one. All of the characters were good and I liked how each character's route had a different theme to it. For example, Osawa's being psychological horror and Tama's being slapstick comedy. It was also interesting to see how all of the separate stories connect and come together and how a decision you make as one character can completely change the outcome of a differen't character's route. The game has 85 bad endings/game overs, so there's plenty of ways to mess things up. I admit to using a guide - I just personally find VNs more enjoyable when I just focus on the story and don't have to worry about decisions I make since the guides lead to all the endings eventually anyway, but without a guide this game could actually be quite hard.

 

Tama's route was my favourite overall I'd say, but none of the routes are bad or boring which is impressive. Can't say the same for all the bonus post-game content, unfortunately. That Canaan scenario you unlock by getting the true ending wasn't very interesting to me and some of the side character short stories weren't particularly interesting either - does the game really expect me to care about a delivery guy who was in 2-3 scenes of the entire game? That said, the side character short stories of characters I did actually like were pretty fun little diversions, they only last a few minutes each and it was nice to see some of the more under-utilized characters get some more screentime.

 

This isn't going to be a VN that I end up stacking like the Steins;Gate games, but I did certainly enjoy my time with it and whenever someone asks for VN recommendations, this one will be on the list. It's a shame the sequel is an anime that apparently isn't particularly good instead of another game, but this offered enough closure itself that I'm ok with completely ignoring the anime.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth [+9] {+15%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

428: Shibuya Scramble [+27] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+2] {+5%}

Rainbow Moon [+6] {+10%}

 

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Progress Update: #366 - Titanfall 2

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I have had an interest in this game for quite a while, despite not being overly keen on FPS games, so when it finally hit PS+ I was excited. I must've been busy with other stuff at the time though so I never actually started it. The hype around Modern Warfare 2 got me in the mood for an FPS though, I was considering MW1 but then I remembered I still had this to play as well. I really enjoyed the platforming in this, and although there wasn't really a great deal of it, there was still more than I was anticipating which I'm very pleased about.

 

The story didn't engage me at all, maybe it's an issue of not having played the first game, or maybe it wouldn't have either way, but that was fine. There weren't any overly long cutscenes, most of the exposition happens whilst playing. Trophy wise I was excited to do the gauntlet. It looked like a fun, challenging platforming gauntlet that would keep me engaged while the rest of the game installed. While it was fun, I was expecting it to be a bit harder/more complicated, the platforming in it is actually very basic and it comes down to whether you throw your grenades properly more than anything else. It only took about an hour and then I had nothing to do whilst the rest of the game installed, I was expecting to be at it much longer after how hyped up it was. I actually had more trouble with master difficulty.

 

I began master difficulty on my first playthrough, so although I know you can run past certain fights, for the most part I fought everything as I wasn't aware of which were skippable and which weren't. I definitely felt like I got better as the game progressed, or maybe the game just got easier. It was a fun challenge for someone like me who rarely plays FPS games, even if everyone else seems to find it on the easier side.

 

Overall I really enjoyed this. If a Titanfall 3 happens (it probably will) I probably won't be picking it up when it releases but I'll be sure to play it if it ever hits PS+ or a deep sale.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones [+2] {+10%}

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth [+1] {+7%} (COMPLETE!)

NEW GAME: Titanfall 2 [+51] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+1] {+1%}

Grow Up [+17] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

Need for Speed Payback [+7] {+10%}

 

 

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Progress Update: #367 - One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2

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A very disappointing follow up to the first game. Every stage is identical, the only variety on offer is in the amount of characters and their various move sets, but a lot of the characters are just straight up bad. Every stage consists of running back and forth across a big map fulfilling objectives, but the game doesn't give you a run button, and the maps are huge (especially during the main campaign. The bonus episodes were fine.) It gets very tedious when every stage plays out the exact same way whereas the first game had a mix of these type of stages and another type focused on linear progression and QTE platforming. Another big annoyance is that you have to sit through multiple boxes of boring dialogue so that the next mission can trigger, so you're just stood there doing absolutely nothing until the game finally decides to let you proceed. From what I hear, most other Warriors games are the same (one of which is even so bad the plat is unobtainable unless you spam save and quit to cancel out the dialogue, because otherwise you cant finish a time trial.)
 

It was still kinda fun once the campaign was over and I started doing the crew episodes - those were the perfect length really for the type of game this is. I do already own One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, I bought it while playing 1 because I enjoyed that one quite a bit, so I will begin it eventually and hope it's more to my taste than this one ended up being. I certainly have much lower expectations for it now though.

Spoiler

Retail

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 [+25] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+4] {+6%}

 

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Progress Update: #368 - Tales of Graces f

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In 2017, I did this plat and thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, so I kept my eye out for a sale on the NA version to stack it and I have finally gotten around to stacking it. Despite enjoying it the first time round, I was a little hesitant to stack it, because of the inn requests and dualizing/shard quality mechanics that I never really managed to understand during my first time platting this. The appearance of eigen-space's guides gave me a sudden urge to play this though, and I've had the stack available for months, if not years at this point, so I decided it was finally time to start it and take advantage of their guide. It's very, very good. I had absolutely 0 trouble with dualizing this time, because they kept things as simple as they need to be. I remember my first time doing this I had to go through the hassle of tempering equipment, dualizing tempered gear, extracting and polishing gems, and all that other nonsense that I couldn't explain if I tried, but I had to do none of that this time because the guide worked perfectly.

 

The combat in this is probably my favourite in the Tales games I've played so far. The partner linking gimmick in Xillia 1 and 2 is pretty neat, but I really appreciate this game's lack of TP. I don't find Vesperia's combat pretty fun, because as soon as you run out of TP (which happens frequently depending on which artes you use) you're stuck using 3-hit combos that are really slow and deal basically no damage just to replenish your TP, and it takes a while. This doesn't have that problem at all. Also makes healing/resurrection more viable too. The story is fairly generic overall but it's decent enough, and while the cast isn't as fun as the cast of Xillia or Berseria, I do still like them and their chemistry with each other.

 

When I first started this I was dreading dualizing and was readying myself to acknowledge I made a mistake deciding to stack it once I got to that point, but I absolutely didn't regret my decision to stack this at all. It was a lot of fun.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+1] {+3%}

Tales of Graces f [+50] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below [50] {Retail}

 

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Progress Update: #369 - Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below

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I went into this with a little trepidation. I enjoyed One Piece: Pirate Warriors 1 quite a bit, and found 2 disappointing, so before playing this my opinion of musou was split a clean 50/50, and thus I wasn't completely sure I'd end up enjoying this. I'm glad to say that it was actually a lot of fun. I do have a couple of issues with it - the tower defense mechanics were annoying, which is perhaps my biggest issue with the game, and the combos weren't quite as satisfying as the ones in One Piece, but everything else was good so I can look past these minor issues. The tower defense stuff was only especially annoying when you're defending a living target whos AI is too braindead to even try and dodge opponents and just stands there tanking the hits. The run speed isn't particularly fast either, so have fun taking out mawkeepers (who summon other enemies) that are far away from your target and then have fun getting back there without your defense objective already being dead.

 

I liked the overall structure of this much more than the One Piece games. The story is presented better, and the addition of quests was a fun diversion, even if the quests don't really have any meaningful storytelling involved. I also liked the cast more than the One Piece games and just in general the Dragon Quest world is more appealing to me than the One Piece one (for reference, I've played Dragon Quest XI and haven't seen a single episode of One Piece, so I may be a bit biased here.) I'd like to mention Maya quickly - her voice actress is the woman who played Rani Chandra in Sarah Jane Adventures, and I was quite impressed when I found that out because her voice was absolutely nothing like Rani's. Even once I knew, I couldn't see similarities. She has quite a range, it seems. The rest of the cast was good as well for the most part, and I really appreciated that this game had English voice acting unlike the One Piece games. Japanese VA is fine, I can enjoy it (I'm a big fan of VNs as a genre, and Yakuza) but it's definitely more enjoyable to me when it's in a language I can actually understand and fully appreciate.

 

Overall I enjoyed this a lot. I'm not sure it'll be fun for another 250 hours, so I'm a bit hesitant to play the sequel as well, but maybe some day. I still have One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 to play as well and I'm hoping that even if that doesn't end up as enjoyable as this, it'll at least be as enjoyable as One Piece: Pirate Warriors 1 and not a slog like 2 was.

Spoiler

Retail

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below [+50] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+2] {+5%}

Tales of Symphonia [+2] {+3%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered [34] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #370 - Persona 4 Golden

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After frequently hearing about how this is the Vita's definitive best exclusive game, I decided to try it out despite turn-based games not really having a great history with me. I... definitely do not agree with the claims. The story is good, the characters are interesting, but I wasn't really a fan of the combat or the dungeons in general (I do like the thematic aspect of them though, just not from a gameplay standpoint) and was always happy to finish a dungeon because it meant I got an extra month or so before I had to go back in again.

 

I had originally started this years ago but the aspects of it that continued to put me off every time I tried to play it were the time limits on every event and the stress of trying to do things correctly. Do I eat food? Do I study? Do I work? Do I raise a social link? Do I go fishing? Do I read a book? It was constantly on my mind while playing that I was probably wasting my time and will regret it later when I can't create any strong personas/don't have good enough social stats for NG+/etc. Everyone kept saying to play it without a guide, so I kept listening to them, until one day a plat walkthrough appeared on this site and I decided to ignore the advice and try the game with a guide anyway.

 

It was so much more enjoyable. All that stress of time management, completely gone, so I could sit back and just enjoy the story and experience all the content without having to concern myself with missing any of it or becoming undeveloped. Huge thanks to ARKphoenix for all the work they put into it, lots of imagery and formatting to make it easy to read and follow. It also covered all of the side quests despite being unnecessary for the platinum, so I really did get to experience all the content. There was just something strangely satisfying about working through the days and scrolling down the page.

 

Overall, once I went back to it with a guide, I did end up liking it much more than my initial impressions, but I still disagree that it is a highlight of the Vita library, because there are plenty of other games on the device that I have enjoyed more. I doubt I'll ever be playing Persona 5 really, but I'll maybe try it if it hits PS+ one day.

Spoiler

Retail

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA [+8] {+12%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+1] {+1%}

Persona 4 Golden [+42] {+89%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: LEGO Ninjago Movie: The Videogame [51] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #371 - LEGO Ninjago Movie: The Videogame

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I've considered picking this up in a sale multiple times, but it never really went cheap enough considering the reception I'd seen had been incredibly mixed. I'm glad it was free so I could finally try it for myself and form my own opinion on it. It was a nice change of pace, but I'm not sure I'd want this formula to forever replace the older games. Instead of having individual levels that all have their own collectibles and true stud meters, this game is split up into hubs and all the story missions take place in these hubs, and your true ninja stud meter is universal - all studs from all hubs contribute to it.

 

It was certainly an interesting new way to do things, and in ways I actually preferred this method, because the game progression felt even more natural than usual and studs were constantly useful - in prior games, once you max out your stud meter, they become fairly useless for that level because if you max out the meter in every level as you go, you'll probably have enough to buy all the multipliers and then money issues become trivial anyway. One thing that was a bit odd about it though was that you needed 4,000,000 studs to max out your true ninja rank, but in order to purchase everything in the game, you only needed around 3,500,000 I'm pretty sure, making the last 500K completely useless. It also actively discouraged you from buying anything, as anything you purchased subtracted that money you spent from your overall rank, so you had to re-earn it. Hardly an issue - I had 9M+ studs by the time I got the plat after purchasing everything, but it was still a bit questionable.

 

It'd be interesting if going forward, the LEGO formula swaps between this and the usual one every couple of games, but LEGO Movie 2 looks like a completely different formula to both this and the old games, so I'm rather hesitant about that one as it seems relatively poorly received from what I've seen. I'll probably try it eventually, but it'll need to be on a very deep sale (or free like this one please!) This was also a bit of a change of pace from all the RPGs I've been doing lately so that was kinda nice too I guess.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+5] {+9%}

LEGO Ninjago Movie: The Videogame [+51] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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Progress Update: #372 - Block-a-Pix Deluxe

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This starts off as a pretty fun and (at least to me) unique puzzle experience. 60 hours later and it's no longer a fun experience, it just becomes a slog. It was around the 30-40 hour mark that I just stopped having fun with this, but I was too stubborn to spam fix, so I got every medal and prolonged the experience a lot more than the bare minimum for plat. Some puzzles can take 100+ minutes alone, and then multiply that by 15 for one page, the puzzles never really get any harder, they just get longer, and that doesn't make for a particularly interesting experience. You could say the same for Pic-a-Pix, which I greatly prefer to this, but at least in Pic-a-Pix you're not pixel hunting/pixel counting for multiple minutes just to find a single next move to take.

 

This was enough to convince me that I should stick to Pic-a-Pix games in the future and not bother with the other types available like Link-a-Pix, because I'd rather not end up getting stuck with another 60+ hour puzzle game of a puzzle that long outstays its welcome. I put many, many hours into picross puzzles on mobile before Pic-a-Pix was a thing though so I'm confident I wont get tired of those any time soon.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Dragon's Crown [+1] {+1%}

Shadow of the Colossus [+1] {+2%}

Trine 2: The Complete Story [+1] {+2%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Block-a-Pix Deluxe [+12] {+27%} (COMPLETE!)

Borderlands [+1] {+1%}

Need for Speed Payback [+1] {+1%}

NEW GAME: Persona 5 [+25] {+36%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel [51] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #373 - Persona 5

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"I doubt I'll ever be playing Persona 5 really, but I'll maybe try it if it hits PS+ one day." - me, on May 21, a couple of days before a new sale hit and I chose to buy and play it. £9.99 felt like a pretty good deal for something the guide suggested would take 150 hours (which ended up being the perfect estimate, I ended at around 149-150 hours) so I pulled the trigger on it. I'm overall a bit mixed on whether I prefer this or Persona 4 Golden.

 

The characters in this game I like more than Golden's. Ryuji is basically just a Yosuke replacement but without all the homophobic/sexist commentary, so that was nice. He still had his fair share of issues though, especially at the very start of the game where he failed to understand basically anything that got explained to him. Ann ended up being my favourite of the main cast but they were all good, and although unfortunately the main character is still silent in this game (mostly) like in Golden, Joker felt like he had a bit more personality than Yu anyway somehow. Sae and Brojiro Sojiro are my two favourite non-main cast confidants, although I'd say Persona 5 in general has better confidants than the social links in Golden.

 

Where this game falls short compared to Golden for me is the overall narrative not being quite as engrossing as the one in Golden due to how standalone each palace's story felt and how, unlike in Golden, you rarely get to interact with characters once their main plot arc is over with. The framework for the narrative also didn't make a great deal of sense but I'll forgive that. That said, I did prefer the more mature tone that this game had compared to Golden which was fairly light-hearted throughout. The palaces were also a lot more atmospheric and detailed than the ones in Golden were which was nice.

 

In terms of gameplay, I started this immediately following a guide instead of trying to do all the time management myself, which is what put me off Golden for years, and it's fairly noticeable that the palaces in this aren't designed to be done in a single day unlike the ones in Golden. This ends up being problematic, because the guide I was following suggests playing on the easiest difficulty, and expects you to finish all palaces in a day so that you can maximize your free time doing other things. I got close to the end of the first palace before giving up and dropping the difficulty. Is that shameful? Maybe, but like with Golden I was here for the story primarily, so oh well. I just wish it was like Golden where you could one day stuff more easily. The stealth mechanics were also very bad in this. The cover system is janky as hell and would benefit greatly from letting you move along the whole cover like in Uncharted instead of magnetizing you to corners, which makes it awkward to navigate from cover to cover (you can't even swap from one side of cover to the other if the ends are too far apart, even if it's one long piece of cover.)

 

Overall this was a fun game, and I'm glad I played it. I doubt I'll ever play Royal, but... that's what I said about P5 itself so who knows.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Persona 5 [+24] {+64%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Saints Row IV: Re-elected [71] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Saints Row: Gat out of Hell [46] {PS+}

 

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Progress Update: #374 - SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

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I first learned about this game a few years ago, I completely missed out on it in the PS2 era and ever since discovering it I've wanted to give it a try, but my PS2 no longer gets used so it was never a priority. I absolutely love collectathon 3D platformers, and I'm glad I was finally able to give this highly praised and well regarded game a chance. I'd say it's maybe not quite as good as people made it out to be every time I saw it mentioned, but it was certainly still a very enjoyable time. I have never seen the show at all (apart from a vague memory of a single episode where SpongeBob tries to get his drivers license? I think I had that on in the background at some point many, many years ago) so I wasn't particularly invested in the story or characters, but that's fine, the gameplay is good enough to make up for it.

 

My main grievances with this game are length-related - despite having 100 golden spatulas (which are basically the power stars (Mario)/power cells (Jak 1) of the game) it still ends up being incredibly short. Also, the golden spatulas that you need to buy of Mr Krabs using shiny objects felt like pure padding, there's no way you're getting that many shiny objects via just naturally playing, so you'll definitely have to grind it out, but the game doesn't really give you any method of grinding apart from breaking a few boxes and then committing suicide to reload them, which doesn't feel intentional.

 

Other than that I really liked it. The levels were varied, the platforming was fluid and reliable, and it encouraged exploration which is always nice with a collectathon instead of being a linear path like the newer Mario games like Galaxy. It's wonderful to see my favourite genre making a resurgence - Spyro, Crash, Ratchet, SpongeBob, Bugsnax (supposedly it's like Ape Escape), Ty the Tasmanian Tiger... I can only hope that this continues. I'm so excited for Crash 4 and hope it lives up to the originals.

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Retail

NEW GAME: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom [+33] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: CastleStorm - Definitive Edition [+7] {+61%}

Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered [+11] {+16%}

NEW GAME: Pac-Man 256 [+10] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Resident Evil [45] {PS+}

NEW GAME: Resident Evil 0 [48] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #375 - Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD

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This is the first Monkey Ball game I have ever played, and it completely surpassed my expectations. This was an absolute joy and has made me consider doing the Vita version for my 400th plat milestone, though that is still a while away. I've wanted to try out this series for a while, since 3D platforming is my favourite genre, and this is peak 3D platforming imo. There's variety, it constantly evolves as the game progresses, it rewards risk taking by putting bunches of bananas in hard to reach spots that require very precise platforming. I do have a couple of issues with the game - the boss battles were by far the weakest part of the main game and felt out of place, and the minigames were all terrible (and the trophy for doing 360 minigames was totally unnecessary), but the core gameplay itself of rolling around, jumping across platforms, collecting bananas, is perfect.

 

This is a port of the Wii game, and honestly the amount of precision this requires makes me think the Wii version with motion controls must be an absolute disaster, so I'm glad they didn't try and force motion controls into this version, because it would've ruined the game. I've also heard that they've made the game harder due to traditional controls being more reliable, which I'm grateful for because the late game was a really fun challenge. I've seen some gameplay of some of the harder levels on the Wii version and they basically just play themselves, it looks so boring.

 

I can absolutely recommend this gem to anyone who enjoys 3D platforming, and I hope it sold well enough for the series to get some more games. Looking at the ingame leaderboards doesn't bring me much hope though. They only show the top 100 users, but I was regularly making top 100 even though I'd never played a Monkey Ball game before, so I have to wonder just how few people have actually played it. The player count on this site isn't very inspiring either.

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Retail

NEW GAME: Darksiders Genesis [+5] {+7%}

NEW GAME: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD [+36] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Dragon Quest Heroes II [43] {Retail}

NEW GAME: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 [50] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst [55] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 [53] {Digital}
NEW GAME: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm [50] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #376 - Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm

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Fighting games really aren't a genre I'm well versed in, but the Ninja Storm 1-4 bundle was available at a very good price, and I hadn't played a fighting game for years, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I've also never seen Naruto, but not seeing the show hasn't stopped me from enjoying One Piece and Spongebob games so I figured I'd be okay, especially as this only recaps the events of the anime anyway.

 

I like the variety on offer here. It's not just pure fighting all the time, you have tree running and branch hopping stages and an open world to roam around and collect items in after every mission. The open world did get a little tedious by the end and I stopped going around collecting everything that spawned, but I enjoyed it for most of the time I spent playing at least. The story really didn't do a good job at presenting itself to series newcomers. Characters just appear out of nowhere with no real introduction and the only context you get is a short paragraph or two during a load screen. I really couldn't tell you what happens in the story of this other than some very vague concepts and the ending.

 

I won't be jumping into Ninja Storm 2 anytime soon, probably not for months, but I'm interested to see how this series evolves over time. I hear they remove the open world which is very disappointing, I hope they still keep the mission variety that this one had at least.

Spoiler

Retail

Dragon Quest Heroes II [+5] {+7%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

CastleStorm - Definitive Edition [+1] {+5%}

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm [+50] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Mega Man Legacy Collection [13] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 [21] {Digital}

NEW GAME: LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 [76] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz [51] {Retail}

 

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Hey man - just checking in to say I love the aesthetic of each progress update. I dunno if you make your own banners but if you do they're phenomenal - gives a great indication of what game you're talking about and makes it very easy to find your opinion on a game in case I wanted to see your thoughts / get a gauge of a game I'm considering playing.

 

So here's a few opinions from what I've read by you!

 

Bioshock - I'm surprised by how short it is according to you taking 3-4 hours. Question, as someone who has NEVER played a FPS, would you recommend it as somebodys first?

A Hat in Time - You really digged this one, I digged it - we need more games with fun traversal systems like Hat Kid's!(which means more 3D platformers)

Gran Turismo 5 - Just... congrats on this one man. That is a behemoth amongst behemoths. 

DQ 11 - A game I 100% want to play! I barely play turned based games myself but Persona 5 is my All-Time #1 PS4 game. How would you compare them? 

 

I also have a more general question, and forgive me if it's a bit direct, but what would you say is your top of the top PS4 games? I can tell you really love Steins;Gate but you typically seem to be lukewarm on a lot of titles. 

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2 minutes ago, realm722 said:

Hey man - just checking in to say I love the aesthetic of each progress update. I dunno if you make your own banners but if you do they're phenomenal - gives a great indication of what game you're talking about and makes it very easy to find your opinion on a game in case I wanted to see your thoughts / get a gauge of a game I'm considering playing.

 

So here's a few opinions from what I've read by you!

 

Bioshock - I'm surprised by how short it is according to you taking 3-4 hours. Question, as someone who has NEVER played a FPS, would you recommend it as somebodys first?

A Hat in Time - You really digged this one, I digged it - we need more games with fun traversal systems like Hat Kid's!(which means more 3D platformers)

Gran Turismo 5 - Just... congrats on this one man. That is a behemoth amongst behemoths. 

DQ 11 - A game I 100% want to play! I barely play turned based games myself but Persona 5 is my All-Time #1 PS4 game. How would you compare them? 

 

I also have a more general question, and forgive me if it's a bit direct, but what would you say is your top of the top PS4 games? I can tell you really love Steins;Gate but you typically seem to be lukewarm on a lot of titles. 

I use a browser add-on (view background image) to get the banners from the individual game pages, nowhere near creative enough to make those myself lol.

 

BioShock is only that short if you're rushing it like I was on NG+, since I had already done everything on my first playthrough and just needed to finish the game again. I don't think BioShock 1 is particularly beginner friendly - Infinite might be if it weren't for the difficulty trophies, but Infinite's story is better if you play the others first (although I played Infinite first and still enjoyed it) so I'd say probably stay away from BioShock as a whole until you're more experienced with the genre. Idk what I'd really recommend as someones first entry into the genre, I'm not particularly well versed in it myself, but I'm pretty sure Killzone: Mercenary was mine and it was pretty doable even for a newcomer like me.

 

The world needs more 3D platformers, I'm glad they're making a resurgence atm with things like Hat in Time/Crash/Spyro/Bugsnax/Yooka Laylee/Ratchet & Clank

 

Thanks, GT5 wouldn't have been possible without the nagging and moral support I got on Discord, which was annoying at times but I'm thankful for it because without them I would never have had the motivation to push through it. Definitely my proudest plat

 

I personally liked Dragon Quest XI more than Persona 5 I'd say, but that's moreso because I'm not a huge fan of turn based combat or the limited amount of free time Persona gives you to get stuff done. I still really, really liked Persona 5 (and 4 Golden), but DQXI is a more laid back experience. There's no challenge to it at all so the turn based combat isn't too annoying, and nothing is missable so you won't need your head in a guide the whole time like you do for a Persona game. Can just play it at your own pace. The story itself is pretty good (apart from an awful ending) and the cast is fun. It's about the same length as P5, maybe a little shorter, so there's still plenty of content there.

 

As far as my top PS4 games, I usually struggle with lists like these so it'll be a pretty large list lol but looking through my profile I'd nominate these as standing out above the rest:

  • Assassin's Creed Ezio Collection (mainly for AC2 though the others are excellent as well)
  • Bound
  • Crash 1
  • Driveclub (now an impossible plat/all the DLC is gone so it's heavily lacking in content :()
  • Furi
  • Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts
  • Spyro trilogy
  • Steins;Gate 0
  • Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram (no trophies :()
  • Velocity 2X
  • What Remains of Edith Finch
  • WipEout Omega Collection
  • Yakuza 0

The reason Steins;Gate Elite isn't listed is because I felt it was a step down from the PS3/Vita original, although it's still great.

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Progress Update: #377 - Deponia Doomsday

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A very unnecessary continuation of the previous game, and while the game does play into the fact that it's unnecessary, that doesn't stop it feeling like a slog. The time travelling also was rather convoluted and by the end I had lost track of what was even going on tbh. Also, the worst Deponia trophy list buy far - whoever thought that Jackalope trophy was a good idea... why? I also had some saves just disappear on me - one of which was 2/3 done with jackalopes - so that was nice...

 

Overall this was the weakest Deponia game imo. Unnecessary, buggy, tedious, and just rather boring. One good thing I'll say is that there's no problematic things in this one like in a previous game (Chaos?) where you sell a black person into slavery to progress the plot (and then you never see them again.) I've found this whole series to be a bit overrated honestly. It has some fun characters, like Rufus/Toni/Goal, but on the whole I much prefer the Broken Sword series, where (in my experience of it) the vast majority of the characters are great.

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Retail

Dragon Quest Heroes II [+1] {+1%}

Judgment [+2] {+3%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

CastleStorm - Definitive Edition [+7] {+34%} (COMPLETE!)

Deponia Doomsday [+37] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Beach Buggy Racing [46] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Erica [34] {PS+}

NEW GAME: Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise [59] {Digital}

NEW GAME: LEGO Movie 2: The Videogame [51] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Riptide GP: Renegade [25] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Riptide GP2 [24] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #378 - Erica

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I had contemplated buying this on sale multiple times, because the premise seemed interesting enough and I had never played an FMV game before so it'd be something unique to try. I always held off though because of the extremely mixed feedback I had seen. Some people swear it's a good game, others hate it. I was excited when it came to PS+ so I could try it out for "free", and it has made me quite glad that I never spent any money on it.

 

For a first playthrough, the game is alright. It's nothing great - the acting is okay but the story doesn't really get explained at all, and the controls are horrible. For the next 4-5 playthroughs.. it never really changes whatsoever and makes just as little sense. You can kind of piece things together but it's very vague about everything and who knows if your interpretation will even be close to the real one. The game requires constant interaction from you, so you can't afk until an important choice comes up. You can't skip through scenes you've already seen like you can in VNs, so you're basically just watching the same mediocre one and a half (feels more like two tbh) hour movie over and over and over. It just isn't fun or engaging at all.

 

I strongly advise avoiding this one even though it's "free" at the moment. If the premise sounds extremely promising to you, I'd then suggest maybe trying it on an alt account so you wont have to commit to 4+ more playthroughs of the exact same movie.

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PS+ Titles

Erica [+34] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Far Cry 3: Classic Edition [+17] {+28%}

 

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Progress Update: #379 - Far Cry 3: Classic Edition

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This is one of the first FPS games I ever played. In fact, looking back at my trophy timestamps, this might have even been the first I ever played. Can't believe it has been over 6 years since then. I remember enjoying my time with this on PS3 quite a bit, but not enough to bother with Far Cry 4/Far Cry 5 so this and Blood Dragon were the only ones I ever played. It was a great time replaying this and it was even better than I remembered it being (so much so that I even ended up buying Far Cry 4 and 5 as well lol)

 

The story is nothing special and I find Vaas to be heavily overrated, but it's serviceable. I really enjoyed all the radio towers and caves and underwater caverns and tombs that you explore for collectibles, although I do hope Far Cry 4 makes the towers even more complicated to traverse. I hear 5 removes them entirely which is very disappointing. The outposts got a little tedious but thankfully there are only about 30 of them so it's not too bad. I'm not a big fan of the hunting mechanics and how you can only carry a single weapon unless you go out of your way to find specific animals or get lucky and come across them randomly like I did. That part of the games just feels tedious.

 

I'm definitely looking forward to Far Cry 4, but I won't be starting it any time soon. Got other games I want to focus on first.

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Grand Theft Auto V [+7] {+8%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Far Cry 3: Classic Edition [+27] {+72%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Far Cry 4 [58] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Far Cry 5 [73] {Digital}

 

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Progress Update: #380 - Riptide GP2

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Going into this I had heard some very mixed things. I know people who like it, and I know people who strongly dislike it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was incredibly cheap though in a recent sale (about £3 for a bundle of 3 racing games including this one) so I figured I'd give it a shot. Jetski racing is very different to the racing games I usually play so I figured it'd be something fresh. Honestly, for a budget racing game, it's actually quite fun.

 

The balancing is a little wacky, jumping from hard to very easy then back to hard frequently, there was no point where the difficulty scaling felt natural. It's still nothing overly hard - it's a 40% plat after all - but some event were a noticeable step up compared to others. Hot laps events were the most fun overall I'd say, followed by elimination, then racing, then freestyle. Freestyle events were just dull.

 

The fact that this is a mobile port was unfortunately pretty noticeable, as the pricing for upgrades and new jetskis seemed a bit steep and I would assume that is because money was a microtransaction on mobile. It's not too bad because there are easy ways of farming money but it's still a bit unfortunate (and as a side note, I dread to think how freestyle tricks must've controlled on mobile lol.) For a mobile game it still looked great though.

 

I think the water was an interesting change of pace compared to normal racing games but it also was just a bit annoying because fairly frequently after a jump you'd splash in the water and lose all momentum as a result, and it felt like it was RNG because of the way water in general works - sometimes there are just waves and you unfortunately happen to hit them at the wrong time. It was realistic, I'll give it that, and something fresh, but idk if I'd say it was a fun mechanic.

 

I enjoyed my time with this, and the price I got it at (and it frequently goes on sale for) is an absolute steal. I'm excited to play the next one but it likely wont be any time soon. I also got Beach Buggy Racing as part of the bundle and it'll be interesting to see how that compares at some point as well.

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Digital {Excluding PS+}

Riptide GP2 [+24] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

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