Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[YaManSmevz]

10 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #401 - Unpacking

 

I like the version with Harry, the ending scene is better.

 

 

May not have the same emotional impact, but entertaining nonetheless!

 

Great review as always, homie👊

[pelagia14]

14 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #401 - Unpacking

 

Did you ever feel like you were in a simulation yourself, playing a videogame about unpacking while you are unpacking in a new house? 😂

 

I hadn't realized that the game has you pick a name without indicating your character's gender, I can only imagine the initial confusion when you were unpacking what I seem to recall was like twenty pairs of underwear. 😂 You did a great job discussing the game's overall storytelling!

 

A lot of people have been playing the game recently for the Fight Cancer! event, and coupled with your review it's making me want to revisit the game soon. As someone who has already replayed many levels of PowerWash Simulator after earning its platinum, I'm definitely part of this game's target demographic, haha.

 

14 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

My second caveat is that you really need to take your time with this one. I had to keep telling myself this wasn't a speedrun. Not only does that defeat the purpose of the game, but it makes it hard to appreciate the story it's trying to tell through visuals and sounds. This is the kind of game you should probably save for some cold, rainy, or snowy weekend in the coming months. If you live where I do, that's like half the year. You have the time. You just have to make it.

 

I absolutely agree with this game being best played on a relaxing day when one is in a chill mood!

[Cassylvania]

On 10/20/2023 at 3:38 PM, pelagia14 said:

I hadn't realized that the game has you pick a name without indicating your character's gender, I can only imagine the initial confusion when you were unpacking what I seem to recall was like twenty pairs of underwear. 😂 You did a great job discussing the game's overall storytelling!

 

And now you know why they call him Dirty Harry...

 

Alright. My mental state is somewhat stable. Let's get into a review that is almost the complete opposite of Unpacking...

 

Platinum #402 - Cotton Reboot!

 

 

(Is it really a reboot if I've never played this series before...?)

 

Well, this happened. I wish I could tell you how. If you're anything like me, you'll have never heard of this series before, but shmup fans on the internet tell me it's all the rage. At least, that was the impression I got from watching one or two reviews... I'll admit. Shmups are up there with fighting games and racing games as things that are too fast-paced for my liking. Even when I was a kid, I couldn't keep up. That doesn't mean I don't like the idea of these games. I played fighting games and racing games as a kid. Hell, I've played played fighting games and racing games on this account. I'm not against games that challenge me... but I also like to keep things simple. That's why, when I do play something I'm uncomfortable with, I make sure it's a short one. That's probably what sold me on this purchase. (Plus, the game was like the cost of a postage stamp.)

 

I also liked the idea that if I enjoyed this game, there were others in the series that I could play too. Who knows? Maybe I'll be a shmup fan yet.

 

(I don't need to describe what a shmup is, do I?)

 

Believe it or not, there's a plot to this game. You play as a young witch named Cotton (yes, really), who meets a fairy named Silk (yes, really), who begs Cotton to defeat the evil demons that have invaded their world. Cotton doesn't give a shit and keeps walking. (You know, I appreciate when the main character doubles as a self-insert.) You see, Cotton only cares about one thing: WILLOW. (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be in all caps, but the game is always shouting it, so I will too.) What is WILLOW? I think it's cocaine. This entire game is cocaine. I feel like everything in this game -- from the cutscenes to the combat to the loading screens -- happens at a speed about three times faster than any human being could comprehend. My first playthrough was a blur. I beat the whole game in about 45 minutes, but had to wait another 15 minutes for my heart to catch up to me. This was like a sugar rush and I needed an entire month away from the game before I could go back and clean up the rest of the trophies. I'm not even sure I'm qualified to review this game because I have no idea what happened. I'll do my best, though.

 

So, uh... it's a side-scroller. I gathered that much. For the most part, the screen automatically travels to the right, so you're mostly just moving Cotton around to attack enemies and dodge the endless barrage of attacks coming from every direction. There were times when it wasn't even clear to me if one of the seizure-inducing flashes on the screen was an enemy bullet, my bullet, a collectable item, an explosion, or a background object. The amount of sensory overload here was so bad at times that I died multiple times before I could even figure out where Cotton was on the screen. That's because Cotton dies in one hit. Did I forget to mention that already? It's very, very easy to burn through even the maximum nine lives you can have. Not that to matters much since you can just continue from where you left off if you run out of lives, but I can only imagine how frustrating a game like this could be if you had to cough up a quarter every time you bit the pixie dust.

 

Now, the good thing about this game trophy list is that you can play on any difficulty you want and it's a relatively short experience. There are people who got the platinum in under 2 hours, making it one of the shortest games on my list, technically. Mileage will vary, though, because there's a trophy for beating the first level without dying, another trophy for beating the first two levels without dying, and a third trophy for beating the first three levels without dying. That's 15 minutes of perfect gameplay. Only took me three trophies, but it's so easy to screw up -- particularly during the boss fights (the stage 3 boss especially). I suspect someone good at this genre will be fine. It's just one of those games where if you paused at any moment and told me I just died, I'd believe you. There's simply too much garbage on the screen for me to think otherwise.

 

I'd like to explain how combat in this game works, but I have no idea. I just held down the spam button the whole time. There are crystals you can collect. Each color seems to correspond to a different magical attack, and collecting multiple crystals of the same color without using that attack allows you to level them up. You can store up to six crystals at a time and level them all the way up to 3. There's a trophy for collecting six of the same color crystal, which I feel lucky to have even done, because I don't know if there's a way to manually choose which magical attack you use... Seems to default to the order you collect them. So, if you have five blue crystals and then accidentally grab a red one, I guess you're screwed...? I dunno. Did I mention crystals change color randomly if you shoot them? (And you're always shooting them.)

 

There's another meter on the bottom left that fills up. If you remember it's there, you can unleash a really powerful attack. And, uh... you have fairies that attack when you do? Yeah, because we needed more stuff on the screen.

 

If you go into the Options menu, you can actually switch from playing as Cotton to Silk, which is an upgrade as far as I'm concerned because Silk is a lot smaller and therefore less likely to get hit. (She might be weaker, but who cares?) You might need to beat the game first to unlock Silk. There's also evil Cotton and evil Silk...? I was actually playing as evil Cotton when I beat the first three levels without dying. No clue if the gameplay was any different.

 

This game actually reminds me of a video they made us watch when I was in school. They were showing us some kids playing basketball. They asked us to count the number of times the ball was passed. What they didn't tell us was that a gorilla randomly joins the basketball game at some point and does some break moves. You've probably seen the same video (here's a similar one), but the point is that you're so distracted by one thing that you miss everything else that's going on around you. That's what this game does. You're physically incapable of keeping up with the speed of the game. Either that or I'm even older than I realize...

 

Anyway, uh... yeah, this was a weird one. I see there's the potential to earn 20 Cotton platinums across the entire series. (Eight if I don't do stacks.) There's a better chance of me finishing the KH series and giving it a positive review than that happening.

 

Not recommended.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Cassylvania

[shadaik]

53 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Not recommended.

As a fan of shmups (even though one not very good at them), whole thing reads like a red-hot recommendation 🤪

[Cassylvania]

7 hours ago, shadaik said:

As a fan of shmups (even though one not very good at them), whole thing reads like a red-hot recommendation 🤪

 

It should be noted that my recommendations (or not recommendations) should always begin or end with: "if you're anything like me..." I'll be the first to say I probably shouldn't be reviewing games that are outside of my comfort zone. The good news is I'm probably harsher on these games than I should be, as I don't mean to make it sound like I didn't like the game. It was actually fine for what it was. It wasn't long or hard enough for me to cry about it, and I actually did chuckle at how ridiculous the story was and the way in which it was presented. There's some pretty amusing character expressions to go along with the gameplay.

 

I guess there's no hiding the fact that I've gotten back into Hogwarts Legacy. I wanted this to be my Halloween game for the year, but I'm obviously not going to be done by the end of the month. In fact, I just started a new character because I haven't touched the game since my birthday. I guess that's OK because you need to reach a certain point of the game as a student of each of the four schools...? You guys can see I went Ravenclaw with my new character. I have no clue what that means. I know as much about the Harry Potter series as I do about Cotton. Maybe less.

 

This might also mark the first month I'm unable to finish the PS+ game I rolled. I'm at what I assume is the final mission, but I doubt I'm going to feel motivated to do NG+ right now. That sounds like a great way to ruin a game. Not sure why that's the norm these days.

 

What other updates do I have...? I see House Flipper dropped a new DLC on me. Thanks. Appreciate that. Glad it's marked at $15 too. Between that game and Cities: Skylines, it's amazing I'm able to afford food at the grocery store. At least CS seems to be maybe hopefully possibly done with DLCs now, considering the sequel is coming out? (Tomorrow, apparently. I just checked.) That's kinda cool. While I haven't always seen eye-to-eye with the DLC packs for that game, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the best sims on the console. Whether or not I'll touch CS2 is another story. We'll see if a certain blue tornado is a required trophy.

 

I'm checking which games are leaving PS+ in November. I see Dandara is one of them. I got lucky getting that as early as I did. A little disappointed to see Momodora 4 leaving, but I think I bought that with my own money at some point...? I'll have to see. That's one of those games I started playing but never earned in a trophy in, so I was able to make it seem like I've never touched it. Sorta like Stardew Valley. I'm sneaky like that. (My Time at Portia is leaving too, if you're interested. I liked the game. It'd just be really hard to platinum in the time you'd have.)

 

Guess we aren't losing anything new from the wheel. That's good, I guess.

 

Man, I really just need to sit down and finish all these DLCs someday...

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #403 - Gal Guardians: Demon Purge

 

It's a far cry from the days I used to binge Halloween-themed games in October, but I at least wanted to get one in. Gal Guardians: Demon Purge is a 2D action platformer that seems to have taken inspiration from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. But is this a HELL of a good time, or should this game just be PURGED from my account? (Yeah, that's the stuff.)

 

Let's get the background information out of the way first. This game is a spin-off (holiday special?) of the ultra-popular Gal*Gun series, which I know absolutely nothing about. A quick Google search tells me I should probably keep it that way. I have no idea why they changed the title, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say if I was able to follow this deeply complex story with no previous knowledge of the series, so can you. In fact, I'm pretty sure this was intended to be a stand-alone title.

 

The two main characters are Shinobu (the girl in blue in the platinum image) and Maya (the girl in red). They are sisters and the only two playable characters in the game. I believe the game has co-op, but I played by myself, which gives you the option of freely swapping between the girls at any time. They have separate health bars and different skill/movement sets, so it actually is in your best interest to play as both. Shinobu is a ranged fighter (you can tell this because she has a gun) and Maya is a melee fighter (see the rapier?). This makes you think, "Oh, I bet Maya is a tank and Shinobu is a glass cannon." Well, no... For some reason, the developers decided Shinobu should have three times the health as Maya. You're probably going to play as her 80% of the time. She has the better attack, can take more damage, and gets the best skills. Maya is the forgotten little sister. She can, uh... crawl? Yeah, that's about it. Because she's smaller, she's able to move while ducking, while Shinobu cannot. (This is what happens when parents favor one child over the other.)

 

That doesn't mean Maya is useless. As I said, the girls have separate HP bars, but you're sent back to a previous point if either one dies. (For the purposes of this review, I'm going to assume you're playing on Casual difficulty. Veteran and the unlockable Legendary difficulty add nonsense like knockback when you get hit and a life/game over system.) That means you're likely either going to switch to Maya when your HP gets low on Shinobu OR you can damage boost your way through sections as Maya when you're too lazy/impatient to fight through as Shinobu. Either way, Maya is mostly there as a safety net.

 

Now, when one of the girls dies, you're sent back to the last checkpoint (or current room? It seems to be inconsistent here) and only have the option of playing as the remaining girl. That is, unless you can return to the spot where your sister died. From there, you can spam the triangle button to revive her, which I think returns her to half HP. I don't know what happens if you don't bother to revive her. On Casual difficulty, if BOTH girls die, you just get revived at the last checkpoint anyway, so sometimes it behooves you to just suicide if you lose one of the sisters. (The exception to this is when you're fighting a boss. When you die fighting a boss, some of the damage you did to them persists. On Casual difficulty, this means you can slowly chip away at a boss' HP bar, so long as you're able to revive your sister every time.)

 

As far as gameplay goes, this is 50% combat and 50% platformer. Some enemies respawn, but most only respawn when you die. Neither Maya nor Shinobu have a double jump, but you do get an additional skill on each character every time you beat a level (seven levels overall). Some of these are attacks, which use mana points, but the better ones are movement abilities. I don't think there are any spoilers here, but the best thing Shinobu gets is a grappling hook, followed by an ability that lets her heal herself or Maya. Since mana is pretty easy to come back, you can totally cheese the game (and most bosses) with this. Maya gets...a couple nice abilities, I guess? I liked the umbrella. It lets you slowly descend, but it also seems to allow you to get more horizontal distance than you otherwise could. Her other skills seem situational at best. (Shinobu gets a fuckin' rocket launcher because she wasn't already OP enough. Devs definitely favored one over the other.)

 

This MIGHT be getting into spoiler territory here, but if you've played almost any Metroidvania before, this probably won't come as a surprise: the game isn't over when you finish it. In fact, the game doesn't really become a Metroidvania until NG+. That's when you gain the ability to upgrade your skills (e.g. the grappling hook can shoot diagonally) and you're forced to play through every level again. That's also when the game remembers it's Japanese and asks you to find five items that a horny teenage boy would be excited by. I'm not joking. That is the actual plot of NG+. Each boss is holding one item, so you're tasked with playing through every level again and killing the now-upgraded boss. This is actually easier than before because of how much stronger the sisters are. Even their basic attacks are improved.

 

I technically think you're required to play through NG++ as well. That's because, throughout the game, you'll encounter fellow school girls. (I'm assuming they are the all-female cast of Gal*Gun.) Well, sometime after finding the five items for the horny boy and beating the game a second time, I found out that all the girls in the game lost their panties in a dimensional rift and I had to track all those down too. I'm pretty sure these panty rifts don't appear until somewhere near the end of NG+, so you'll need to play through every level a third time. Each level has multiple ways to progress too, by the way, so you'll need to do a bit of backtracking and exploration to find everything. There are also upgrades to your characters you can find, but I don't think these count for a trophy.

 

As far as the difficulty goes... I dunno, maybe a 3/10? It'd be a lot harder if you were forced to play on a higher difficulty. The platforming and basic combat aren't too difficult, but the bosses can be a pain. I'm not sure how to dodge some of their attacks. In some cases, I just found it easier to damage boost through them and then heal up using Shinobu. I especially had to do this for the final boss. She (because of course it's a she) has at least one really tricky attack to dodge. Oddly enough, the final boss is actually easier when you get the "true ending". That felt a little backwards.

 

The hardest trophy is beating Boss Rush (unlocked by beating the game once) on Legendary difficulty, but it's made a lot easier by beating it on any difficulty first. That's all I'll say about that that.

 

The soundtrack is great, but there's one little issue getting in the way...

 

"NO ESCAPE! OUT OF MY WAY! EAT LEAD! HAD ENOUGH!? TAKE THIS! NO ESCAPE! YOU'RE SWISS CHEESE! TAKE THIS! NO STOPPING ME! OUT OF MY WAY! NO DODGING THIS! LOCK AND LOAD! EAT LEAD! YOU'RE SWISS CHEESE!"

- Shinobu, probably

 

I hope you like Shinobu's voice because that's ten seconds of normal gameplay.

 

Finally, I know we're a month early for this, but I need to check my profile for all the games I've played this year. Just picture me looking through it now. Uh-huh, yep... oh yeah, that game... yeah... wow, that one sucked... huh, forgot I played that... uh-huh... yep... wow... yep... uh-huh... ... ... yeah... HAHA, I remember that one... oh yeah... yep... yep... OK. I can say this confidently now. Guys... With no uncertainty, this was the most fun game I've played all year. Parts of it were tedious. There...isn't a lot of (English) information out on there on this game. That makes finding some of the collectibles a pain. It takes an odd direction in NG+. I wish the "alternate ending" never existed. But when we talk about games that are just pure fun to play through, this is up there with the best Metroidvanias as far as I'm concerned. Tight controls, enjoyable combat, and challenging without ever feeling unfair. If you're shocked, imagine how I feel. This gets my strongest recommendation of 2023.

 

 

I'll see you all tomorrow (or later tonight, if I'm feeling cheeky) for the next rolling.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

How to Justify a PS+ Subscription in 12 Easy Steps

The Sixth Rolling

 

Well, it only took us to the halfway point for me to fail to finish a game in the same month I rolled it. (Mostly by choice, though. I'm at the point-of-no-return in Miles Morales and I'm sure I could still finish it by the end of the month if I really wanted to. I'm just not up for a NG+ run right now.) Still, I know November and December are always busy months for me, so it's not like I had a chance to keep that streak alive anyway.

 

For those of you wondering, my living situation is still weird and probably will be for a while now, so consider me still in limbo. That doesn't mean I can't participate in this self-imposed event.

Let's take a look at the current wheel.

 

 

So, I officially eliminated The Quarry from the wheel, since it's not on PS+ anymore. That just means every other game has a higher chance of being selected. (The other two were Yakuza 0 and Through the Darkest of Times. I'm pretty sure all the rest on the wheel are still available to play.)

 

I won't drag this one out. I know you guys aren't super into when I wax poetically or start writing some weird fan fiction. Plus, I'd like to get some gaming in tonight.

 

To the randomizer! I guess we can still keep it 1-24, but now we're getting to the point where I may have to reroll a few times to get a number that hasn't been picked yet... Will I finally get an 11 or am I destined to the end up in the danger zone at last?

 

And... a new number right away. Huh. OK then. November's entry will be...

 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

 

Another superhero game... Well, why not double up, I guess? I hear this one is actually pretty good. I've never seen the movie(s?). We'll take a quick peek at the guide now, since I'm sure somebody wrote one on PSNP. Wow, 15 players short of 100k owners... This is even more popular than I thought. No DLC trophies, which is surprising. I thought for sure it did. Difficulty is 3/10 and time to platinum is 20 hours, which is basically the same as Dandara and Gal Guardians: Demon Purge. Nice. I'll take a shorter game on a shorter month. Does kinda make me want to rush through Miles Morales first, though...

 

We'll see if GotG can compete for GotY. It might be the last entry to make the cut in 2023, unless I'm feeling overly ambitious. (Not likely with the Super Mario RPG Remake coming soon.)

Edited October 30, 2023 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

I don't like super heroes movies, but I watched a playthrough of the Guardians of the Galaxy game. But since you often skip stories,, I don't know how much fun you'll have if you do.

[Cassylvania]

On 10/30/2023 at 3:09 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I don't like super heroes movies, but I watched a playthrough of the Guardians of the Galaxy game. But since you often skip stories,, I don't know how much fun you'll have if you do.

 

I only skip stories when they suck! I'm sure I'll enjoy that one. Just like I enjoyed...

 

Platinum #404 - Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

 

That's not a 404 error you see! Despite saying I was going to hold off, I actually did finish this game...but a couple hours after October was over. Not sure if that counts. Either way, this is going to be a short review. I don't have a lot to say. You've already played this game, you've almost certainly played the original, and the general consensus seems to be: "More of the same." You could probably just read my Marvel's Spider-Man review and it'd hold up here.

 

I guess there are three big changes here. First, you play as Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker. That kinda matters more when you're playing as the person behind the mask, since Spider-Man handles basically the same. Second, Miles has some neat venom powers that Peter didn't have. (I guess they don't handle basically the same.) And, third, it's winter in New York City this time around. That's actually my favorite change. You know I love me a winter wonderland.

 

Graphics are good, soundtrack is good, combat is good...I guess. I dunno about the combat actually. Playing through NG+, I found it more frustrating than fun. That could be because I was trying to speedrun the game, as anybody playing NG+ would do, stop putting this in video games. I actually found stealth kills (Spider-Man doesn't kill anybody, but you'd be amazed what you can live through) to be more fun, but the variety there is limited. Also, enemies are stupid. They'll walk below you so you can string them to the ceiling or wall. Reminds me of that third Lara Croft game, where I just kept piling bodies outside of a bush and luring other morons to their doom. At least here, they weren't VISIBLE from ground level. (I mean, unless the AI learned how to look up...?)

 

The story was pretty standard. Peter kinda ditches you early on, so you're forced to be NYC's only Spider-Man, and Miles is obviously suffering from an inferiority complex. Much of the plot revolves around him being accepted as his own person, not discount Spidey. I guess that makes sense to do for what could be considered a sequel (but is really more of a paid DLC since the real sequel just dropped?). I thought all the characters were fine. I never read the comics, so I dunno how closely the game aligns with the cast, but I did watch Across the Spider-Verse last night and it was amazing. I definitely saw some parallels there.

 

So, yeah. I dunno if I'd recommend this game per se, as I would say I definitely recommend the first game and then this is an obvious recommendation if you enjoyed that. I don't know why you would play this if you haven't played the original, but I guess it wouldn't matter if you did. They're both good. I think the original came across as slightly more polished -- which is weird, because you think the follow-up would be -- but part of that is because the original was something new and interesting. As somebody who is currently re-watching all the mainline Disney films, I can tell you that it's very rare for a sequel to live up to the original.

 

We got one more month before the annual awards ceremony, so let's see how many more games we can get in.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Cassylvania

[ProfSeajay7]

On 10/20/2023 at 2:38 PM, pelagia14 said:

A lot of people have been playing the game recently for the Fight Cancer! event

I might do that if the event isn't over already. I still have the PS5 version to UNPACK. (rimshot)

[ProfSeajay7]

I know I shouldn't bring this up, Cass, but if you like old games, there is a site that plants achievements on them. It's called RetorAchievements and, while you do have to emulate the games, it supports all retro game emulators up to PS2, Nintendo GameCube and XBOX. I think it's a cool way to make my favorite old games like Dragon Quest Monsters and Pokemon have some goals to them.

 

You have to create an account on their site and download their launcher onto your computer, but it's great fun. I plan on doing the Dragon Warrior Monsters games for the GameBoy Color to celebrate the coming of the new Dragon Quest Monsters game coming to Nintendo Switch just before my birthday on December 6.

On 10/28/2023 at 8:24 PM, Cassylvania said:

This game is a spin-off (holiday special?) of the ultra-popular Gal*Gun series, which I know absolutely nothing about. A quick Google search tells me I should probably keep it that way.

Yeah, I played it on my Vita a long time ago fishing for an easy platinum and... well.... if you're one of THOSE men, I say you'll enjoy it.  I wasn't so I ditched it ASAP. And I had once platinumed Criminal Girls 1. Don't judge me, I'm a dude turned OFF by naked girls in sexual poses.😛

[ProfSeajay7]

On 11/1/2023 at 12:21 PM, Cassylvania said:

That's not a 404 error you see! Despite saying I was going to hold off, I actually did finish this game...but a couple hours after October was over. Not sure if that counts.

Don't sweat the small stuff, you can waive those few hours on real life issues and the Trophy Police will let you off the hook. 😆

 

Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be cake for you, and then you can save the wheel until 2024.

[Cassylvania]

On 11/5/2023 at 6:17 PM, ProfSeajay7 said:

I know I shouldn't bring this up, Cass, but if you like old games, there is a site that plants achievements on them. It's called RetorAchievements and, while you do have to emulate the games, it supports all retro game emulators up to PS2, Nintendo GameCube and XBOX. I think it's a cool way to make my favorite old games like Dragon Quest Monsters and Pokemon have some goals to them.

 

Interesting. I do think it'd be nice to play through some of those games with some actual recognition attached to them instead of self-imposed challenges. (Better yet, I'd just like to see a Pokemon-esque game on PS4/PS5 that isn't Nexomon. That sequel really annoyed me.) Fire Emblem too... In fact, I'd argue I'd rather see an FE or FE-like franchise succeed on PS more than anything. Given how successful RPGs are on the console, I'm confused why more of these don't exist.

 

Anyway, I know we're still a few weeks from my GOTY awards, but I've been thinking: how would you guys like me to conduct those this year? It'll be year five (technically) of doing it. I just put together a spreadsheet to look over the past winners/losers. We had some categories in 2019 that I never brought back, but Dragon Quest XI and King's Quest took home most of the gold. I didn't even bother hosting the awards in 2020 because Persona 5 would've won everything of importance. That's why I had to ban Genshin Impact from participating in 2022. I feel like 2021 was the best representation of a wide variety of games. The problem is, looking over my list this year, I feel we're in for another 2020/2022... So, instead of me doing categories, how would you guys feel if I ranked every game I played this year from best to worst? I could take into consideration every aspect of each game. If that's too much, I could create a tier list instead. This is just a bit of an odd year, where I feel there's not going to be a lot of surprises if I just start talking about graphics and soundtracks I liked. I'm honestly not even sure how I can compare some of those.

 

I'm open for other suggestions, if anybody has any. Any game I platinum by the end of the month is eligible for the ceremony.

 

(EDIT: By the way, the reason I bring this up now is I just finished playing through the DLC of last year's GOTY winner -- Cult of the Lamb -- and it made me think of it. Props to the devs of that game for making the DLC actually fun. Oh, and free.)

Edited November 7, 2023 by Cassylvania

[ProfSeajay7]

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

Better yet, I'd just like to see a Pokemon-esque game on PS4/PS5 that isn't Nexomon.

Whatcha? I liked the Nexomon titles and plan to work them in later, maybe early 2024. Their battle music was cool and it broke from the Pokemonesque gym challenge formula by introducing some interesting concepts and character. (I really think Meridia was hilarious, planning to kill you after you beat her in a volleyball match. LOLZ.)

 

Still, that's my experience, so I won't judge yours. I am one of the few people who don't diss on Game Freak for not delaying Pokemon Violet and Scarlet to 2024 to fix the terrible framerate issues and random graphic glitches. When you create a game as advanced as that, you have to expect some weaknesses.

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

So, instead of me doing categories, how would you guys feel if I ranked every game I played this year from best to worst?

Fine by me. Make a tier list of your games, everyone seems to be doing that.

[pelagia14]

I found the constant 4th-wall-breaking nature of Nexomon: Extinction to be a bit overdone - doesn't mesh well with my sense of humor. Didn't play the original Nexomon though, so I can't speak to that.

 

I'm down to read your GOTY "Awards" however you write them. If you make a tier list of each game's "rank/score", you could also do some special tier lists - for example, of the (x) number of games that you played this year, a tier list of the 5 or 10 games with the best graphics, a tier list of the 5 or 10 games with best soundtracks, etc. That would allow you to highlight certain award categories without having the same game "win" most of the award categories. 

Edited November 7, 2023 by pelagia14

[Cassylvania]

13 hours ago, pelagia14 said:

I'm down to read your GOTY "Awards" however you write them. If you make a tier list of each game's "rank/score", you could also do some special tier lists - for example, of the (x) number of games that you played this year, a tier list of the 5 or 10 games with the best graphics, a tier list of the 5 or 10 games with best soundtracks, etc. That would allow you to highlight certain award categories without having the same game "win" most of the award categories. 

 

Could do something like that. Otherwise, you guys are just going to hear me talk about a total of three games the entire time (assuming nothing I play this month registers on my list). I did kinda like how I spent the time last year going through every single game I played for some of the awards, when I was debating which ones had the best graphics, best story, etc. We're already up to 53 eligible games for this year, though...

 

Also, I like how one day after I get Cult of the Lamb back to 100% (after not touching it for over a year), Tales of Arise comes out of nowhere and takes a massive DLC dump all over me. These games just don't want to stay dead.

 

(I also finished one of Cities: Skylines' new DLCs, but, naturally, there's another one. Another VERY OVERPRICED one.)

 

(Oh, and Genshin just dropped some more DLC on me. Thanks for that. Still haven't finished the last two. Nearing 1300 hours in that game, by the way.)

Edited November 8, 2023 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

...and, less than 24 hours later, Risk of Rain 2 swoops in and decides to drop a random, SINGLE DLC TROPHY.

 

You done trolling me, devs? Am I just not allowed to have games at 100%?

[Grotz99]

On 11/7/2023 at 11:04 PM, Cassylvania said:

Also, I like how one day after I get Cult of the Lamb back to 100% (after not touching it for over a year), Tales of Arise comes out of nowhere and takes a massive DLC dump all over me. These games just don't want to stay dead.

Been seeing this a bunch lately and the DLC is just as expensive as the current base game.

[ProfSeajay7]

There are other monster-catching indies that are getting hyped: Coromon, Cassette Beasts, TemTem(if you want a Pokemon MMO experience, though there are also Pokemon MMOs) and Monster Sanctuary which is a Metroidvania with monster fighting and travel mechanics.

[Cassylvania]

Up for some updates?

 

First, I just finished the DLC for Doom Eternal. All three of them. It doesn't change my opinion on the game, as it's just more of the same. I will say I clipped out of bounds twice -- the first time which just set me back to the last checkpoint, but the second of which occurred near the end of Horde Mode. I had to redo a sizable portion of that. I also nearly died on the last wave multiple times. Actually, I thought I DID die, but this is one of those games where zero lives counts as a life. Not sure what happens if I lose that life too. I assume nothing good. Fortunately, I kept a cool head, baited the enemies like I had been doing for the last 60+ hours, and came out victorious. That's one DLC down.

 

Or three, I guess...

 

Second update! If everybody is cool with it, I'm thinking of discontinuing the wheel at the end of the year... meaning only one more month of a random game. I have a couple reasons for this. The first is the obvious one, that I just don't have the time. The second is something I'll talk about more during my awards ceremony. The fact that Sony upped the price of PS+ as significantly as they did, though... I'm not sure even I could justify that purchase. Realistically, my backlog is so big at this point that I could not pay for any tier of PS+ or even buy a single game for the next FIVE YEARS and still have enough things to do to keep me occupied. That said, I still plan to keep playing games on PS+, for as long as I have the subscription active. I may even play several of the games that were recommended. But... I've been thinking it over and I really want to make a different commitment to 2024. I want to start making a dent in my backlog. The thing I tried to do in 2022 and tried unsuccessfully to do in 2023 too. More on that when we get to the awards...

 

Which leads me to my third update. As I said, there's no point in doing the traditional ceremony. It would just me in an echo chamber talking about one or two games the entire time. It's Persona 5 and Genshin Impact all over again. So, instead, I've decided to do a full ranking. That's right -- I'll rank every game I completed this year. I'll probably start by putting them into tiers, but I'll keep the games in those tiers a secret, and then every few days in December I'll reveal three or four games. We'll make it a countdown, though, so I'll start from the worst game I played this year and we'll work our way to the best. I think that'll be kinda fun because I'll still have to consider all the usual aspects of what makes a game good or bad, but it'll give every game on my list a chance to shine. I'm still working on that project I promised you guys from 2021, and I feel bad that some games never got any recognition during my awards ceremony. The one that always comes to my mind is Night in the Woods. I don't even think I gave that game a flattering review. But... I have to admit. That game has stuck with me more than a lot of other games I played in 2021. You guys ever have that? A game you've come to appreciate more over time? (Not something you've always liked. Something you thought was decent, but you later realize it was much better than you gave it credit for.)

 

Anyway, that's about it for now. All the other unfinished DLCs are too expensive to start, so I'm going back to my active games backlog. If we're lucky, I'll get maybe two more games finished before we begin the awards... I think we're at 53 eligible games so far.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Cassylvania

[pelagia14]

6 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Second update! If everybody is cool with it, I'm thinking of discontinuing the wheel at the end of the year... meaning only one more month of a random game. I have a couple reasons for this. The first is the obvious one, that I just don't have the time. The second is something I'll talk about more during my awards ceremony. The fact that Sony upped the price of PS+ as significantly as they did, though... I'm not sure even I could justify that purchase. Realistically, my backlog is so big at this point that I could not pay for any tier of PS+ or even buy a single game for the next FIVE YEARS and still have enough things to do to keep me occupied. That said, I still plan to keep playing games on PS+, for as long as I have the subscription active. I may even play several of the games that were recommended. But... I've been thinking it over and I really want to make a different commitment to 2024. I want to start making a dent in my backlog. The thing I tried to do in 2022 and tried unsuccessfully to do in 2023 too. More on that when we get to the awards...

 

This is your cabinet thread and your free time. While it certainly would have been amusing to read how The Wheel™ continued to fare for you, I totally get that it just isn't working out right now. Plus, we'll get to read more reviews about games (good and bad) that interested you enough to acquire them, which is still an absolute win in my book. 😉

 

Yo, the backlog pain is real. I've been thinking recently about how I've been focusing a lot on <30h games this year, to the detriment of the longer games in my backlog. Honestly, I was thinking of taking a spin on your wheel idea as a way for me to perhaps tackle one longer game each month next year. (Or at least most months?)

 

6 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Which leads me to my third update. As I said, there's no point in doing the traditional ceremony. It would just me in an echo chamber talking about one or two games the entire time. It's Persona 5 and Genshin Impact all over again. So, instead, I've decided to do a full ranking. That's right -- I'll rank every game I completed this year. I'll probably start by putting them into tiers, but I'll keep the games in those tiers a secret, and then every few days in December I'll reveal three or four games. We'll make it a countdown, though, so I'll start from the worst game I played this year and we'll work our way to the best. I think that'll be kinda fun because I'll still have to consider all the usual aspects of what makes a game good or bad, but it'll give every game on my list a chance to shine. I'm still working on that project I promised you guys from 2021, and I feel bad that some games never got any recognition during my awards ceremony. The one that always comes to my mind is Night in the Woods. I don't even think I gave that game a flattering review. But... I have to admit. That game has stuck with me more than a lot of other games I played in 2021. You guys ever have that? A game you've come to appreciate more over time? (Not something you've always liked. Something you thought was decent, but you later realize it was much better than you gave it credit for.)

 

Oooooh, like an advent calendar - a surprise every few days! 🤩

 

I'm sure I've had games I've come to appreciate more than I initially gave them credit for, though I'm currently sleep-deprived and can't think of any examples. The other 'category' of game I find interesting is one where you finish a game, and then to your surprise, you're still thinking about it several weeks later - even if just occasionally. 

[ProfSeajay7]

On 11/19/2023 at 12:24 AM, Cassylvania said:

Second update! If everybody is cool with it, I'm thinking of discontinuing the wheel at the end of the year... meaning only one more month of a random game.

But we'll never see the Trial of the Lizard!!!

 

Okay, please don't murder me. I was joking.

 

I'm cool with it. I think having five random PS+ titles platted is fine because you got some of the backlog slaughtered. At least I was glad to see some fanfiction about one of my favorite games, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Speaking of the devil, I will probably try to get that as one of my 150 games to platinum on Dawntrail's release in Summer 2024. I have a list. (Yeah, sorry but not sorry. I am just gonna cut it down to 1/3 because 150 in seven months will be impossible since I intend to target GOOD titles which take 40 or so hours to get through, not shovelware.)

 

Also, if you want to see characters drawn by the guy who made your Dragonball game, play any of the Dragon QUEST games, Akira Toriyama, father of Goku, made all of the concept art for the characters in that series. And yes, I think the Dragonlord would fit in with the likes of Freiza.

[Cassylvania]

On 11/19/2023 at 7:48 AM, pelagia14 said:

This is your cabinet thread and your free time. While it certainly would have been amusing to read how The Wheel™ continued to fare for you, I totally get that it just isn't working out right now. Plus, we'll get to read more reviews about games (good and bad) that interested you enough to acquire them, which is still an absolute win in my book. 😉

 

Then that's what we shall we do.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm probably not going to platinum any games between now and the end of the month, so it looks like we'll be keeping the list at 53 eligible games. As always, I'm only including games I platinumed this year, so no unfinished games (e.g. Hogwarts Legacy) or DLCs that were released years after I finished the main game (e.g. Cult of the Lamb... Graveyard Keeper... Cities: Skylines for the ten millionth time...). Here's the full list, in alphabetical order:

• 13 Sentinels
• A Short Hike
• Atelier Marie Remake
• Atelier Ryza 3
• Axiom Verge 2
• Bee Simulator
• Bugsnax
• Carrion
• Catmaze
• Cotton Reboot!
• Dandara
• Deliver Us The Moon
• Detroit: Become Human
• Doom Eternal
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
• Drawngeon
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
• Endling
• FAR: Lone Sails
• Forma.8
• Gal Guardians: Demon Purge
• Green Hell
• Haven
• Hundred Days
• Inside
• Katamari Damacy Reroll
• Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series
• Lake
• Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry
• Life is Strange: True Colors
• Lost in Random
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Mighty Switch Force! Collection
• Minit
• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
• Omno
• Rain World
• Rise of the Slime
• Risk of Rain
• Risk of Rain 2
• Rooms: The Unsolvable Puzzle
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
• Subnautica: Below Zero
• The Artful Escape
• The DioField Chronicle
• Time on Frog Island
• Tropico 6
• Tunche
• Two Point Campus
• Unpacking
• Virginia
• Yoku’s Island Express

So, here's how this is going to work. I'm going to put every game into one of five tiers, ranging from one star (crap) to five stars (great). I've...actually already done this. I have not ranked them individually yet, and I may have a change of heart as we go through this. But the basic idea is we're going to work our way from the worst game on this list to the best game. That simply means choosing the weakest link 52 times. (So, instead of 52 Pick-up, this is 52 Put-Downs.) I think I can do that. I'll try my best to be positive, especially in the early-going where it's obviously going to be the worst games, but I'll warn you now that this is probably one of the most bottom-heavy years we've had in a while. It's part of the reason I want to change my approach in 2024. There are only about 20 or so games on this list that I'd consider to be good or better.

 

We'll see how this whole thing goes. I think it's going to be interesting to try to rank every game.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

I only played two of the games on the list - 13 Sentinels and Detroit (I really enjoyed both games for their story). Our game tastets differ so much we could be two different persons.

[Cassylvania]

13 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I only played two of the games on the list - 13 Sentinels and Detroit (I really enjoyed both games for their story). Our game tastets differ so much we could be two different persons.

 

Crazy, huh?

 

To be fair, I feel the games I've played this year aren't really representative of my gaming interests as a whole. I have so many games that just sit in my backlog, unplayed, while I impulsively buy some random game I've never heard of that just so happened to go on sale and then wonder why I'm not having fun. Like, why haven't I touched Elden Ring all year? I felt going into 2023 that it was easily going to compete for my GOTY, and yet I chose to play all of these games over it. That's ultimately why I feel the need to step back and reevaluate my life choices.

 

I'd also like to point out that I've probably put another 500 hours into Genshin this year, so, once again, that list is a little misleading. It might be interesting to see the total breakdown when Sony releases their end-of-the-year recap. I suspect only about three or four games make up about 75% of my playtime.