Durandals Almanac v2.0

[Durandal]

Thank you! But I think I am a bit obsessed with my list, or lists in general. I can make spreadsheets for just about everything! But in comparison you have a much bigger collection of games and trophies so requires much more work. Me on the other hand just started my PlayStation journey. Not sure if this would look the same if I hadn't started with just a couple of trophies.

 

Anyway the first season of Walking Dead is a fantastic adventure and well worth your time. The good thing is that you can play through the whole game in one or two evenings. And it is by far the best Telltale game to date. I would even say you can safely skip the rest of their games except this one.

 

I will definitely write a bit about Shantae when I have finished the campaign. I played the first level and so far it is great, cute characters and great visuals. I love the Caribbean style! Only thing that irritates me a bit is the music. Which is great but not really my kind of thing, but it fits the game just fine.

[Kittet3]

Oh, I'm eager to see what you think about Hob! I always wanted to get that game but I know nothing about it and I just like it because the name reminds me of Calvin and Hobs  I have a feeling I'm setting my expectations too high though.

[Durandal]

Hob is unlike any game I know and an interesting genre mix. First of all it is pretty much a common third person action adventure, which means you explore a world, fight enemies and avoid dangerous environments. You also collect items and upgrade you character. But there is no crafting just a dozen skills, four weapons and three cloaks. So far so usual. The second part is that the entire world is essentially one big puzzle. And in order to solve this puzzle you have to investigate the landscape, underground and outdoors. And when you solve a puzzle you change huge parts of the world, even the entire landscape. For instance when you start the game most of the world has changed or even hidden underground. So your overall goal is to figure out what happened and put things back as the were.

 

That doesn't sound like a lot but the world is really big and since you change it almost all the time you discover new areas again and again. It is a bit like Tomb Raider with much bigger levels. And there is another element that is quite unique. There is no dialog whatsoever. The only text is a description of the skills and that's it. There aren't even NPCs you can interact with or talk to. Well there is robot that guides you a bit but he is passive most of the times. So you have to pay attention to the environment to solve all those puzzles.

 

I played this game on my PC last year and I really liked it but it was a bit unsatisfying because you don't really learn anything about this world just that something happened but you won't learn what it was. There are a few lore rooms you can discover but again there is no text just abstract images. This might sound a bit boring but it is actually the opposite, at least for me. There is no big story that might distract you, just a lot of puzzles and enemies. And the gameplay is really well made, only thing that is a bit annoying sometimes is the camera.

 

But since a video says more then words, check out this one. I captured one of the earlier levels or underground puzzles.

Spoiler

 

 

Overall I can really recommend this game, especially when it is on sale.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Durandal

[Durandal]

Another month has passed and a lot has happened. In fact I have decided to write two updates to make it easier to read.

 

So here it goes. First the important thing, the three games I have completed this month. Two of them earned me a platinum trophy each and I am close to earn another with the third one. Here is a quick run down of these games.

 

Hob (100% & Platinum)
This game is a bit hard to describe. Some say it is a lot like Zelda, not sure if it is true, because I never played a Zelda game. But it is a bit of a hack n' slay, jump n' run and roleplay mix. Although the key aspects are the exploration of a strange world and solving lots of puzzles.

 

I played this game a while ago when it was released. Back then I had a good time but I was also a bit disappointed because the game ended quite suddenly and there was no explanation why. Let me elaborate on this a bit. This is a game that does tell you almost nothing, as in there are no dialogues or even cutscenes. Even the world isn't telling you much. The developer, may Runic Games rest in peace, decided to make a game without words. And they did, they only words are the descriptions for the skills and that's it. Although the game does tell you a lot but you have to piece it together, which isn't hard if you a little bit attention. What put me off the first time was that I haven't had explored the world completely and didn't find everything. I just managed to end the game sooner then expected, which wasn't a glitch but a possibility. So I left wondering what had happened.

 

Naturally the second time I played Hob was different. I already knew what I had to do for the most parts and I knew what was going on but this time I picked up all the details and the things I missed the first time. And it made the experience so much better. In retrospect I actually like it a lot now simply because there is no storytelling, it is just you and the world. It felt strangely relaxing not to play a game where everyone wants something from you. Of course there is still a plot but it all seems not really relevant. And you can focus more on the gameplay, which is mostly puzzle solving and combat. The centerpiece of this game are the puzzle and they are huge, literally! In fact the entire world is one big puzzle and you have the ability to manipulate this world. Think of it like a big machine and you rearrange the entire landscape. Sometimes this can be done within minutes and sometimes it takes up to an hour or longer. But it is so satisfying when you solve these. It is a bit like solving the puzzles in the older Tomb Raider, just on a bigger scale. And again you don't get any kind of hints from NPCs or some old text, just what the level design tells you.

 

The combat on the other hand is a bit like a necessity. You obtain upgrades for you character or a currency actually. Also you find a few items, a lot of butterflies and twelve old weapons which can be melted down and then forged into four swords. The butterflies on the other hand allow you to craft the only gear in the game, which are four cloaks. They enhance certain things but aren't really needed. You also find special skills all over the world. But the whole character development is rather simply, but still satisfying.

The coolest thing in terms of collectable are the viewpoints. Which is a great idea. Essentially you find a spot where your character rests for a moment and takes in the view, the camera actually shifts so you can enjoy the view too! There are also two endings! Which I won't spoil here, but they complement the story nicely. All in all this is one of the platinum I am really proud of.

 

In case you are wondering why I wrote so much about this game, it is simply because no one really knows about this game. According to PSN_Profiles there are only 1832 game owners and only a handful have completed it. Which is a real shame! Hopefully I could convince a few people to give this game a try. But let me say it again, you won't be disappointed!

 

RiME (100% & Platinum)
This is probably a much better known game so I keep it shorter. I liked the story and experience a lot, even though I wouldn't call this a game per se. It is more like a journey you take with a character instead of the usual world saving hero saga. I felt more like an observer even when I was in control of the character. There were a few times when I wasn't convinced  about what the game was telling me and the ending was rather weak. And I am not talking about the little "twist". I mean the resolution, which could have handled a bit better. It doesn't make this game weak but a more convincing resolution would have made the impact more profound. In any case a game that should be played regardless, just not for the trophies. I would even say the trophies shouldn't mean anything in this case.

 

Diablo III - Eternal Collection (87% & 3 Trophies left)
I hate this game! I mean it is fun and well design but it kinda ruined one of the most iconic series in my opinion! This is one of the games where the gameplay was sacrificed in order to make the game more accessible! And the way Blizzard essentially lied and cheated during the development. The result is a fun and engaging hack n' slay game with almost no depths, which is fine weren't it for the two great predecessors. And the weird thing is that no one really cares, well of course the die hard fans do but they are the minority now. Why do even still play this game? No idea! I guess I felt some weird need of completion, meaning getting the platinum. I really have no idea if I will ever pick it up again when I have don this!

 

Ok then, this concludes the first part. In the second part I'll write about the games I am currently playing or have made considerable progress and a few other things. Stay tuned ...

[Durandal]

+++ Breaking News +++

 

Earned another Platinum Trophy by completing The Book of Unwritten Tales! I wrote some thought about it in this post.

 

 

Edited August 8, 2018 by Durandal

[Honor_Hand]

Hi there! Congrats on those Platinums.

 

This ↓

On 4/8/2018 at 2:27 PM, Durandal said:

This game is a bit hard to describe. Some say it is a lot like Zelda, not sure if it is true, because I never played a Zelda game. But it is a bit of a hack n' slay, jump n' run and roleplay mix. Although the key aspects are the exploration of a strange world and solving lots of puzzles.

Sounds a lot like Zelda to me. I saw one of your videos on YouTube playing the game and I'd say the key difference here between Hob and Zelda is the perspective of how you play the game (in Hob being kinda like from an angled top-down perspective and in Zelda being mostly in third-person) and the story as well as you are told a LOT in Zelda games about the world and the perils in it.

 

By your description, it certainly sounds like a very enjoyable game and one that is worth trying out as I actually like puzzle games, even though I can get stuck in them for hours >.< As long as the puzzle is entertaining and requires a good thought process, there is nothing more rewarding than figuring out a solution by yourself. I also find it interesting that the developers opted for a silent approach on the storytelling, leaving the player to figure out things on his own and to kinda make a story by yourself with what you see on the game sounds pretty unique if you ask me. All in all, it seems worth checking out

 

About RIME, no idea. I have heard a number of positive opinions on it. It seems as if you didn't quite buy into the game's idea going on by what you wrote over there. By the footage I have seen of it, it certainly looks like one of those artistic games in which you are in more for the experience than for the gameplay.

 

Diablo III... YES!!! Glad to see I'm not the only one who ended up hating it ? I didn't play the second entry in the series back when it was insanely popular but I did like the first one and its slow, methodical approach to dungeon traveling. It made it feel like a truly unique and dark game for its time. I got the vanilla version of Diablo III on PS3 when it came out expecting something similar and I was massively disappointed with the game, not so much by the way it looks, but how simple it plays. I also had to push myself hard in order to complete it because it wasn't really that fun to me. Grinding for gold was by far the most tedious task if memory serves me right. Had to repeat a certain chapter like a trillion times in order to get a certain amount of gold for a trophy. 

 

Congrats on your most recent Platinum and the progress you have made so far. Feel like it has been a while since I last commented around here

 

[Durandal]

Thank you!

9 hours ago, Honor_Hand said:

All in all, it seems worth checking out

It really is and it is also a small game which can be played in a couple of evenings. As for the puzzles, they are mostly of the mechanical sort and you have to figure out how to get to the different parts of it, just like those Tomb Raider puzzles. But what really fascinates me is the scale of these puzzle. It reminds me a lot of those opening sequence of Alien and Aliens, you know when a machine starts working and the whole scene comes to live. That's happening in Hob a lot and again on a very big scale. Darn I could talk a lot about this game.

 

RiME is indeed what people call art, not really sure if games can be art but that's another topic. My gripe is that it doesn't convey its idea very good. Silent World and That Dragon, Cancer dealing with this in a much better way for example. Still it is a good game and worth the few hours it takes to complete it.

 

*High Fives* Yeah Diablo III is a sad little game which destroyed something truly wonderful. Your description of Diablo fits the bill perfectly. The second entry is basically the same plus it has the perfect symbiosis between leveling a character and grinding for gear. Everything is so well balanced, and it has such a great atmosphere. The movies alone are insanely good.

 

9 hours ago, Honor_Hand said:

Feel like it has been a while since I last commented around here

Well I haven't posted something in a good while, only now it comes pouring out of me, so to speak. And there is more soon.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Durandal

[Durandal]

Second part of my July activities

 

Apart from the 2 platinum trophies I made some good progress with a these two games.

 

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition

Arrgh!! It never ends!! Seriously, this game has so much content. I now have completed the main story and the two addons "Friends to the End" & "Pirate Queen's Quest". All three of them are hilarious and full of great ideas. The two addons are so different from the main game. My favourite one is probably "Friends to the End" which is a great Trine clone. The Pirate Quest is really cool because it tells Risky Boots version of the main game. She is the Pirate Queen and the villain of the main story. But this time Shantae becomes the antagonist, well for Risky Boots anyway. And then there are the four Arcade Modes, of those I have complete 2 now. Only the Ninja mode and the Jammie mode remains. I really like the idea behind these modes, they can be completed quickly and the stories are funny and interesting and they too change the game quite a lot. Honestly this game reminds me quite a bit of NieR:Automata somehow, because there are lots of different aspect of the same story and you get to play each one of them yourself.

 

Unfortunately I don't think I will get the platinum for this game. I have almost collected all the trophies I could but there are some serious ones left. I would need to replay each mode again as a time trial.  I am not really sure if I want to do this. I could do those in a painstakingly process with lots of backup saves. Not my favourite thing! Oh and then there is also the hardcore mode, which might be a good side project once I've finished the Ninja mode.

 

Battlechasers: Nightwar

I always wanted to pick this up because it looks so damn interesting. I like turn based combat and this game has a great combat system. Lots of interesting skills and it is engaging to use different skills, because of a little thing called overcharge. There are four basic actions for each character and they are free of costs. Instead it charges your mana bar and powers all the skills which costs mana. And the time where a character can act depends on how fast or slow a skill is. So  the turn based combat changes quite a lot this way and it can even make a huge difference in a battle.

 

This game is basically a western JRPG in every sense of the world. With quite the unusual cast, for instance you have a little girl who is your tank and a huge battle golem who is your healer! And there is no main character, instead each character is equal and the story revolves around the entire group. The world itself is rather small, with eight randomised dungeons and a fixed overmap. But you can replay these dungeons at any time, with three different difficulties, you find much needed items and resources this way. The game itself is based on a popular but not very successful comic series, which was designed by Joe Madureira.

 

Top 15 changes
Hop made a strong entrance and went straight to the 2nd place and the Book of Unwritten Tales 2 made it to the 8th place. Unfortunately this means that RiME stayed only for a little while.

 

The other stuff!

Well, I can't stop fiddling with my list. I removed all the games I haven't even started yet. It just bloats up the list too much. Instead I will only add games for which I have earned at least one trophy. This way I can organise this list more efficiently. Oh and I am going to call that backlog my personal shop or something from now on!

 

And I have set two goals now. First one would be to keep my completion rate above 50% from now on and hopefully reach 75% sometime this year. The second is easier said then done but I won't buy new games until I have finished two or more old ones! Simply by following this rule: For every two games I finish I could buy a new one.

 

This leads me to my wishlist. There are only few games left now. Those would be Gravity Rush 2, Divinity Original Sin 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Odin Sphere. The last one is really tempting me but of course the new Tomb Raider does too. And having almost finished Gravity Rush I really want to know how it continues. Original Sin 2 is a really great RPG and I played it extensively on my PC. This new version that will be released for PS4 soon is really interesting too because they added a lot of things and changed the game substantially, making it even better or so they claim. Which they already did with the first one and it really made the game so much better. But the thing is I will get this game for free anyway because I own the PC version, but there are no trophies.

 

And regarding my new rule I could buy two more games.

Edited August 11, 2018 by Durandal

[Durandal]

+++ Breaking News +++

 

And my 10th Platinum!

 

[Honor_Hand]

Congrats on the Platinum and the Milestone ?

 

I see you will be stopping your advance on Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Even if the game is really good (and holy hell, it looks outstanding for a platformer!), if it has trophies that can be considered a chore or just plain tiresome in general, it may be best to put it to rest for a while before coming back with a renewed spirit to finish it up. That's the stuff we always say to ourselves when we are tired of games... and that is the magic of how backlogs are born lol

 

That Battlechasers: Nightwar game sure sounds interesting by your description. So, it is a western-developed JRPG. I guess we can call it at a... WRPG, maybe? Sounds valid enough. I am not the biggest fan of turn-based combat, that's it unless the game has a great catch/idea on how it plays its battles or it simply has a great set of characters with a terrific story to boot. I take it is PS4 only?

 

Good luck with your new goals. Since you are just starting out, keeping that completion rate close to 75% should prove very attainable for you before the end of the year. I told myself that I would try to improve mine to 85% but now that I take a closer look at it, it seems kind of unrealistic. Much less if I keep adding or starting new games I don't even finish T_T

 

As for myself, I really haven't played anything this week... I don't know, I'm don't feel particularly motivated to play anything ever since I returned from traveling. I have been just watching anime for the most part. I might update my topic tomorrow to see if I can clear the table on what I am going to be doing for the next couple of days.

 

Good to hear from you and your progress. Keep on gaming!

[Durandal]

Thank you once again!

 

Yeah I've sort of stopped playing Shantae, but then again not really. What I am trying to say is that I play it for a bit every day mostly since I finished most of the game. And I am doing this for a while now. I was focusing on Gravity Rush in the meantime. The beauty of Shantae is that all the difficult passages are quite easy once you practiced them a lot, almost like muscle memory. But taking a break on regular basis is certainly good for ones sanity. Well like I like said just two arcade modes and I am put it on my shelf, so to speak. The time trials and the hardcore mode can wait!

 

Battle Chasers is PS4/PC/XBox One only as far as I know. It was released a year ago I think. The turn based combat is actually quite interesting as I mentioned but after a while you repeat certain steps like with most games of this kind. Then again it is not super long and it requires some planing after all, because the overcharge mode can be the difference between victory or defeat. Maybe check out a some videos or reviews.

 

Hmm I would say once you bought a PS4(Pro) we could have a little chat about what games I consider should-be-played.

 

Yeah the more games you have in your collection the harder it is to keep the completion rate high, unless you hide a lot of games. I hope I can stay true to my plan and play every game I add to it. So far this has worked ok-ish, but lately I started to focus on a few games again and managed to finish them all. So my Rank E games stay below 10. Hopefully I can reduce that to 1 or even 0 someday. This is were the trophy and progess bar actually helps a lot.

 

As for your low motivation, I know what you mean. I have this once or twice per year too, and I watch a lot of TV shows then. It is a good way to recharge your batteries. But the desire to play games will never go away, right?

[Honor_Hand]

24 minutes ago, Durandal said:

Hmm I would say once you bought a PS4(Pro) we could have a little chat about what games I consider should-be-played.

 

Yeah the more games you have in your collection the harder it is to keep the completion rate high, unless you hide a lot of games. I hope I can stay true to my plan and play every game I add to it. So far this has worked ok-ish, but lately I started to focus on a few games again and managed to finish them all. So my Rank E games stay below 10. Hopefully I can reduce that to 1 or even 0 someday. This is were the trophy and progess bar actually helps a lot.

 

As for your low motivation, I know what you mean. I have this once or twice per year too, and I watch a lot of TV shows then. It is a good way to recharge your batteries. But the desire to play games will never go away, right?

I somehow feel that PS4 Pro is light years away from me >.< I just hope I can get one before the PS7 comes out

 

Yep, tell me about it. I have been thinking about not buying any more games for the rest of the year and focus on completing everything I have. That way I could:

 

A. Actually save more money quickly for what I want to do or get and

B. Cut down on my backlog for once

 

Problem is that I am a sucker for buying used games at a cheap price, so I usually cannot say no to a good offer lol

 

Hopefully, that desire will never go away completely

[Durandal]

Oh I sure you know what you mean. Personally I blame Steam for that. They started these insane sales as far as I know. My gog.com account is also full of those cheap games, I think I haven't even played one of them. It kinda carried over to my PS4 now but strangely I have it much better under control, well not as much as I hoped I would, but the number of games I have actually played from start to finish is really high compared to my PC years. I think the trophies and progress bar actually helps me focus, strange as that may sounds.

 

But yeah, we are all collectors of great deals, must be genetics. Only we hunt for virtual goods now instead of food and fire wood. Anyway I think you should save some money for a PS4, who knows maybe there is a great deal waiting to be found. But then again, those prices you would have to pay are really scary. Hopefully that changes soon.