Kill Your Completion X

[voodoo_eyes]

 

 

Quote

*snipper a bit here and there*

 

(Sorry, the titles are getting a bit tired now, I'm just glad this event is almost over. Writing up synopses for each game is tiring.)

 

 

Okay, that's sort of a wall of text, but you can see where I am going here. Ni no Kuni II had to be started at a very bad time. I had finally platinumed the original Dragon Quest Builders and promised not to play the sequel until that was done, so I started playing DQB2 blind and NNK2 had a hard time. But I did eventually start playing it... and with sound on! (I usually mute the games I play.)

 

So putting aside Dragon Quest games, this game is a very beautiful game. It's the technical sequel to Wrath of the White Witch, but other than an obscure reference in the beginning during a series of puzzles you have to solve telling a legend which includes Mornstar, a weapon you get in that game, and Ding Dong Dell existing in both games(and having cat-people in both), this game is totally divorced from the first game in both story(the President of the United States gets teleported to Ni No Kuni's world and de-aged by twenty years to help a prince who is usurped by a villainous advisor) and gameplay(the first has Tales of Symphonia like combat, this is pure action RPG combat).

 

Instead of taming and raising familiars, this game uses strange puppet-like Pikmin creatures called Higgledies, which support you in combat. One of the sidequests has you finding strange stones and offering items to them and if you guess what they want from their clues, they spit out a Higgledie which you can equip to your team(you can equip four groups of Higgledies) and form a powerful support group to keep you alive in boss fights, and boy will you need them as boss fights pull no punches.

 

The Struggle:

I've stopped after you get your first new party members, at the beginning of Chapter 3, and this game is gorgeous and easy to get into for those who love Wrath of the White Witch(which is getting a PS4 remaster on the same month as Dragon Quest XI for the Nintendo Switch) and got its full line-up of DLC(which for some reason I cannot access right now).

 

I think picking only JRPGs in particular may have had a bit to do with it feeling somewhat tiresome to write about the games for the event. I know a few former participants share the same game preference as you do and their lists also mostly consisted of JRPGs or VNs, however they tended to have either smaller lists, or only one game of a franchise. Maybe you can try out fewer games over the same period for next time, and see if it's better that way for you. That way you can spread out your thoughts better as well, so it doesn't have to be in one big chunk. Mind you, it's justa suggestion, you do how you think it's best for you.

 

Personally I thought Ni No Kuni was good, but at the same time underwhelming. It seemed to me like a game stuck in an identity crisis that keeps trying new mechanics and genre mixes, doesn't stick with the interesting ones while keeping others that just end up feeling tacked on and kind of pointless (one of them being the little bouncing marshmallow things you mentioned (i can't remember their name...). Wasn't a fan of the lack of voice-acting either and the story felt a bit bland to me. Visually it was great though, as was the music and the combat (then again I'll take action.rpg over traditional rpg combat most of the time).

 

 

On a different note... Why do you tend to play with the sound muted, if I may ask? I only muted maybe a handful of games and most of them were JRPGs from the PS2 era that didn't have individual volume sliders. Eventually the music in those games would start to annoy me so much that I had to turn off all the sound.

Edited July 27, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #9 - Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: about 9h

Tropheis earned: 13/48

 

 

I pushed through one of the story arcs and clocked in around 9 hours, out of which 8h were gameplay and 1h was cutscenes. That's how it should be done, unless the story is supposed to be the focus (in which case the story needs to be good to begin with). Speaking of story, not that great in this one. It's predictable, contradicts itself left and right and is overly dramatic. Now that the negative aspects are out of the way, let's get into the good stuff.

 

The story segments are concise enough so that they don't interrupt the flow of the game constantly. You get exposition at hte beginning and at the end of an arc. The gameplay is that of a sidescrolling action-rpg, with nice graphics and fun combat, some crafting, cooking and a decent enemy variety. The locations re on the generic side, there's an ice level, a fire level, forest and so on. The acts are a whole elvel that is divided into separate smaller areas that sometimes are connected to side areas with extra loot (similar to Exist Archive). Some of the areas have a resting area where you can stock up on items from vendors and access your stash, or do some cooking.

 

The combat is pretty much just hack and slash while throwing some abilities in as well. Abilites are unlocked by finding them (they're hidden in chests) and by clearing an act. They can be upgraded a set number of times as well. I've pretty much stuck with the same abilities throught the whole game as most didn't seem good or too limiting. The bosses unfotunately are pretty much just sponges for damage, which is a shame because they have some cool designs. However when mid bosses have 3 life bars and main bosses have 5 it just comes down to endurance and little else.

 

While overall the artstyle is pretty good, it is also a bit odd in places. Most notably the male character design, that have often a larger body with a tiny head attached to it. It reminded me a bit of Earth's Dawn that way, as that game has the proportions all whacky as well and takes some real getting used to.

 

 

There are seemingly quite a few more stories to playthrough, and I'm secretly hoping that the locations, enemies and bosses will vary. It'll dampen the enjoyment quite a bit, if it's just going to be the same thing with a different character.

 

 

It gets a .

Edited July 27, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[PerryToxteth]

6 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

I think picking only JRPGs in particular may have had a bit to do with it feeling somewhat tiresome to write about the games for the event. I know a few former participants share the same game preference as you do and their lists also mostly consisted of JRPGs or VNs, however they tended to have either smaller lists, or only one game of a franchise. Maybe you can try out fewer games over the same period for next time, and see if it's better that way for you. That way you can spread out your thoughts better as well, so it doesn't have to be in one big chunk. Mind you, it's justa suggestion, you do how you think it's best for you.

@RuneEyesDragon  - Just to piggyback off what Voodoo said, I learned the HARD way after one of my first KYCs to mix and match big titles with little, quick games. AAA title after AAA title really exhausted me, although it's a hell of a way to kill a completion!

Nowadays, I throw little things in like Flower or Knee Deep to break up the slog fest from mammoth games. I hope you join future KYCs, your reviews are great!!

[AsaraBaenre]

Game 9:

Moonlighter (July 25th - July 27th)

Time Played: 6 hr 

Trophies Earned: 3/57 (4%)

Current Completion: 24.03% (+1.38%)

 

Well, Moonlighter is really, really fun. I'm not good at it at all, as expected, but I'm slowly getting better! I have gotten to the point where I can take out the first two bosses in the first dungeon without getting hit! (Yes, yes, I know. That's not much of an accomplishment, but hey, I'm taking it slow. I'm going for the platinum for this thing which includes taking out the boss for each dungeon without getting hit, and with the last hit coming from a broom. So there's that.)

 

The game is a mixture of shop sim and Binding-Of-Issac-esque Roguelike dungeon crawl where you explore randomly generated dungeons, then bring the remains of the monsters you kill back to town to either sell or craft items with. It's incredibly fun and also quite complex, with very limited bag space adding to the strategy you have to use when playing to make sure you get the most out of each trip.

 

I definitely reccomend this game to anyone who likes roguelikes, and if you like management sims, hey all the better! 8.5/10

 

 

Game 10 Preview:  Cities: Skylines (July 28th - July 30th)

Game Stats:

13,260 Game Owners; 451 (3.4%) Platinum Achievers/ 16 (0.12%) 100% Completed; 12% Average Completion
90 Trophies (1/5/18/66)

DLC Owned: Season Pass 1

 

Playstation Store Description: - Build the city of your dreams: Bring on a smog-filled industrial revolution or create a quiet beach town ideal for tourists powered by renewable energy. Build it your way!
- Multi-tiered and challenging simulation: Playing as the mayor of your city, you’ll be faced with balancing essential requirements such as education, water electricity and much more, along with your city’s economy. 
- Extensive local traffic simulation: Managing traffic and the needs of your citizens to work and play will require the use of several interactive transport systems.
- Districts and policies: Be more than just another city hall official! Create a car-free downtown area, assign free public transport to your waterfront, or ban pets in suburbia. 
- After Dark included: Watch your city become an entirely different place at night: a day-night cycle will have your citizens seeking out places to unwind after work.

 

Being a massive Paradox fan, I'm pretty sure what I'm expecting with this one. And that's probably why I decided to save it for last. Knowing Paradox I'm going to get sucked in very quick with all the nitpicky little controls and details and my first playthrough will be an enormous mess of me trying to figure out the controls (which in the PDX games I've played so far have been decently intuitive) and also trying to figure out the little tips and tricks and ways that things work in the game, while in this case making a massively clogged and inefficient city that will eventually spiral into ruin. THEN I'll start up another city and do minutely better. And so on and so on. This game I've heard of as being a massive slog for trophies, but that's fine. I have 200 hours logged on the PC version of Stellaris (and plan to get the PS4 version at some point as well), bring it on, Paradox! 

 

(TLDR: Cities Skylines is a very complex city builder with a trophy list (so I've heard) to make you cry. Also being a Paradox game there are a ton of DLCs (6 at the time of writing, 7 if you include After Dark which was originally a DLC on the PC version but was included in this one) and yes, all the DLC have trophies. Oh sweet, sweet 100%, you are so far away.)

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #10 - Pillars of Eternity - Preview

 

 

Well, this is awkward. This is a CRPG, as in Computer role playing game, which was a very popular genre around the 90s and early 2000s, and then slowly disappeared into Oblivion. If you've ever played any of the first two Fallout games, Wasteland, PLanescape Torment, or the fantasy and D&D inspired Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale or Neverwinte Nights games, you'l have played a game in this genre.

 

This is pretty much the type of artstyles these games have.

Spoiler

 

I'm going to say it right now, there may be bias when it comes to this genre. Pretty much every single title I listed are among my favourite games ever. Baldur's Gate is also still my favourite game of all time.

A few years ago these games have sort of been revived, and have popped up as Divinity Original Sin, Torment Tides of Numenara, Wasteland 2, Sword Coast Legends,Pathfinder and Pillars of Eternity.

 

These types of games, are very dialogue heavy with a lot of it not being voiced due to the sheer amount of said dialogue. They are always isometric, have party maangement and each of the potential party members (usually capped at 6) have personalities ranging from good to evil, which affects their relationships, the NPCs. So much so, that your party members can potentially kill each other. THey can also just leave, if they give you an obective and you ignore it for too long.

 

Looking forward to this one and I hope the console adaptation is good.

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[RuneEyesDragon]

7 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

@RuneEyesDragon  - Just to piggyback off what Voodoo said, I learned the HARD way after one of my first KYCs to mix and match big titles with little, quick games. AAA title after AAA title really exhausted me, although it's a hell of a way to kill a completion!

Nowadays, I throw little things in like Flower or Knee Deep to break up the slog fest from mammoth games. I hope you join future KYCs, your reviews are great!!

Yeah, I know, ten triple-A 100-hour RPGs is not really a good strat... but the reason I joined this event was because I had all of these physical discs of games I really loved, but part of me was willing to sell his soul(and those games) to GameStop to get quick easy platinums like LEGO Jurassic World so I really wanted to force myself to platinum those games by stamping a trophy on them since you can never delete a game that has one trophy on it.

 

If I join future KYCs, I will try to find some smaller games that I can clear quickly after the event ends. The last game on my list might surprise you a bit, though.

[Arctic Cress]

Game #7 - Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star

Playtime: 5 hours

Trophies: 4/26 (7% - E)

 

This is the Gust game that pretty much was skipped by me, as I had heard that it makes little to no sense without the Japanese-only game Ciel nosurge, and is also a prequel to the Ar tonelico series, also a series that I have not played and some of the series are impossible to find copies of these days. However, I finally decided to try it out anyway. I also have the Plus version, and I might go and play that after I read a synopsis of Ciel nosurge. But that's for later.

 

Anyway, Ar nosurge follows two groups of two people. Casty and Delta are two residents of the town of Felion. The town of Felion has a barrier up to protect them from the Sharl, monsters that have besieged the town some time ago. Outside of Felion, the Genomirai Church works with the Sharl to achieve peace, but of course it's not all as it seems. The other two are Ion and Earthes, a girl trapped in a dream world of hers, and the robot she built as a companion. Ion is also the main character in Ciel nosurge, for the record.

 

To be fair, this may be a RPG, but in this game I feel I've gone through more story than actually fighting in battles. It's more of a RPG and visual novel hybrid. This isn't a bad thing, since the story is probably the most important part of this game, and even without the extra backstory, is very interesting so far going through Phase 1. Of course, I've mostly only played through Casty and Delta's portion of the phase, and just a small part of Ion and Earthes' portion, and Casty/Delta's section was definitely more interesting and pushed me forward through the game a lot. I'll get used to them eventually.

 

The battle system, when it does appear, is pretty intricate, but I do enjoy it. You start with the heroine casting a song magic that has different properties depending on which one is cast, and then you start the attack. The enemies appear in waves on a 3x3 grid, and some of your attacks (either the face buttons, or + the face buttons) can knock enemies around the grid or attack multiple squares in the grid. Doing significant damage or interrupting enemy skills allow you to break enemies and gain an extra turn. During the enemy phase, the button is used to defend the heroine from attacks. If she dies, you lose and get a game over. (That, thankfully, has not happened yet.) You also can make use of Friend Skills to do extra damage when they are in your party, and they also help by increasing your combo gauge for more damage. Battles end when you've either defeated all the waves of enemies, or you use song magic to defeat the remaining waves that are left. I usually opted for the latter since 10+ waves of enemies do take a while to wipe out from just normal attacks.

 

Outside of battles, there are a lot of features to talk about. It wouldn't be a Gust game without some sort of synthesis, and this game has your characters do a short little dance with the character doing the synthesis to make new items. It really has to be seen to be believed, and I've already seen four different ones as I made almost all the items on both of the two characters that have synthesis so far. The items range from in-battle consumables to useful equipment, so it's definitely advised to do this when you can. Diving allows you to enter a character's mind and unlock new facets of their personality in the form of either new song magic or crystals. These crystals can be equipped to different parts of the body, and more body parts are unlocked through conversation topics that are tied to various events - story, alchemy, and just random topics that can be found almost anywhere. I've unlocked up to level 3 with Casty and Delta, but I forgot to check what body part it unlocked because I had no more crystals to equip. Level 2 unlocked the head for crystal equips, while 1 only had the arms and feet.

 

One thing I have noticed is the recycling of some things going on, though. Gust isn't as annoying as say, Idea Factory who recycle enemies all the time, but the animations definitely remind me of various characters from the Atelier series, specifically Escha & Logy. Makes sense, since they were released around a similar timeframe. In particular, Delta has Awin's reaction animations, and the purple-haired synthesis girl has Wilbell's. The Dusk series is my favorite Atelier trilogy and as such, I noticed this almost immediately. Hopefully it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game going forward.

 

However, as it stands, I'm interested in seeing where this story takes me. There's a lot to unpack in general, but I feel I'll get used to it as the game continues.

 

Starting completion %: 71.51%

Current completion %: 70.57%

Difference: -0.94%

Mary Skelter: Nightmares - 10/34 (14% - D)

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll - 2/42 (2% - E)

[Apex Legends - 3/12 (15% - D)]

Nurse Love Addiction - 25/25 (100% - S)

The Silver Case HD - 7/26 (14% - E)

Fate/Extella Link - 13/44 (20% - E)

Resident Evil HD - 3/45 (4% - E)

 

I completed two Vita games for 100% (Wake-Up Club and Deemo: The Last Recital) but that didn't stop my completion plunging another 0.18% from adding Ar nosurge to the list. And I'm sure it will fall even more when I play Judgment later today, Tales of Xillia 2 tomorrow, and Kingdom Hearts on Tuesday to finish up this list.

[DamagingRob]

Day 1- Yakuza: Dead Souls

 

I actually managed to play this on day one for a change. But have been so busy with Uncharted, I'm just now writing a review. :/

 

The game opens with Kiryu, the star protagonist of the series, getting a call to inform him Haruka has been kidnapped (I'm guessing not for the first time). She tells him the city is "dying," and we're shown it has been overrun by the undead. And that's all for Kiryu. Will probably see him again later. 

 

It then cuts to another character I know from Yakuza 4: Akiyama. While walking with his secretary, the zombie outbreak begins. It almost looks like it was a mafia hit from the cutscene. The first zombie very purposely walks to a building, attacks a guard, and rides an elevator up to a gang's hideout. They fire rounds upon rounds into it, not hitting the head.. Finally, someone nails it in the head... but it doesn't die. Is this some kind of super zombie?

 

Everyone up there is basically dead, and one man gets thrown out of the high up apartment window. Rising up as a zombie and attacking a nearby police officer. Akiyama is ready to shoot it, after it starts to come for his secretary. Then a group of zombies chase Akiyama underground, where he has no choice but to kill them. 

 

And this is where we start playing. Unlike the other Yakuza games, where you mostly fight enemies with melee attacks, this seems to be more of a shooter. You can still pick up things like bikes, chainsaws, signs, poles, etc. and whack zombies with those, though. But you will mostly be shooting zombies, preferably in the head.  

 

I have 3 guns I can currently use. A pistol with less shots, but that packs a bigger punch. Dual pistols that can fire a lot more bullets without reloading, but are weaker. And a sub machine gun. I haven't really used this, since the pistols have unlimited ammo. The machine gun does not. I'm not sure how I feel about the aiming. I'll probably get used to it, but I get turned around and aim the wrong way a lot. 

 

There is a section in the game where zombies aren't present. It's somewhat nice to run around there, and not get bothered by guys wanting to fight you all the time like in 4. But the areas with zombies aren't as nice. Lol. They will drop out of buildings, climb out of vents in the ground, and more will just be walking around. You'll find no shortage of zombies in these parts.

 

And there are different types of zombies, too. There's a female type that reminds me of an enemy in Killing Floor 2. It will scream until you kill it, summoning more normal zombies every time. The regular ones will run for you once they see you, by the way. There are also these ones that skate around really fast, and take a lot more damage to kill. 

 

And then there are really big ones who are invincible to everything but headshots. In the story, I was sandwiched in a tunnel between one of these and a ton of zombies coming from the other side. It... did not end well the first time. ^^; Just didn't have enough time to kill it before they all closed in on me. Thankfully, restarting a checkpoint is all that you need to do after dying. 

 

Another thing this game has is heat actions. A bar will fill when killing zombies, and when it's full you can perform one of these on various objects. Takes out a lot of zombies. You'll sometimes have a partner with you, and can do a team one. And the A.I. can die, but will still follow you around. This has both been good and bad. Bad when he got in my way, good when he got in a zombie's way.

 

And that's about all I have to say for now. I'm sure there's a lot more to see, though. Yakuza games are open world with a lot of side activities, and stuff to do. Plus, like Yakuza 4, it looks as though you get to play as four different people. Possibly with their own unique guns or gameplay mechanics.

 

Time played: 3 hours. 

Trophy progress: 4/49 for 7% and an E rank.

[Kevvik]

Game #9: Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

 

Initial/Day 3 Impressions

Time played: 12-13 hrs

 

Wow, how to describe Danganronpa? This is a VN hybrid game. There is a LOT of story and quite often it helps to know the lore behind it, which gives massive spoilers, but I'm going to try to go straight into V3. The main characters are teenagers, designated Ultimate Students, identified as the best (though sometimes still training) in their fields (Ultimate Pianist, Ultimate Detective, etc). In V3, they have been kidnapped and brought to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Students which has been closed off from the outside world by a dome called the End Wall.  None understand why they are there until a demonic teddy bear named Monokuma (and 5 characters new to this edition, the Monokubs) informs them they are to participate in a killing game. They are encouraged to murder each other. Once a body is found, there is to be a trial. If the killer is found out, they are executed and the game continues until only 2 students remain. If the killer gets away with it, they survive while all the other students get executed. This sums up the purpose of each chapter.

 

During the chapter, there is considerable story slowly revealing the character arc each goes through from the perspective of one controllable student. The environment is explored, gradually helping to reveal the back story behind why this is happening.  Some free time periods allow you to get to know the other characters, giving them gifts to increase your friendship but this only impacts obtaining back story and has no effect on the main game progression.  Once the murder occurs, there is a period of investigation to let you discover clues which can be used at the trial.

 

The class trial, a long affair with twists and turns, is the culmination of each chapter as the controllable character tries to determine who and how and be able to prove it through argument. Long conversations occur and eventually short scenes of interaction occur where certain points brought up in each segment can be either agreed with or refuted by the use of truth (and later lie) bullets which are shot at the conversation text on the screen. Fairly simple until white noise, comments from other students during the argument, appear to obscure the point you are trying to deal with. These must be shot out of the way to expose the point you wish to address. A timer exists and the interaction restarts on completion so that you can assess what you need to do. There are also other Minigames within the argument that follow different rules. Each is quickly explained when introduced and is fairly straight forward to deal with.  Eventually an accusation is made and the closing argument consists of inserting points into a storyboard to sum up the case.  Solving it leads to the execution of the culprit during a bizarre (the only way to truly describe Danganronpa executions) cutscene before moving on.

 

On completion of the main game, another mode of just class life is available. I haven't reached this in V3 yet but it allows you to get to know the other characters while life continues at the academy, but without murders. Looking at the trophy list, there are a number of other Minigames in V3, some based on Minigames in the trials but I haven't done anything with those yet.

 

The characters are bizarre caricatures and V3 presents some of the most over the top ones in the series. Some you will be happy to see get knocked off, others will be painful to see go. The writing in the Danganronpa series has always been top notch (IMO) but the weird way that they make their points could turn off some players.  I'm enjoying this a lot (as I have the rest of the main series) though the twists in the first trial felt a bit like a cheat in how it was presented. The second was back on form.  I like the fact that the motivations for characters generally feel real and empathy can be felt for the killers at times as well as the survivors.

 

I've been fan of the series since the start and this game is no exception. The story is expansive but unlike Utawarerumono earlier in the event, I'm actually investing in these characters (well, most of them) and am interested in the story.  Are they shoehorning too many gameplay mechanics into V3? Maybe but we'll see how it plays out. I'm also interested in seeing where this game goes in terms of the overarching Danganronpa narrative. I left this towards the end of KYC so that I could come back to it quicker following the event. I've been looking forward to my return to this universe and so far, it hasn't disappointed.

 

Trophies earned: 10/41, 17% for D rank

Score so far: 8/10

Completion Rate: 83.10% (-1.18% for the event)

 

Last up: Game #10: Trails of Cold Steel

 

[PerryToxteth]

The event is over for me! 

I will write a final review for AC Origins and a KYC wrap-up in a few days. Busy traveling right now but when I find some down time on vacation, I will knock them out. 

[SixyLove]

Review

"You Gotta Aim For the Head - Neptune (Hyperdimension Neptunia)"

Rocketbirds 2: Evolution

Playtime: 24 hours (give or take)

Trophies Earned: 29/29 100% 

 

Why This Game?

I played Rocketbirds a few times over the years but never got passed the first level. I cleaned up the 0% a few months ago and enjoyed the game a whole lot. I played the sequel for Kill Your Completion because it qualified and it wasn't another RPG. 

 

Story - Singleplayer

You play as Hardboiled Chicken, a anthropomorphic chicken action hero. The guy you spent the last game killing is back from the dead so you decide to go kill him again. Also, the anthropomorphic penguins are still trying to rule the world but the hired pigeons to help because you killed too many penguins in the last game.

 

Story - Multiplayer

You play as a member of S.A.R.S (Search and Rescue ugh... Squad?) and your goal is to free your base from the penguins and then rescue hostages. Every hostage you rescue will become a new playable character.

 

Gameplay - Single Player

Rocketbirds 2: Evolution is a cinematic platformer and twin stick shooter combined. You move on a 2D plane and aim your weapons with the right stick. The game features some light platforming and a few puzzles. The majority of the time you will be shooting your way through rooms of baddies on your way to the end of the level. Baddies are quite bullet spongy (even on easy) so try to aim for the head to deal more damage. If the killing shot is a head shot, their head flies off in a gory mess (you can turn off the gore; blood is now green and head shot kills removes the baddies hat). You can dodge damage by moving, jumping (double jumping gives you invincibility frames) and using your dodge roll. Dealing a massive amount of damage to a baddie in a short amount of time will cause them to rag doll; you can also be rag dolled so try to not get hit. Try to kill the baddies before they kill you; if you die you go back to last checkpoint and all your progress after the checkpoint is reset.

 

Over the course of the game, you will find/receive new guns. Some weapons have infinite ammo but most of the useful weapons require ammunition. Weapons of similar types share the same ammo pool. Baddies drop ammo when defeated and you can find ammo pickups.

 

Gameplay - MultiPlayer

(It can be single player if you have no friends)

The gameplay of the multiplayer is the same largely the same as the single player. There are no puzzles and you will be running through procedurally generated versions of the single player levels. The main draw is being able to play with friends, randoms and boosting partners. I think you can play with up to 4 players; I played it by myself because I have no friends. You are able to stack (not the trophy hunting practice frowned upon by some members of the PSNP community) teamates on top of eachother and become a tower of guns.

 

The levels require you to find a hostage and then run to the exit with them on your back. You can give hostages a fully upgraded gun and they will help shoot baddies. There are optional secrets, loot and money to find.

 

You can buy and upgrade weapons at base, if you have the money for it. You also can wear clothing that can boost your damage resistance, ammo capacity and weapon stability. You need to upgrade clothing at a upgrade station found in the levels.

 

Visuals and Sound

I played the Vita version. The game looks good. I like how blood will splatter on the background where you hit a baddie.

  

The story mode is fully voice acted. The multiplayer has voice acting for the tutorial and a few cutscenes. Characters will make bird noises when they're talking when there is no voice acting. The sound track is composed of a bunch of rock (I think) music. You will hear the same few songs a lot. Some of the songs have lyrics. I think one song is just a man who took all of the drugs just say "space" over and over again. I enjoyed the sound track of the first game but I'm not a fan of the seconds.

 

Trophy Thoughts - Singleplayer

The singleplayer trophies can all be done in one playthrough. Most of the trophies are very easy and only require planning to do. Getting 15 headshot kills in a row takes a lot of dexterity and luck. Same will killing 4 baddies with one explosion.

Spoiler

Killing all baddies during the final escape was a nightmare. The timer doesn't leave room for much error.

 

The worst trophy by far was getting all 18 signs in the game. It's a collectable trophy but it works differently then normal collectables. Only one sign will spawn in a level and another signs spawns when you collect the previous. Signs can spawn anywhere so you need to comb entire levels to find one. You think a guide would bypass the frustration but there is just one problem, there is only one guide (that I was able to find) that is just some guys terrible let's play of the game. He takes nearly a hour on some levels and there is no way to tell what part of video displayes the sign. Having to watch this person stare at every wall because I'm shit at finding collectables made the process more frustrating. I honestly consider fixing this issue myself but I'm very hesitant about it because I'm not a guide writer.

 

Also, the game has one sign so hard that I had to replay a level 3 times and it took me hours to do. To get this sign you have to rag doll a baddie into the sign but there isn't a single baddie to use and the crap let's play doesn't show you how to get an baddie into the room. It took me an hour to figure out that you need to stand on the border of two screens, mind control a enemy that's easy to kill accidentally, have them walk backwards (the form of mind control I was using breaks if they see me) and backflip into me. They will travel into the room but it's still a pain to position them in a good position to rag doll into the sign. Also, the game crashed before a checkpoint after I got this sign the first time.

 

I also want to mention the game completely glitched out during that horrible experience. All of the character models glitched out and nobody could aim their weapons. It was so funny that I played the level until it became impossible. It was the silver lining to the frustration.

 

Trophy Thoughts - Multiplayer

All the trophies can be done on your own so you can remain to be your anti-social self. You will have to play each Multiplayer mission map at least 4 times for the hostages and you need to collect/buy 100 guns+clothing. I had both unlock at the same time and I feel multiplayer didn't take more then 8 hours. The platinum killers are having 80% accuracy in a level and getting 3 stars on every map. 80% accuracy is frustrating but just try not miss and you'll be okay. Getting 3 stars isn't difficult, get as many headshots as possible and explore the whole level. I died a couple times and still got 3 stars on multiple occasions.

 

Final Thoughts

I like the original more but this one wasn't terrible. The game can be very fun and the combat is enjoyable. The multiplayer is fun but has very little to do. I was a little bother the the voice actor were different (or sounded different [I also played the game in English]) then in the last game. I wasn't in love with the voices in the last game but I was still bothered. The game also contains so dad jokes, you have been warned.

[Arctic Cress]

Game #8 - Judgment

Time played: 5 hours

Trophies: 1/47 (1% - E)

 

There always seems to be one Yakuza or a Yakuza-like in my KYC lists these days (not counting the March list in the middle of my move so I could only play Vita), having both Kiwamis and 0 on previous lists in these events. This time, I'm playing Judgment, which is definitely similar to the Yakuza series in many ways, but also adds to the formula by having you play a detective instead of a yakuza. I've finished Chapter 1 so far and it's been pretty interesting, to say the least.

 

Judgment's main character is Takayuki Yagami, a former defense attorney. Three years prior to the events in Judgment, he managed to prepare a worthwhile defense to get a serial killer to be proven innocent in court. Unfortunately afterwards, the serial killer then went on to stab his girlfriend and burn down her apartment. Yagami abandoned his pursuit of being a lawyer and now works as a detective in Kamurocho, doing small jobs for his former law office or the local yakuza to keep his business afloat. The first chapter has Yagami tailing a detective who owes money to one of his clients, and then his law agency attempts to prepare a defense for someone charged with murder. Yagami gathers evidence from a number of informants as well as some of the local yakuza in town.

 

Yakuza, of course, has Kiryu (or Majima) beat up many people to fulfill whatever goal he has. While Yagami has similar fights, he has a number of other things he does more fitting for his profession. There are several instances where Yagami enters an investigation mode, similar to what you may find in a Phoenix Wright game. In those, you examine certain items (and cats) in the vicinity to find clues pertaining to the current case. Yagami also has access to a drone, which is also used for similar recon missions. During investigations, Yagami will sometimes need to tail a person and keep out of sight from the target. The target can also make a break for it, and Yagami will chase them down through a series of QTEs. Yagami also will encounter various locked doors blocking his progress, and has a lockpick that he can use to open these. From what I've seen, the investigations could be a little bit better control-wise as first-person examining and moving around could have been much more improved (the drone is third-person and is much easier to control). Lockpicking is similarly boring, though there are skills that make this somewhat easier.

 

Fighting in-game is extremely similar to the Yakuza series, with a few new things to mention. Yagami has two fighting styles - the crane style, which is useful for fighting multiple enemies at once, and the tiger style, which is useful for fighting one-on-one. Despite the many fights I mostly stayed in the tiger style for most of Chapter 1, and was pretty fine overall. Some new things to note include the EX gauge, which fills up over time and allows Yagami to enter a state where he does more damage. Also in this game, bladed weapons and guns now do extra damage to Yagami in a form called mortal damage. When Yagami takes any damage like this, it cannot be removed until a major story event or healed by a medical kit. Yagami took a huge hit to his mortal damage in one Chapter 1 fight, but it was healed almost immediately afterwards due to the major story event. Pretty nice luck there.

 

Despite having played the Yakuza series on the PS4 which are all Japanese voices only, I decided to try the English voices for Judgment. The dub voices are done extremely well here and Sega did spend the budget here, bringing in some unionized voice actors to work on this game. Hilariously though, even with the English voices on, the shopkeepers and restaurants still use the Japanese voice track. Seems odd they couldn't bring in someone just to say a few greetings at each place, but whatever. The dialogue is top-notch and several characters have great lines, especially Yagami's partner Kaito, which delivers some of the best lines I've seen so far.

 

Judgment, as with any Yakuza game, has it share of minigames to play through. The Club SEGA buildings have a number of classic Sega games such as Puyo Puyo and Space Harrier, while the batting cages, darts, mahjong, and shoji all return from previous titles. The karaoke place seems to have been removed, which is a disappointment for me, as it's one of my favorites. There's also drone racing near the middle of Kamurocho, but I have not been able to check that out yet. Also similar is the addition of side cases, which is basically Judgment's form of sub-stories. While most of these are concentrated in various areas in-game (the law office and Yagami's detective office) there still are some that can only be found by exploring around Kamurocho.

 

I have enjoyed what I have played of this, but I left Yakuza 0 unfinished from a previous KYC, so I will probably head there instead of continuing this any further. Chapter 1 seems to be a worthwhile stopping place for now, so I'll leave off here and come back to it at a later date.

 

Starting completion %: 71.51%

Current completion %: 70.28%

Difference: -1.23%

Mary Skelter: Nightmares - 10/34 (14% - D)

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll - 2/42 (2% - E)

[Apex Legends - 3/12 (15% - D)]

Nurse Love Addiction - 25/25 (100% - S)

The Silver Case HD - 7/26 (14% - E)

Fate/Extella Link - 13/44 (20% - E)

Resident Evil HD - 3/45 (4% - E)

Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star - 4/26 (7% - E)

 

Finally breached the 1% difference mark as Judgment and a new DJMAX Respect DLC teamed up to knock my percentage down a good amount. It seems that I will be getting it all the way down past 70% with the final two games, even with the completions I've been doing. On to the next one, Tales of Xillia 2!

[dizzyshadow]

On 24/07/2019 at 1:25 PM, PerryToxteth said:

 

Thanks for the review! I've had this one on my radar for awhile. I'll grab it next time it's on sale.

 

I saw a Lancaster last year at the RAF Museum. What a beauty! I still find it crazy though, that it only had one pilot. But as my aviation buddy told me, England's a small island, and if there were two pilots, that's double the training on resources that are already stretched to the max. 

Are there any American bombers in the game? B-17s, B-24s, or B-29s?

 

 

The Lancaster is a pretty special plane, i was lucky enough to have to one flying about 100m above my house last month as part of the armed forces day celebrations and that was a sight to see. I think your friend is right about the pilots, i think the lifespan of a pilot in WW2 was expected to be something like 50 days which is pretty crazy when you think about it, so it was very much make do with whatever is available.

 

Regarding american planes there is an add on (USAAF) which i believe adds an american plane but i've not played it myself, but if you are interested might be worth picking up the complete edition if that is on sale as well.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #10 - Pilalrs of Eternity - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: about 15h

Tropheis earned: 5/27

 

 

I started this on Sunday and before I knew it, I had played 7 hours straight. That should say all there is to say about the game really. I probably would have kept going, if I hadn't grown hungry and as a result I took a break to make lunch.

 

This entails pretty much everything that I expected from it. The graphics, which look hand-drawn (it's not btw), the companions, the quests, the characters, the stories and side stories, the loot, the music and the world it's set in. Everything is there and almost everything is great. There are two things that are somewhat unfotunate. When at a vendor you can sell your items directly from the stash and not only the inventory. There is however a bug that happens occasionally where the stash appears empty when at the vendor. Then there is the occasionally long load times. This game as well as most of it's kind load every single area individually. So going to a different zone, entering a house, going to anotehr floor will make you sit through a loading zone. While it has it's reason (every area has it's own map) and it makes the game run smoother, it also is somewhat tiresome sitting through so many loading screens.

 

The music and visuals are great and give he game a medieval feel, it's a fantasy setting after all. In this one a lot of the dialogues are actually voiced, and the voice acting is great. So is the writing, which is a staple for these kind of games really. Personally no other genre comes close to the writing, exposition and worldbuilding CRPGs have. The downside to it, is that you have to read through a lot of text, so if reading isn't for you then neither is this genre.

 

Anyway let's start of at the beginning, which is character creation. In this section alone you can spend hours. Pick a gender, race, class, allocate your attribute points, pick your spells/abilities/bonuses, select a god, portrait and voice.

Attribute points are preset and can't be re-rolled like in some other games of the genre. Each class has 2 main , 2 helpful and 2 less useful attributes. Whenever you go below 10 in an attribute, you'çç receive penalites to effects related to that stat. Anything above 10 will receive bonuses. While you can technically create a balanced character by having each attribute at around 13 or 14, it is usually best to focus on the main attributes per class, while avoiding to drop below 10 in any of the other ones. Throughout the game you also can find gear, which can boost your attributes.

 

You'll encounter a lot of NPCs on your travels and many of them offer either quests or information. Every single quest has it's own backstory. There are no bs quests like go fetch 5 flowers or kill X number of boars. There is a lot to explore, with each area holding hidden stash areas and occasional caves, tombs, or dungeons. Your travels will regularly be interrupted by enemies as well. Be it wildlife or bandits, or trolls or any other creature that could be in a fantasy novel really.

There are towns to visit, which have several building you can enter and usually always have a blacksmith and an inn. Resting at an inn will recover your health and endurance and depending on the qality of room you get, it will grant you extra bonuses as well. You can also rest in the wilderness though. You can also hire characters from the inn for gold, which you can add to your party. They wil go through the same character craetion process first though.

 

Speaking of party members. So far I've recruited 4 other companions (not the hired ones, but the ones found throughout the game), so the party is now at 5/6. I made my character a rogue. I almost always chose rogue in these games, because it tends to be the only class that can open locked doors and chests, as well as find and disable traps). This is where a novelty factor kicks in. Every single class can now open locks and doors and deal with traps, provided you alocate points into the respective stat. Rogues will get bonus points to that stat though, so they will be able to unlock higher level of locks sooner than anyone else. The remaining characers of thr group so far are a wizard, a fighter, a chanter (it's essentially a bard) and a priest. Each has a set number of skills and abilities they can use. Some of them are passive, some can be used X number of times per fight and some X number of times in.between resting.

 

I've progressed far enough in the story that I got to the obe najor addition to this genre. A stronghold will become available, which you can renovate, adding rooms, vendors guards to basically create your own hub. It'll inject some money into your pockets at a steady rate, and gives you small objectives, like potentially hiring travelers or defending your keep from attackers. You can also leave party members at the keep that you aren't using.

 

The game gives you enough freedom to resolve almost anything in several different ways. Depending on your attributes you can intimidate, reason, charm, lie or just brute force your way through the game. Occasionally you'll have to pick sides and decide who you want to prevail in a conflict. All of this leads to plenty of replay value. There does not seem to be an individual personality system however (no more chaotic evil, true neutral etc), it seems to have been reduced to purely your actions and everyone else just goes along with it.

 

For a console version it works well, but will never have the same ease of use as these games have on PC, it's very similar to RTS games in that regard. That being said, it's a fantastic experience, resulting in a for a score.

[Kevvik]

And another KYC comes to a close...

 

Game #10: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

 

Initial/Day 3 Impressions

Time played: 13 hrs

 

Trails of Cold Steel is a turn-based RPG which seems to be fairly large in scope while maintaining a personal connection due to excellent characters.  The MC is a young man named Rean Schwarzer, a new student at Thors Military Academy who discovers he is actually part of a new class at the long standing academy. While nobles and commoners have historically been separated, the newly formed "Class VII" is a mixture of both.  Beginning with a drop into a dungeon in an old schoolhouse, you slowly begin being introduced to your classmates. By the end, the 9 members of Class VII accept their lot, despite some personal differences.  

 

The first chapter follows a pattern of a class day, a free day and then a field study. Class day allows Rean to move around the school, meeting other students and finally, forsaking joining a club, opting to help out the student council with various tasks.  Free day involves completing compulsory and optional quests around both the school and the adjoining town including exploring the Old Schoolhouse which is more than it seems.  You can also initiate bonding events which can improve your relationship with classmates. Field study consists of going off with a few of your classmates to a different part of the Empire and doing jobs for people while getting an understanding about how life works, daily life and the backdrop of political changes/turmoil. The story looks really deep even though there only appears to be 7 chapters in the trophy list.

 

Combat is turn-based between your party and monsters. You have normal attacks, magic which derives from quartz equipped on your weapon, and abilities inherent to each character. Certain attacks can delay or interrupt foes. You also have the link system which allows you to partner with another party member so that if you unbalance your foe, the other can give an assisting attack as well. The power of this is dependent on your relationship with the other character. I find the combat moves really smoothly and is one if the more impressive takes on this that I've come across.

 

Overall, this is a really impressive title so far, even if I've only finished the first chapter. I'm looking forward to moving forward in this very intriguing world.

 

Trophies earned: 6/51, 8% for E rank

Score so far: 9/10

Completion Rate: 82.87% (-1.41% for the event)

 

I'm not sure how much I'll actually play tomorrow but I'll post my close up comments then.  Thanks again to our host @voodoo_eyes and all the participants for their great reviews ??

[RuneEyesDragon]

Unfortunately, I was not able to do an illustration for my final review because my old computer is lagging like heck and it's probably on its last legs so I have to transfer all of my password files to a flash drive before I lose them for good. And I am posting this on Microsoft Edge which won't let me past proper illustrations, so sorry...

 

Final Game: Secret of Mana

 

Final Completion: 78.61% (+.59!!!)

Unfortunately, I actually got more trophies on DQB2, raising my completion, so I failed the event. Sorry. And I failed to update before I did so.

Earned Trophies: 2

Unearned Trophies: 35 (I decided to just keep it simple here)

 

My Game Experience: It's a pretty simple action RPG, nothing too complicated. I had an issue where I glitched on the second boss and couldn't reach it having to reset the game, but it was far worse when I played this on the Vita - the Vita screen locked thrice and forced me to do a total system reboot. It's a faithful remake of the original Super Nintendo game.

 

The Struggle: Not so much, save for that glitch I mentioned on the second boss - I got trapped in the right side of the screen and the boss kept spawning on the left so I couldn't hit it and I couldn't get out.

 

Hardest Trophy Left to Get: Get 100% collection in everything - near end-game, there are enemies you must farm to get rare drops of equipment from them, and if you defeat the third boss and trigger the cutscene that ends the dungeon without getting these, you're sadly out of luck because that dungeon can't be returned to and those enemies cannot be farmed anymore, and there is no enemy in the last dungeon that has those items.

Easiest Trophy Left to Get: The next story related one

 

I'll post my final tally soon.

Edited July 31, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon

[RuneEyesDragon]

 

So here we are at the final day of the event, where everyone finishes up their lists and puts down their musings. Well, here is my final set of stragglers who got whammed, bammed, and thanked before they got slammed into the freezer!

 

(15% - 9 out of 51)

(24% - 17 out of 51)

• Birth by Sleep (3% - 2 out of 46)
• Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (1% - 1 out of 56)
• Kingdom Hearts re:Chain of Memories (2 out of 48)
• Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (1% - 1 out of 51)
• Dream Drop Distance HD (15% - 11 out of 55)

(7% - 5 out of 41)

(3% - 3 out of 63 51)

(3% - 2 out of 38)

 

Completion before I started: 90%~ somewhere in the neighborhood

Completion at the end: 78.61% (because I had completed another game which cleaned up the % a bit)

Total Trophies I Got from The Games: 53

Total Trophies I Have to Get: 447 (scratch that, the Ni no Kuni II one is inconsistent as it has DLC trophies that don't count, it's actually 435)

 

So... how did I do? Well, the schedule got boring near the end because I had other things planned but I got through it. Other than the hiccup at the end where my completion rose, I think I killed my completion by 21%. Yes, that means that I have my work cut out for me, and I want to play DQB2 for the Switch so that's an issue, but I really wanted to get these games onto the account as they all deserve some recognition as I grew up with many of them before they had trophy support.

 

Great event, everyone. I hope you all finish up your lists soon.

 

Edited August 1, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon

[Arctic Cress]

Game #9 - Tales of Xillia 2

Time played: 6 hours

Trophies: 1/49 (1% - E)

 

I was getting kind of worried since the first game as well was very backloaded with its trophy set. Chapter 5 in-game and I still didn't have a trophy - but Elize was in my party at the time. So after 450 presses of , a ding to my completion is now here and ready.

 

Tales of Xillia 2 happens shortly after the events in Tales of Xillia. This game follows two new characters, Ludger Will Kresnik and Elle Mel Marta. Both board a train that is hijacked by Exodus, the villain group from the previous game, back again. In this game, though, Exodus is not after Milla, but instead against all of Rieze Maxia in general and is trying to stop any peace being achieved between the two worlds. The train eventually crashes and the medical treatment that Ludger and Elle need sends Ludger into a 20 million gald debt. Ludger then learns that his brother, Julius Will Kresnik, was apparently behind the hijacking of the train, and Ludger intends to search for him and find out what is happening. He is joined first by Jude Mathis, from the original Tales of Xillia, and as the game progresses, the rest of the protagonists from that game. (Currently - everyone but Milla.) Meanwhile, Elle also comes along, as her father told her to board that specific train to reach the Land of Canaan, where wishes could be granted. She decides to follow Ludger as it's her best bet of getting there at all.

 

There isn't much difference in the battle system if you played the first game. It still has the AC counter for moves that can be done, as well as MP for artes used. Linking is still the same, and all the Xillia characters retain their special linking skills as well as their unique battle skills, like Jude's Snap Pivot. Ludger has neither of these (yet?); instead, he can switch between three weapons in-battle as they are unlocked: a pair of dual swords, a sledgehammer, and a pair of dual pistols. Each uses a number of different artes corresponding to the weapon. Elle does not participate in battle, but she shows up in the after-battle scenes frequently. In-game skills are unlocked through level-ups and elemental fragments, which can be picked up off the ground or won in battles.

 

Unfortunately, the shop levels from the previous game are no more. Understandable though, since with the debt Ludger has he'll be needing to pay it off. And the game will force you to do so because as soon as you have enough money to make a payment, a pop-up will come up telling you to pay up. If you cancel, it'll come up again after you have double that amount and force you to pay instead. Paying the debt is also tied to story progression so you will have to keep doing this to continue the storyline. Luckily, the game now has quest boards in town, which task the party to kill a number of enemies or collect some items out in the field, rewarding you with a good amount of gald, which increases as you complete more quests. There are also bounties for special monsters that are more powerful than the others wandering around. I took out the first one easily but the second proved to be too difficult at this point.

 

New to this game is the Kitty Dispatch, which allows you to send cats out to collect items. Basically, one character's 100 cats went missing, and it's up to Ludger to find them and the person allows you to have them search for items in different areas. Some areas have rarer items that can only be found through this, and yes, these items frequently come up on quests as well. New cats can either be found just randomly in various areas, through Kitty Dispatch itself, or by quests tasking you to find one and giving you a general area of where it is. Some of the items can be useful so it's generally to keep it running as much as possible during the game.

 

Basically - if you liked Tales of Xillia, you'll probably like this game too. If you didn't like Tales of Xillia, there's nothing in this game that will change your mind, as it's basically just more Tales of Xillia. I did enjoy the characters from the first game so I'm somewhat interested in finding out where this goes. Even with the annoying debt pop-ups.

 

Starting completion %: 71.51%

Current completion %: 70.03%

Difference: -1.48%

Mary Skelter: Nightmares - 10/34 (14% - D)

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll - 2/42 (2% - E)

[Apex Legends - 3/12 (15% - D)]

Nurse Love Addiction - 25/25 (100% - S)

The Silver Case HD - 7/26 (14% - E)

Fate/Extella Link - 13/44 (20% - E)

Resident Evil HD - 3/45 (4% - E)

Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star - 4/26 (7% - E)

Judgment - 1/47 (1% - E)

 

Once I do start Kingdom Hearts and get that first trophy, I'll be back under 70% again with a long path to catch up. (I actually have started it but deleted the trophy list with 0 trophies.) Will get that write-up posted tomorrow and finish this event off once more.

[Psy-Tychist]

OK, so I have been away for the past 5 days and haven't played any games. Tried playing the Vita on the coach back but couldn't get rid of the largest game to download anything I wanted. Bit of a lame excuse overall but what can you do.

Will put up a review of Darkest Dungeon later and possibly one other game.

[dmland12]

Game #5: The Long Dark

Trophies: 9/41 (14%)

Completion: 93.89% (-0.62%, -2.39% from start)

 

The Long Dark is a survival game set on Great Bear Island (a remote fictional island that's supposed to be somewhere off the coast of Canada) sometime in 20XX.  The basic premise of the game is that there was a disaster (origin unknown) which for some reason produced an Aurora in the sky and knocked out all electronics, permanently it seems.  Cars, airplanes, and trains are also all dead.  In addition the weather/climate is harshly colder and wildlife appears to be more aggressive and dangerous.

 

There is a story mode as well as a survival (sandbox) mode where the goal is just to survive as long as you can (or maybe you can set your own goal, or go for the trophies).  There's also a Challenge mode that I haven't tried yet, which offers a few scenarios with set goals.  At present there's only two episodes of the story mode in the game, although it's planned to be expanded to a total of 5 and added as free updates to the game.  The third episode is currently in development according to the developers' website.  I've only played the first episode, so I can't really comment much on the story, but what I've seen looks interesting so far.

 

Most of the gameplay consists of gathering supplies and exploring.  And trying not to die of hypothermia or get mauled by a bear.  You've got four needs that you'll need to keep from falling to zero for too long: warmth, fatigue, hunger, and thirst.  In addition, there's your condition, which basically acts like your HP.  It'll fall if one of your needs are a zero or if you're getting attacked by wildlife as well as in some other situations (like food poisoning).  Reach zero condition and you're dead.  Overall, the game is going for pure survival gameplay.  It's slow, it's cold, and oh no suddenly something went very very wrong.  I imagine it's not for everyone, but what the game does it does very well in my opinion.

 

I'll leave you with a short video of an Aurora I experienced in Survival mode.  Apparently, it's not quite true that all of the electronics are permanently dead.  After wandering around for hours and hours in episode one and in survival mode with everything dead and dark at night, it's hard to explain just how surreal this was to witness.

 

 

P.S.  That's the last game for me.  Thanks for running this yet again @voodoo_eyes.  And thanks to everyone that participated!  It's always nice to see what people think.  I'll probably do a summary post of the event tomorrow.

Edited July 31, 2019 by dmland12

[SixyLove]

Update 021

"Mercy gets play of the game, twice"

Valkyria Revolution / Psycho-Pass

Playtime: 72 hours / 40 hours

Trophies Earned: 26/28 91% / 13/36 35%

 

Yesterday I decided to play Valkyria Revolution because I "finished" my list. I was going for the trophy for defeating the Valkyria during a random mission. I failed my first few attempts and I wasn't very confident, thinking this trophy would kill my platinum. The battlefield was a tight alleyway so there wasn't much space to dodge her attacks. The fight at first was going poorly for me at first until I switched to Sara (the Mercy of this game). I just kept my AI teamates alive and spammed my lighting spell until I won. I never excepted Sara to be the big damn hero so I was shocked (no pun intended) that she was actual useful for something other then healing.

 

Getting S-Rank wasn't too difficult and most levels only took one attempt because I was a very high level and I had the Ring of Fire on my side. I got stuck on the really long level that I hate again. My first attempt failed because the boss killed my team; I still call shenanigans on that death. My second attempt went well because Sara, but I did so well the boss decided death was overated and kept fighting despite having 0 hit points. That glitch happens if you don't let the boss do it's healing move after you get its hit points below 50%. My third attempt fortunately was my last and I got my S-Rank trophy.

 

The rest of my day was mostly money grinding. I played story mission 9-1 over a hundred times by now; the mission is fast and requires me to kill one baddie to win. I started trying to speedrun the level; my best time is 29 seconds. After 120 more runs I should earn the platinum and hopefully get my single-level speedrun record down to 28 seconds.

 

I played more Psycho-Pass Mandatory Happiness too. I started following the PSNP official guide for the game because my enjoyment for the game was very low (I still enjoy the cute puzzle game that's just a re-skinned 2048). I'm very bored during the story sections I've already seen. Seeing new content sparked my enjoyment a little. I still have a long way to go for platinum but I'll get it eventually.

[voodoo_eyes]

It's tme for my final overview. Overall I'm happy with my list of games. There was one dud, whichis still a better result than most of the previous KYCs.

 

 

From best to worst.

1. Pillars of Eterntiy - This is my type of RPG and encompasses all the elements that should be in a great RPG. Well, I could do without the loading screens, but whatever. This will be the main game for me to get back to and is a contendor for my 400th plat.
2. Dishonored 2 - I actually finished my non-lethal/ghost run yesterday. Had such a great time with it, despite having to reload often, because I got spotted here and there. The best thing is, the second playthrough is ging to be even more fun as it's a collectathon that pretty much wants you to explore every area of the game. This is one of the few games, where I don't mind collectibles, becayse the world is so interesting to explore. It was the same with the Death of the Outsider DLC.
3. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - It was good fun overall, unfortunately it seems like they took the easy way out to prolong the game. After beting it once it shows basically all it has to offer, and then you do the exact same thing with 4 other characters. Yes the stories are different, but the stories are also subpar so there isn't really a benefit to that. Enemies, bosses and locations stay the same and are just ina a different order. Coul've been better.
4. Burnout Paradise Remastered - It's fin in short bursts, definitely more enjoyable than the more recent Need for Speed titles.Not a fan of the 8 player ultiplayer nonsense. Got people together for the second time in a week now, because half of the m bailed on the first session. Other than that it's enjoyable driving through the city and do the odd race. There is a lot of room for improvement though.
5. Conception 2 - This is where it got difficult to decide. It could've been either this or Zombi on this spot. Conception 2 has potential room for improvement though as I didn't get very far into the game. It could even take 4th place, if the game picks up a bit.
6. Zombi - Was a bit of a let down. The whole game felt a bit clunky, be it the presentation, combat, voice acting. Was still alright, but doing the no death run on hard won't be fun, I can say that for a fact.
7. Game of Thrones - Now, if this one was less clunky and better pacing it could actually have been in the top 3. Unfotunately a solid story, good voice-acting (for hte most part) and some original concepts don't cut it when the gamplay isn't up to par.
8. Pyre - This one wasn't bad, just boring. The only thing it has going for it is it's original concept. The art style isn't my jam, but it's not ba and the story is passable. The gameplay loop not so much though.
9. Onechanbara Z2 Chaos - All this one has going for it is the combat. The story is terrible, the visuals are appaling, and the enemies are boring. Having a hard time even considering going back to it for the remaining 2 playthroughs.
10. Trillion God of Destruction - Another one with an original concept. Unfotunately it doesn't offer anything else. Onechanbara was at least fun to some extent, while this one liteally felt like it was wasting my time. Not touching this one again.

 

 

Other games played during the even.

• Battle Chasers Nightwar - Great turn-based RPG and one that needs more love. It looks great and teh combat is a ton of fun. (Just revisited for a quick trophy)
• Assassin's reed Unity - Finished the main story and now a major collectible an online mission ceanup awaits. It's not as good as Syndicate or Origins, but it was still fun. It also has a lot of funny clipping issues.
• Atelier Ayesha - I dreaded going back to this, because of all the missable events. Found a good guide though and enjoyed it a fair amount. Still hate the overlu complicated synthesize mechanic though. Actually ended up platting it
• Diablo 3: reaper of Souls - Still working o nthe plat of one of my favourite games. Leveled my 3rd character to level 70, and another one to 56 (I think?). Essentially just need to get 3 more characters to 70 (two of which are in the mid 50s and one is level 7( and farm around 250 bounties.
• Detroit Become Human - This one was pretty good, although I ended up somewhat regretting playing through it blind for the first time. As that led to another 2 almost full playthroughs, in which you can't skip anything. Still very enjoyable overall even though there are some logical fallacies throughout the game.
• Tomb Raider (2013) - Started a new playthrough, as I missed a few things during my first run. By far my favourite Tomb Raider game, although I wished they hadn't tacked an online mode into a game that didn't need one. Not looking forward to that bit at all.

 

 

I'll probably be focusing on trying to get Burnout Paradise wrapped up soon as well as finishing the first playthrough of Pillars of Eternity.

 

 

A thanks to all the participants. I hope everyone had a good time and maybe some of the newcomers will find their way back to the next iteration in November.

Edited August 1, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[Psy-Tychist]

Darkest Dungeon.

 

Playtime: 3 hours

Played: Week 13, 4 Heroes dead

Trophies: 13/53 (Base Game) - 19%

Completion: 60.82% - ? 0.04%

Feeling: Dejected and Unnerved.

 

I found Darkest Dungeon from watching TotalBiscuit (RIP John Bain). The art style and story dynamics were not unique but were certainly striking and unusual to see in a video game at the time it came out. I was intrigued by it, but have been intimidated by Permadeath and Rogue-like type games. I ventured that one of these days, I'd just take the plunge and get lost in it. So, how much horror did I endure?

 

Your exposition is dark and gloomy. You are tasked with restoring the Manor you have inherited to its former glory and to remove all semblances of the horrors within. The previous owner or Ancestor to yourself couldn't deal with the horrors he found and the last scene you see and hear is a gunshot in the Manor. Sufficiently spooky and grim start, Check.

 

You have a tutorial which utilizes a Crusader and a Highwayman, teaching the basics of attacking, ranged attacks and dodging as well as using items. The 'Dungeon' layout is a 2D hallway which is broken up into squares on a map which you navigate and complete the goal required and you can then escape. Which I should have done, but I failed miserably after completing the mission. I carried on moving and got into another battle which, killed my party before getting to the Manor to begin the game proper. It didn't matter overall, I just got two trophies instead of the one and recruited a brand new party.

 

There are lots of mechanics involved with Darkest Dungeon, you can tell that it was designed for PC playing at its core. The port itself is good, no problems with loading, graphical fidelity or sound. The issues I have are with the commands used on the home screen. Every area in the homestead has different buttons to activate different areas of interest when in that location. It's not intuitive on a controller but you can come to terms with it as long as you pay attention to ALL the tips that come up.

 

There are many things you can upgrade, change, add to for all the characters involved. The homestead has many areas to use, upgrade and become available the further you go into the game. There are many character types to choose from with strengths and weaknesses. The game as a whole has so much going on to learn that its impossible to put it all down here without writing a biopic on how my first 12 weeks went.

 

Some things to note though, the game tells you that heroes WILL die. Unless you are literally perfect and incredibly lucky, this will happen. Even so, there is a pain at the loss of someone who you have invested so much time in. 

Health is a resource that is hard to recover regularly, but that is not the main issue. The biggest mechanic is the Stress level and this is where the game will beat you into submission. Every attack on your heroes has a chance to add Stress. There are many enemies who inflict specifically Stress damage. When you reach 100 out of 200 Stress, your hero will have their Resolve Tested. There is a 67% chance that a negative trait will assert itself rather than powering through and gaining a positive one. If they survive to 200 stress, they will suffer a heart attack and will lose health rapidly and possibly die. This will be the biggest killer of your heroes adventure and recovering large stress amounts is nearly impossible in battle.

An example of a battle which went this way was when I first encountered the Wizened Hag. Just before the fight, I camped to recover health and stress. One of my party was already above 100 stress and had become Abusive (meaning they berated the party after every miss or weak attack). A nightmare fight then removed all my good work and was nearly worse off before fighting the Wizened Hag. Upon starting the fight, the stress got to another hero and they became Paranoid (they don't listen to commands and whisper bad rumours to the other party members). Party member after party member fell, each reaching Deaths Door and being killed by the Hags Meat Hammer. The Paranoid party member was last on the Hags kill list and was at Deaths Door. For some reason, the Hag hit nearly every turn after but none of them was a killing blow. He survived for 12 turns chipping away at the Hags health before succumbing to a final Deathblow. Party wiped, time to start again.

Another thing is, that you can't escape battles and fight again. If you want to escape, you escape and fail the entire adventure meaning each hero gains a large amount of stress and will nearly be useless until they rest and relax.

 

There is a lot going on in this game, it will take time to learn and like in Dark Souls, you will die. A LOT.

 

Trophy-wise, the game has lots of trophies for doing things for the first time and you can accumulate a good number before having to grind or have to prepare yourself for the task of completing the game on the Hardest difficulty within 90 weeks and losing less than 13 heroes in total.

It's brutal overall, but fair as the game basically tells you it hates your guts and wills you to try and beat it.

 

Overall, this game is gruesomely beautiful, hard as nails and brings out a masochistic side to people willing them to keep trying. Beat the Occult Horrors with the Darkest Dungeon and bring peace to the hamlet.

 

If you like this (style of game), try these: Enter the Gungeon, X-COM, The Banner Saga, Slay the Spire.

 

Next Game: ???

 

I haven't got anymore games that I have played, so I only reached 8 games this KYC. Tis not bad though and will review soon.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Psy-Tychist

[Hemiak]

On 7/13/2019 at 2:31 AM, dmland12 said:

Game #2: Fenix Furia

Trophies: 31/36 (80%)

Completion: 95.55% (-0.13%, -0.73% from start)

 

Challenge mode was definitely my favorite other than the final boss. Easily the hardest part of the entire game. I enjoyed God Mode as well though. Glad you had fun man. 

 

 

[DamagingRob]

Didn't play anymore Yakuza, so the Day 1 review will have to suffice. I'm sure I'll post updates here, if and when I ever get back to it. Another KYC event comes to an end, and my completion percentage hasn't dropped much. But it also takes a lot to raise it any, just like it takes a lot to drop it. So, so long 92%; I hardly knew ye. :'( Thanks to @voodoo_eyes for hosting yet again, and to all the participants.

 

From best to worst: 

 

1. Lollipop Chainsaw- An off the wall crazy and fun zombie killing game, that I hope to enjoy the rest of as much as the beginning.
2. Hollow Knight- An awesome metroidvania that has so far lived up to my expectations, after hearing how good it was.
3. Mr. Shifty- Cool Hotline Miami clone, where you get to teleport around like you're Nightcrawler. Best X-Men game in recent memory.
4. Yakuza: Dead Souls- Yakuza 4 with zombies, basically. The uninfected area is pretty much the same as Yakuza 4, so it could just be an expansion type of deal. maybe.
5. School Girl/Zombie Hunter- Senran Kagura fused with zombies. Probably the weakest of the event, but it's not bad.