Support NeoGAF

[SpiceRacz]

5. Chrono Trigger - This is a replay for me. A friend randomly mentioned it and I got the itch to go back and play it again. Went with Chrono, Magus, and Robo for the final fight all 3 at level 50. No triple techs between the 3. Lavos was a breeze. Total time 18 hours. Not going to write a paragraph about the greatness of this game. It's as good today as it was in 1995. Still my favorite RPG alongside Earthbound.

 

[Bogtron]

First year attempting, claiming my spot.

 

[SpiceRacz]

6. Kuru Kuru Kururin (GBA) - This is a deceptively fun puzzle game. You guide a spinning stick through mazes trying to get to the end goal. You take damage when you touch walls and you're given a 3 hit limit. Sounds simplistic, but it's more addicting than you would think. My only complaint is there's not more of it. I was able to beat it in one sitting.


Here's a gif for reference:

 

[BusierDonkey]

Games 1-6

This is going to be out of order because I played some beat 'em ups in the middle of my Devil May Cry project.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge
2-player co-op playthrough using the two new character, Mondo Gecko and Mona Lisa

This was the fourth time I've played through this game and honestly, I can see myself playing through this every year. I love the pixel art, the animation, the music, the bosses, the environments, it's just all-around a great game and I think it may be the best game in this genre.

River City Girls
2-player New Game + playthrough

I played this back when it first launched and eventually dropped it because of the never-ending grinding and spongy enemies. Fortunately, my brother finished it, and we sat down for a new game + session. This game has some great pixel art, fantastic music and the gameplay is the right level of complex without being overly complicated, that is except for the grinding and enemies that never stay down on your first playthrough. The problem with enemies taking so many his is that it drags you out of the adventure part of the game and by the time you're done you just want it to be over. I avoided that by starting at level 30, making the game much more fun to play despite the fact ng+ ramps up the difficulty.

River City Girls 2
2-Player New Game + playthrough

This game looks identical to the first, the music is very similar to the first and basically everything here is an extension of the first game. That's not to say there isn't anything new. The combat has been expanded, but still not over-complicated. The map is significantly larger despite being the same location. There are more enemy types, more music, more of everything. Unfortunately, there's more grinding and more spongey enemies so once again I played with my brother who took the time to unlock ng+ so we could run through the game more quickly. Quickly isn't a thing in this game, even starting at level 30 and having already unlocked all the hidden items, the game took 11 hours. 11 hours in a beat 'em up is an eternity. I think this game could have shed a few areas and would have been better for it. The game also has a tendency to send you on fetch quests through areas you just passed through quite often, padding the time even more.

Devil May Cry 3
Completed playthrough

This game was just great. I enjoyed DMC and despite hearing it was a complete pile of shit I actually didn't mind DMC 2. DMC 3 is a prequel to those games featuring a younger, absolutely insane version of Dante. He's a complete goof of a character (in a good way) who is constantly cracking jokes and doing hilarious stuff. At one point you fight a big-veiny-boobed vampire demon and after winning she turns into a guitar which Dante actually goes on to play in a cutscene (image related). Combat in this game was great, lots of moves to string together and plenty of enemies and bosses to use them on. I'd rate the game higher but unfortunately, I played this through the Devil May Cry HD Collection which was cobbled together by monkeys who put zero effort into these ports, so the game has zero settings, 1080p resolution cap, 240p cutscenes and menus designed for the PS2 era. Absolutely great game, but it needs to be played outside this collection on its own.

Devil May Cry 4
Completed playthrough

This game is better than a 75 but this version of the game isn't. I actually really enjoyed it, but the Steam version of the game is broken for Win11 users. In order to even launch the game, I had to download a hex editor and modify the game. Then to change the resolution to match my 1440p monitor I also had to make changes using the hex editor. After that, the game would sometimes hang when cutscenes started, so after killing a boss I'd often get an infinite loading screen. The game itself looks great, plays great, the world is once again fun to explore and find secrets in. The characters are fantastic, and the boss fights are almost all great. Nero's evolution throughout the game as he discovers the truth about the organization he works with was done well. Dante is older now than in DMC 2 so he's a bit more reserved, though still quick with the one-liners. The combat is more fluid than earlier games. Traversal can get a bit annoying; Nero has a grappling ability that's a bit janky but it's not game-breaking. The game's worst offender is the last boss. I had no idea what the game wanted me to do and spent way too much time getting slammed by massive fists before I figured it out. In a game that is nothing but smooth boss fights one after another, the boss is way out of place.

Devil May Cry 5
Completed playthrough

The RE Engine is such a great engine. This game looks phenomenal and despite my hardware being pretty outdated, I ran this at 1440p/120fps locked with no upscaling and max settings with a ReShade running and my PC barely cared. On top of looking good, the combat has been polished to an incredible level. Everything is moving lightning fast on screen, with characters teleporting around constantly but at no point did I lose track of my character. Combos are slick and rewarding to pull off, attacks blend seamlessly into each other, and the fights are just fun. The boss fight are massive events, incorporating the surrounding areas, destroying buildings, using the level as part of the fight itself. All of the character (that actually matter) return, and the new characters are great. Nico was especially fun, a complete yokel of a girl who speaks like that one kid in everyone's elementary school that was kind of an asshole, but everyone liked them anyway. I also really got a kick out of the attention to detail and care in the game. In one of the boss fights, the boss had an answer to every attack I pulled off. At one point he stole the hat off my head and wore it, I used my motorcycle swords (yes you read that right) and when I combined them to launch a motorcycle as a missile he cut my bike in half, he broke the blade off my sword, he tangled my nunchucks up, he deflected my rocket launcher, it was awesome. The biggest negative I could come up with for the game was that the exploration, that to me was a staple in earlier entries, was kind of just gone from this game. It was mostly point A to B traversal with a lot of battles in between. Given the genre it's not the end of the world, but I did miss it. The other glaring issue with DMC 5 is whatever they did to Trish and Lady's faces. Trish especially looks like a gargoyle on meth. Luckily mods exist so in my game their faces looked more like they did in DMC 4. This is a truly great action game, even if you never played the earlier games there is a synopsis of the events leading up to DMC5 on the title screen, though I would recommend playing at least DMC3 and 4 as well.

 

[marcincz]

Game 3 - Neva (PS5) - 05h 03m
Beat 08/01/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 4 - Earthion (PS5) - 01h 47m
Beat 10/01/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 5 - The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (PS5) - 04h 16m
Beat 11/01/2026 - my score: 9/10

Beat another short 3 titles.
Especially Stanley was great.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 7

Daemon X Machina
Completed Playthrough

This game was a rough one for me and such a disappointment. On one hand I'm a massive mecha fan, building plastic models of robots is my other big hobby. The Arsenal designs in the game are great, done by Shoji Kawamori (Patlabor, Escaflowne, Eureka Seven, Armored Core, etc) and a lot of the art was nice, though the visuals in this game really could have run on the Gamecube, I know this is a Switch game, but how hard would it have been to polish up the graphics just a little? Controlling the mechs was mostly good, movement was fast, gliding along the ground was easily the best part of the gameplay. Unfortunately, things like targeting are dumbed down to the point you really don't have to aim with most weapons. Running out of robot stamina is annoying, causing you to slowly meander around until it refills, not always a dumb mechanic but the bar is so small here. The control layout was a bit odd as well, but I got used to it quickly enough. The mech customization was really good; there are a ton of parts for the Arsenals allowing you to fully swap out every main section of the body and its attachments. Unfortunately, specs are tied to specific parts with no option to alter those specs, so if you put together a design you really like, it might actually be a pile of crap. There's also no ability to save an Arsenal's design, you have the one Arsenal it's equipped as is, any changes can only be reverted manually. This carries over to the pilot; there is a decent character creator, but as you advance in the game augmenting your stats forces cybernetic implants that completely obscure your character, making the creator pointless. It's not too big of a deal I suppose since your character doesn't speak a line of dialogue. It's a bit of a blessing given the sheer amount of dialogue and characters crammed into this mess. This brings me to this game's absolute downfall. What were the devs thinking here? In this 20-hour-long game I swear there is about 15 hours of talking heads with dialogue boxes and cutscenes featuring pilots sitting in black cockpits babbling on for an eternity. It never ends, they'll even repeat themselves multiple times in the same cutscene. They all talk so slowly too, like they all had lobotomies or something. The worst of it is that I'd be in the middle of a battle having fun and multiple times the gameplay would get cut off for more talking heads, completely ruining the flow. I wasn't expecting perfection with this game but it still disappointed me in the end.

 

[SpiceRacz]

7. The Last Guardian - Last Guardian has been on my radar for years. After finally playing through it, my feelings are mixed. It shares the same DNA of Ico and Shadow of The Colossus and that's both good and bad. You get the good - emotional storytelling, distinct atmosphere, beautiful environments and cinematography. But you also get the bad that comes along with their style of games. Commanding Trico can be inconsistent and you're fighting with the controls and camera a large part of the game. By the end, I wanted to throw my controller out the fucking window. The payoff with the ending is worth it though. Happy I played it. I loved the story, visuals, and characters. Would never do a replay.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 8

LEGO Bricktales
100% complete, all achievements

This kind of game is dangerous for someone like me. The game itself is probably closer to 15 hours long, but for me it was a 50-hour game and could have been longer. If a game lets me build stuff, I'm going to build something cool. No matter how simple the game's request, I overbuilt everything and I was going to go back and rebuild everything with the new bricks I unlocked before I stopped myself. The game itself can best be described as a puzzle adventure. There is zero combat in this game, just exploration, puzzles and the ability to build LEGO structures and vehicles. The puzzles are not exactly difficult, they mostly require finding hidden switches and items, but the puzzles were fun to complete. The exploration was great, everything in the game is made of LEGO, just like the movies and it all looks pretty good. There are multiple dimensions comprised of different biomes and matching LEGO set pieces. It's a fun little adventure traveling through dimensions helping your scientist grandpa rebuild an old amusement park before the mayor tears it down. The builder itself lets you build many things and is decently comprehensive, but it doesn't allow any special attachments, just stacking, which limits the things you can produce which is unfortunate. If you're looking for a comfy time killer, this is a great pick.

 

[SpiceRacz]

8. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (mGBA emulator) - This was a breeze and a perfect game for just shutting my brain off while drinking some beers and watching movies in the background. I might try 2 & 3 next. I played through the Virtual Boy game and Wario Land 4 years ago and thought those were excellent. Cheers!

 

[Skeptical]

Reserving a spot. Although after doing it for 2 years straight, I do not expect to continue my streak. And I am not going to stress out about it or plan my game time around it. I've put off too many long games already. So if I only hit 30 or whatever, so be it. But I'll still take the time to document my games here anyway.

 

[SpiceRacz]

9. Ridge Racer (PS5) - I have very little experience with this series, but I do remember this on PS1 back in the day. Playing it now, I don't think it's aged well. The drift mechanics are weird. On one hand, it feels really good to nail a drift on a turn, but on the other hand you can spin out if you don't do it correctly. This only bothers me because it feels like it's some mish mash of arcade physics and realism. The controls are oversensitive with the joystick and I played exclusively with the Dpad. The true remedy for this is to just play with the 3rd and 4th cars. They lack the maneuverability of the others and that that essentially translates to tighter, normal steering. If I'm comparing this to the other arcade racing games of the time, I don't think this holds a candle to Sega Rally or Daytona USA in terms of visuals, music, and controls. Still a nice racing game though.

 

[SpiceRacz]

10. Viewfinder (PS5) - Short and creative first person puzzle game that requires messing with perspectives and cameras. Among other things. There's some obvious Portal and Talos Principle inspiration here, but it's very much it's own thing. It's an easier game than both of those and I appreciated that. I don't always want to be banging my head against the wall trying to figure shit out. Especially coming off playing Blue Prince last month. There is a narrative here. You're being sent through some sort of ancient simulation in order to find a way to bring vegetation and plant life back on Earth. Didn't care and I found most of the dialogue to be distracting. If you have an itch for a first person puzzle game that isn't 15+ hours long, you should give this a shot. I think it took me all of 4 hours and it was a blast.

 

[marcincz]

Game 6 - The Invincible (PS5) - 07h 41m
Beat 14/01/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 7 - Pillars of Eternity - dlc The White March part II (PS4) - 08h 47m
Beat 19/01/2026 - my score: 7/10

Game 8 - Bloodshore (PS5) - 01h 21m
Beat 22/01/2026 - my score: 5/10

Added another 3 games this month.
Invincible is nice walking sim.
Bloodshore is a battle royale FMV, but unfortunately very mediocre.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Played a couple games that are free on Steam. My experience with these free games has been largely positive. While most are very short, sometimes that's exactly what I'm looking for. Often times though, I'll find a game like Bloody Hell that unexpectedly devours an entire week of my free time.

Games 9-10

Ascent DX
100% Complete

This is a very short but very sweet Metroidvania title. You're a scientist that crash lands on another planet and has to try to find a way home. As you progress and pick up physical upgrades to access new areas your body changes and you start to question not only if you ever get home, but if you'll even be able to remain human. The whole thing is under an hour long, but it accomplishes what it needs to in that time. The music was great, really only one track running but it's a really good track so listening to it play for the duration of the game wasn't an issue. The visuals are unfortunately pixelshit. While it's remarkable that everything is actually conveyed at a 64x64 resolution, it just makes me think of how great it would look with more pixels. Sometimes pixels are too pixeled. There are way worse ways to spend an hour of your time.

Bloody Hell
Completed playthrough

This game caught me completely off-guard. It's a top-down twin stick shooter where you play as a pigeon sent by God to kill Satan. I was expecting this game to be one or two hours long, but this thing is full of secrets and a gradually ramping difficulty that requires you to constantly upgrade. I ended up dumping way too much time into this thing trying to 100% it but in the end, I pulled the ripcord. When you die you lose half of your money which is always a frustrating mechanic. Imagine if you worked your whole life stashing away money and when you die something just took half of it! Oh wait... You can't retrieve what you lost so grinding for an hour to raise money for a particularly worthwhile upgrade can get wiped out if you step into an arena and get overwhelmed which happens often. Things like health and weapon upgrades are multi-stage; you pick up a cursed heart to add to your life bar, but that heart doesn't work until you remove the curse. Similarly, weapon and ability upgrades come in vials that you sort in the menu on a grid, but you must activate blocks for the vials to actually work. The combat in the game is simple enough, one stick shoots, the other moves you. As you progress and the difficulty ramps up, enemies fire more and move quicker, eventually teleporting around constantly while spamming projectiles. Luckily your upgrades are very useful, allowing you to match the enemies as they ramp up throughout the game. The boss fights in this game are brutal fights that take time and patience to overcome.

 

[Pantz]

January Report:
Only 3 games finished. Damn! I'm really close to finishing the original Project Gotham Racing but some of the last races are really difficult to get golds.

Finished:
01/09 - Slay the Spire (PC/Steam)
Finished with The Defect. It's a really well balanced game that requires just a bit of luck. Very satisfying to finish it for the first time. I'll return to it in the future to complete it with other characters. Looking forward to trying the sequel.

01/25 - Secret Kiss is Sweet and Tender (Switch 2)
Pretty straight forward VN about teacher and student lesbians. Interesting that it's exclusive to Switch and GOG. I played it while walking to get exercise while playing. It's pretty easy to walk and read.

01/29 - Bishoujo Battle Cyber Panic! (Switch 2)
One of those $1 games you find on the eSHop. Simple gameplay of drawing a line to cutout and reveal the artwork and avoid getting hit while doing so. The artwork is relevant to my interests, anime girls x military equipment. I played this while walking too and it seems that I'm able to play simplistic games while walking too. I'm going to get a lot of exercise.

 

[SpiceRacz]

January Report:
Only 3 games finished. Damn! I'm really close to finishing the original Project Gotham Racing but some of the last races are really difficult to get golds.

Finished:
01/09 - Slay the Spire (PC/Steam)
Finished with The Defect. It's a really well balanced game that requires just a bit of luck. Very satisfying to finish it for the first time. I'll return to it in the future to complete it with other characters. Looking forward to trying the sequel.

01/25 - Secret Kiss is Sweet and Tender (Switch 2)
Pretty straight forward VN about teacher and student lesbians. Interesting that it's exclusive to Switch and GOG. I played it while walking to get exercise while playing. It's pretty easy to walk and read.

01/29 - Bishoujo Battle Cyber Panic! (Switch 2)
One of those $1 games you find on the eSHop. Simple gameplay of drawing a line to cutout and reveal the artwork and avoid getting hit while doing so. The artwork is relevant to my interests, anime girls x military equipment. I played this while walking too and it seems that I'm able to play simplistic games while walking too. I'm going to get a lot of exercise.

I wanted to include Slay the Spire to my list, but I never actually finished it. I probably put in 20 hours and still couldn't get over the hump at the end. Felt like there's an element of luck involved that just never swung my way. Great game though.

 

[marcincz]

Game 9 - Dave the Diver (NS) - 23h 45m
Beat 29/01/2026 - my score: 9/10

Last game of January.
Brilliant title, with incredible variety of mechanics.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Game 7

Daemon X Machina
Completed Playthrough
This game was a rough one for me and such a disappointment.

Massive disappointment for me too. Characters that looked straight out of Concord, nonsense story (you are basically a wildcard between many mercenaries groups so you never get affinity with any of them), boring battle mechanisms, upgrades that were hard to calculate, etc. I also hate the Mario64 style of returning to a hub after every mission, it feels more like many consecutive small stages (just like God Eater 3, Nights of Azure 2) than a huge campaign like Hogwarts Legacy. I was told Daemon x Machina 2 is somewhat different.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Gonna reserve this spot but have little aim to complete all 52 (since I primarily aim to platinum every game I play).
Somehow I managed it last year but I intend to scale back to somewhere in the 30s for 2026. Maybe I opt to get squirly with how I count completions since there are a number of DLC episodes I want to return to, but I'll try and not oversell the achievement.

Spoiler: Schedule

Q1​	Q2​	Q3​	Q4​
System Shock 2 Remake	Crimson Desert	Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition	Halo: Campaign Evolved
Skate Story	Hollow Knight	The Talos Principle: Reawakened	Grand Theft Auto VI
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS5)	Dishonored: Definitive Edition	Hi-Fi Rush	Control Resonant
Wild Arms 2 (Platinum #400)	Darksiders: Genesis	Ghostwire Tokyo	Clockwork Revolution
Puppeteer	Night In The Woods	Dead Space Remake	Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
Kentucky Route Zero	Saros	Resident Evil: Village	JUDAS
Deus Ex: The Conspiracy	Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy	Resident Evil 3 Remake	Sektori
Metro Awakening	Mouse: PI For Hire	Saturday Morning RPG
Lies Of P	Pragmata	Sword Of The Vagrant

 

[Glass Prison]

January Update

Off to a great start in my opinion, I may have outdone myself with this one. I usually can't finish this many games in one month, mainly due to lack of time/exhaustion, but it never felt like 'too much' this time and I had a lot of fun in the process. Here are a few words on each of the games I played.

---

I'm currently playing the entire Splinter Cell franchise (won't include Splinter Cell 1 on this list since I beat it in December), but wow it's so good to be back to these games. I miss the simplicity, and how there was absolutely no bloat at all. The game is straight up to the point and concise, it doesn't waste your time with pointless things to do around a huge map, and also lets you think for yourself and find your own solutions.
Pandora Tomorrow was my favorite SC as a child and I have some fond memories of it. Replaying it did make me realise some of its shortcomings and problems, but overall PT is a good evolution of Splinter Cell 1 and added some much needed variety to the levels, while also improving many of the core mechanics introduced in the first game.

---

This thing is Wipeout on crack. Superb game. Fast as hell, challenging, great variety of tracks and vehicles. If you want to scratch that PS1/N64 Wipeout itch this game is definitely the way to go, and I think I would rather recommend it over the remasters of Wipeout on PS4. It comes with a built-in track creator that you can do almost anything you want, for fucks sake. This game is awesome and deserves more praise.

---

I don't remember why, but I skipped this game back when it was released, maybe I was already eyeing the next gen consoles and this went over my head, I don't know, but Chaos Theory is awesome, and in my opinion the perfect Splinter Cell game. Level design stands out and is really well done with more freedom of choice and approach.
Sam's movements are incredibly precise and fluid. They fixed that clunkiness feeling of the first two games, so hiding in the shadows and picking off the enemies makes you feel like a lynx pouncing on its prey.

---

Onimusha Way of the Sword is one of my most anticipated games this year, so I decided to play the first three games before its release. First of all I was really surprised how short Warlords is - not considering the deaths, and the times I left the game open while doing something else (I have this bad habit), I think my save file had a little bit over 3 hours. Not complaining, though, the game is still awesome and highly replayable.
It was a bit difficult trying to figure out the controls, especially how to pull-off the Issen move, but once I got the hang of it it's so satisfying. I really enjoy the fact that the game rewards a more precise combat, waiting for the enemies mover first rather than button mashing all the time.
Puzzles are also fun and reminded me of old school Resident Evil. Well it is Capcom after all. The story is wacky but I was expecting it already, I had some experience with Onimusha 3 on the PS2 lol.

---

This game, hell dude. I used to play Ace Combat 2 on the PS1 with my cousin back when we were kids. I don't know how to explain, but AC7 is just like I remember AC2 being, while playing as a kid. It's so fucking good. The perfect arcade game and exactly what I was hoping it to be. I just finished the campaign for now, but I want to hop back for the DLC soon. Ace Combat 8 can't come soon enough.

---

Splinter Cell Double Agent on Steam is NOT the game I remember playing on the 360 LOL. This port is a glitchy mess, crashes all the time, enemies see you through walls sometimes, Sam gets stuck in the meshes… it's just terrible. My first bad game of the year, and I had really good memories of it when I played it back when it was released. Was it always this bad and I never noticed?
I plan on playing the PS2 version which was developed by Ubisoft Montreal. I think this is the definitive version of the game, and it's a completely different game than this one.

---

I wasn't planning on playing this game, just downloaded it through PS+ to give it a test and ended up finishing it. Also I debated myself if I would include it in this list or not, but damnit it's a paid game and I need as many games as I can get to finish this challenge, so it's in lol.
Kidding aside, Exit 8 is a lot better than I expected. It's short, sure, but effective. I think the fact that I started out looking for minuscule changes in the scene made my skin crawl whenever I got a really obvious change.

---

I don't know how I feel about Samurai's Destiny to be honest. On one hand, it's just like Warlords with new weapons, characters, story, and puzzles. On the other hand, it has so many unnecessary things like giving presents to your allies so they help you in battles, and depending on your choices you get different endings and cutscenes. I mean, ok, nothing wrong with that if it was an RPG or something, but do I really want to replay it all over again and collect gifts just to watch Jubei being blue-balled by Oyu? Not really.
I think the game is great when it's being Onimusha and not trying to be something else. Aside from the last boss which is just stupid - constantly spamming attacks while being out of reach… 2nd phase is even more stupid with that proto-bullet hell section. I don't know. Warlords is a lot better.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 11

Afterimage
100% Complete - All ten endings, all side quests complete

Longer review here but the game surprised me greatly and I really love Metroidvanias. I bought this game just over a year ago and I've almost played it several times before picking a different game since it had mixed reviews when I bought it. Last week I decided to just go ahead and knock it out. I was expecting an average 5–10-hour long Metroidvania with all the depth of a puddle. I was so wrong. This might well be my favorite game in the genre after Super Metroid and Castlevania: SOTN. This game really checked all the right boxes for me, but I know some people won't like its size or complexity in this genre. For starters this game's map is enormous, it has several unique biomes that all feel like a new adventure in themselves as you enter. The art, animation and environments are gorgeous, the backgrounds, characters and creatures are all painted and fluidly animated. Despite taking almost 50 hours to fully complete, I never once felt the game was overstaying its welcome. The map is full of secrets ranging from stuff you'll stumble across to some really cleverly hidden treasures. At one point I had already been playing for way too long, checked the time, then decided I'd play for another fifteen minutes before packing it in. Three hours later I forced myself to shut down for the night. The game pays homage to all the great games in the genre that came before it. There are distinct call backs to Metroid all over, there's an upside-down castle like in Castlevania (though in this one you later unlock the right-side-up version) and there's a nod to Hollowknight in both an easter egg and some gameplay elements. The game borrows a bit from them all. Traversal starts limited, as is normal with the genre, but in what feels like no time you're blasting through the map using a combination of special skills and augmented platforming moves. The skill tree is almost as massive as the map with plenty to unlock through multiple menus and there are plenty of accessories and outfits to further increase your stats. There are several weapon types ranging from swords to whips to magic staffs. All weapons can be enhanced, opening up new special attacks. There are NPCs all over with missions to give you, many of them are fetch quests for food ingredients which return new meals that give you permanent stat buffs the first time you eat them. Basically, nothing in the game left me feeling like I was wasting my time.

Combat in the game is a lot of fun, the base move set is already good, but as you unlock new skills and find new weapons you also unlock new attacks. The game also has a soft parry system. Many solid projectiles can be parried which sends them back at your attacker but there are no enemies that force you to parry to defeat them which I liked. Each weapon type has its own style and each individual weapon in each class has differing elemental, physical and magical buffs. Taking a minute to set up a character for a boss fight can make the fight easier and more fun but is not required. On the subject of boss fights, there are dozens of boss fights in the game ranging in scale. They're set up similarly to Dark Souls, some are just in set locations waiting, some encounters require you to trigger another event to appear, others require finding and speaking to NPCs that show up all over the place unexpectedly. Some of the fights are tough but none were unfair (save for the second phase of the true final boss, but I think something happened with my game specifically). Being a Metroidvania, you chose your own difficulty. Having trouble with a boss? Do something else for a while and come back stronger. I enjoyed uncovering the story, basically humanity trying to take God's work into their own hands thorough magic and technology resulting in a war that ravaged the world and resulted in your character losing her memory and your partner needing to link your souls to survive. You have to piece together past events as you play. The main beats happen in a specific order, but side quests and NPC dialogue don't have to, so you have to keep track of what people tell you then fit it all together. The game also has ten endings, some "bad", some "good", there's an ending where you come across a payphone, pick up the receiver and are pulled out of the Matrix, falling green numbers and all. The game has a true ending that you get after several hours of collecting items, completing missions for key NPCs and discovering the other endings.

I really enjoyed this game, but it had a few flaws. The music, while good, didn't have any real memorable beats like the Metroid or Castlevania series. I've played through Super Metroid a few times and remember every track. This game is over five times longer than Super Metroid and I only remember a couple tracks which I'll forget by next week. It's tough with a game this big to have super catchy beats since the music will repeat a lot, but it could have been better. Another gripe was the hitbox around spikes, jumping puzzles in the game will send you back to the start when you screw up and sometimes, you'll get sent back without actually touching a spike. My biggest issue with the game was its use of the analog stick for movement. This game has a lot of precision jumping, and using a stick for movement in a 2D game is stupid. Instead, they assigned the d-pad to quick-use item slots, this should be reversed. I lost count of the times I meant to do an up attack and swung at the air in front of me because the stick was ever-so-slightly off. Sadly, I was already finished the game when I discovered the game has an option to swap the d-pad and analog stick for movement so I can't exactly fault the game for that now can I? D-pad should have been the default, but I guess I'll be more careful to look for that option in the future.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 12

Chorus
Completed all story and side missions

The game looks pretty good in still shots, but just about every aspect of the game is either annoying or disappointing. For starters the story in the game is gobbledygook. At first it seems like it's going somewhere, but it collapses on itself pretty quickly. The writing is abysmal, and I was constantly running into characters that had either one-note personalities or just none at all. It was very hard to develop any kind of empathy for any of the characters. Frankly your ship had more personality that any of the people in the game. The voice acting was terrible, sounding like people reading out loud, and to make things worse the main character whisper-shouts half her dialogue as internal thoughts which I couldn't hear over the game's sound effects (which might have been a blessing in disguise honestly). As I mentioned earlier, the game looks fine in screenshots, but in motion things aren't quite as nice. Nothing in the game moves at all, massive asteroid fields but they're all completely stationary. It makes the game world feel static. During battles, everything on-screen becomes oversaturated and bloomy, and things become impossible to make out. You have this scanner you use to point out targets but because everything is hyper-colored it's impossible to tell if something is on the other side of a wall or not. It gets especially annoying when you're trying to pick apart a capital ship while you're also being spammed with small enemy craft since you can't stop to figure out where the weak points actually are. The gameplay is not ideal, clumsy even. Your ship turns like it's a car, but it can't rotate which makes zero sense in a space shooter. There is no ability to reverse or strafe either, instead the game has what's called "drifting", basically you cut all maneuvering thrusters, and your ship just drifts in a straight line while you can then rotate your ship. In Everspace (a great example of how space shooter controls should be set up) this ability is built into the basic controls without wasting a bumper (one stick handles forward, reverse, strafe. The other tilts and rolls, allowing you to circle enemies with your weapons always on them). If I run too close to a wall, I have to slowly turn my ship around while being pummeled from behind. Activating my booster makes the ship even more cumbersome. Strafing runs on large ships end up being annoying to execute because you either can't fine tune your angle, or you just smash into a wall trying. To make matters worse, all your weapons and abilities need a cooldown so you're constantly and frantically switching between everything when the game tosses a few dozen things at you. Missions were laser-focused, often times I would trip a warning that I was leaving the mission area just chasing enemy craft and even more often I'd fail missions for not doing exactly what the devs wanted me to do. Then there are the timed missions and escort missions which are never fun. The game does have a couple really cool boss fights, but again, they're hampered by the clumsy flight controls and constant interruptions so the characters can talk. Honestly, I'd just skip this one if I had the choice.

 

[NahaNago]

I could have sworn I had beaten another game earlier this year.

1. Dragon quest 7 remake. A fairly basic jrpg. I give it rating of "C"

 

[marcincz]

I could have sworn I had beaten another game earlier this year.

1. Dragon quest 7 remake. A fairly basic jrpg. I give it rating of "C"

Wait, you've beaten DQ7 remake? You mean DQ7 Reimagined, which was released 2 days ago?

 

[NahaNago]

Wait, you've beaten DQ7 remake? You mean DQ7 Reimagined, which was released 2 days ago?

i bought that early access version and I took a mini vacation to marathon it the past few days.

 

[marcincz]

i bought that early access version and I took a mini vacation to marathon it the past few days.

Oh, I see.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Review: 7/10

Spoiler: Final Thoughts

Not as memorable as the original game, IMO (which I played in 2025, Nightdive's remake). SHODAN not showing up until halfway through the game felt strange and overblown, perhaps it was a time and place matter where players back in the day weren't aware of her role in the plot (in which case some of the foreshadowing would have felt more subtle) but when the character's face is on the box art I was expecting her to be more prominently featured.

Better UI and inventory management generally, but otherwise it is a more cognitively dissonant entry. Your primary foes are a bizarre range of psionic monkeys to "abominations of the Many" to cyborg ninjas; none of the enemies feel inherently natural in relation to one another. Admittedly, combat is not meant to be the highlight, so I'll ease up.

Biggest takeaway: by far the worst final boss in all of Irrational's games, laughably so. But for 80% of the game - prior to the UNN Rickenbacker - it's a showcase of all the best aspects of the early immersive sim genre. It's worth a spin if you find it on sale for $20-$30, but if you're new to games of this type, you're better off starting with Bioshock or Prey.

Review: 7/10

Spoiler: Final Thoughts

All in all, immensely impressive creation. The mixture of music, visuals, and postmodern narrative were highly engaging and I give this a solid recommendation (especially if, like me, you have access to it for no additional cost via PS+).

Main critique is the trick system feels, in the main, tedious and controlling the skater is loose. I oft found myself overcorrecting or failing to point myself in the right direction. Plus the trophy for 10k tricks is an arbitrary pain in the ass to grind. But I'll keep this one in mind at year's end.

Review: 5/10

Spoiler: Final Thoughts

Neither good nor bad, just directionless and unimpactful. The amount of text was burdensome, jumping from character to character for narrative expose became difficult to track what was happening and what was supposed to matter, and most of the time the dialogue meandered and was much ado about nothing (or at least it came across that way). I didn't mind the minimalist design of its visuals overall but it did make it tough to empathize and identify with characters since I had to make sense of who was who in the group and the lack of distinction to each model made it a mental effort to remain engaged.

Lovely final act and final scene but I only enjoy the idea of this game on paper. Otherwise, the experience was by the numbers, readily digested and discarded without leaving any impression. Wouldn't be surprised if I came back to this at some future date and was in a better mental state to appreciate its intentions.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 13

Trials of Mana
Completed playthrough

This is a 3D remake of the 2D Super Famicom ARPG Seiken Densetsu 3, a game that I never played, but saw in magazines back when it released and later when people started discovering it through emulation and posting it online. While I was pretty impressed with how well the art style translated to 3D, Seiken Densetsu 3 was among the best looking SNES games released with some incredible pixel art. This game looks like it would run on a PS2 for the most part, lots of blurry textures with no bump-mapping, basic lighting and ridiculous load times for what I was looking at. With that out of the way I still thought it looked nice, enemy, character and environment designs are faithful to the original despite the tech behind it all. It's a case of art design over fancy visual tech. It probably helps that I hop back and forth between new and old games as often as I do. The game has some excellent redone music and offers the original soundtrack if you want. Both are great, but I stuck to the new stuff. The voice acting in this game falls into the "unfortunate" category. There are mispronounced words or words being pronounced differently depending on the voice actor all throughout the game, characters would have pauses mid-word as if someone lost their spot on the page, and a lot of the lines sounded like someone simply reading out loud. I also found many of the voice actors spoke incredibly slowly. I've noticed this enough that I'm starting to suspect western voice actors deliberately pad their recoding time. If I had to do it again, I would use the Japanese voices and just read the subtitles. Between the loading times and the voiced dialogue this game ended up being really long for what it is. There are plenty of places to explore in the game with things to find which help unlock new abilities and perks. Unfortunately, this game has issues there as well. I had planned to 100% the game but there is an island that can't be returned to as well as a few areas you can't even reach without certain party members. If you want to see everything, you have to play the game twice using all six party members. The map has issues as well, once you can fly the map no longer shows locations you can only reach by land, so you have to land (loading screen), check the map, then take off again (loading screen) and hopefully remember the name of the place near the place you're trying to reach. It made end-game mop-up a pain in the ass. The gameplay translated well to 3D, this feels like Secret of Mana though the wait for your weapon to charge to 100% before landing a crushing blow has been changed, now you hold to charge your strong attack, same thing but different and somehow not as satisfying. There are plenty of boss fights ranging from simple hack and slash to win, to more complex bosses you need to pick apart. Overall, it was a pretty nostalgic trek into a game that I never played before. It felt like old Secret of Mana and despite the number of gripes I had with the game, I enjoyed it enough that I might pick it up again sometime to play with the other three characters.

EDIT - I jumped back into the game the day after finishing it and discovered there is around 5 hours of post-game content that I assume is setting up Visions of Man's story. Interesting content, you find yourself in a massive castle made from the four kingdoms found in the game, the rooms seem randomized but somehow they all work together.

 

[marcincz]

Game 10 - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS) - 32h 06m
Beat 07/02/2026 - my score: 8/10

Game 11 - Skinny & Franko: Fists of Violence (PS4) - 03h 02m
Beat 08/02/2026 - my score: 6/10

Game 12 - Abzu (PS4) - 01h 18m
Beat 09/02/2026 - my score: 7/10

Game 13 - Tunic (PS4) - 16h 09m
Beat 15/02/2026 - my score: 8/10

Mid-month update.
First Zelda I've ever beaten. Played OoT, TP and WW, but never finished.

Franko is one of my favourite games on Amiga. Played and finished it multiple times in primary school with classmates. Unfortunately second part is only average beat'em up.

Abzu - my 2nd playthrough after few years.

Tunic. Really great title till the last boss. This battle is real pain.

 

[begotten]

Might have to reserve a post since I think I'll hit the quota for once.

I've been playing a lot already with more time on my hands, and noticed I have started 26 games already with 16 of them either being Complete or 100%'d.

Will format and update at another time.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Review: 6/10

Spoiler: Final Thoughts

Major blast from the past and a game I wanted to commemorate, so I slotted it at platinum #400 so it's operatively bookmarked on my profile's home page. This was one of my early JRPG experiences and I recall it feeling dated even back then. The years haven't been kind to either the game elements or its narrative - it's markedly cliche, now more than ever, but saving the world via the power of friendship wasn't as worn out a central theme at the time. But most notably, there is a charm that persists with regard to the wild-west-meets-anime stylizations that I can't help but grin at when on display and it lends a layer of distinction for being so westward-minded that I place it over several of its peers.

Gutted it out to relive the nostalgia, despite its dated nature, but alas, I expect this to be the final instance I spend time with it. Some of the rose-hued tint has faded from memory upon this replay, but it will be forever remembered as one of the prominent JRPG offerings that inspired my fandom of the genre.

 

[Skeptical]

1. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow (9h, ★★★) What is with Iga's obsession with hiding progress behind random drops? Does he really love World of Warcraft that much or something? Different combat styles, ok. Different secrets, grumble, fine, whatever. But the true ending? Stop it! But other than that, this is a nice solid Castlevania. One thing I like about Iga's level design is the ability to move quite far without finding a new powerup, letting you explore and open up large amounts of the castle while wondering if you are moving in the right direction. And peppering in challenging gauntlets in with huge open areas. The added DS screen size gets this much closer to feeling like Symphony than the GBA games. So quite nice. Except for the final boss. First half was absurdly easy, second half was challenging, but more of a frustrating slow slog rather than a true test of your skill.

2. Monster Hunter Rise (66h, ★★★★). So much better than God Eater 3. Real-life inspired monsters are so much better than mindless automatons, since the visual cues make more sense. You can guess better where it is safe to attack from. Fights feel so much more dynamic, between broken parts that feel like they make a tangible difference to normal vs enraged vs tired status to fights taking place in varying locations as the monster tries to run away. There's an ebb and flow of the battle, with a desire to explore the surroundings a bit beforehand to beef yourself up, with the ability to physically see the prey getting weaker and weaker over time, making the battle more dynamic, it makes it more fun. Glad I decided to give the monster hunting genre a second chance.

3. Mario vs Donkey Kong (10h, ★★★★). I never played this on the GBA back in the day (well, never had a GBA, just the Gamecube adaptor), so I can't judge it's value as a remake. But as a successor to my favorite Game Boy game, this does its job. There's plenty of content overall, and while it never got too puzzling or challenging (neither did the original honestly), the level design served to make it fun to keep coming back to. It helps that things were so varied. Each level was split in two; typically a puzzle-focused part and an action focused part. Then you had the minis level at the end of each world and a unique boss level. And then bonus levels that played differently than any of those. So props for that! Sad that Nintendo decided to abandon this franchise in favor of those Lemming versions on the DS. I'd say I'd hope for a revival, but they haven't even made a new Captain Toad yet (which I consider to be a spiritual successor, and I'd take that too).

4. Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (2h, ★★) This is a game that can be played single-player. It is not meant to do that, and it shows. The central conceit, that rupees are collected solely to amass as much as possible, becomes irrelevant if you are playing all by your lonesome. The level design and combat is simply too basic to pick up the slack for the loss of the central conceit. Bosses are designed around a gimmick that you are not participating in. So, yeah, not unexpected, but whatever. You're supposed to play through multiple times to get the true ending or whatever, but it ain't worth it.

On the plus side, that means that despite being in storage for 8 years, my DS still works perfectly. Yay! Now I can play all my old games like... Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow that I just played on the Switch... Or Phantom Hourglass, otherwise known as the worst Zelda game of all time. Uh... Well, and my tactical RPGs and Pokémon games. At least that's something.

 

[Wolzard]

#1 - Red Dead Redemption (2010/2024) - PC

I finished RDR, it took me longer than I imagined because I spent some time doing side missions. It was great to wander around the map, some of the scenery was really beautiful. The shootouts are also incredibly fun and precise, there's a satisfaction in shooting thugs while riding a horse. The visuals are very good for a 2010 game. The PC version is very well done, my previous reference was the PS3 version, which was quite visually limited.
The story is very good, kind of dark like GTA IV, that was Rockstar's best era.

I'm not going to start RDR2 yet, since it's a huge game, I'll give myself a break with smaller games.

 

[SpiceRacz]

11. TMNT Rescuepalooza
This is an indie TMNT game that includes levels and elements of the TMNT games from NES alongside original content. The biggest draw here is this game has something like 30+ unlockable characters, including villains. The updated graphics are nice and it overall feels identical to the NES games. My only gripe is the new levels are not always good and because of that they stand out from the rest of the game, not in a good way. Especially the last few levels. Still, this is a nice beat 'em up for TMNT fans and it's completely free on PC.

Review: 6/10

Spoiler: Final Thoughts

Major blast from the past and a game I wanted to commemorate, so I slotted it at platinum #400 so it's operatively bookmarked on my profile's home page. This was one of my early JRPG experiences and I recall it feeling dated even back then. The years haven't been kind to either the game elements or its narrative - it's markedly cliche, now more than ever, but saving the world via the power of friendship wasn't as worn out a central theme at the time. But most notably, there is a charm that persists with regard to the wild-west-meets-anime stylizations that I can't help but grin at when on display and it lends a layer of distinction for being so westward-minded that it places it over a number of its peers.

Gutted it out to relive the nostalgia, despite its dated nature, but alas, I expect this to be the final instance I spend time with it. Some of the rose-hued tint has faded from memory upon this replay, but it will be forever remembered as one of the prominent JRPG offerings that inspired my fandom of the genre.

I've always been curious about this series. Have you played the other Wild Arms games? If so, would you recommend any of them?

 

[Cert.in.Death]

I've always been curious about this series. Have you played the other Wild Arms games? If so, would you recommend any of them?

Depends on your tolerance levels for old school JRPGs. I go back and forth between Wild Arms and Wild Arms 2 because the overall experience is similar but they sport different levels of datedness that might turn you off. After WA2 I think the franchise struggles with adapting to 3D-centric design and was too dependent on the blueprint that preceded them. Plus WA3 is so unbelievably padded in the latter half that I would recommend you stay away from that particular entry.

I find WA2 iterates on the exploration-based puzzles with more coherent mechanics and offers a more cogent visual consistency, but both games suffer from being overly obtuse and not communicating clearly the objectives the player should be pursuing. WA2 is a lesser offender than WA, which is why I give it the overall nod.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 14

Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed
Completed all main and side missions, found all collectables, unlocked all upgrades.

I played the first game in 2021 and really had fun with it. This is essentially the first game expanded and with a few more things to do. The game picks up right where the first left off. Crypto is still basically Jack Nicholson (and also the President of the USA) and Orthopox is now a disembodied hologram after the motorship was destroyed. New to the game is Russian KGB Agent Natalya Ivanova, Crypto's well-modeled love interest alongside a handful of supporting cast, all fun characters. Gameplay is basically identical to the first with larger areas and more things to do in each. It's still just as fun to toss people a hundred feet in the air with your PSI powers. Everything is destructible in the game, but it's rarely required to complete a mission. It's still fun to take down entire buildings with a meteor shower. The game could have been about ten hours shorter, there are a lot of escort and protection missions in this game which are my least favorite mission types. The big new environments while pretty and decently dense, were too large for Crypto's traversal speed. Crypto walks painfully slow, even on his hoverboard it takes ages to get from place to place. The game also has a number of bugs, some have negative effects on performance (sometimes when a building collapses the effects occur multiple times resulting in enough particle effects at once the framerate and game speeds drop to single-digits making it unplayable), others break the controls requiring a restart (if you're holding a button as a cutscene ends, the button acts as if it's permanently pressed) I had to restart a dozen or so times due to these bugs, luckily the game autosaves anytime anything happens so it's a minor inconvenience, but still annoying.

If you played the first game and liked it, you'll like this one.