The Chatterbox > Gaming

2021 Backlog Report

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vladgd:
7. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker



When I first seen this game on the Wii U I thought "awe man, I want to play that but I ain't getting a Wii U for it"

So they ported it to switch, where...I didn't buy it till I was drunk the other day and said fuck it. Well uhh, I beat it.

Watch video of the game, and it's pretty much that. Each level is very short with 3 diamonds to find, an end goal, and an optional objective. You can also enter the level to find pixel toad as an additional optional objective to complete.

The game itself is very aesthetically pleasing, it's almost like each level is its own diorama. The gameplay is fun, and hard to put down. Not too challenging, but some of the levels/objectives are pretty tricky. It's got enough to it not to be boring imo. It's also got a 2 player mode which I will try to get the girlfriend to try later on, but I have yet to try that out. The only real con with the game to me is some levels require you to use the onscreen cursor to manipulate the map, which if using a pro controller uses the motion sensor, and...it isn't great. Playing on portable mode you can just touch the screen, so for certain levels I almost recommend using portable mode just for those. It didn't kill the game for me, I played pretty much everything with the pro controller mostly fine, but Nintendo "innovation" isn't my cup of tea.

Game has just shy of 80 levels which doesn't take too long to blast through, but if you want to do all of the optional stuff it's a healthy chunk of game. Beating the main game unlocks a bonus chapter which has super mario odyssey inspired levels to start, then blocks of old levels with unique twists. AS WELL AS A DLC CHAPTER, which I haven't touched yet, but I think they're asking for only $7, so I might nab it whenever I got the itch to play some more. With how bitesize this game is, pretty easy to turn on play for 20 minutes and walk away satisfied, so I probably will come back to this game to complete more optional stuff.

Pretty happy it lived up to my expectations, been wanting to play it for quite some time now.

Not worthy of its own post, I have also been playing more baba is you, logging over 32 hours on my file...not sure I'll beat it, not sure I even CAN beat it. But it's just a fantastic, if not VERY VERY VERY HARD game. Game starts out simple and cute, but it's legit hard. IF I can manage to beat it, it'll be the hardest game I'd completed out of every single game I have logged in these threads so far, not even joking. But since I don't think that'll happen, It's just fun to pop on from time to time and bash my head against a wall attempting to make some progress. So far I "completed" all of the main worlds, and was kinda confused why the game didn't roll over and say I beat it, but beating whatever number out of whatever number of levels in a world to get the macguffin to unlock another thing, for all worlds doesn't count for "winning". I have since got to a secret world, which in turn has another secret world within it...so I ain't sure where this game is going but it feels like going to star world which leads into the special world in super mario world, only a lot harder.

Ohh and you can get it on mobile...ffs it's a good buy whatever platform you fancy.

...ON TO THE NEXT!

vladgd:
8. Metroid Dread



Probably seen this one coming but I just polished this one off 100% item completion in 12 hours.

Lets start with the cons.

-"big scary robot sections" not scary, very trial and error, very annoying. Not as big a part of the game as I expected, so they don't ruin the game, but they are my biggest con.

So that's it. This game is straight up awesome, from graphics, to how good the zones look, to the music, to the very VERY polished gameplay you should expect from a nintendo game. This is a very challenging game, probably not harder than the original nes game, but these bosses take from the samus returns book of whup yer ass, then you think you beat them, and they were just getting started. By the time you die, and die, and die, and die some more, the "git gud" levels should be of a high enough concentration in your bloodstream where it almost feels easy. Some of the shinespark puzzles are so precice that it got me thinking of my EXACT INPUTS a few times "go through this area, tap down, slide, enter morph ball mode, one bomb, wait, fall, tap up once, NEUTRAL B, forward. Fighting game training mode vibes from some of these I swear.

No spoilers on story, but let's just say if other m (nobody considers it canon, but using it as an example) treated samus like a crybaby...let's just say dread does a 180. They made samus feel very powerful in this one...especially the end sequence...ohh boy.

I ain't gonna call it better than super metroid(it might be, but new game, honeymoon phase, warped judgement), but I'll say people who don't think this game is worth the $60 price of entry just aren't into good games.

If you are on the fence because of spooky robots, it's not enough to tarnish a TOP NOTCH metroid experience. Definitely one of the better games in the series.

funny thought, if link is zelda, master chief is halo, and samus is metroid...one of these is actually true...

Spectere:

--- Quote from: vladgd on October 12, 2021, 05:45:03 PM ----"big scary robot sections" not scary, very trial and error, very annoying. Not as big a part of the game as I expected, so they don't ruin the game, but they are my biggest con.

--- End quote ---

One of my friends and I spent about a half hour trying to crack the code. We basically determined that you have to nail the counter slightly before the spark for it to reliably go off, and considering the timing has some degree of randomness to it, that's a bit tough to do. That said, I did end up getting grabbed by the yellow E.M.M.I. a few times and was able to flawlessly nail the sequence multiple times in a row. Then again, considering that E.M.M.I. is all about speed, it wouldn't surprise me if the parry timings were a bit more fast/consistent as well.

I'd say that my biggest two complaints both deal with muscle memory. I used to casually speedrun Zero Mission when I was in college (by today's standards my best Any% times would be in the upper end of the top 100, so...not bad, really) and even 15-16 years later I find it tricky to adjust to a different wall jump and speed boost/shinespark style. It took me maybe an hour to get used to wall jumping (traditionally, Metroid games require you to pull away from the wall before hitting jump, not pressing into the wall), but I'm really not crazy about having to manually activate the speed booster.

At least it's not just me. I was chatting to someone in an FFXIV dungeon party the other night and they had the same issue. :P


--- Quote from: vladgd on October 12, 2021, 05:45:03 PM ---funny thought, if link is zelda, master chief is halo, and samus is metroid...one of these is actually true...

--- End quote ---

Goddammit. I never thought about that before, but you're right. XD

vladgd:
I thought the walljump thing was a bit strange, but I got used to it quickly. Haven't played metroid since samus returns though, so it's been a while. In all honesty, I never was that good at walljump in prior games to begin with...but also never got the hang of infinite bomb jumps till this game, so maybe I got better, idk.  I think as time goes by people will remember the game as one of the goats, I think it's THAT good, at least right now I do.

However, new post, new game..s...

9. Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance



I nabbed this collection before metroid, but metroid came out too soon after for me to do much. Playing harmony since kid me already beat circle of the moon (a fantastic game on its own). This game is a weird mixed bag. Controls are great, the dashing feels super busted and fun, you can just spam it everywhere. You can whip dash cancel infinately, and it never got old. You also get a divekick later, so you're just zoom zoom machine. Hows it a mixed bag? It's probably the only castlevania game with bad music...it sounds like sub nes quality for some reason, its' hard to tolerate. Castlevania games always have good music and this one failed bad in that department. The worst offender however is the castle, you only get like 3 upgrades in the entire game, and theres a lot of backtracking between two castles (that are the same castle, just version A and B). Without a guide, its nes hard to get through, with a guide...it's still annoying to get through. Besides that, the difficulty is on the easy side, with pretty much every boss being a joke. Overall good game, but the exploration lowered my opinion on this one.

10. Castlevania Aria of Sorrow

Kinda didnt expect to be here so fast but uhh, I beat this game in a day. Neither of these games are long, but I didn't expect to go a day. Aira is the old new hotness the castlevania reddit is jerking off calling better than symphony of the night...and there's some merrit. It's a damn good game, a lot slower paced than harmony, having more or less normal movement options. But the music is there, the castle is really good and fun to go around, soul powers are fun, and plenty of upgrades to make you feel more and more powerful as you get through the game. Very very worth playing, and now having beaten all 3 gba castlevania titles, I can say aria > circle > harmony. But they are all good and all worth playing, none of them are all that long anyway.

Snag the collection if you are at all interested in castlevania, plays great on the big tv and plenty of bang for the buck.

With that, there's 10, faster than expected. Another year another surprise...and I think I may have more in the tank...

vladgd:
11. Breath of the Wild



Few months ago I had a hankerin to play a zelda game, skyward sword was out with real controls so I was gonna get that...but for some reason I seen breath of the wild on the shop and decided to coin flip...

Needless to say the coinflip told me to get this game instead, so Ive been plinking at it for a few months now since this game is looooooooooong. Having finished the game, I can say that it's 2% cool stuff and about 98% filler. I did finish the game with an overall positive impression of the game, however going into the game I knew this wasnt a zelda game. Having beaten the game, this is not a zelda game. 120 shrines is wayyyy too goddamn many, and koroks...I dipped out after like 107. The slate powers do not replace the typical "go to dungeon get cool new item" aspect of a regular zelda game, and outside of instances where I needed to use them, I forgot they were there.

One big complaint + the biggest reason I didn't even pick up the game, weapon durability. You could argue it isn't so bad, but im gonna be honest, the hypothetical blind zelda fan that would say that, is biased and wrong. Later game when you get more weapon slots, you do indeed have plenty to get through most obstacles. But what it does mentally overall makes the game less fun than it otherwise would be. Wanna hit a switch? Have to use some RESOURCE, weapons are finite, bows are finite, and arrows are made unreasonably scarce. Its a matter of finding your least desired weapon and using that. Running around the word and see some weak enemies trying to pester you? I straight up let them hit me over wasting weapon durability on them, and I did this for the ENTIRE GAME...only time I deviated was when I was locked into a room with a lynel while I was on my way to ganon, and I was forced to kill it. They either should have scrapped the weapon breaking idea, or since there is cooking (a mechanic I did actually really enjoy), why not a repair mechanic using monster parts or whatever to mend weapons? And while on that, maybe an indicator of weapon durability...since...its a CORE mechanic of the game...So while the weapon durability does not make the game unplayable, it as a whole makes me make decisions that make the game less fun.

The difficulty is also wack. People complaining about metroid being too hard probably played this game, and the first 20-30 hours of this game is hard enough to make metroid its bitch. I probably died more in this game than I did in dark souls to be honest, every little thing can and will kill you. So after ~90 some shrines, and max rank barbarian armor, and a full arsenal obtained from killing enough white lynels to upgrade said armor...the challenge of the  base game (I know theres dlc stuff and trial of the sword but FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK that) was trivial. They weren't kidding when they said lynels were harder than ganon. Ganon more or less looked me in the face, seen who I am, and dug a hole for himself while he asked the game to play the credits for me. I don't know why I expected more, but with the whole "ganon is in there, you can fight him but you aren't ready, fight him when you're ready" made me think he'd be hard. But being ready, even without all shrines, means cakewalk.

Kinda didn't expect to finish it until much later, but as soon as I started doing divine beasts, it was a boss rush more or less for me. Had a good time, but too much fluff, too many annoying mechanics (rain is another one to come to mind, lets just have a mechanic that makes you unable to do the thing you were going to do, fun!), game could have been condensed into a more focused (yet still big and open world) experience. With a sequel on the horizon I hope they take some of the more egregious problems into consideration. It's still not a zelda game, but for what it is, it's carved out its own unique niche into the open world game pantheon. I enjoyed it as a whole, but it's flaws can't be overlooked.

+1 game on last year, and it ain't a short one either. 

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