2019 GAMING DIARY

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Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
Marrend, Wild Arms might be better suited for a written LP. Xenogears are from what I know a little too long to follow through.

Thanks and yes, Frogge. I like it so far, mostly because it's more unsettling and mysterious (and little silly) than scary. I also noticed that you added The Glass Staircase on your itch list. I hope to cover that game later this month.

Also, I'm planning on starting playing Ultima III or IV next week. That together with Silent Hill 2 probably will consume the rest of month at least in terms of bigger games. May possibly too. I will try to put some smaller under 2 hours games in between sessions, tho.
Oh boy its time for March since I forgot.

March
- The Conduit (Wii)
- Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS3)

I ended up having a lot of fun with The Conduit, it had some really creative weapons and didnt out stay its welcome.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner was fun at times but has some pretty uninteresting stretches of gameplay which aint great if your games only a couple hours long. The story was also a snoozefest.

I would have had more game finished last month but Sekiro came out and its taking up most of my time... though I am also playing The Last Of Us on the side.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=Cap_H
Marrend, Wild Arms might be better suited for a written LP. Xenogears are from what I know a little too long to follow through.

Oh, man, looking up the OSTs for those games make me really want to do both. Not simultaneously, of course, but, Darigaaz.

*Eight hour later edit: Naaaaah. I'll just play 'em.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I eventually landed on Wild Arms 2, but, obviously, decided against doing an LP.

In other news, I must have some kind of a strategy game itch to scratch. I threw down a bit of Endless Space as well as Fantasy Empires and Chaos Overlords yesterday. To be fair, I've never completed a game of Fantasy Empires, despite the capacity to UGE save files. That remains true to this day. Chaos Overlords I've been able to complete, with the help of UGE, but, it's still a bit messy to deal with.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
I'm mostly taking a break from playing games in May. I will continue slugging through Silent Hill 2, hopefully. It will be a busy month and my routine might change once again. If I got enough time, I will work on a project for Theme Roulette 2. If not, it will be all school.
Also, I made this list of released games I would like to play before the year ends. You might notice omission of castlevanias, tactics and action oriented games and focus on rm games and rpgs in general.

Big games:
!!! - priority
??? - depends on time


1. Silent Hill 2
2. Gothic
3. Gothic 2 -!!!
4. Ultima III

GBA games:

5. Metroid Fusion -???
6. Metroid: Zero Mission -???
7. Aria of Sorrow -???
8. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis -???
9. Fire Emblem -???

Indie Games:
10. Minit
11. Gris
12. Art Sqool -!!!
13. Cope Island -!!!
14. Jimmy and The Pulsating Mass
15. The Haunted Island: A Frog Detective Game -!!!
16. Sagebrush
17. Overland -???
18. New Ice York -???
19. Fugue In Void
20. A Short Hike
21. Soma Spirits
22. Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
23. Even the Ocean
24. Fortune 499 -???
25. Jalopy -???


Hobbyist Games:

26. A Bewitching Revolution -!!!
27. Unfamiliar Roads
28. Shooty and Catfish
29. Paradise Blue -!!!
30. Hellion
31. mura toka
32. The Sands of Voltark
33. Black Gold
34. Momo Bomber
35. Luxaren Allure

Continue:
36. Lisa
37. Costume Quest

If released:
38. Anodyne 2
39. KR0 Act 5 -!!!
40. Knights and Bikes -!!!

And more new releases I guess.
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
you've got some really good ones coming up! I can confirm Jimmy and Metroid Fusion are very good (though I recommend Super Metroid over Fusion if you haven't played it yet)
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
I downloaded some GBA roms last Christmas, so that's where I'm taking my picks from. I would start with Super Metroid and a different Castlevania entry otherwise.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=Cap_H
Luxaren Allure

YES.

*Edit: Oh, uh, still playing Wild Arms 2 and Xenosaga - Episode 3? Though, being in Theme Roulette 2 is probably going to mean that I'm going to gammake more than gamplay this May.
Zero Mission is damn amazing. A powerful competitor against the mighty Super Metroid imo.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
New gams for the month include Darksiders 3 on PS4 and Final Fantasy 12 on the PS2 emulator. Given how lengthy FF12 is (it's about the same kind of 50+ hour time-sink as Suikoden 5), I will probably still play Xenosaga Episode 3 and/or Wild Arms 2 (because I still haven't finished them yet) every so often.


The last session of FF12 was attempting to figure out some inventory codes. Why go through the crap the game would have me go through to get the Zodiac Spear if I can just UGE the thing? Finding quantity was the easy part. However, this game keeps track of specific item types, and finding those was the tough part. I figured an "empty slot" would either be stored as a "0" or a "-1". What the value of a "-1" is depends on the data size, but, I figured it was stored as four bytes (effectively searching for 4,294,967,295), but, it was actually two bytes (effectively 65,535).

Not that I suspect anybody on here actually cares about such technicalities, but, there you have it.
Oops, forgot all about this thread!

April

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger: I ended up playing the steam release over the span of a weekend. I had the original Gamecube release but never got more than a couple stages in before losing interest. I ended up really enjoying it, its a simple platformer, pure I guess, with no minigames and other junk. Id recommend it.

Guacamelee: I blasted through Guacamelee in a single sitting, had an absolute blast, loved everything about it, I dont think I have any complaints. I look forward to playing through the second one which most people seem to think is even better.

The Last Of Us: I have had a copy of The Last of Us for years but never got around playing it for one reason or another, but I finally bit the bullet and... eh, it was okay? There was a big disconnect for me between the narrative and the gameplay and im not a fan of games that force me to slowly walk and listen to exposition. I can see why so many people love it so much but for me personally I found it pretty dull.

Army of Two: Dumb as bricks but I beat it in a couple times and found myself smiling for most of the experience. It certainly isnt an amazing game but worse ways to spend a few hours.

May

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: Im a huge fan of From Softwares titles so I was really looking forward to Sekiro. I think its a fantastic game and doesnt have much that I can personally call objectively bad, but it didnt really click with me. I love the Souls titles because of the RPG mechanics allowing for a lot of interesting character builds and the fact most are generally relatively non-linear but Sekiro drops all of that. I think the new combat system is fine but its not my sort of thing. Im happy for everyone that got to enjoy the game even if it didnt do much for me personally.

New Super Mario Bros U: I picked this up on the Wii U launch day with the system but never played it until now. I think people complaining about it being safe was pretty reasonable but the level design and flow of the game was still great so I ended up having a good time.

Saints Row The Third: Blasted through Saints Row 3 in 2 days, I like the fact its open world but you dont need to do any of the optional stuff to complete the game, its only there if you want to do it. Games super dumb but also super fun.

And thats where im up too, ive already finished 2 more games this month and im currently playing through Ara Fell but ill save my thoughts on those titles until next month. <3
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
I'm still on a gaming break. This one might be a long one. I might play some rm games during summer months but other than that I don't see myself playing anything.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
So. July. Darksiders 3 and Persona 5 are still things. As is FF12, but, yeah, I barely scratched the surface there. At least I finished Wild Arms 2!

However, in so doing, I've got a hankering to pick up Xenogears, Castlevaina - Symphony of the Night, Castlevaina - Lament of Innocence, or Devil May Cry 3.

We'll see, I suppose.
June

Mad Max:Mad Max was a very strange game for me, it was absolutely full of open world game design elements that I hate in modern games but for some reason it all came together and really worked for me. I ended up having a really good time despite the game feeling a lot longer than it really needed too. Really good use of the license.

Saints Row IV: Its like Saints Row The Third and Crackdown had a baby... but I didnt enjoy it as much as either of those titles. It was okay but it didnt do a lot for me. Played through the whole game over a single weekend.

Ara Fell: My questionable views on this one are now available as a review on this site.

Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode One: Resident Evil 4 is my all time favorite game (I havent played 7 yet) and I always enjoyed the slower paced over the shoulder shooting from this era of the series. I dont know what the deal is with Revelations 2 so far though, the level designs not great and it feels quite cheap compared to other entries. Maybe later episodes will improve, ill be playing through an Episode between each new game I play. So far though it doesnt hold a candle to the original Revelations.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
I am still on a gaming strike.
I'm glad someone still posts here. I enjoyed Saints Row 2 and 3 and I never got around to 4. I was excited to try out some stuff but cars becoming redundant always made me hesitate when considering installing it.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
August
I think I've pretty much dropped Darksiders 3 at this point. I don't think it's because it's necessarily a bad game. However, it doesn't hold quite as much magic for me as Darksiders 2 did. Might plug in Persona 5 every so often.

That aside, my play of Xenogears is in this spot I absolutely hate to play through. I'll eventually push through it, because of the LP.

Awkwardly enough, FF12, is also in a spot that I hate to play through. Like, Giruvegan is bad enough, but, the Great Crystal is just... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.
July

Alien Isolation: Really enjoyed it for the most part. Dragged on a little longer than maybe it should had as after a while you kinda work out the Aliens AI but overall one of the best genuine horror games I have played in recent memory.

Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode Two: A huge improvement over Episode one, and probably the best episode in the series for me. Good pacing, good combat encounters. One of the best episodic gaming experiences I have ever had, what Episode One should have been.

Assassins Creed II: I had a weird experience with Assassins Creed 2, I think its a much better game overall than Assassins Creed 1 but it become that by dropping everything that made the first game good? I dunno its weird to explain. Assassins Creed 2 is a lot more on rails which makes every mission very unique unlike the original title which made you do the same things over and over. Sadly all this diversity came at the cost of options on the actual assassination missions which are now super scripted and dont allow the creative freedom when it comes to murder that the original title offered. Overall it was a good time but also kinda dissapointing. Its also super obvious how every game that Ubisoft released after this game was structurally identical, it marks the beginning of the end for Ubisoft.

Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode Three: Never quite hit the peaks of Episode Two but stil a fun little installment. Lost a bit of momentum.

Red Steel 2: Perfectly functional? It looked nice for a wii game? I dont know what else to say about it really. It did exactly what it set out to do and did that well... but it wasnt overly interesting to me in the long run.

Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode Four: Everyone shits on this episode but I still think its a million times better than Episode One. Weak ending and final boss and not much in the way of new enemies but it could have been worst I guess.

Devils Third: I heard this game was awful but I had a great time? Its dumb as rocks but it doesnt pretend that its not. The action combat and FPS mechanics work pretty well together if you get creative with them. A hidden gem if you ask me.

El Arte Definitive Edition: Quality 2004 newgrounds spam reimagined as an RPGM game. I wrote a review but it got knocked back so I gotta rewrite it which I will when I got some free time. A fun 30 minutes.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
August::..
1. Fire RMNblem
So, finally a vacation. I'm just hanging out at my grandma's country house and I managed to find a laptop old enough to run this gem. I gotta say I enjoy the simple tactics game more than advance wars. Battles are still on a longer side, but they're more rewarding and you can usually win them right away if your strategy's right. That said the game is challenging yet not difficult. It's all about keeping your troop together and avoiding silly mistakes. The referential storytelling is also enjoyable and it certainly helps me to stay engaged. Two times a day I turn the game on to fight another battle. I hope to finish this before returning to the city.
I stopped playing after spending too much time grinding and losing interest in finishing the game for now. My own fault I would say. An amazing tactics game otherwise.


2. El Arte Definitive Edition
I finished all ends of El Arte and it's an interesting meme of a game. I like ideas put into it, but the humour often fails to stick. There are great overreaching jokes about art and what are our ideas of art, but the game lacks consistency and it's more of a pitch than anything else.


3. Date Knights Demo
I love unity's games and I enjoyed this one as well. It looks like a weaker diversion from her usual style at first but it becomes great later on. Dungeon design is excellent as always and this one's a visual candy as well. If it weren't for Weird and Unfortunate, it would end up being my most promising demo. I hope for a full release later this year.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
September::..

1. Escape from Hell
A small and unique take on life and death created for LUdum Dare 44. It's web based and free to play. Definitely short and sweet take on mechanics of failure and difficulty balancing with pleasant pixel art.


2. Seize the Clay
A cute little game about making vases. It lacks an overlap but it's a great relaxing tool with some fun and wacky pot making mechanics and it's free to play in your browser. It has an economical aspect as you're selling your products, but it's difficult to fail once you learn the ropes and money making in this game is entirely stress-free.


3. D.R.I.E.D.
​I definitely enjoyed my ten minutes with this micro roguelike. You play as a robot rolling through a post-human wasteland in search of fuel. The game's more about luck than strategy, but it is good to see the world building of this vignette world. It feels satisfying to get lucky and win. Also, it looks and sounds lovely. Again the game's browser based and completely free to enjoy.



4. Post/capitalism
This is more of an interactive essay than a proper game. By clicking on individual elements of late capitalism, you're trying to build a better society. But with every change, something moves in an opposite direction. The message is clear, there's space for manipulation within the system but not for a real change. And that's why Colestia is my favourite revolutionary gammaker. Again, it's possible to play in p/c in your browser.


5. Guardian Sphere
​What a polished product for a free game! And I'm glad it's free, because it feels like Christmas. I'm captivated by the gameplay, which is (on medium) easy enough to get into, but rather hard to master due to a myriad of upgrades and weapons. Design wise I find some levels more difficult than boss fights, which have simple patterns. The look of this game is all top pixel art, very nice palette and shapes. There's even an intro. If you have an hour of spare time and any lust for shmups give it a go.


6. Black Gold
This is a tiny diamond. It's literally one vignette, which presents you at its start with three possible topics. I like them all equally. The whole thing is super minimalistic and very civil. It looks great and the writing is smooth and capable. There are no unnecessary words or details. It's a post-post-modern ​take on the same Americana as ​The Last Picture Show. ​It's a drawing in a video game format.


7.Towerbag
It is a small tower defense game with only one tower. Mechanically, it's a very catchy game made the only one themed GMTK jam. It's short with no fail state and I hope the devs will develop the idea into something bigger. Play it here.


8. Demonstone
​This is nice little puzzle game. It reminds me of old classics such as Tower of Druaga and it carries its theme well. I think forested levels look great! Play it, it only takes about ten minutes.


9. Seek Etyliv
I was interested in Seek Etilyv ​because it looked like a game with graphics and scale I could pull off. And I think it's pretty much that. The game's extremely sleek with everything having a unified look. Mechanics of the game are clever and use the minimalism very well. Rokas surprised me many times with new puzzles and their solutions. It's is a puzzle game with dungeon crawling feel and a survival mode, not a strategy.
I think the theme works with swords and skeletons and you being a prisoner unworthy a name longer than two letters at first, but the game also being a poem is little problematic as the dark ambiguity definitely reads little pretentious. The game's roughly an hour long, two before you get bored with the survival mode. The design is elegant and it slightly inspired me to further pursue gammak, but I think many might find 5 bucks price tag little too much. It doesn't feel like the game's overpriced, but I also didn't find it that it was worth my money, because it really is just a poem.


10. Dunes of Karakos DEMO
It's difficult to rate this one, I find it to be too early in development. I like the atmosphere Rokas is going for, but controls aren't intuitive and I have no idea what's the goal besides entering holes. ​


11. The Tower of Tortenna
This is a very polished free walking sim with a simple goal and a clear end. In terms of exploration it reminded me of ​Gone Home ​a little with letters piecing together a story. I definitely liked the architecture of the tower. It was interesting environment to walk through and real enough for me to stay connected to it. I liked how the use of limited assets and and it's definitely quite big for a game made in three days. ​


12. Mighty Retro Zero
This game looked interesting with retro graphics and gameplay inspired by Megaman, but the difficulty sucks. I don't think controls are precise enough for the punishment. But if you're sadist you might like this game's version of breakout with spikes and enemies thrown in. It's definitely a good showcase of what Clickteam's Fusion can do.


13. Flutter
A small linear narrative vignette about a man sacrificing himself to become a bird. The story is well written and although it lasts five minutes it manages to be emotional. I enjoyed modern art on the hall's wall.


14. A Short Hike
Oh, this is a major gem, a jar of jam. It's a game of joyous exploration and hiking. You walk around an island, talk to people, race, fish and so much more. There's so much stuff packed in this game and it's all very positive. It's a game about movement and finding new ways to move. Basically a 3d metroidvania but everything's pleasant and stress free. I love it so much and I can't recommend it enough.


15. Minit
Minit's not really about solving puzzles, it's about solving them efficiently. It might be stressful, but it's also rewarding and addictive. In terms of mechanics is a zeldalike with heavy emphasis on puzzles. The twist is that you die every 1 minute. I was looking forward to playing it and while I see why it is so good, the game's just little too stressful sometimes. Still, I recommend it to all fans of puzzles and minimalist approach to game design.


16. Morphblade
I liked Gunpoint. It was a cool catchy game with elegant design. In Morphblade Tom Francis is taking this elegance on another level. This is a minimalist and very abstracted strategy game, tower defense of some sort. It's a survival game in which you slowly develop board consisting of six kinds of hexes. Proximity allows you to upgrade a hex with an effect (each hex can be upgraded six times, but only if it's surrounded by six different hexes). It's simple, clever, brain cooking and very well designed drug. I highly recommend it to all puzzle enthusiast and people, who want to see a good minimalist game design in action.


17. Hexcells
I think Hexcells are considered a legendary puzzle game by now. I find it to be a stress free digital alternative to sudoku. The design is very clever and elegant and I might find myself to play sequels in future, but in terms of impressions, it wasn't a memorable time, just an hour or two to pass. If there's a mobile version, I would recommend that.


18. Even the Ocean
This is a sweet mix of Megaman with classic jRPG look and storytelling. The game looks a lot like Star Ocean maybe? It's quite pleasant style with soft shapes and less refinement than most 2d games. I enjoyed the storytelling too. It's very actual and while you see from the start where it's heading there are some rather satisfying twist. What I enjoyed the most was the way most characters talked about their relationship with nature.
Platforming parts are fairly challenging and the game's introducing new elements in every 'dungeon.' You definitely don't get bored here, although some combinations of obstacles are rather annoying. Definitely a game, I probably will end up talking about a lot around the site.


19. Soma Spirits: Rebalanced
Ok, to continue with the theme of duality and balance I decided to finally get in Soma Spirits and hopefully start an RPG Maker chain. I'm only 30 minutes in but I enjoy the chippy game so far.


20. Blindmage
A tiny game for Community Game Jam. It's very raw and it only introduces basic mechanics. Honestly there's no reason to play it. The core mechanic of switching between two worlds is quite cool but poorly and sporadically implemented so far. Still, I hope the dev will continue to work on this. It looks quite nice too.


21. Clickhead
Definitely an interesting take on the theme of Community Game Jam. The original game's fake title screen, so you break it to play a platformer, in which your head floats and can activate various stuff. Unfortunately I got stuck rather fast as it's impossible to control the game without a mouse. I find the experiment worth checking.


22. Elengrad
A browser based metroidvania created for a month long jam, which is fairly polished, but ultimately fails to hook. Pixel art style is quite fancy, but not my taste and textboxes are difficult to read. The story's tone didn't manage to stick with me either. It's not necessary a bad game, just very vanilla. Swimming in ponds is the best part of the game. For some reason it feels better than any other movement, which is often little less precise than needed.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
September
Sometime last month, I finished FF12, and I think it was in the last week or so that I picked up Suikoden 5. I think I kinda regret that? I dunno. It's weird.

Xenogears is chugging along, as some of you might know. I've also dropped a bit of time into some Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and Master of Orion 2. I considered programming up a Cheat Engine table for HoM&M3 for heroes and resources. Idea was dropped, because... I don't know. I might save a bit of time by using Cheat Engine versus UGE. However, the work it would take to set it up just seems so daunting and a useless gesture.
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