PixlBit

This is something i've wanted to post for a while and perhaps have entries once in a while. Ever since setting a Backloggery account on December 2015, i've been focusing a lot in beating games and honestly, I think i've beaten more games in the past few months than I had ever done last year and even past years for that matter. My best hope is to have atleast 20 or more games finished by the end of this year. I was going to dump every game in one single blog, but because it's gotten pretty lengthy, I decided to do two-partner. With that said, let's get to the games by the order i've beaten them:

Super Mario 3D World:

Some may remember a blog around December where I gave my praise to this game and how much it was a massive improvement over it's predecessor 3D Land. Having beaten the main game and story around January of this year, I still hold to that. I said why this game was excellent on that entry, so all i'm going to say is that it has some good post-game content, has a very significant unlockeable and I thought Caddicaru's opinion of this game would had been fine if it was about 3D Land. I don't hate him for that and he has a right to voice what he thinks, but it just felt like he had the contrary experience to mine.

Splatoon:

I consider this beaten by having done Hero Mode, the campaign of this game. I had also done the challenges included with the Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy amiibos.

As of this date, I think Splatoon is my favorite game of 2015 so far. Seriously, the last time I had this much fun in an online game in general was back when I started playing Team Fortress 2 in 2014 and kept playing it during that year. Nintendo making a new IP would had been a considerable risk already, but it being a shooter AND also mostly online is would have no doubt left worries to anyone, but in the end Splatoon succeded more than well. It's a shooter that does things differently than most in the AAA market with some new modes and interesting takes on traditional modes, has incredible art and visuals, run fantastic at uninterrupted 60 fps, controls very well, has a very good single-player mode and excellent music. Now, i'd be fair to point small flaws, like the lack of more modes, the barebones local multiplayer (seriously, no local battle mode against friends!), draining out the content before there's not much else to get or the servers being run with hamsters on wheels (FUCK DISCONNECTIONS!) but those didn't spoil that much my experience, as I was hooked in the last few months playing this non-stop. I'm definitely looking forward to a potential sequel and a chance to expand greatly on what was introduced here.

.... Seriously though, those disconnections are awful. I think they are much worse than losing a match. They shouldn't even drop rank and Splatfest points.

Higurashi When They Cry-Ch. 1 Onikakushi:

I did kinda wonder to include this, since it's a Kinetic Visual Novel, aka, the one that is less like A Choose Your Own Adventure book and more like a proper book, meaning a fixed narrative, but ehh.

Some of you have heard of this VN, since it was popularized by its Anime adaptation released around the 2000s, though this is also considered to be a classic of the Doujin gaming scene in Japan. Its distributor, Manga Gamer, already had the original version (which had VERY amateur artwork) translated, but I think back around 2012 or so, they put a greenlight page to bring the whole series to Steam, with improved localization and new improved artwork (but also with the option to change to the original art). Although It took years for a release, finally the first part of the whole series made its way to Steam on May 2015. Now, the whole novel is going to technically be released episodically in different releases, as the whole novel is divided by the arcs of the story, which was really how they are released originally in Japan and to be fair, the arcs released so far aren't expensive and there's around 12 hours worth of content on the first episode alone.

Overall, this was a strong start of the series. At first it's all fun and games (quite literally), with a bit of adorable elements, but hinting of a mystery brewing and once the town festival chapter finishes, then the suspense and horror starts happening, with the mystery both getting closer but also raising even more questions. It's not something that would make you scream (though sometimes the "game" likes to make jump scares with the music), but it is deeply unsetling and creepy, like how I felt watching The Shining for the first time, which is enhanced by the pretty good writing and certain character interactions. Without spoiling anything, i'm just going to say that the end intentionally raises a lot of questions and makes you wonder how they will tackle the next installments, which is why i'm hoping to get the second part soon enough.

Dust: An Elysian Tail:

Hands down, the best song of the entire game.

You wanna know how much I liked this game? Well, if it wasn't for some certain problems, I would put game as one of my favorites of all-time.

Although I did started it around 2014, Dust suffered from my syndrome of starting games, but never advancing too much on them and certainly not beat. Since I started to remember more about the game in early 2015 and wanted something with intense action, I decided to take it out of the dust (har har) and beat it this time, which I actually also decided to re-start from scratch like I have done with other games since i wanted to come fresh and remember everything (it wasn't that much progress anyway).

To take this out of the way, i'd say one my gripes with the game would be the repetition, as you can only fight with a sword, have few movements and much of the focus alternates between plataforming, exploration and combat, which can get tiring even if you are inmmersed in the game like I was, which is why I recommend doing sessions of no more than three hours. Aside, from that, the antagonists, although most of them quite tragic, lack a proper development of their characters and motivations, mostly having to do with the dev cutting a lot of content during the years he took making the game. Other than that, this is quite a fantastic game.

For starters, the Steam version is fantastic port, as even with all the level of detail that the game has, it seems so well optimized that even a computer like mine can make this game work properly and never drop below 60 fps. Now that I mentioned it, this game has fantastic artwork, mostly of the scenery kind, though the character designs are well-done and makes you remember them easily (though Dust's pants do look like part of his skin). The combat, despite being limited in terms of movements, is fluid and precise thanks to excellent controls and it's just a lot of fun, especially when you start making many succesive combos. Now, to be quite honest, the story and characters are nothing original, but despite that, they are so well-done and made with all honesty that they just simply work no mather what, and despite some heavy drama, there's still a lot of funny and heartwarming moments to go around, which gets complemented by the very excellent voice acting (and no, not by Indie game standards, but in general). Finally, if you had noticed by playing the above song, the soundtrack made by Hyperduck Soundworks is incredible and now among my absolute favorites, filled with a lot of rousing songs (though also a few calmed pieces) and fit the tone the game has going for and give it an epic quality.

Okay, this is turning too long, so to finish my babbling about this game, Dust: An Elysian Tail is excellent all-around. I honestly hope for a sequel, as with everything set here, it has the potential of being even better and expanding greatly on what was introduced.

Risk of Rain:

This one I also talked about back in 2014 about what I liked about it. Although some nitpicks arised since then, mostly having to do with some levels being too expansive and time wasting (in a game that increases the difficulty as a timer advances), some annoying backtracking, a bit of a sudden difficulty spike around the third level even when your timer isn't very far, some bugs (though thankfully not very frecuent) where one of them made me re-start a session because of getting stuck inside the ground and a sudden FPS drop when there's literally around 100 enemies on-screen (though it's also posible is also the fault of my computer), overall I still think it's an excellent game, one i'm glad I finally managed to beat a session since I got it in 2014 (and then beat two more sessions with different characters).

I said my praise on that blog, so all I can add is that I really love the feeling of power the game gives you once you level-up more and get a ludicrous amount of items, yet despite that, you can still get killed even with over 30 items, meaning that you should never get overconfident. Definitely also love that your skill matters a lot more than sometimes just sheer randomness and luck.

Metal Slug (the Steam port):

Okay, enough of rainbow and sunshine, time for (what I think is) a shoddy port.

I love the Metal Slug franchise, but not even my nostalgia and patience could save this version. I did a non-recommendation over Steam, but i'm going to copy it here for your benefit:

"I love the Metal Slug series and wish I talk just about the game itself here, but sadly this is a pretty bad port of the game that started it all. Don't know if it's the same as others, but in my end, the game has problems with slowdowns, the FPS is not optimized well and the music audio is borked as hell. If I compare this to other 2D games in my library, my computer can run incredibly well games like Dust: An Elysian Tail or Rogue Legacy, and if I compare this to the port of Metal Slug X, it's quite the downgrade, because even with some slowdown issues, it had no problem with the FPS and had the audio intact as far as I could tell. Considering this port came a year after the ports of X and 3, there's simply no excuse for this lazy hack job and even then, this is a game that's been out for about 20 years, and because it already had past ports, there shouldn't be that much problem putting a PC version. I will not be surprised this was ported just so fans eat the game up regardless of quality.

Unless you have money to burn (and even then, this can be bought cheap on sale), I can't recommend this port on good will. If you want to experience the original game, buy the Metal Slug Anthology, get the Wii's Virtual Console re-release or even outright emulate if you don't have problem with that."

That said, i'm open to suggestions if maybe I got something wrong and my computer and not the port is at fault.

Ascendant:

I should mention that since this video was made back on its release, the key and control bindings had since been put.

Coming with little to no expectation, Ascendant was a nice little Roguelite and Brawler I got from a bundle from Humble. It may get a little repetitive, its art and music (though quite catchy and actually memorable) may not be very special and though it's 100% likely to be my computer not being apt, it may start being below 60 fps around the last levels, I had a good time with the game. Like Risk of Rain, much of the game relies less on luck and more about the skill of the player and learning each session a bit about the game and how to tackle your different situations when you start a new session. Aside from that, the gamepad controls work very well and the combat is simple but fun to do.

Rogue Legacy:

Screenshot I took from the game..... Huh, that painting looks familiar.

Don't worry, this is the last Roguelite of the games i've beaten so far.

I started Rogue Legacy last year, I think right on the same day I bought it, because I was simply that excited to play it ever since i've learned about it (mostly thanks to Blake). I was hooked since then and just managed to beat main game around May.

Now, some of the randomized unfairly dickish level sections you can get finally got to my nerve, which did lower my own personal score of this game away from Risk of Rain, but other than that, it's an excellent Roguelite combined with Metroidvania elements. The game takes the aspect of Roguelikes and its inspired games of getting better to its logical conclusion, where each run you earn money and perhaps also discover abilities and pieces of armor (which you you do also have to expend money) to expend on improving every member of your following members of your family line, meaning that the game is made with progress in mind. That's when the Metroidvania aspect comes in play, as when you upgrade your character and discover more abilities, you get to confront enemies with more ease and with the right abilities, discover different secrets and pass certain challenges for rewards. That really the best aspect of the game and what kept me going.

Aside from that, although pretty bare in story, there's some quite engaging log-books detailing the adventure of someone that went to the castle before you that ties-in with the final boss of the game and the music is pretty excellent.

 

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So anyway, that's all for today. Expect the second entry in a few days.