Sept 2020
I won’t scatter your sorrow to the heartless sea. I will always be with you. -MGSV: The Phantom Pain
Between work and my daily Spooktober streams, it would seem I forgot to post my Sept. updates (Whoops). Luckily it wasn’t too long of a list. Let’s get into it!
Heavily inspired by Castlevania where instead of hunting down a great vampire, you are instead hunting down a great demon that cursed you. As you venture through each level, you will fight a variety of unique bosses, potentially find allies (if you decide to take them with you), and solid level design. If you decide to recruit the people you find along your way, you can switch characters freely to use their abilities to traverse and fight the obstacles ahead. This game isn’t terribly difficult but can still inspire some challenge depending on your playthrough. Additionally, the game is quite short, but the various available and diverse playthroughs made the game refreshing and enjoyable enough to play through again, again, and again (and a few more agains after that).
Lewd? Nope, what a terrible night to have a curse.
Recommend? Absolutely! Particularly with those who have an appreciation/love for older Castlevania games.
Ever watch The Omen? Well this game is pretty much that. You are the spawn of the devil, the antichrist. Your goal? Kill everyone in the house, one by one, without getting caught. You will develop various abilities and pick up items to complete these tasks. Though this game comes off a bit like Hitman, it really is closer to a murder puzzle as there is only one solution to each kill. This feels like a huge missed opportunity considering you do gain a wide variety of powers that you only really get to use from time to time. Not to mention in such a big environment, it felt like there could have been a lot of potential for hiding bodies, making kills, etc. It’s not to say this makes this terrible, but some of the solutions to get to the kill were a bit odd without any great direction. Still, it was enjoyable to be a creepy little kid again and solving ways to take out the various people among the mansion you live in.
Lewd? May or may not be little nudity and lewdity, but very small.
Recommend? Meh, we are going to go with no only because I am (at best) on the fence about this game. Though the deaths were cinematic, I really think opening up the kill solutions would have made this an easy recommend.
Not much to say other than a decent multiplayer game to play with your friends.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Sure
As a long time fan of MGS, convoluted stories, and everything weird (so basically anything by Hideo Kojima) there was a very small chance that I wouldn’t like this game. Now an open world game and set some time after MGS3 (though more immediately after MGS: Peace Walker) you set out on a explosive start which leads you on a path of rebuilding and revenge. Unlike previous titles, this game is very open world with a lot to explore, but also a lot to grind. During your wide variety of missions you pick up, you will need to grab resources, blueprints, equipment, and people to supply your new base. The grinding can get old very quickly as the resource cost creep is high and the side missions get quite repetitive. The new buddy system, although cool as you can take an array of sidekicks with you which adds a more personal touch as you increase your bonds with them.
The story is still very Hideo and combines real world issues with a slight twist of scifi fantasy along with various issues Snake and his crew face as a PMC. By the way… if you want lore… there is a lot of it. Luckily, most of it is in audio that you can listen to while walking/driving/riding around the open world. That doesn’t’ meant it doesn’t come in excess, but all of it very much needed to help remind those who may not be experts of the series and help fit it in.
Despite all the good, every good game has it’s faults. This is very much no exception as this is very much an unfinished game (Hideo being removed from Konami for instance). This leads to a great amount of lack of quality, particularly in the later half where your new main missions are just the old missions (cut scene for cut scene), but with an added difficulty curve (be silent, no gear, etc.). It really was just a feeble attempt to create more content without really having to create new content. Additionally, I would say that the big fights in this game were some of the weakest fights in the series. Not all bad, but many were more annoying/boring if anything.
Lastly, there is some multiplayer in this game that no longer really matters. Essentially you can invade other bases and try to steal everything along the way while you make it to their command center. Successfully doing so can increase your rank (to invade higher players) as well as reward staff, resources, equipment, etc.
Lewd? Other than Quiet and Snake both being T H I C C (I’m sorry, not sorry, for that) and Kojimas very clear love for butts and risqué clothing… not so lewd.
Recommend? Yes, a great tactical action adventure that is easily the most newcomer friendly thus far, but also provides a lot of lore, new experiences, and various challenges for longtime fans.
There isn’t too much to say about this as it is basically just more Hotline Miami, but with some bigger maps. The rooms can get a little too big though as even with extending your vision, you might not see the end of the room and get killed by a basically off screen enemy. It also seemed like there wasn’t nearly as much variety in masks/abilities to choose from, but did introduce some unique ones that really seemed to offset the balance. Additionally, the story wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as the last as you take on the role of various sides in Miami, but don’t necessarily intermingle in a strong way.
Lewd? No(?)
Recommend? Though I would say the original is better, Hotline Miami 2 is very much more of the same and is recommended for those who simply want more HM.
So… I started this game way back in 2015 and stopped after some time. Years later I come back to find my save gone and a unwillingness to relearn or restart, thus this game is dropped. Just a quick synopsis, you are a manager for a (or multiple) football/soccer teams. You must figure out tactics, create focuses, pep talks, etc. It’s very data centered and is quite too niche for me.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Nope
Mario Galaxy
Nintendo Wii
I will start out by saying that after playing Paper Mario, my requirements for an enjoyable Mario game have changed semi-drastically. I just really can’t enjoy it as much without a somewhat comical writing and maybe even stylized art.
Now that we are past that, Mario Galaxy once again reinvents the classic by not only bringing it into Space, but additional dimensions on top of that. You are now, literally, running across, small, worlds and jumping between them, which means you will be upside down or sideways far more than upright. A very interesting concept as it also adds the Wii motion controls on top of that.
I personally, wasn’t a huge fan of this as the differing spatial orientations felt weird and tiring to deal with. As well, there were a lot of mechanics that were introduced (like surfing) that were only used once and never again which felt weird to learn in the first place. In general, the level designs did not really pique my fancy while others were outright annoying. However, I will give this game credit… it had a pretty damn good final level that really flowed well which I wish I felt more in the other levels. As per usual, the bosses were generally enjoyable, though some were a bit repetitive.
Lewd? You should know this, but no, no lewd for you.
Recommend? Out of personal taste, I can’t recommend this game. However I know this is quite enjoyed by many others. The new take on platforming is interesting enough and those that enjoy 3D Mario may want to check this out.
I loved the 3rd game of lucius and hated the 2nd. The 1st game is best played using the demake. You get the story alright without all the bugs and grinding thats required from the original
Lucius was also the 1st ever game I brought on steam and the reason I have a steam account. Was new to pc gaming with only having played sims. Brought the physical copy which was suppose to have a code but I couldnt find anything so I ended up buying it again on steam thinking thats what I had to do or something. Only after getting rid of the copy months later I found the code in such an obvious spot
Wait, there is a third? I only know about the first two and the Demake. I will havet o investigate further, though having the story I will not have much use for Demake I imagine.
That’s rough, but physical copies have always been rough in my experience. Similarly lost a code for a game I ended up buying again (which turned out to be a mistake).
yes theres a 3rd lucius which ends the whole game. It has the more open worldness of the 2nd game while keeping a bigger story like the 1st.
Apart from the slight annoying bit at the end I enjoyed every bit of it
I loved Lucius! I loved the second one a bit more though, you were allowed much more creativity!
Congrats on all of your assassinations!
It definitely had a bit of potential in it, and glad to hear what I wanted from the first one was a little more in the second. Does it follow the same boy? (I imagine)
Thank you kindly. It’s a bit on the small side, but I am clearing through Spooky games like a madman (at a massacre), so I should be making up for it.
It does! I liked it much more than the first one!