Skatrzoo


Skattered Fragments - #3

The start of my ABC Plan and some other stuff
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I finally got around to starting an ABC Plan of my own just to have an extra push for some of the longer games in my backlog. Naturally, I started with some of the shortest ones on the list to kickstart the progress…… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

22 hours, 16 of 25 achievements
[August 2019]

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This was a weird one for me. I started this game back in february and I played it for about 2 hours combined within a week or so - ended up dropping/postponing it for another time. This was probably a result of reading that the gameplay is trash prior to starting the game.

Fastforward to August's "Unfinished Business" monthly theme, I decide to give this game another shot - the result? I play another 20 hours within 3 days and end up beating the game - I was absolutely hooked. Looking past its gameplay flaws, the game perfectly recreates the charming, lighthearted atmosphere from the anime, which is exactly what I wanted from a LWA game. Sure, it's pretty difficult to recommend this to someone that isn't a fan of the anime due to fairly lackluster combat - but if you do want some more LWA after finishing the anime, you should consider picking this up at some point (especially since it's getting fairly deep discounts by now)


Japanese School Life

4 hours, 6 of 6 achievements
[ABC Plan]

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Played this mostly because it was the only game I had for "J" on the ABC Plan. Felt more like a visual wikipedia rather than a visual novel, honestly. It wasn't bad, but it's pretty much just experiencing random japanese culture throughout a school year. If you're into anime/VNs, you probably know 90%+ of the stuff they teach you too, so it's not particularly useful either. And if you're not into this media, you probably aren't interested in the culture either so… I have no idea who the target audience for this VN is supposed to be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Shikhondo(食魂徒) - Soul Eater

1.5 hours, 7 of 7 achievements
[ABC Plan]

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Maybe the most unsatisfying bullet hell on the market at the moment.

I got this one because I sometimes feel masochistic enough to play a bullet hell game despite being pretty bad at them in general and the artstyle looked gorgeous, but that's about where the praise stops for this one. The dev completely missed the entire point of this genre by allowing unlimited continues and always having your character fully powered up. As a result, you literally cannot lose and you will 100% the game on your first attempt. With only 2 characters available, this doesn't offer much replayability either - I was done with all the content in 1.5 hours (2 runs + boss rush). Unless you like making up challenges for yourself, this is very much a hard pass - there are much better games in this genre. Actually, no - this might be something you could pick up if you want to see what a bullet hell is like if the challenging aspect was completely removed from the game.


Blasphemous

15 hours, 31 of 45 achievements
[September 2019]

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One of the weird things about having a comically small wishlist on Steam is that everything on it is doomed to infinite delays I often wonder if there's any real reason not to buy games on release. In an alternate world where I hadn't bought Blasphemous right away, I would have probably acquired it in some bundle 2 years later and wondered why the hell I've waited so long. Luckily for me, in this world I did decide to buy it on release with some store credit I had, and also got a certain friend hyped enough to do the same.

There have been many attempts at recreating the "soulslike" atmosphere ever since the first game came out, with most of them being fairly unsuccesful. In the metroidvania scene, I would argue that only Salt & Sanctuary managed to properly nail the aspects that make a soulslike both horrifying and rewarding - that is, until Blasphemous came out.

This game holds nothing back in terms of visual design - they wanted to have a twisted world and they fully committed to it. Brutal mutilations from finishers, malformed enemies, bosses and so on - it's all in there. What the game lacks in terms of combat due to its simplicity, it more than makes up for when it comes to map design. While it may not be on the same scale as something like Hollow Knight, exploring the world of Cvstodia was far more satisfying for me just based on the shortcuts you may find, let alone other items and upgrades.

All in all, it's definitely one of my favourite games of 2019 and I'm glad I decided to pick this one up.


CODE VEIN

18 hours, 13 of 43 achievements
/r/fashionvein

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I'm almost done customizing my character now - really looking forward to playing the game!


Other games played/beaten:

  • Metro: Last Light Redux

    16 hours playtime

    31 of 49 achievements

  • NieR:Automata™

    59 hours playtime

    47 of 47 achievements

  • War of the Human Tanks

    17 hours playtime

    25 of 61 achievements

  • Kathy Rain

    5 hours playtime

    20 of 20 achievements

  • QP Shooting - Dangerous!!

    6 hours playtime

    6 of 36 achievements

  • eden*

    7 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

    2 hours playtime

    2 of 16 achievements

  • Dishonored 2

    12 hours playtime

    9 of 50 achievements

  • The Shapeshifting Detective

    6 hours playtime

    15 of 21 achievements

  • Wolfenstein: The New Order

    55 minutes playtime

    5 of 50 achievements

  • Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom

    30 hours playtime

    20 of 63 achievements

Kaleith

I started with some of the shortest ones on the list to kickstart the progress

It’s called cheating and it’s illegal, enjoy your jail time

One of the weird things about having a comically small

Yeah :sadn-

wishlist

-oh, right, right.

[first paragraph from Blasphemous]

Someone owes me royalties :glaaaaare

Skatrzoo

no buli :cry:

and I have no idea what you’re talking about :sweat

EvilBlackSheep

Boi, you’ve been quite a busy octopi. Can you play several games at once because of all the tentacles? :doubt:

And they are great looking games in the lot. The shapeshifting detective is from the same people than Dr Dekker, right? Is it good?

And do you plan on playing ninokuni I port or you’ve played it already (in another plateform)?

You remind me i have Metro installed and still haven’t had time to touch it :sweat:

Kaleith

Yay buying Metro years ago and never touching it!

EvilBlackSheep

Exodus i meant, from the Xbox PC pass (but i have never played the previous ones though, cuz i never took time to and now i just wanna play the most recent iteration)

Skatrzoo

Well, this is 2 months worth of games so it’s not that much, I think :sweat:

Shapeshifting Detective is made by the same devs, yes - I very much enjoyed both games, but Dr Dekker is much more fleshed out. Shapeshifting Detective is more straightforward as you just pick from various dialogue options, while Dekker allows you to type your own questions. Dr Dekker is also like 3 times longer, so they had more time to tell their story.

I don’t know if I’ll be playing the first game yet - Ni No Kuni II is addictive (yeah, not exactly a word I expect to use when it comes to JRPGs), so that’s why I’ve put 30 hours in a fairly short timeframe. The first game is supposedly better but after my Tales of Symphonia experience, there’s no way in hell I’m trusting reviews based on nostalgia anymore.

If you do, make sure to play through 2033 first (if you haven’t already). I liked that one much more than its sequel.

EvilBlackSheep

It is way more that what i did. :sweat:

Thanks for the feedback on the Shapeshifting detective. :3

I had heard great things about the first ninokuni and i’ve always wanted to play it, but the 3DS version never came out of Japan (there was a fan trad project that was gigantic and might finally be ready to play, but it was still not finished a few months ago and they had been at it for years). But like you said, beware of the nostalgia effect.

I somehow don’t have 2033, I should try to get a copy of it. Does it have to be played in order cuz I have exodus on the Xbox pass :/

Skatrzoo

Yeah, I might look up some gameplay for the first ni no kuni, but after this one I’m probably not gonna tackle another JRPG for a while. They’re too time consuming.

I don’t know about Exodus, but Last Light is a direct sequel to 2033. And 2033 is free on the epic store until tomorrow evening.

EvilBlackSheep

I do not have an epic account nor do i plan on making one until I cannot avoid it anymore. :eyes:

Skatrzoo

Fair enough :blobdogeyes: