censorthulhu

October 17th, 2k19

it’s October, holy crap!!!!

my computer fried in mid-July and still no replacement. i am gaming on my mother’s comparable rig and am extremely uncomfortable with this set up but at least i can still make my eyeballs bleed for a few hours every night!!

before i get started with this catch-up post just wanna say thank fuuuuck for completionist.me cos it made it very easy for me to figure out what i’ve played and beaten since the travesty that was my motherboard frying and taking the cpu et al with it.

ANYWAY. here are the games i finished and thus can be considered removed from the backlog:

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

10/10
9.2 hours
32 of 32 achievements

Very solid detective game that is oddly framed with a device of scary-faced children creeping around an attic and reading off of Watson's diaries. Ignore the monstrous children (and the eeeeehhhhh epilogue) and you're left with an excellent narrative puzzle that never takes unfollowable leaps of logic and kept me entertained from start to finish.

also, they clearly modeled Holmes after Mark Strong in this one, it's total hilar.

Rusty Lake Paradise

Rusty Lake Paradise

5/10
3.6 hours
50 of 50 achievements

neutral rating cos i don't think i'm the audience for this sort of game. it wasn't creepy at all, just lots of pretending that David Lynch Presents: The Wickerman, a Family Film is an actual thing. i appreciated it when that dude got stuck in a loop of vomiting frogs down his own damn front and into his trousers until you stop the horror with a belt, but that was about it.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite

9/10
19.4 hours
36 of 80 achievements

finally got around to this one despite owning it for years. i beat the main storyline but not the DLC content yet, but i'll get to it, i'll get to it.

spoilers follow

this game was fantastic, but i'm knocking off a point for having the Slave who is leading the rebellion in Colombia scalp people and nail the leavings on a notice board. i realize he needed to make the Revolutionaries attack Booker and Elizabeth, but they were already stuck in an alternate reality where they had the guns, just keep going with the "you're a fake Booker and so we're going to kill you" thing without having to both sides this crap. Levine already appropriated Wounded Knee for his plot purposes, he doesn't need to keep on keepin' on with something that white men encouraged the practice of in the recent history of that time frame. pretty shitty to hold that kind of brutality up as a stereotype of people going full on "uncivilized" evil upon being given a smidge of power when the Bookers in the world paid cash money to keep it going.

i sort of had a sour taste in my mouth for the rest of the game because of that one atmospheric set piece, was having a grand old time up to then. i'll replay it in 1999 mode at some point, and hopefully will be able to ignore it better, but for now i'm just ugh. feel gross.

Cosmic Star Heroine

Cosmic Star Heroine

10/10
17.9 hours
32 of 33 achievements

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD GAME. doesn't overstay its welcome, keeps a delicate mix of action and side quests to flesh out the story without sacrificing pacing, and you auto-heal at the end of every battle so there's no frantic resource juggling that can bog down games like these all in the name of "difficulty." A+, do recommend to infinity.

Endless Fables 3: Dark Moor

Endless Fables 3: Dark Moor

7/10
2.5 hours
31 of 31 achievements

ahahahaha. well, i was hankerin' for a HOG, and Playing Appreciated delivered!

there's this scene near the start where the MC tells a barkeep that her niece is captured by a creature in this vicious estate known for killing everyone around it, so of course he takes the opportunity to lament his missing cat Whiskers and then keep cleaning his glasses. i don't even know, man. whoever wrote this doesn't know how to write actual character reactions i guess.

other than that laughable misfire it's a pretty decent HOG for your time. some of the art is very pretty to look at, and none of the puzzles are terribly difficult. a couple of them i managed to complete so quickly i literally said "wait, that's it?" while the animation spun. so yeah, deffo worth it, just don't expect to be astounded.

and here are the games that i have put decent time into but haven’t beaten yet!

FINAL FANTASY XIII

FINAL FANTASY XIII

7/10
59.1 hours
13 of 35 achievements

i need to get over myself and finally finish this game. my issues with it are pretty dumb, and really say more about me than they do about the game itself.

1) the voice of Lightening is the same as Liara in Mass Effect, and i really never liked Liara. she simpers, and i hate listening to simpering. Lightening doesn't simper, she's actually a decent character, but just the sound of the voice actress sets me off.
2) Snow needs a good punch in the mouth, he's annoying and pushy and while i don't wish his death i certainly don't want to be around during his life either. so one of the strongest fighters stays out of my rotation just because i don't like him, hurrah.
3) while i normally enjoy grinding in JRPGs, the grinding in this one just got to me, eventually. probably because the main character's voice gets my hackles up. oh well.

like i said, the reasoning is stupid. the game is fine, and i should at least give a good go at finishing it. i just haven't yet :/

Avadon: The Black Fortress

Avadon: The Black Fortress

6/10
25.7 hours
5 of 30 achievements

two reasons this is partially abandoned on my part:

1: this is the game i was trying to play on my mother's loaned Netbook so i could write and play super low-end games until i get a replacement computer. unfortunately that netbook is from 2010 and my mother wasn't very good to it, so the damn thing memleaks until it crashes regardless of whatever program i run. thusly, i didn't get very far with the machine i chose to play it on.
and 2: the game is tedious.

i hate using the word "tedious" for something made by Spiderweb Software, but i can't figure out anything else to say about it. there's no spark like in the Avernum series. you play a sell-out joining up with the Fascist Dictator playing genocidal maniac with the world. i mean, you get a choice to kill him and take his place apparently, but why even bother to pretend in the meantime? it just doesn't work for me, so i'm not terribly invested in finally finishing it.

Tales of Zestiria

Tales of Zestiria

6/10
38.1 hours
10 of 56 achievements

i REALLY wanted to play this one cos a project lead or the head designer or whoever said that Sorey and Mikleo love each other romantically, and hey, i am all about supporting my fellow queers in gameland, but ldkjfslkfjsldkfjslkdfjsldkfjlsdk no. nooooooo.

this game features a battle system that is little more than controlled chaos until 20 hours in when you finally figure out a slight bit of strategy to turn it into controlled chaos that leans in your favor; a lot of preachy dialogue about man's inhumanity to man featuring MALEVOLENCE and such; and the fucking stuck-up asshole Zavied is back to make me grind my teeth down to powder.

i was spoiled by Berseria. i miss the cannibal demon girl who did not go quietly into that horrible night, she raged and raged and raged and ate some demons and then raged some more. with Zesteria we just got a lot of monologue about how people will always submit to their base evils and shit up the world. honestly, the funniest ("""""funniest"""""") thing about Zesteria is that for all that lecturing about evil, evil humans, they never address the absolute noncon that is Dezel taking over Rose's body when she's asleep without her consent for years and, i am not joking here, "creating a perfect vessel for seraphim".

that part make me shriek in rage, and just thinking about it makes my blood boil. holy SHIT. just hOLY SHIT.

anyway, play Berseria. only bother with this one if you're a completionist with masochistic tendencies.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

9/10
78.8 hours
29 of 59 achievements

i got all 100 From A Different Sky quests completed and just needed a freaking break. you know how hard it was to get some of those bastards?? i had to make my character learn magic. she's a freaking rogue-type class with daggers, but nooooo, gotta levitate cos the double vault will never ever catch that one particular ledge. pfnah. magic. MAGIC.

it's a very good game and if you like action-y RPGs that feel slightly off cos it's clearly made by a Japanese crew who got all their fantasy tropes from cult classic 80s films like Ladyhawke and Krull then you'll adore it, but you gotta take a break every now and again. too many times falling off cliffs and dying, too few wakestone shards.

The Last Remnant

The Last Remnant

4/10
6.70 hours
no achievements

fuck this battle system in the ear and DIE. die die DIEEEEEEE.

Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0

10/10
33.7 hours
14 of 55 achievements

this is the one i'm currently playing. it's got violence, dancing, and a karaoke minigame that i suck at so i lost 10% of my real estate holdings last night and i didn't even mind, i'll just beat the snot out of the dude later and get it all back.

this is my introduction to the series and i think by hour 10 i was wishlisting the other two titles available on Steam. gonna be sad when this one is finished and i'll have to wait for a sale or bundle to get the next. i will miss Majima and his claw machine mastery ways. i will miss Kiryu's wise advice given freely to hesitant femdoms everywhere. i will miss Walking Erection-chan just in general.

i will miss them all.

ninglor03

Aaaaaaaaaah! I clicked on the link and new I have a new thingy telling me what I achieved so far. Why did I do this and why do I care and keep the link? o.O

Sorry to hear about your PC though. Anything new in sight yet?

censorthulhu

ahahahahahaha but it looks so much nicer than AStats! someone clued me into that site cos it tells you what game you had “previously completed” so i could figure out what suddenly had cheevos added, but then ofc just never left. so swanky! so clicky!

nah, nothing yet. dealing with a lot of surprise! medical expenses right now that are essential to pay off ASAP, but as soon as that’s done with i can start to save for a new rig. just gonna go for something that does bare minimum to run Outer World, since that’ll be on Steam by then xD

ninglor03

Not even sure I ever was on AStats. I know the page, but doesn’t look as if I logged in at some point. But, yes. It indeed looks good. Also: Wow! My history! I had NO idea. And it’s very horrible how one can see the times I used to still play MMOs :D

Aw, man. I’m very sorry to hear that. That sucks a lot. Hope you’re all better by now though :)

censorthulhu

oh man the history aspect is wild, isn’t it? i had no idea that my first achievement ever was for opening Shower With Your Dad, but here we are, with the proof, on a third party site, just looking around saying hi.

the medical bills are for my mother, and yeah she’s recovering pretty well. luckily insurance covered most of it, it’s just the monthly expenses to buy her meds that are wiping me out. but the course will be done soon, and then the money will free up xD thank you for your well wishes!

JaffaCaffa

Was excited to try out The Last Remnant but my friend was playing it at the same time I mentioned it to him but rage quit not liking it at all, and now your review… Doesn’t exactly exude confidence that I’ll like it! haha Bummer.

I loved the look of Cosmic Star Heroine but you’re actually the first person I’ve seen play/review it. Nice to hear it’s as good as it seemed! Did you encounter any bugs?

censorthulhu

the battle system has this thing where you finally figure out the party config to win at normal battles, then you reach a boss and have to reconfig all over again. and of course the config that worked on the boss won’t work on the normal enemies in the next area, so weeeeeeeeee. i’ll go back and try it again later, but for now i like my blood pressure in the normal range. and also not dying 20+ times just to figure out what grouping of characters work to take down this latest boss. the plot and graphics are fine, though, so if you have the patience for the battle system it would probably be a worthwhile experience.

CSH only crashed on me once, though i don’t remember the exact circumstances. i do remember that it was a total freeze and that i googled it to find that it was already reported in the steam forums early this year. i started to by be super obsessive about saving all the time just in case it ever happened again… which it never did, oddly enough. but other than that one time it was v stable and didn’t glitch at all.

Arbiter Libera

Oh boy, finally some games I can comment on. :D

Final Fantasy 13

I wrote probably my most vitriolic and longest review ever specifically for FF13 and I still stand behind it. Although, I wouldn’t really say you need to grind for anything other than post-game content and I gave up on that because I didn’t really find the game itself fun. It’s more about once you’re off the tutorial wheels, 20 hours in, game expects you’ll keep up with fighting enemies you come across so you don’t run into brick wall when bosses come up.

Avadon: The Black Fortress

Thing with Jeff Vogel, founder and lead developer, is he really gave into becoming Bioware-lite with his more modern titles. Geneforge and Nethergate: Resurrection are still by far his best works in my opinion.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

Played this ages ago on my PS3 and still need to get through it on PC because it’s one of those cases where having smooth 60FPS/no freezing really, really benefits the experience considering Dragon’s Dogma has a combat system 90% of action games wish they had. Just… don’t look up how much of the game was cut. Dark Arisen sadly added only a fraction of what was originally envisioned.

The Last Remnant

I love TLR, but I understand why someone might not. It’s the kind of game that expects you to play it blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back and still muddle your way through. Many will say just follow a guide, but that kinda defeats the purpose of a game heavily inspired by SaGa titles where chance plays a large than usual role where you’re less micromanaging everything and more directing general flow of things. Just keep in mind not to over level your Battle Rank or things will get rough at certain points.

censorthulhu

re: ff13 – you don’t HAVE to grind, no, but i’m compulsive about it. i think i needed to take a break after going through half of the missions, there’s just so many of them and it’s hard to figure out the proper order before you actually hit endgame. i do understand that all of this and more is still available after the game is technically over, but i’m not a fan of continuing to play a game after the supposed climax so i try to get as much done as possible before the final fight, as it were.

re: Jeff Vogel – i like his current games. haven’t played Geneforge et al, but i’m a later player and started with Avernum 1. hence my comparison of Avadon 1 to that series. i can’t really tell if you’re trying to throw shade on Bioware with your comment there from the context, but i hope you’re not since i replay the OG Mass Effect trilogy at least once a year and have very much enjoyed the Dragon Age series as well.

re: Dragon’ Dogma – i play on 800x600 resolution with all settings but draw-distance set to low. i haven’t noticed the game missing anything obvious content-wise, my only wish is that they had at least one more populated city to run around in, since the game can get rather lonely at times.

re: The Last Remnant – steam forums say that the over-leveling thing was fixed from the xbox version for PC. i only got six hours in before i ragequit so i don’t know if i hit that cap, but when i pick the game up again i’ll try to keep track of that aspect, thank you for the tip.

Arbiter Libera

re: Jeff Vogel – i like his current games. haven’t played Geneforge et al, but i’m a later player and started with Avernum 1. hence my comparison of Avadon 1 to that series. i can’t really tell if you’re trying to throw shade on Bioware with your comment there from the context, but i hope you’re not since i replay the OG Mass Effect trilogy at least once a year and have very much enjoyed the Dragon Age series as well.

Nah, I was referring to the fact his games used to have identity of their own and for a while now he’s definitely been trying to do the Bioware formula while not having anywhere near the budget that would require.

re: Dragon’ Dogma – i play on 800x600 resolution with all settings but draw-distance set to low. i haven’t noticed the game missing anything obvious content-wise, my only wish is that they had at least one more populated city to run around in, since the game can get rather lonely at times.

Damn, really? I don’t know. I think the Pawn systems really adds to game feeling alive, unless you turn party chatter off.

re: The Last Remnant – steam forums say that the over-leveling thing was fixed from the xbox version for PC. i only got six hours in before i ragequit so i don’t know if i hit that cap, but when i pick the game up again i’ll try to keep track of that aspect, thank you for the tip.

It’s not really removed, though. Just more lax. It’s more really there to discourage grinding than anything.

Traqie

A 10/10 for the Sherlock game? I heard Frogware’s Sherlock games before “Crimes & Punishments” were weird and not very good, did you played their other old Sherlock games too? Except “The Testament” of course.

censorthulhu

all ratings are subjective to my personal tastes! but no, i haven’t played the other Frogware Sherlocks. i have Devil’s Daughter bought and installed but haven’t felt like playing it yet, that’s my only other purchase in their line so far. i’m more interested in their Call of Cthulhu game atm, it looks like a riot.

devonrv

a project lead or the head designer or whoever said that Sorey and Mikleo love each other romantically

I beat Tales of Zestiria, and their relationship never came across that way to me. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that, apparently, the blind kid from NieR: Gestalt was also supposed to be gay, but again, it never came across that way in-game (at least not on Route A). It reminds me of J.K. Rowling’s tweets about Harry Potter, or how The Division 2 opens with this whole thing about guns saving the day before quickly abandoning that in favor of being another bland FPS: it’s not actually making a statement on anything, it’s just using popular buzzwords to generate politically-motivated sales.

I guess the lesson here is “worry about whether the game-play is good before looking into what people say about the story.”

censorthulhu

yeah at that point it falls under Word Of God Representation, meaning the dev says it after the fact but doesn’t actually take the risk to follow through in the actual piece of media where it counts. I know Yoko Taro yelled at an interviewer that the kid in Nier was actually totally gay and to stop trying to change that, though. haven’t played the game myself so i don’t know where that rep supposedly happens..

devonrv

Something else just occurred to me: Sorey and Mikleo were raised together since they were babies, so doesn’t that make them adopted brothers? I feel like that would throw a wrench into that whole “positive representation” thing if they were a couple…

censorthulhu

i never heard them refer to one another as brothers or like-brothers, so i don’t think that’s an aspect of their relationship. the Gramps dude doesn’t claim to be their adopted grandfather, he’s just the seraphim who kept track of them. so no, that doesn’t really affect the possible representation.