My Big Sisters House of Dead Ninjas

Less time since my last update. Mainly to the magic combination of playing a rather short game and being unbelievable stubborn.

• My Big Sister
  

  4 hours playtime

  28 of 28 achievements

• Super House of Dead Ninjas
  

  57 hours playtime

  46 of 46 achievements

My Big Sister: I was really happy to win this on Steamgifts as it was part of my follow list which kinda works like a hidden wishlist :P. Thought of buying it before but strangely enough the cheapest price to get it was together with two other games from the same developer which didnt interest me enough. My Big Sister is the story of Luzia and her older Sister Sombria. It is a simple adventure game with simple rpg-maker like graphics. It plays in different scenes where you walk around in a rather limited area, talking with NPC’s, collecting some items and solving easier puzzles, nothing which is really hard. Main motivation is getting further in the story which concerns the relation between the sisters, their respective state of mind and body as well as their family’s story. Overall it was interesting but a tad to confuse for my taste. The game covers among other themes doubt and as such you are never sure if the things which are said and are happening are “real”. Game also has different endings (only dependable from actions in the last chapter) although two appeared rather odd to me.
Achievements are pretty easy. There are several story related ones and some others which can be obtained by doing additional tasks in the chapters which also cover additional story parts. While you only have one save there is an in-game method to jump to every chapter you want to. Apparently, it was meant as scene select feature after you beat the game once. However, it is not in the game (yet). I marked the game as completed since the story is finished and the game works without much problems. Strangely enough it is still in Early Access, so maybe something more will come.
As additional information: Like said there is only one save slot so if you missed something you will have to do a second playthrough or use the hidden chapter select function. Game starts in windowed mode and there is no in-game options but you can use Alt+Enter to get Fullscreen. There is no gamepad support which caugt me by surprise as it is usually in such games, had to play with keyboard here. The game contains some rather bloody scenes.

Super House of Dead Ninjas: Welcome to the house of dead ninjas. Mainly dead: You. It is a rather simple arcade game. You play as Shodn descending the tower (I think on the search for your father/ancestor?) fighting against hordes of enemies as well as dodging multiple traps. The game is separated in different runs where you descend floor by floor. Each run is different as the enemies, traps and floor design is procedural. However, this is mostly on the order of floors as most floors are pre-designed and will just come in different order and mabye with different enemies. But after a while you will certain elements and know how to react the best which is also necessary. A run doesnt last longer than 15 minutes as you are either dead by then or you have completed the game.
Before each run you can choose your melee weapon, your ranged weapon, your bomb weapon as well as your magic. Many items have to be unlocked by in-game actions before though. Also you can choose your difficulty and the game mode (which also changes difficulty as they have far harder floors). Game difficulty comes from different aspects, you have 30 seconds before and unkilling enemy appears which hunts and kills you. So you have to find a clock item before to renew the counter. Also, every enemy in the game and every trap kills you in one hit and you kill most enemies in one hit, so be fast. Total game (on Ninja Difficulty) has 350 floors with bosses on Floor 100, 200 and 350. On your way down you will find ammo for your weapons as well as helpful items for example to ignore spike traps.
Can’t comment on everything for one reason. First time i played SHODN was four years ago. I completed 44 of 46 achievements, the last was a 6 minute run on Hard after which i decided that doing the same on Ninja difficulty would be insane. I always wanted to give it a try but could never find the motivation to do this. Then two weeks ago appeared the motivation, followed by stubborness. I have a total play time of 57 hours, about 20 hours in the last two weeks. From those 20 hours at least 90 % go into the hunt for the last speedrun achievement. 6 Minutes for 350 floors, four bosses, lots of traps and enemies and against the own abilities with only 5 lives (you can find new ones though). This is a real test of endurance. I though if I notice it is outside my abilities i will just drop it. But sadly I noticed that with every hour I came farther before running out of lives, reacting to certain floors with movement patterns, beated bosses faster and more consistent and started getting to the final boss more often, only to die there. After 20 hours then I finally managed to have enough time and lives to get this done. The last achievement was then simply uploading a map to Workshop so I did that.

Funnily enough, this will not be the game where i needed the longest time from first to last achievement. Firstly, there are some which i will never complete, so I just dont count them. Secondly, if I remember it in December there is another game which I can complete then which i started playing even earlier. Also I just checked and I needed about 5 years for L4D from first achievement to last achievement. So, anyone else who comes back to games far later with the insane intention to complete them?