Superkenon's Adventures of 2014
Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and continue this tradition. Documentation! Full disclosure! Posterity! Last year had a mighty fine line-up of cool things I played, so let's start a-shapin' this one!
List items
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[BEGAN: January 1st]
[FINISHED: January 17th]
Startin' the year off right.
Better late than never? Yeah, for a number of various logistical reasons, I missed out on the series at the time, and then never bothered myself to go back. But then my brother took matters into his own hands and threw the Trilogy at me, so here we are. I'm doin' this thing.
Totally loved this first game. I'm playing a renegade with a heart of a paragon. The game's actually taking to my hedging quite well, and I feel like I've made a really interesting Shepard. I mean, sure, they're probably always interesting. But this one's mine, and I love it.
Shepard.
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[BEGAN: January 1st]
[FINISHED: January 26th]
With Rune Factory 4 bring great (I'm still playing it), and Neverland sadly closing down, I felt the urge to celebrate the series by playing through the games again. Starting here.
Going back to the beginning was a pretty jarring exhibition of how far they've come in their iterations. Compared to 4, you could call this downright unplayable. But, then I settled back into the old groove and got way into it yet again.
Totally happy I came back.
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[BEGAN: January 19th]
[FINISHED: December 7th]
Can't let a Zelda go un-replayed. Haven't been exactly flying through it though. While I had a lot of fun with this game the first time, it's definitely weak on a second run, which is kind of a damning thing for me to say about a Zelda game. With the "what's around the corner??" gone, all I've got left is the slog. And boy, it's kind of a slog.
I mean, it's not all bad, but dang if it doesn't have a lot of needless filler gumming up the tour.
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[BEGAN: January 28th]
What has Kleptok DOOOOOONE!!
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[BEGAN: September 2012]
[FINISHED: February 6th]
Yeah, I kinda let that one sit awhile. Thinking about Bravely Default recently reminded me, "right, that OTHER class-based JRPG." Thought I might as well dust it off and run it through, and I'm glad I did.
Guys, old Final Fantasy is great.
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[BEGAN: February 7th]
["NORMAL" END: May 25th]
And then I launched into Bravely Default! Or maybe I'm still playing Final Fantasy III. I can't quite tell?
I think Bravely Default is an outstanding, highly charming, jewel of a game that goes on a lot longer than it needs to. I guess I agree with the general consensus that BD's "twist" really wrecks the momentum of the adventure, even though in concept I think it's clever. They just didn't execute it well. It occurs about at the time when the game could've ended, and still have been a good length for JRPG, and then says "want to do stuff you've already done for another 20 hours?"
That said, it's not a wholly bad thing. You'll certainly get your money's worth out of this game, and it's still fun even after said "twist." It only becomes frustrating to me at the part where my backlog continues to grow while this game kinda plateaus. But where it plateaus isn't necessarily bad. If you're someone who purchases games more infrequently than a scumbag like me does, you'll probably appreciate that it keeps giving you things to do.
I got the "Normal" ending, and have more-or-less moved on to other games for the time being. But I do want to see the alternate way it wraps up, so I know I'll be coming back to it. Just definitely needed to take a break from it.
PS, the music in this game is pretty much the best thing ever.
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[BEGAN: February 14th]
[FINISHED: March 29th]
Happy Valentine's!
I kinda took my time with this (see below), but certainly not because I wasn't loving it. What a great ol' game, with a great ol' universe. And I like how you could fit the length of like four ME1's inside it. Whew!
The story of my lovable, puckish rogue continues. Firing off biotics, saving a lotta lives, probing planets obsessively, romancing Garrus, and just generally wasting fools left and right. Although still slightly heavier on the Paragon side of things, dang, Shepard got a lot rougher in this game, didn't she? Some of those interrupts can be pretty gnarly!
There was a bummer note during the Suicide Mission when I lost Tali, which I think will haunt me forever. I wrestled with reloading, but... argh, we gotta accept the consequences and move on!! At least I didn't lose anyone else, and I saved the crew 'n all that. But, man. Tali, noooooo!!
Now on to Mass Effect 3. Eventually.
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Also, I binged on random NES games for an evening or two.
I'm filled with a desire to rebuild my collection of old.
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Oh, and by the way, Persona 4 rocks on and on.
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[RECLAIMED: March 3rd]
One of the raddest, hiddenest, best-soundtraskest little gems on the SNES. I had a cart of this back in the day, before it mysteriously vanished to my dismay. Finally, after many years of a Uniracers-shaped hole in my collection (and my heart), I found a replacement.
IT'S STILL GREAT. YOU GUYS.
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[BEGAN: March 4th]
Hearthstone's actually a solid, fun little pseudo card game. I'm having a great time playing it with a few friends. It's just I won't ever be able to progress my decks in it.
I don't really know if the progression is bad per se, but it definitely doesn't mesh with how I want to play this game -- which is, only with friends. Unless you want to drop real money down, you're only going to get new packs of cards via in-game gold, which you don't earn by fighting people on your friends list. But I'm never going to play this game with randoms, because if I'm playing a game by myself, I've got so many other games I'd rather play. Don't really care to grind it out in solo mode.
So there?
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So, after randomly playing a number of bouts in Street Fighter 2 Turbo, my brother and I flipped on the PS3 and started putzing around with 3rd Strike Online. We kinda got into it, and I guess we'll make a thing of it. Fighting games!
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[GRASPED: March 6th]
High on Street Fighter, and as though a sign from the sky-gods, I spied a copy of SSFII at my local old-games retailer. I've certainly played it before, but I've never actually owned a SFII cart past vanilla Turbo. So, uh... I do now.
FIGHTING GAMES!!
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[GRASPED: March 9th]
Okay, and then something funny happened. Maybe it was a desperate reaction to the lost hour of Daylight Savings, combined with already being drunk on the street fighting fervor, but... anyway, I snapped and threw more money at Capcom fighting games. And Dave Lang.
I'd played just a little bit of Alpha 2's SNES port back in the day, but other than that, this is my first real exposure to the Alpha series. And I totally dig it. This was a whimsical purchase, but I'm glad I did it. I'll be playing a lot of this.
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[GRASPED: March 9th]
FIGHTING
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[GRASPED: March 9th]
GAMES
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[BEGAN: March 17th]
So, uh, I'm still making my way through Mass Effect 2, but I couldn't help myself. I was on my computer, one thing lead to another, and... well, I may have accidentally created a character and played through her origin chapter.
Now I just need to do the rest!
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[PRESS UP TO RAUS: March 23rd]
This game looked really cool.
It totally is.
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[ENTERED THE LANG ZONE: March 23rd]
This game, you guys.
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[BEGAN: March 27th]
[STORY FINISHED: April 25th]
The wheel of fate has always been turning since the world's been burning.
Admittedly I wasn't super excited about this one, since my eyes were looking further ahead to GGXrd and P4A2. But this is easily the best version of BlazBlue yet, and should probably be the standard for fighting game iterations.
It has a healthy slew of new characters, each with interesting new mechanics that add cool dynamics to the matchups. A full complement of new stages, and ALL music themes were redone. Really, almost every asset got touched or remade at some point.
And then there's the story, which while convoluted as all fuck, is easily the greatest fighting game story in existence. I appreciated the new approach to it this time, telling a much longer, bigger story that weaved in and out of key character perspectives... and ended with a number of cool surprises. I went from not really caring to anxious to see the continuation of the story.
FIGHTING GAMES.
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[TERRARIA: March 30th]
Well, I suppose I should try this out.
I DUG A HOLE AND THAT'S WHERE I LIVE NOW.
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[BEGAN: March 20th]
[FINISHED: May 25th]
A friend and I took it upon ourselves to plow through FFIV yet again, and it's good fun as always. FFIV definitely shows its more than most other SNES JRPG's, and is woefully imbalanced and broken at almost every angle, but darn it, I can't help but love it.
Keep on doin' what you do, Sessle!
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[DUKED IT OUT: April 20th]
Shamelessly riding the hype train for the new Smash, I felt a strong urge to revisit the original. Started from fresh data, and didn't stop until I unlocked everything again. Man. This game's successors are better in every way, but it was a blast coming back to the ol' stomping grounds for a bit.
FIGHTING GAMES...?
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[UNLEASH THE BEAST: May 18th]
[CEADEUS DEFEATED: July 4th]
Don't mind me, just playin' Monster Hunter over here.
Turns out, I'm into it. A guy poked at me to get it, and now I've found myself in an occasional MH3 meetup situation where me and three other dudes get together and just... huntin' monsters. That's what we do. We kick monster ass, and take monster names.
Multiplayer's been the bulk of what I've played, and definitely is where this game shines, but I've been slowly making my way through the single player missions. As of July 4th, I've finally gotten myself into High Rank, even though as a team we've been stomping around in that difficulty for awhile.
Anyway, it's got me. I'm looking forward to Monster Hunter 4's release, goddammit.
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[BEGAN: May 29th]
I've actually had this sitting on the back burner for a little while now, and I'm finally getting to it. As it turns out, playing through vanilla Persona 3 twice wasn't enough for me.
Erika Togenuma's journey starts here!!
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[LUDWIG KART: May 30th]
Bought a WiiU, got Mario Kart. Set for life.
Seriously though, this is pretty rad.
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[PLAYED IT LOUD: June 8th]
It was a quiet, rainy Sunday. Nowhere to be, nothing that needed done. So, who decided to sit down, fire up Super Mario Bros. 3, and not set the controller down 'til it was done?
IT WAS ME. I DID THAT.
I realized it had been overly long since my last playthrough of SMB3, so I decided to fix that in a big way. None o' that warp whistle bullshit, either. World 1-1, to King of the Koopa's Castle, and everything in between. It felt good. Screw nostalgia, this game's just great. I don't care who you are.
KURIBO'S SHOE
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[IT'S YOUR FRIEND MONITA. AGAIN: June 16th]
My brother knew a guy with an extra Nintendo Land. And now I have it. So it goes.
It looks to be a mixed bag in its minigame offerings, but it was a lot of fun. We played in the ideal setting, easily netting full five-player games and going until the poor AA's in some of the Wiimotes began to fail. A successful, good time all around. It's definitely going to be a good casual party game to have available.
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[BEGAN: June 22nd]
[FINISHED: June 29th]
My WiiU paid off in an unexpected way when I realized its virtual console had GBA games available, and that one of them was Minish Cap -- the only remaining Zelda game I hadn't played. Been hoping to track down a GBA cart for awhile now, so when I saw that sitting there in the eShop, I had to spring at it immediately.
I'm glad I did. Holy smokes, I can't believe I hadn't played this one yet. It's another great top-down Zelda, but it really has its own unique voice, while still playing the usual for-the-fans homages. It scratched all the right itches and kept me engaged all the way through (heck, I finished it in a week, and my track record for completing games lately has otherwise been poor and slowwwwww).
Also, the sprites are goddamn precious.
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[CAPE MARIO, BEST MARIO: June 29th]
I still had some Mario to get out of my system, so why not step back up to the BEST MARIO GAME? Well, there was no reason why not, so I spent another piece of a Sunday busting through from New Game to *96 goals. Whew!
Totally worth it. I'm not just being cute when I say this is the best Mario. That's plain fact, man. FACT.
I'll fight you. But I won't have to. Because you agree.
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[BEGAN: July 3rd]
[FINISHED: November 3rd]
I know I say this a lot, but this is kinda the best thing ever. I mean, it you guys!! This is love! I understand the meaning of the universe! I think I smell a little better than I did before!
I got to the final levels in an awful damn hurry, then I just drug my feet on finishing it. I kinda didn't want it to end, but I was also trying to wait for that nebulous "perfect time" to finish it -- y'know, a time with no distractions, a quiet house, and not being dead tired, or some such things. That time didn't really come, of course.
So I finally just went for it, one noisy morning with my toddler nephew sitting in my lap, watching the whole thing with interest. That ended up being special in its own way, so hey.
Anyway, Shovel Knight's damn rad.
And holy shit the music.
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[BEGAN: July 19th]
[FINISHED: August 24th]
More old RPG's yayuuhhhhhh
Sort of on a whim, but I really wanted to play this. Wild arms is the best JRPG series in existence. Just like Super Mario World being the best Mario, this is just plain, objective fact. C'mon.
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[BEGAN: August 3rd]
[FINISHED: August 13th]
EVERYTHING IS WRIGGLING
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[HADOKEN AND FRIENDS: August 11th]
F.
G.
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[BEGAN: August 16th]
[FINISHED: Co-op like sometime in December or something!]
Nyaa!
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[BEGAN: August 20th]
[FINISHED: September 13th]
The latest Tales! I've really had a lot of fun with this game. In a way, I almost feel guilty about it, but... when it comes to video games, why should you ever be ashamed of having fun?
Here's the deal: Tales of Xillia 2 is made up of, oh, let's say... 80% of stuff from the original. That's not a scientific number by any stretch, but the point is, there's a LOT of rehashed content in this deal, so in some ways you're just playing Xillia again. Turns out though, more Xillia is fine by me. Despite all the retreading and further time-sinky subquests, I had fun the entire way through this game.
So the old stuff's still good, and the new stuff? Fantastic. They successfully expanded on the world of Xillia, fleshing out the game's second world of Elympios far more than it ever had been in the original. Returning characters actually had good roles that increased their appeal and added new wrinkles to their personalities. The new story, while being largely irrelevant to the last adventure, is also enjoyable.
Xillia 2 is just a good time all around! Provided of course you loved Xillia 1 and don't mind essentially playing an expansion pack for it.
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[BEGAN: September 26th]
[STORY MODE FINISHED: Like a week later? Something like that]
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE TECMO-KOEI
I got this more out of morbid curiosity than anything, and didn't really expect to get very into it, but I have played a freaking lot of this game and I'm set to play a freaking lot more.
Really just because of the Adventure Mode. There's something weirdly satisfying about its progression, going space-by-space, using items from other spaces to unlock rewards, beating the challenges to unlock new equipment, going back and acing those challenges to unlock even better equipment... all the while you're mostly doing the same thing, sure, but somehow it's stayed engaging enough that I don't want to put it down yet.
The fact that the whole thing is glazed with a good-smelling Zelda coating probably helps a lot. I'll cop to it. I love this shit.
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[BEGAN: September 30th]
[EPISODE P4: October 6th]
AWW YISS, HERE WE GO.
And then my PS3 died. Motherfucker.
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[THE SMASHING IS LIVE: October 3rd]
[NOW ON WII U: November 21st]
Yay!
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[BEGAN: October 19th]
[FINISHED: November 2nd]
Better late than never?
Ruby/Sapphire is the one generation I skipped. I didn't necessarily regret missing it, but I was always curious about it. So the impending remakes ending up sounding pretty convenient.
Well, I went and hyped myself up for it, and got into a few wholesome Pokemon chats with my sisters. Long story short, I ended up borrowing a copy of Sapphire from one of them, with the intent of just seeing what the original was like in action. I was going to end my gander after the first area or so. Then I beat a gym. And another. And... then I decided I may as well just play the whole damn game.
So yeah. I've played through Sapphire now. I guess I'll do it again in a month or so?
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[BEGAN: November 27th]
Etrian Odyssey meets Persona? I signed the fuck up before I even knew it existed.
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