by niflhe
Similar to last year, I'll be keeping track of every game I played in 2016. Some of the them will be new, many of them will be old, tragically few of them will be beaten. The gist is that I attempt to work through a backlog while trying to keep vaguely up to date with gaming in general, I'll make note of each and every game I played this year for an hour or more. Or less, if the game warrants it.
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More Etrian Odyssey III! Still working my way down the labyrinth, smashing things as I go. I've beaten the boss of the third stratum and am working my way to the 4th. A few months later, I picked Etrian Odyssey III back up because I will finish this game or it will break me. Halfway through the fourth stratum currently. Shortly after that, I finished Etrian Odyssey III, though it largely remains a fever dream. I remember thinking that the final stratum was really neat, but the final boss was frustrating as all hell. Standard fare, really. What's more interesting to me is that I bought all three of the Etrian Odyssey games around the same time (late 2010-early 2011) and how much my life has changed since then. I began the first game right around when I met this fascinating woman on-line, who I started dating shortly thereafter. I have strong memories of flying up to meet her and her family, feeling overwhelmed and retreating to play Etrian Odyssey I for an hour or two to relax. I finished the first game as I moved up to be in the same city with her. I started the second game shortly thereafter and finished it when we had moved in together. I embarked on the third game before we were even engaged and now, as I finish Etrian Odyssey III, we've been married for almost a year and are thinking about children. Etrian Odyssey, in a way, is the mapping of my own relationship with my wife. And I'm grateful for that. I can only imagine what will happen when I start the fourth Etrian Odyssey game.
MORE STRETCHMO.
Still playing Batman, still enjoying it. I greatly appreciate the Intel system for giving hints for completing the side missions as I seemed to miss just about everything in Arkham City. The further away we get from Arkham Asylum makes me really appreciate what Arkham Asylum was and just how fantastic a restrained approach to Batman could be. Arkham Knight throws everything against the wall to see what sticks. Most of it does. Parts don't. The first ending is great. The first half of Knightfall is okay and the 100% ending (that I watched on YouTube because I'm not spending 10+ more hours collecting Riddler trophies) is bizarre.
So real talk for a second. I really love Final Fantasy. Always have. One of the things I always enjoyed about Final Fantasy was the music. I used to have multiple save files on games before certain boss fights that had certain music just so I could hear it again and again. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call is basically that in the form of a fun little rhythm game split into two different styles of action: Field Music Sequence (FMS) and Battle Music Sequence (BMS). FMS has the character running to what would normally be background or world map music. BMS involves your party of four fighting against various monsters across all of Final Fantasy. The art style is absolutely adorable, with everyone redrawn in a cutesy style. The quest system is much improved from the first game. Here you play through various FMS and BMS in a row, culminating in a boss fight where you either get rare scrolls to get new abilities or closer to unlocking new characters. I love it and can't seem to get enough. I played so much of the first Theatrhythm and Curtain Call just seems to be that with so much more. I just still question why there have to be multiple versions of the same characters. Like, it's wonderful that Benjamin from FF: Mystic Quest is here. But does there really need to be two Lightnings or three Clouds? They couldn't throw in Fang from XIII or another class from FFI or FFIII? Odd choices. Also Terra might be the most powerful character by far. Doublecasting Tranced Ultimas is no joke.
How is there so much to do and so much to see. I am overwhelmed already and it's been like two hours maybe. Enjoying it so far, though I have a few criticisms of the upgrade and skill system. Namely they try to fix both ends of the problem with the skill system in Witcher 2, and end up messing both up. The skills feel less important overall and only having a few active at a time in the lower levels is frustrating. Having to spend 10 upgrade points to get to better skills in 2 was annoying, but having numerous upgrade points unusable because I don't have the slots for equipment is even more inexcusable. Otherwise, I'm having fun. Having now finished Witcher 3, some two/three months after I originally started, I have some more thoughts. The pacing of Witcher 3 is all over the place, having an absolutely glacial first Act followed by incredibly swift second and third acts. The combat is and remains mediocre throughout the entire game and this might honestly be the worst inventory system I've ever seen in a game. I will praise the writing and story until the cows come home, but I honestly could not stand Ciri all that much. I found her a bit too bratty and frustrating to deal with. All in all, I enjoyed large swaths of Witcher 3, but got bogged down far too often, even as I started to ignore every non-major questline towards the mid-point of the game. An overwhelming masterpiece with some major flaws.
Adorable-ness, the game. I love it.
I really did not expect to start playing Dark Cloud 2 again, nor did I expect to put as much time into it as I have. The PS4 re-release is great and Dark Cloud 2 retains just as much charm now as it did back in 2002. The core mechanics of upgrading weapons is so satisfying. Get tired of upgrading? Go play some mini golf or go fishing! It's an incredibly dense game that I adore.
Let's talk about Dream Team. Let's talk about all the TALKING in Dream Team. Let's talk about talking about all the talking in Dream Team. Every plot point, every ability, every twist and turn is met with lines upon lines upon lines of dialogue. Oddly enough, this seems to have waned the further into the game I've gotten. New attacks have been acquired without a single tutorial. New abilities have a quick little "hey, do you want to practice this, or are you good?" It's like the developers knew they frontloaded far too much tutorial (and it seems like this has been fixed in the sequel). Another issue: While the 2-D/3-D sprites are gorgeous, the way some enemy attacks are drawn and animated make it difficult to determine where you need to defend. This, coupled with a much more intense game overall and enemies with subtler clues as to where they attack, make Dream Team harder than it perhaps meant to be. Still, even with those major complaints, Dream Team is a great Mario & Luigi game. The combat is as good as it has even been and the dialogue, while excessive, is charming. Dream Team is beautiful to look at, with expressive sprites that are breathtaking in 3-D. I've spent most of my time playing in 3-D which is something I rarely, if ever, do. It's that good.
Maybe it's just me, but Invisible, Inc just did not grab me. Beating an enemy when the deck is stacked against you is certainly fun, but I feel as if Invisible, Inc depowers the player in way that doesn't feel fair. I don't have nearly enough tools, or enough situational awareness of my surroundings to make use of the limited toolset I do have. I don't think I'm over roguelikes in general, but I think I'm done with Invisible, Inc. With all this said, I'll give it another shot on PS4 since it's coming out free with PS+. After giving it another shot and playing a few hours, I'm still inclined to agree with my earlier assessment. Not for me.
The Witness might be one of the best puzzle games I've ever played. Every facet of the island is meticulously planned and laid out in a way that's mindboggling. I still get incredibly excited every time I've found one of the "secret" puzzles in the world. I want to know more about the island. I want to uncover secrets that lay beneath. I need more. I need to KNOW.