by niflhe
Another year, another list of video games I've played.
Showing 1-10 of 75 items
Picking back up in the second case, after finishing the first case and the DLC case. I enjoy Apollo, just as a character.
Monster Hunter was always a game I was interested in, but never really a game I *got*. As it turns out, wall it took for me to truly love Monster Hunter was finding the right weapon: for me, this happened to be the Charge Blade. The perfect mix of attack, defense, speed and smashing monsters in the face. What also led to me loving Monster Hunter was learning how to love the multiplayer. The true heart and soul of Monster Hunter lies in the multiplayer, in tackling the beasts that troubled you through the campaign and just straight up slaughtering them.
Far Cry 4 is an excellent Far Cry game that has thankfully moved beyond the white savior narrative that Far Cry 3 had. Clearing out outposts and climbing towers remains as fun as Far Cry 3, but similar to that game, literally none of the main story missions are interesting. It's a shame that a game that really encourages players approach the side content from any angle they so choose has such boring and static mission design. Also I tried to shortcut the tower climbing by flying a minicopter into the side of a tower and the game killed me, so maybe it's not as free wheeling as I'd like to think.
One of my favorite games from 2017, and it's still as charming now as it was some 20 hours ago. My main gripe comes from the repetitive Moons, but it's relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. It's interesting to watch my wife play through Odyssey on her own. She cares about none of the side content, purple coins, or outfits, just a single minded path from start to finish.
I realized recently that Matt Thorson, one of the creative minds behind Celeste, was also behind some games I really enjoy such as Jumper, An Untitled Story, and (a personal favorite) Give Up Robot. Celeste follows in that excellent lineage, being a brutally hard 2D platformer that encourages the player the entire time. Each stage takes a unique gimmick and then expands that gimmick to its conclusion and tests the player along the way in mastery of the basic mechanics. The first stage, for instance, has platforms that activate as soon as Madeline (the player character, the mountain is Celeste) steps on them. These platforms transfer their momentum to Madeline, who can then use them to jump further and higher. The slow build up to mechanical mastery is truly impressive. I played around 20 hours of Celeste, collecting 175 strawberries, all of the Red and Blue hearts and nearly all of the Yellow Hearts. I had to drop out of the C-sides, as my reflexes aren't nearly what they used to be. Actually scratch that, I got all of the Yellow Hearts. Somehow.
I love Blaster Master, but man they probably could have done away with those top down sections and I wouldn't have even noticed. Then again, without that one gameplay element is it really Blaster Master anymore? These things keep me up at night, y'all.
Last year, I spoke about how Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call is one of my "self-care" games and that continues into this year. When I'm nervous about a flight I'm on or de-stressing at the end of a long day, Curtain Call is such a fun, chill game that relaxes me. Tapping out beats to some of my favorite video game music is really calming. Leveling up characters, finding fun/broken party combinations, and just enjoying the cast of characters is great. It even has Benjamin from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest! How could I not love it?
There's a Welsh cat-girl with a talking dog-wolf, so I'm sold. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is anime as hell and I love it.
I'm still not in love with Horizon, but god this game is pretty. I think I'm done with Horizon. The game is gorgeous, but the gameplay, story, and open world do little-to-nothing for me in this post-Breath of the Wild world. I hate the Witcher 3 style quests, I can't stand the core combat loop, and this is extremely petty, but holding to pick up items takes a fraction of a second too long so I'm just done. Sorry Horizon.
It turns out, the easiest way to kick a dragon in the face is to make sure you have the charm that reduces the damage from it's elemental attack on your entire party. Suddenly a fire dragon is doing 7 damage instead of 107. Neat.
