The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

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Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition - Now that I scored a cheap second-hand Vita for one of my kids, focus has been on this in coop most of the day so far.

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Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64) - Just started on this for the playthrough this month. All kinds of great nostalgia while playing this

[Disposed Hero]

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom - I'm probably over halfway through this game, but I'm really struggling with staying interested in it.  I can't help but feel that many elements of this game are rushed, notably the story, characters, and environments.  The combat is alright despite being pretty button-mashy, although there probably is more depth to it if you choose to delve into it.  The kingdom building and skirmish mechanics are pretty barebones and feel like they were thrown together last minute to give the game more variety.  Not something I would recommend to most people, but I think fans of the 'Tales of...' games may like it, as the gameplay reminds me more of that than anything else.

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology - I've mentioned previously about having my ups and downs with this game, and right now I'm currently more invested in it, but I think that has more to do with me liking it more than Ni No Kuni II than the game itself.  There's definitely a lot to like with this game, but I think I find the battles to be a bit too slow-paced for my liking.  I really wish this game had a fast-forward function during the battles.

A Way Out - I blew through this over the weekend with a good friend of mine.  I'll just get this out of the way: Mechanically, the game is nothing special at all and feels like something that came out at least ten years ago.  However, the emphasis on co-op play and interactions between you and your partner make this game truly enjoyable.  We had a blast with it, and we had some great laughs with many of the mini-games in the game.  I'd recommend it if you have a good buddy to play it with and just want to enjoy something similar to a cheesy buddy action flick.

Titanfall 2 - I played about the first hour of this game's campaign.  I'm not really impressed so far, but I just got the Titan thing so presumably I can mess around with that now.  We'll see how this one goes.

Red Faction - Played about 20 minutes of this last night.  I remember playing this back in the day.  Definitely dated by today's standards, but still pretty fun.

Yakuza 6 - So the demo for this has been out for a little while and progress is supposed to carry over to the full game which I'm definitely getting on day 1.  Put about an hour into it, but nothing has really happened so far.  Just watching cutscenes that show what happened at the end of Yakuza 5 and the events that occurred between the two games.

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Super Mario Bros. 3 (3DS) - This must be the only VC game I'm aware of that you can play local multiplayer in. Breezed through the first two worlds with ease.

[MetalFRO]

I decided to download Bayonetta on the Switch, since I had the code from the Bayonetta 2 box, so I figured I'd play through that again.  I'm through Chapter 2 already.  I forgot how much more difficult the first Bayonetta is than the 2nd one, because the Witch Time is a bit less forgiving, and some of the Alfheim challenges are insanely brutal.

[Disposed Hero]

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology - I've mentioned previously about having my ups and downs with this game, and right now I'm currently more invested in it, but I think that has more to do with me liking it more than Ni No Kuni II than the game itself.  There's definitely a lot to like with this game, but I think I find the battles to be a bit too slow-paced for my liking.  I really wish this game had a fast-forward function during the battles.

Titanfall 2 - I played about the first hour of this game's campaign.  I'm not really impressed so far, but I just got the Titan thing so presumably I can mess around with that now.  We'll see how this one goes.

So I put a little more time into both of these games yesterday.  It took 20+ hours, but Radiant Historia has really grown on me and is something that I look forward to playing rather than just slogging through it like I was before.  I also enjoyed the next hour or so that I played of Titanfall 2 more than the first hour, so I'm hopeful that I'll really enjoy this one overall.

[Boshamp]

I still can't get past the training in Titanfall 2. I have so far refused to continue until I get into the top 3 on the gauntlet leader board, and I have the Easter egg weapon to help, but there is just a couple seconds I still can't manage to shave off my time. I think I just don't understand the momentum mechanics well enough to make it happen.

[Disposed Hero]

I still can't get past the training in Titanfall 2. I have so far refused to continue until I get into the top 3 on the gauntlet leader board, and I have the Easter egg weapon to help, but there is just a couple seconds I still can't manage to shave off my time. I think I just don't understand the momentum mechanics well enough to make it happen.

Haha, I only replayed it once just to get my time under 1:00, and I think that put me around 7th or 8th place.  I was ready to move on after that.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom - I've been putting a lot of time into this game lately.  I'm really close to the end now with maybe about an hour or so left in the main story.  I'm somewhat tempted to keep going with postgame content and continue building my town, but I'll probably just move on to something else.  I'll be starting both Yakuza 6 and God of War next week, so it's probably a good idea to clear my plate as much as I can before then.

As far as my overall opinion of Ni No Kuni II, it was a good game, not great, and probably not something I would ever play again.  I liked the combat most of the time, and the kingdom building aspect was an addicting new addition to the game.  The story and characters were pretty weak for the most part, and the skirmish battles kind of sucked.  I avoided skirmish battles for most of the game, and the game allows you to do this for the most part, but there are a couple of forced battles near the end that I probably wasn't prepared for.  Thankfully I had recruited tons of people to my town, so I had some good high-leveled units to work with, but that part was still annoying and almost made me rage quit the game.

[MetalFRO]

Finally booted up Raiden V last night, and credit-fed my way through it.  It's a solid enough shmup, but there are some glaring issues.  Definitely not the best game in the series, but worth a play through at least.  I'll probably put it away and concentrate on other shmups, as well as going back to Raiden IV some more, since it's a much better game, but there's stuff to like about it, like the soundtrack, and some of the risk/reward aspects.

[bombatomba]

As far as my overall opinion of Ni No Kuni II, it was a good game, not great, and probably not something I would ever play again.  I liked the combat most of the time, and the kingdom building aspect was an addicting new addition to the game.  The story and characters were pretty weak for the most part, and the skirmish battles kind of sucked.  I avoided skirmish battles for most of the game, and the game allows you to do this for the most part, but there are a couple of forced battles near the end that I probably wasn't prepared for.  Thankfully I had recruited tons of people to my town, so I had some good high-leveled units to work with, but that part was still annoying and almost made me rage quit the game.

Ah, that's kind of bummer, considering that the characters and story were what made the first game (in my opinion).  Kind of makes it sound like every other JRPG, actually.  Oh well, if/when I find it for a song I'll likely get it anyway.

I've been playing a lot of games as of late, but not finishing them.  I don't know if I am in some sort of rut or something, but I've played a lot of games and put them down before finishing them.  Really makes me realize I haven't been utilizing this thread properly, as I have just been focusing on putting games in my "Beaten in 2018" list.  A few examples of my gaming wanderlust:

Alone in the Dark Trilogy (PC) - great fun until I realized I don't like these types of games anymore.  But, I played enough to realize that these games really are just Resident Evil with more scripted events and adventure elements.  Really makes me question the insistence that RE came from Sweet Home on NES.  TOTAL TIME PLAYED: about three hours.

Dark Forces (DOS) - Great game, but really suffers from it's lineage, meaning DOOM, though while DOOM has you running through the level looking for the entrance to the next area behind walls, Dark Forces has you running through the level trying to trigger an event by picking up an item or hitting a switch (that looks like a wall). TOTAL TIME PLAYED: Five hours

Avernum: Escape from the Pit - The third iteration of Jeff Vogel's long running series, it sadly has the same problem what Avernum 1 (the second iteration) has, that being really unfocused game elements near the middle of the game, so that one can keep playing and level up and still get spanked because you haven't found the higher level spells books (or even know they exist).  TOTAL TIME PLAYED: Just under twenty hours

X3: Terran Conflict - So, maybe it is my fault for picking the Terran campaign, but I am at the last mission, stuck, because it is super buggy.  I launch my Marines to board the enemy ship (along with other ships around me) and they just meander around the ship, not boarding it.  TOTAL HOURS PLAYED: 87 hours

Castlevania IV - I'm going back to this one, but haven't yet. Soon.   TOTAL TIME PLAYED: About 2 hours[/b]

[Disposed Hero]

Titanfall 2 - Finished this game.  I enjoyed the campaign overall, but the last mission was kind of a drag.  Ironically, I actually enjoyed running around on foot more than using the Titan suit.  The Titans were kind of slow and clunky feeling in comparison, and enemy Titans could sometimes be annoying to fight.  There's an interesting gameplay mechanic introduced around the halfway point that reminded me a lot of the game Singularity, but unfortunately it was only used for one mission.  Overall, Titanfall 2 was pretty good, but nothing spectacular.

Yakuza 6 - Played a bit more of the demo in anticipation for the full release next week.  I really like a lot of the changes that the new gameplay engine introduces.  Combat feels a bit slow in comparison to the earlier games, but hopefully I'll get used to it and/or there will be upgrades to speed it up a bit.  While spending EXP to upgrade my stats, the game informed me that I couldn't buy any new skills with the demo version, so I'll probably hold off on playing anymore until I get my hands on the full game.  There's no telling what else I'll be locked out of while using the demo.

Radiant Historia - I was trying to do most (or maybe all) of the sidequests, but I've had enough of this game.  I think I'm fairly close to the end, so I'm just going to try to finish it soon.  Overall, I didn't enjoy this game very much.  It's not bad, but I found it to be pretty dull most of the time, and the battle system felt slow and tedious to me.  I know this game is highly regarded among JRPG fans, but I don't really see it.

[Disposed Hero]

Onimusha: Warlords - I wanted to play something short and sweet before I get my hands on Yakuza 6 next week, and Onimusha came to mind.  I played this game way back in 2001 when it first came out, but I don't remember it leaving any kind of lasting impression on me, so this playthrough is pretty much blind.  I gotta say, so far I am loving it.  It is of course very similar to Resident Evil in many ways, but also does some things to set itself apart.  I also just read that Capcom recently filed trademarks for Onimusha, which hopefully means we'll be getting HD remasters and/or a new game in the series!

[MetalFRO]

Been sinking more time into Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours.  It's a weird kind of addictive.  I don't like that there's not a long campaign in the game, and some of the "Chronicle Mode" missions are just short boss rushes, and some of those bosses are RIDICULOUSLY HARD, like previous Darius entries, but holy cow, I can't stop playing this game.  I feel compelled to keep playing for some reason.  I'm also sort of working on Bayonetta on the Switch, and even took it with me to the laundromat today.  Some of the Alfheim challenges are nigh impossible, without super precise timing and making no mistakes.  I'm stuck on one now where you can only damage enemies with Wicked Weaves, and it's driving me bananas!

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Oxenfree (Switch) - This has been quite interesting so far. Glad I picked it up on sale!

[Disposed Hero]

Onimusha: Warlords - I blew through this game pretty quickly.  It's only about 5 hours long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it while it lasted.  I'm not sure why I don't remember liking these games so much back in the day.

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny - So unsurprisingly, I started playing the second.  I'm over halfway through it now, but I can safely say that I don't like it as much as the first.  There are a few elements that were introduced that I find to be to the game's detriment, like the hub town with NPCs and the whole gift-giving system.  I also find the game to be more obtuse and frustrating than the original.  I'm still enjoying it and having a hard time putting it down, it just feels like a little bit of a let down after how much I enjoyed the first game.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - I've been playing this with two friends over the last three weekends.  I think I liked the first game more since I remember it being more puzzle focused, but this one was still pretty fun.

Battletoads (Arcade) - My two friends and I wrapped up our last game session with this game.  I've played a ton of beat 'em ups, but I don't think this is one of the better ones out there.  It's ridiculously cheap and has an extremely limited move set that, in conjunction with very limited enemy variety, makes this a very repetitive 45 minute game, even by beat 'em up standards.  All of the unique and gory animations are cool, but the novelty wears off quickly.