[Event] The PokeCommunity Game-Along III: The Gaming

[Devalue]

Finished FTL. Wrote about it here. Short version: Proved tougher than expected. Tried several different weapon focuses. Eked out a win with Combat I drones and ion weapons.

 

[Cherrim]

Finished Heaven's Vault! For a game where I wasn't actually sure if it could count for the theme, it turned out to be probably the single most fitting game I could have played from my library, haha.

It started out very good and while I do love the core gameplay loop of exploring, discovering/translating words, and uncovering a little more about what happened in the past, I feel like at some point I made some wrong choices and managed to accidentally skip over a whole section of the game. I saw the credits tonight but... honestly, I have no idea why I ended up where I did and I am pretty sure I just dropped an entire mystery along the way. I feel like the game was kind of open ended in a bad way if it let me play through it like this but... oh well.

I'll probably start a NG+ sometime soon and see if I can't have a better go of it next time lol. I might not try so hard to be "in character" next time and will actually let myself be curious even if I don't think it suits the protagonist. I guess we'll see how that goes!

 

[gimmepie]

Finished Deponia! It's far from my favourite game ever, but it was quick, simple and pretty fun mostly. Definitely better than Tartarus was going to be.

 

[Janp]

Almost forgot to post about it here, but I finished Dead Space. It was great, but got repetitive pretty quickly. The game gives you way too many resources, so there is no problem with just blasting your way through everything. In fact, you always have to kill all enemies before proceeding, aside from few scripted passages, where you have to run. Bosses, puzzles and exploring were fun tho.

 

[gimmepie]

March - Retro

It's the third month of the year and I'm sure we're all getting tired of 2022. So it's time to chill out and bask in some healthy nostalgia with the games of decades past. This month, we'll be playing retro games. We're leaving this one a little open-ended since retro is a pretty vague term and it means something a little different to everyone. But no, you can't find a way to justify Elden Ring.

 

[Janp]

I was just thinking about this theme and how much I enjoyed Super Mario 64 that I picked last time.

I have quite a few retro games on my list, so I have a lot to choose from. I pick Gobliiins 4 Platinum, which also includes previous 3 Gobliiins games.

 

[Devalue]

Selects Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis for the Game Boy Advance. Cannot recall ever playing this game. Delved into only a few tactical-type games (mainly one X-Com game and a knockoff) before Fire Emblem. Might have been a sibling's. Dug it up a few years ago. Meant to play it sometime soon. Seems like a good time.

Searched for a quick overview to see if it would be enjoyable. Picked a review video. Noped out after mentions of Knights and Ninjas being overpowered. Wants less information than that.

Hunted for the true sign of retro gaming: the instruction manual. Found the box, but not the manual. (Flattened most boxes for easier storage. Separated manuals out.) Came across other ones like Chrono Trigger, Link to the Past, Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, and both GBA Golden Suns (plus maps), however.

 

[gimmepie]

I'm going to be playing Final Fantasy III, wish me luck.

 

[Cherrim]

I'm gonna pick Chrono Trigger. :) I've played it before but I'd like to play it again before the Chrono Cross remaster this year and I received it on Steam in the PC Secret Santa last year so it feels like a solid pick!

I'll be playing the Steam version but it's a remaster, not a remake, so it should be fine.

 

[Janp]

Finished up Gobliiins series. It started good, first and second game had all the positives and negatives of 90s P&S adventures, but the third game tries way too hard to be funny and hard and it falls flat. The fourth one was bad.

 

[Cherrim]

Beat Chrono Trigger tonight! :D It's just as good as I remembered and I didn't realize how much I'd missed it until I started playing it again. ♥

 

[Devalue]

Finished Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis. Wrote a Game Journal entry for it.

Short version: Not terrible, but definitely not great. Enjoyed some things like different classes, story choices, and emblems. Suffers from flaws like class balance, repetitiveness, refusing to give you direct information, and an unpleasant final boss.

 

[gimmepie]

Finished Final Fantasy III just in time! I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and, to my surprise, rated it higher than both IV and V in the end. You can read more about it over in my journal.

 

[gimmepie]

April - Animal Planet

It's April, and that means we should probably do something comedic for thematic efficiency. But we're not going to, because we're rebels like that. Instead, the theme for April is animals. Real or fictional, cute or scary. It doesn't matter what kind of game, it just has to centre around animals of some kind.

Have at it!

 

[Janp]

Would a animal-like monsters count for this theme? I'm thinking about replaying Ori and the Blind Forest for this one. If not, I'll probably play Maneater.

 

[gimmepie]

Would a animal-like monsters count for this theme? I'm thinking about replaying Ori and the Blind Forest for this one. If not, I'll probably play Maneater.

I'd say it depends on the game/setting, but I'd definitely count Ori.

 

[gimmepie]

Since I'm planning to buy it soon anyway, I'll do Legends: Arecus for this month. I'd say it counts.

 

[Cherrim]

Man, I can't really think of anything. I scrolled through my list and the only game I saw that fit the bill was Rusty Lake Hotel which... seems to be a murder mystery and all the characters are weird human-animals? Idk, I'll give it a shot and if I'm not feeling it I'll just replay Hatoful Boyfriend lmaoo.

 

[Cherrim]

Forgot to update but I did end up playing Rusty Lake Hotel and uh... well, while I guess there were murders and some element of mystery, I was certainly mistaken on the murder mystery aspect of it. It was very short so I feel a little bad counting it, but because of the lack of save points and awkward way to get all the achievements, I ended up playing through it like 3 times trying to fully complete it, so I'm gonna say it counts haha.

 

[Janp]

In the end, I decided to play A Short Hike. And it was a treat. I loved every second of it. Sadly, it was quite short. As the title hinted.