[Event] 2024 Gaming Challenge

My February/March update:

Out There Omega: The Alliance
Dishonored

4/20

A bunch started, but they are all really long. I should add quite a few to the list after this month hopefully.

Edit: To avoid a double post, I'm just going to edit my April games into this one.

April:

The Outer Worlds (FINALLY...)
Super Mario Luigi 64 3DS
Battleship The Movie The Game 3DS (lol)

7/20
 
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April
Super late update this month. The real life had a huge priority. But April was pretty fine month. Dragon's Dogma 2 was pretty bad, but it was the only outliner that month. I focused more on indie titles. TELETEXT was fun short puzzle game and The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo was charming experience. And I also finally managed to beat Persona 4 Golden on Switch. A lot better than already good Persona 3 Portable. I can't wait to play the fifth one.

Games beaten this month:
Dragon's Dogma 2
TELETEXT
The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo
Persona 4 Golden

[15/25]
 
Crash bandicoot 3 - Warped (Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy)

As far as enjoy-ability goes I guess I'd give this one a 6.5/10, the 2nd one a 5/10 and the first one basically just gets a 0/10 =P
They became better as the series went on at least. And I'm glad I did play this one as it had some really fun levels.
Unfortunately the race levels were annoyingly tight and not fun at all.

Pokemon Scarlet

Did a lengthy playthrough in Travel Journals of Pokemon Scarlet.

Pokemon Scarlet - Teal Mask + Indigo Disk + Epilogue DLC

Also did all the DLC in that playthrough, during which I saw the credits roll for a second time so I'm counting it as a separate game, sure sank enough time into it =P

Princess Peach: Showtime!

This game kinda needs reloadable checkpoints tbh. The only checkpoints it has are only resetable by death and some areas don't give you enough things to take damage on, so if you reach the next area the death checkpoint gets switched to there. The game was rather easy most of the time, some areas you could literally not kill yourself to reset xD
That said, this game is really hecking quirky and has a really nice charm to it. I loved playing it.
All plays had their charm, but grabbing UFO's out of thin air and throwing them around as Mighty Peach was probably my favorite play of them all... especially with that giant Peach vs giant spaceship 'brawl' at the conclusion of it =3



1) Super Mario Sunshine (Super Mario 3D All Stars).
2) Super Mario Galaxy (Super Mario 3D All-Stars)
3) New Super Lucky's Tale
4) Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition
5) Balan Wonderworld
6) Crash bandicoot 3 - Warped (Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy)
7) Pokemon Scarlet
8) Pokemon Scarlet: Teal Mask + Indigo Disk + Epilogue DLC
9) Princess Peach: Showtime!


9/20 games
 
April/May
  1. Final Fantasy XIV: Patch 6.55
  2. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
  3. ANONYMOUS;CODE
  4. Final Fantasy
  5. Evoland
  6. Donkey Kong 64
  7. 12 Minutes
  8. Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp
  9. Last Call BBS
  10. A Tiny Sticker Tale
  11. Resonance of the Ocean
Year to date: 21/30

Had kind of a sad April with only two beaten games, but I think I more than made up for it in May!
 
May
Wow, it's already the end of May. And I played the total of like 5 hours this month. Taking care of my newborn son had a bigger priority. I managed to finish like 2 side quests in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, which I'm actually enjoying more and more I play it. But I also had almost 3 weeks of pause in between my playthroughts, so it's maybe just the result of me on gaming much. I also started Persona 5 Royal and... it didn't left a good first impression. It's so forcefully edgy. Really a difference from the P4G.

Now for the games I actually finished. I beat Donkey Kong on Switch. It was cool trip down the gaming history. I also beat Please, touch the artwork, a puzzle game with intresting premise, but I have a little bit of mixed feelings about it. There are three types of puzzles and only one of them was fun in my opinion. Not much to talk about afterwards.

Games beaten this month:
Donkey Kong
Please,touch the artwork

[17/25]

I don't think I'll have more time in June, but I think In could at least finish Banishers. And I would love to play through the second Hellblade. The first one was fun and the second is having good reviews and it's apparently pretty short.
 
I will not be playing any games other than Dawntrail starting tomorrow and I think it's unlikely I'll finish msq before Monday so I figure I'm safe to update now.

June
  1. Bokura
  2. Animal Well
  3. Ori and the Blind Forest
  4. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
  5. Super Mario RPG
Year to date: 26/30

Nearly finished my goal for the year, oopsie!
 
June
June continued on on the same note as May. I don't have that much time for gaming and usually chose to do something else in my free time. Nonetheless, I beat Super Mario Land 1 and 2. They were okay games. They felt like a Mario knoff-off a little bit, because they were so different from the sanitised modern Mario experience. I also beat Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. It had its flaws, mostly in battle system and boring open-world, but it was fun otherwise. It had cool ghosthunting-themed mysteries. Yeah, it was fun and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

Games beaten this month:
Super Mario Land 1
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

[20/25]

For July, I don't expect to have more time for gaming. I might beat Persona 5 Royal, which I actually managed to play for a little bit in June. After 11 hours, I finally beat the tutorial. But I'm not really feeling it to be honest. It feels so forcefully edgy it turns be away from it. I would also like to play Solasta: Crown of the Magister or maybe some shorter indie games. I have Chants of Sennaar and Dredge in my library, that I'm itching to play. And I would like to get the new Hellblade.
 
I had a pretty solid couple of months.

May/June update:

Pokemon Shining Pearl
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
Axiom Verge
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow

11/20
 
July
Okay, what did I play in July? I have a hard time remembering. I started a special challenge I and some of my friends decided to participate in - playing the whole Gothic trilogy without dying. We call it a tri-OLOG. I beat the first game, but I expect to replay it at least once more this year. As part of a Game-Along, I revisited the old gem from PS1 era. One of the first games I got for the system - Soul Blade. Fun game, but fighting games are not really my cup of tea. But what is my cup of tea are unique indie gems. And this month I finished Chants of Shanaar. The hot contender for my GOTY this year. I also finished Solasta: Crown of the Magister, which left me wanting more D&D.

Games beaten this month:
Gothic
Soul Blade
Chants of Shanaar
Solasta: Crown of the Magister

[24/25]

I'm almost done with my goal for this year, so I'm taking my time in August for something a little bit different. Since I was craving more D&D, I started Baldur's Gate 3 on Honour Mode. I picked Wyll as my character and plan on playing him as Solrock (No, not the Pokémon). I just cleared Goblin Camp in Act 1, so it's going well. I'll also play Infinifactory as my Game-Along game. I played it for about an hour in 2016, but got stuck on a puzzle a dropped it. Depending on how these two goes, I might also start Gothic 2 for the tri-OLOG. And I could also move a little bit in Persona 5 Royal.
 
Mario vs Donkey Kong

The game's gameplay is actually not bad. I was initially having fun, but there were just too many levels.
The thing that made this so dragged out for me is that it gets really repetitive really fast. It would've been fine had it just been the main game and the EX levels for postgame. But no, there's + levels too, like a NG+ of sorts. Either scrap this to make doing it all consecutively more tolerable or just pace yourself and do a couple levels at a time and spread it out I guess. I had to do the later to even fully beat all the levels.

Level difficulty was all over the place. Later worlds weren't necessarily harder, and often the hardest level in a world wasn't the last one before it's boss fight.



Red Dead Redemption

The core gameplay is nice. I enjoyed most of the game, but near the end things got too repetitive for my liking. You do a big bad shootout against your old gang leader and then they make you do chore mission? Like I get they want John to spend some quality time with his family before they kill him off, but there just were too many chore mission there. Didn't really help that I kinda had enough of the game at this point.

Game was very buggy. If my horse got anywhere near the ledge of a hill it would commit hillus slideus and be uncontrollable until it had slid all the way down and I'd die. And then there was that time when I did a main mission and got killed off right after it with the game saying I killed a family member... still dunno wth happened there. There were various other bugs too.

I did not bother 100%ing this. It requires beating all the minigames and I just find them boring.




1) Super Mario Sunshine (Super Mario 3D All Stars).
2) Super Mario Galaxy (Super Mario 3D All-Stars)
3) New Super Lucky's Tale
4) Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition
5) Balan Wonderworld
6) Crash bandicoot 3 - Warped (Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy)
7) Pokemon Scarlet
8) Pokemon Scarlet: Teal Mask + Indigo Disk + Epilogue DLC
9) Princess Peach: Showtime!
10) Mario vs Donkey Kong
11) Red Dead Redemption

11/20 games
 
I thought I'd have slowed down during the Summer, but gaining a couple of really great friends who love the Mega Man series (a series I'd never played btw) gave me a huge boost to my totals for these couple of months.

July/August update:

Mega Man 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Peggle Deluxe
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

17/20
 
August
Phew, the summer is over. Not my usual summer, since I had a lot of things to take care of and had almost no free time for myself. The only game I finished this month is Infinifactory. A hard, but fun puzzle game from the puzzle games legends Zachtronics. And I think it was a good pick, since I could think about solutions to the games' puzzles during my other duties. I also continued my Honour mode in Baldur's Gate 3 and managed to beat the first two arcs. I'm having fun with it, but I feel like it's fairly easy. But I just might have an OP build. And I'm also using my meta knowledge of the game a lot now, so that can also make it feel a lot less threatening. My main character is Sorlock Wyll, with Fire hat build, which makes him really strong and his attacks almost undodgeable. The rest of the team is there to support him and finish anything he won't kill in his first turn. I also finally made a progress in Persona 5 Royal. I'm at 4th palace and the game is finally picking up. It's still not as good as the fourth one and I'm still considering dropping it in favour of some better games. Oh and I also played Monster Hunter Sunbreak for a while and grinded my Master Rank a little bit in preparations of Wilds release.

Games beaten this month:
Infinifactory

[25/25]

For September, I would love to finish my Honour run. All that is left is the last arc and I think I'll just rush to the most interesting fights and call it a day. And I'm slowly feeling like playing some less challenging games. Some sort indie game. After all, I played quite a few long or challenging games in the past few months. I have many short indies on my backlog, but I can't say which ones I'll play. It's almost a cozy season, so yeah, let's get in the mood. And I'll finally decide what to do with Persona 5 Royal. I'll either finish it this month or drop it altogether. And there is also my Game-Along game - Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls.
 
July + August

  1. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
  2. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jougai Rantou!? Shuyaku Soudatsusen
  3. Star Ocean: The Second Story R
  4. while True: learn()
  5. Detective Pikachu Returns
  6. Tales of the Tempest
Year to date: 32/30

With that I hit my goal! I'm not gonna up it because at this point I'd just be picking an arbitrary number I know I can hit anyway. I've got a few games on the go so hopefully September has a bunch more too. Even tho I hit my goal I am still going to obnoxiously update in here every month anyway. :)

edit: oops forgot a game
 
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September
September is over and I barely finished my Game-Along game... But I'm so close to beat both Baldur's Gate 3 and Persona 5 Royal. All that is missing in BG3 are 2 fights (Raphael and the final boss) and I'm in the last month of P5R. I'm experiencing huge RPG fatigue right now. Looking at my list of finished games, I pretty much always played some huge RPG this year. And while I'm having fun with BG3 and I'm already planning my next playthrougth, I can't wait to finally put P5R down. I don't want to see any (J)RPG for the rest of the year.

Games beaten this month:
Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

[26/25]

For October, I'll really finish both BG3 and P5R. This time for real. I swear! And then I'll finally play some fun cozy indie games. Like Hollowbody, a Silent Hill-like survival horror game. And some other indie games from my backlog.
 
Mega Man 11
Never played Mega Man prior to this, but that was a pretty fun game. Painful beginning, but the game becomes a lot more fun once you start getting some upgrades which make the game more doable. That yellow blob boss was a horribly designed boss fight though. Some hints as to what unlocks an upgrade in the shop would've been nice too.

Super Mario 64 (Super Mario 3D All-Stars).
All in all the game itself was enjoyable for the most part. Except for rainbow ride. That level is just horrible. I at least enjoyed the other levels, but not that one.
The camera was very annoying at times and being kicked out of the castle to where you first load in when you exit a stage without a Star or dying was very annoying.
Didn't really come across any major issues aside from that.... well aside from being stuck on the End screen... Seriously wth was that?

Super Mario RPG
This still feels so hecking weird... playing a Mario game and seeing stats like Defense and HP, moving around a level and walking into 1 enemy triggering a fight against up to 5 enemies like in a RPG maker game. The game was fun though. They clearly did some stuff just for fun with how wacky it was at times. Some weird references too, like the Axem Rangers has to be referencing the Power Rangers... also saw Samus nap in a bed. Probably missed way more.
Postgame was rubbish as it's just boss rematches, but everything about the fight has it's bs dialed up to 11. Not fun. Only did one. Game was fine before postgame though.
Also mad Bomber Princess Peach ftw lol

[PokeCommunity.com] 2024 Gaming Challenge


Arietta of Spirits.
Actually a fun game, wish it was a bit longer... that was like... 8 hours ? Could've been less had I saved up the backtracks into 1 big backtrack.
Gameplay was fun and it had me teary eyed when Arco sacrificed itself. Has no postgame to speak of. Has some side quest though, albeit only a couple.


1) Super Mario Sunshine (Super Mario 3D All Stars).
2) Super Mario Galaxy (Super Mario 3D All-Stars)
3) New Super Lucky's Tale
4) Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition
5) Balan Wonderworld
6) Crash bandicoot 3 - Warped (Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy)
7) Pokemon Scarlet
8) Pokemon Scarlet: Teal Mask + Indigo Disk + Epilogue DLC
9) Princess Peach: Showtime!
10) Mario vs Donkey Kong
11) Red Dead Redemption
12) Mega Man 11
13) Super Mario 64 (Super Mario 3D All-Stars).
14) Super Mario RPG
15) Arietta of Spirits.


15/20 games
 
October
October was huge in terms of my gaming progress. I finally beat Persona 5 Royal. I feel like it's the weakest out of the three I played story-wise, but one of the best gameplay-wise. It will be hard to rank them all at the end of the year. I also finished my second playthrougth of Baldur's Gate 3 (which I won't count towards my goal, since I already beat Baldur's Gate 3 this year). I did a Honour mode this time and owned it hard. I beat it on the first try! It is such a great game. With these two done, I felt like Rock Lee putting down his weights in the fight with Gara. I can finally move on to new games! I started with The Suicide of Rachel Foster. And felt like Rock Lee 10 seconds after putting down his weights in the fight with Gara. I was ready for anything. But I didn't expect a game, whose whole message is "peadophilia is romantic". Yuck! Luckily, I got quickly back on track. Like Rock Lee 10 weeks after putting down his weights in the fight with Gara... Okay, I'll stop. I played a new release! Neva, an atmospheric platformer from the creators of GRIS. It was a wonderful experience. And towards the end of the month, I beat two horror games - DARQ and Hollowbody. Both of them were fun, but not without flaws that weighted them down in some aspects. So yeah, this was interesting month.

Games beaten this month:
Persona 5 Royal
Baldur's Gate 3 Honour mode
The Suicide of Rachel Foster
Neva
DARQ
Hollowbody

[31/25]

For November, I have few games on mind. I want to beat another new release - Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2. It is my first Warhammer 40k game. A friend of mine got recently into the whole W40k universe and recommended the game to me, so I'm looking forward to it. And I can also beat it as my Game-Along game. I would also love to beat yet another new release from this year - Another Crab's Treasure. A Souls-like game taking place underwater. And finally, I started playing Metroid Prime Remastered on Switch. I love Metroid, it's probably my favourite Nintendo franchise. But I never played Prime spin-offs. So far, I like it. Feels like Metroid, but in FPS.
 
Degrees of Separation

Lovely quirky puzzle platformer game. Some of the collectible scarves were kinda hard to reach, but overall nothing too bad. Would've been a lot of fun in Co-op I bet, but I played it sp.
Encountered bugs that got 1 of my characters stuck out of bounds twice, but could fix it by sending the other back to level start and leaving and re-entering.


Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
Did a Normal types playthrough in Alpha Sapphire that took quite a while to finish.


Metroid Prime Remastered.
Enjoyable game for the most part, just 2 sucky boss fights and some dated game design really.
Compared to Dread this felt like it had a lot more backtracking, but perhaps it just felt like it due to taking longer to backtrack idk.

The second phase of the final boss was annoying as heck with the visor switching to see it. The Omega Pirate was also annoying as heck with the color coded enemies thing.
Then there were the incessant hints that wouldn't go away until clicked on... really annoying if you're doing something else and they keep showing up again sooner or later.
Would also have appreciated some sort of totals list to see what collectibles you've found.

9 Monkeys of Shaolin.
Kinda clunky, but fun game. Sidescrolling beat em up. Did not have a lot of stuff to do aside from the main missions, which you could repeat over and over to fully grind out the skill trees.... in the end I never used most of the advanced stuff and just spammed the thrust attack and the seal that yeets enemies into the air when surrounded by multiple.
Found all the secrets too, but never used the stuff they unlocked.


Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.
An old 3DS game I've had lying around for years, still sealed in plastic. Gave it a go at last and had a lot of fun with it up until the final dungeon.
Those annoyingly long precision corridors on the way to the pirate master boss fight were not very fun. The second loop was pure pain and made the other 2 loops you do look easy by comparison. These loops ruined the fun quite a bit. There was also the stealth section where I kept getting reset because the game doesn't bother to tell you how the mechanic works exactly... once I realized I could just stand in the shadows and let enemies walk into my position without getting caught it became a heck of a lot easier.
Still overall a fun game.... just 2 not so fun areas... which isn't enough to undo the fun I had during the rest of the game =3



1) Super Mario Sunshine (Super Mario 3D All Stars).
2) Super Mario Galaxy (Super Mario 3D All-Stars)
3) New Super Lucky's Tale
4) Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition
5) Balan Wonderworld
6) Crash bandicoot 3 - Warped (Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy)
7) Pokemon Scarlet
8) Pokemon Scarlet: Teal Mask + Indigo Disk + Epilogue DLC
9) Princess Peach: Showtime!
10) Mario vs Donkey Kong
11) Red Dead Redemption
12) Mega Man 11
13) Super Mario 64 (Super Mario 3D All-Stars).
14) Super Mario RPG
15) Arietta of Spirits
16) Degrees of Separation
17) Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
18) Metroid Prime Remastered
19) 9 Monkeys of Shaolin
20) Shantae and the Pirate's Curse


20/20 games :cool:

Mainly played shorter games near the end there, but got it done =3
 
November
November was an eventful month. Which means I barely got time for games. I beat Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2. It was oddly relaxing games, despite it being full of blood and gore. And... that's it. I started Another Crab's Treasure, but I still have yet to beat it. And I don't think I played on my Switch at all this month. So no progress on Metroid Prime Remastered.

Games beaten this month:
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2

[32/25]

For December, I don't expect to play much. I'll most likely finish Another Crab's Treasure, but the rest is mystery...
 
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