Event: 2025 Gaming Challenge

gimmepie

gimmepie

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    2025 Gaming Challenge

    ​

    Welcome to the latest instalment of our annual Gaming Challenge!

    Unlike the Game-Along, this is a challenge all about quantity... kind of. In the Gaming Challenge, you set your own quota. To participate, you simply set yourself a quota of games to complete by the end of the year and then do your best to reach that target. It's a fun way to make sure you take some time out of your busy year to make a dent in that gaming backlog you know you have.

    A few guidelines to take note of:

    - Everything counts. Visual novels, walking simulators, mobile, all those other controversial genres that many on the internet will sneer at: these are all video games, if you wish for them to count towards your list. If you don't, then don't include them. Your list, your rules!
    - A game is finished when one of the following occurs:
    1. You see the end credits. Or, where this is not viable, you finish the main mode – for example, with rhythm games, this would be playing through every song, racing games it'd be doing every unlockable cup, etc. If you're ever unsure, ask away!
    2. One of the above happens, and you're satisfied. Want to complete postgame content, trophies/achievements, or get 100% completion? Go for it! This is not required to count the game as finished, but nor is it discouraged.
    3. Extra note: you do not need to see the "true" ending for games with branching pathways and multiple endings, just finishing it once and seeing the credits is enough.​
    - For games that have no end (like Final Fantasy XIV or Genshin Impact): given the time investment involved in these games, significant patches (i.e. ones that provide new story content) released in July of 2024 or later count as one new game.
    - Any story-based DLC/expansions released in July of 2024 or later can count as a game towards your list, as long as you finish the content they bring with them. If it was released before, it counts as postgame content if you choose to do it.
    - Replays are fine, but the same game cannot be counted twice, unless you are playing different versions of that game - e.g. an original version and then a remake or a different story route in a game with multiple.

    It is encouraged that you keep us all regularly updated with your progress! Post back here when you finish a game and give us a review of your experience with it! I'd suggest making a Game Journal thread for the sake of organisation! Credit to Dawn for creating the original version of this challenge (and the original Game-Along also). Now let the games begin!

    Participants

    gimmepie 4/15
    Janp 5/35
    Alex_Among_Foxes 4/15
    Cherrim 15/100
    Explorer of Time 5/25
    ReKoil 0/5
    EnKeyDu 0/12
    Arcaneum 4/50

     
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    I'd like to chill on myself this year. Going with 15 for now, but I might bump it if I somehow blitz them.
     
    January
    And I think it's time to start with the monthly updates. I was busy in January, so I only beat the new Indiana Jones game, which was amazing, and yet another incarnation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was mediocre at best. But I also started some games that I'm sure I'll finish in February.

    Games beaten this month:
    Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
    Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

    [2/35]

    For February, I'll most likely finish the games I started at the end of the month. I got The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD as a gift from my wife and started it just yesterday. I also got Cat Café Manager from my friend and I'm almost done with it. I enjoy both of these so far.
     
    I'll sign up for 25 games. I am excluding those playthroughs I started prior to 2025, these being Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Age of Mythology, and my phone playthrough of Pokemon Sapphire. The only game I beat in January was A Hat in Time, putting me at 1/25 games as of today.

    Games Beaten:

    January:

    A Hat in Time (1/25)


    February:

    Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2/25)


    March:

    Hitman GO (3/25)
    March 2025 Archipelago (4/25)
    Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters 1 (5/25)
     
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    February
    I think I found the prefect balance between work, family and my hobbies (at least for now) and managed to beat few more games. I finished Cat Café Manager, a Christmas gift from my friend. It was cozy manager with some balancing issues, but fun nonetheless. I took a look at Itch.io and got some new interesting indies, but only managed to beat The Dark Queen of Mortholme. It had an interesting idea, but its execution wasn't the best. And I also beat Chrono Trigger as my Game-Along game. It was a very good RPG and I plan on playing the sequel soon.

    But aside from that, I also started Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I love the first game, it's easily one of my favourite RPG of all time. I played it some time ago and wrote about it in my journal, so you can read my thoughts on it if you want. And the second game is (so far) better in most aspects. After ~30 hours of gameplay, I barely started the main story. I also played Skyward Sword HD remaster and I think I'm almost done with it. m enjoying it despite the horrendous controls.

    Games beaten this month:
    Cat Café Manager
    The Dark Queen of Mortholme
    Chrono Trigger

    [5/35]

    My only plan for March is to finish both Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Skyward Sword. And my Game-Along game, of course.
     
    January/February
    1. Overcooked
    2. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
    3. The Rise of the Golden Idol
    4. A Good Snowman
    5. inbento
    6. Six Cats Under
    7. Dépanneur Nocturne
    8. PHN-HOME
    9. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit
    10. Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders
    11. The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
    12. Yooka-Laylee
    13. Factory Hiro
    14. Stray
    15. Schim
    Year to date: 15/100

    I am just barely off pace for my goal but with several games on the go so...!! I'm gonna say so far so good.
     
    Archipelago March 2025 (4/25)

    I count Archipelago Multiworlds as one single game, since to release games I often don't have to play through the whole thing. This one had A Hat in Time, Sonic Adventure 2, Doom, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Starcraft 2. I've already cleared unmodded A Hat in Time in January, but I theoretically could've counted the other four. As all of those were either shorter or much easier than usual, it'd feel like cheating to immediately bump myself up four games from this event alone.

    Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters 1 (5/25)

    I started in on the Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection, and played the first Duel Monsters game first. This game, to be frank, is not very good, but it's a fascinating look at the evolution of the rules of the eventual OCG/TCG. It predates the release of the physical card game by two months, and is largely a simplified version of that game. Unlike the eventual OCG/TCG, Duel Monsters 1 only has Monster and Spell Cards, and Tribute Summoning is never required for high-level monsters. The only Effect Monsters in the game are Petit Moth, Larva Moth, Cocoon of Evolution, and Great Moth, which gradually transform into each other each turn, eventually leading to Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, and the Exodia pieces. You can also only play one card per turn, meaning you can't summon if you play a Spell Card that turn. Finally, there is no limit to the number of a specific card you can put in a deck, letting you stack the deck with 40 of a single card if you're willing to grind enough.

    The AI, inexplicably, has no spell cards in any of its decks, and as a result is a complete pushover if you can get stronger monsters than it. Since I used the Early Days Collection's built-in cheats to get nine copies of all the cards, and skip all the grinding in what's normally a very grindy game, I was able to immediately reach such a situation, using a deck full of Perfectly Ultimate Great Moths, Raigekis, Swords of Revealing Light, and a few Forests to buff my Moths. I got through in just a couple hours. The only time I even took damage was when I drew a hand full of Raigeki cards against Yami Yugi and couldn't summon anything nor block his attacks with Swords of Revealing Light.

    The story was mostly nonexistent, just a couple sentences of character introductions for characters from the Duelist Kingdom arc. I headcanoned that my character, Kasai, was a playtester working for Industrial Illusions.

    I should note that there's theoretically an even easier way to win by stacking a deck with Tremendous Fires, which do 5000 damage each for a guaranteed second-turn KO in single player, or multiplayer where your opponent didn't go first and didn't draw a full set of Exodia cards in their opening hand. However, Tremendous Fire is glitched and causes the game to not be able to save after its use, even if removed from the deck.

    Spoiler: My Deck
     
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    Not a ton to report from me, but then again, I did get occupied by a wild 29 game mulitworld in which I was playing 5 of them lol.

    My games over the last 3 months are:

    Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling.
    Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.
    Scribblenauts Unlimited.
    Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

    4/15 for me so far, not too bad I'd say.
     
    March
    March was fairly slow month for me. I completed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, which was probably the weakest out of the classic 3D Zelda games I have played so far. Still lightyears ahead of BotW and TotK, but not as good as MM or OoT. I also beat Professor Layton and the Curious Village HD (look at me, playing HD remasters of games with long names) and it was so-so. The puzzles were the biggets letdown, but I liked the overall vibe of the game. I'll certainly try the other Professor Layton games in the future.

    Aside from that, I made a huge progress in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I'm currently in the Kuttenberg region and I'm almost done with most side quests, so I'll get to the main story soon. I also started Paper Mario: The Origami King. Paper Mario is one of those series I had on my radar for a long time and actually tried the 3DS title, but never finished it, so I'm going to give the series a second try.

    Games beaten this month:
    The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
    Professor Layton and the Curious Village HD

    [7/35]

    For April, I'll hopefully finish both games I'm currently playing. I don't have much plan on any other games, aside from Game-Along game, which I didn't choose as of writing this post.
     
    Mostly smaller games or DLC releases this month since I've been progressing very slowly on several longer games and didn't quite finish any of them by the end of the month, tho like 3 are in the endgame so hopefully I'll finish them up quickly. I'm a little behind on my challenge but still feeling optimistic about it lol.

    March
    1. The Rise of the Golden Idol - The Sins of New Wells DLC
    2. Return of the Obra Dinn
    3. Pokémon FireRed (Archipelago Randomizer)
    4. Kingdom Hearts II (Archipelago Randomizer)
    5. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Archipelago Randomizer)
    6. Final Fantasy XIV: Patch 7.2
    I'm counting my Archipelago games because even though they're not the standard game mode, they were still more time and effort than plenty of the games I've played so far this year and I think they should count. :)

    Year to date: 21/100
     
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