[Event] The PokeCommunity Game-Along IV: A New Gaming

[Arcaneum]

Man, just about managed to squeeze in getting to the final boss of Disgaea 2, Overlord Zenon! I completely lucked out in this fight, I was so severely underleveled it hurts lmfao.

Managed to somehow score almost triple the damage I was doing in the last turn which I'm kinda glad about, as I am pretty sure the next round I was dead!

A LOT happened since my last journal entry, so those updates will have to wait until tomorrow, just wanted to get this update in!

44 hours of pain...

 

[gimmepie]

February - Nostalgia

So... apparently last year I got the whole "ship" thing wrong. Apparently February isn't about modes of transport, it's about romance. But, there's an even more important kind of love than romantic love, the ability to love yourself. Yes, even the awful cringe-inducing mess that you used to be as a kid. You were terrible and obnoxious and that's okay.

So, in honour of that, the theme for February is Nostalgia. We'll be expressing that reflection and self-love by going back to the games of our childhoods and seeing what memories they bring back and if they still hold up. For this month, the genre or playstyle doesn't matter, but you must play a game that you played a lot of growing up. We're talking mid-teens or less ideally. Have fun!

 

[Pig]

I really wanted to finally pull out the P3P re-release for this one but after thinking about it some more I think I learned my lesson with January, these aren't short enough games for me to complete in a month, especially being given the shortest month of the year this time.
Then I thought the Hamtaro games because I did used to play them a lot, then decided that wasn't a fair decision because I can 100% them in an hour and a half.

So I poured out my pile of gameboy games and had a proper dig through them and decided to go with Sims Urbz, on GBA. Played it a ton but I never beat it, but I'd just recently enough played and beat Bustin Out on GBA to go with that one, and like, I just don't enjoy Sims 2 as much.

So I'll be playing Sims Urbz on GBA this month.

 

[Janp]

Ehhhhmm... What games have I played, when I was younger? I've played most of my favourites in the last 2 years. I can't play Gothic again. Or Spyro. Or Crash. Morrowind maybe? Or The Masquerade – Bloodlines? Mount & Blade comes on mind, but I never finished it and I don't think I'll have enough time to do so in a month. I think I'll have to pick either PS1 or GBA game. The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap is the first one that I remember, so I think I'll go with it.

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Oh boy, this one... I'll admit that there are a lot of games that bring me nostalgia but they were mostly Pokemon. I even participated in a few competitions during the Platinum era. However, outside of that... The game that defined my childhood would have to be a PS1 game, which is my very first console... Among those games, the ones I played the most are:

Spyro 1, Klonoa Beach Volleyball, Crash Bandicoot (Especially Warped A.K.A 3), Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return, Crash Team Racing, Digimon Battle Arena, and...

The original Digimon World. Which perhaps could be a great one to pick considering I just completed Re:Digitize. I think it would be fun to not only compare both games gameplay-wise but also to walk down memory lane for the game I never managed to finish from when I was 5 until my 3rd year of Junior High.

Honestly, the two front-runners in my head right now is either Digimon World or Tomba! 2, because the latter is the one game I played the most with my brother during my youth, so perhaps either one of those.

 

[Duck]

The obvious answer would be a Pokemon game, such as Crystal - which I'm already playing right now for other reasons - but that would be boring in a Pokemon forum, so let's go with ... Digimon World DS.

can you tell I was a monster collecting kid?

 

[WizardOfOdd]

The obvious answer would be a Pokemon game, such as Crystal - which I'm already playing right now for other reasons - but that would be boring in a Pokemon forum, so let's go with ... Digimon World DS.

can you tell I was a monster collecting kid?

Ooo World DS, it's been such a long time since I played that one that I forgot it exists.

Also, for my game? I now 100% sure, I'm picking the OG that spawned so many spin-offs Digimon World

 

[Duck]

The obvious answer would be a Pokemon game, such as Crystal - which I'm already playing right now for other reasons - but that would be boring in a Pokemon forum, so let's go with ... Digimon World DS.

can you tell I was a monster collecting kid?

(For what it's worth, I just beat Pokemon Crystal so should I not finish Digimon World DS, I guess I already finished the requirement for the month, lol)

 

[Panda280]

I mostly played GBA games when I was mid-teen. I wanted to play metroid fusion again, but I will beat this game in one day (2h). I guess I'll go with a mobile game instead, Lara Croft Go. It's a puzzle game where you move Lara and solve traps to get relics. It's about 3-7 hours.

I remembered completed this game multiple time. I really like it, so I'm going to download and beat it for this month theme.

 

[Arcaneum]

Honestly, I'd like something a bit less time-consuming than January's choice, so I'll go with the cutesy Devil Dice as my pick as I absolutely ruined my poor disc playing this back along, to a point I had to get a new one recently!

 

[Cherrim]

I've really been waffling on what to play. The problem with this prompt for me is a lot of those games I have a healthy dose of nostalgia for and that I played a lot... I've also replayed a lot, since I'm not at all shy about going back to my faves again and again. So I haven't really been able to think of anything that fits the bill. I considered playing Final Fantasy X since I've been meaning to replay that and its sequel soon, but I started it up after finishing IX the other day and just could not do another long JRPG back to back with another one lol.

Anyway, I've been racking my brain for something I would have played a lot that I haven't played again recently enough to have already had the chance to see how it measures up to nostalgia. I think I might actually go with Pokémon TCG on the Gameboy Colour because I saw a YouTube vid recently that talked about the cool stuff it did to get its sprites and pixel art to look the way it did and it made me want to replay it and I don't think I have in well over a decade. Plus I think it's kinda short! Bonus!

 

[gimmepie]

So, I was planning to set up my old PS2 and play through the original Ratchet & Clank which I never quite finished as a kid. However, something happened when I started to get that ready. I set up the PS2 and made sure it still works as planned. However, when I bent down to the shelf where all the PS2 games I haven't played in over a decade are, I saw something there. I saw a game called Yugioh: The Duelists of the Roses and, seeing that, I realised what had to be done. This was the game for this theme.

I was obsessed with YGO as a kid - as much as Pokemon even - and I played the shit out of this game. If any game fits the theme, it's this one.

It's bound to be an experience too because this game is fucking wild now that I think about it so many years later. It's set during the actual freaking War of the Roses, replacing battlefields with duels and inserting YGO characters into the places of - sometimes real - historical figures from the time period. It plays like a weird mix of card game and Fire Emblem too, just to really hammer home how weird it is. I'm actually kind of excited to dive into this batshit insane thing I loved as a kid.

 

[Ullion]

A lot of the games I played as a kid are... less accessible for me to play nowadays; however the ones I still remember and have around would be Golden Sun 1 & 2, and gens 1 through 3 of pokemon. I decided to pick up Emerald as there is no way I'm ever playing gen 1 and 2 games ever again and I'm not feeling Golden Sun atm either.

Edit: Also going to give an honest Nuzlocke attempt as well, to spice things up :)

 

[gimmepie]

Finished my game. It was exactly as ridiculous as I remember it. But the gameplay was actually also almost as fun still. It was very easy except for the last battle, but it's pretty unique and interesting and is entertaining as a result. I'm going to go play the other route too because it's nice and quick so I might as well.

 

[Panda280]

Lara croft Go is amazing. The enviroments looks great. It looks as good as I remember it (It came out in 2015, but i guess I didn't expect it to look this good).

The puzzle is hard even though I solved it multiple time before. I kept dying, and when I found the solution, I was like "really? That was it?". I beat all the main story + 2 dlc, and unlock all custumes except the eye of abyss and the collect every gems custume.

I'm glad I had the chance to revisit this game. I don't think I would have played it again without joining the event.

 

[Pig]

Pleased to say I have not only beaten Urbz to the end of the main story, but I've also unlocked every clubhouse and secret living area, which I'm in the process of getting them all decked out for fun, but as far as for the game-along goes, that's pretty much 100% complete.

 

[Cherrim]

I finished Pokemon TCG the other day. And then beat like 4 more games in quick succession so the journal entry about it is probably going to take a while, but the gist of it was I was sooo ready to give up and go for the 60 hour JRPG instead in those first few hours. My RNG was horrible and I simply did not have the patience for it. But once I scrounged up enough booster packs from beating other trainers and could make some semblance of a working deck, the rest of the game came much easier. I think I spent more time trying to get the first 2-3 medals as I did on the whole rest of the game.

I will not be playing this ever again, nor am I intrigued enough to go play the sequel, but I'm glad to have touched upon a game I always had nostalgia for to see that the spark is no longer there and it should remain in my memories forevermore LOL.

 

[Ullion]

So I forgot time consuming Pokemon can feel when doing a Nuzlocke; I had only gotten to Mauville city before scrapping that idea and just playing the game for fun. Already feeling better to playing - and hopefully will be able to rock my 3 favourite pokemon fairly shortly: Magneton, Absol and Skarmory :D

Edit: I beat the E4+Champ this morning. I was hesitant about using an absol at first since it's dark typing only used it's Sp.Atk, but I ended up only teaching it Strength/Shadow Ball/Double Team/Swords Dance and basically did a setup and sweep strat on.... nearly everyone. Funny enough the trickiest one to do this on (minus Liza and Tate who I couldnt do it on at all), was Sidney since he himself would spam roar and/or sand attack with his leading Mightyena.

 

[Janp]

Almost forgot to post it here, but I beat The Witness. I had performance issues, but it was fun game. I wish there was bigger variety of puzzles, but I liked game's take on maze puzzles.

 

[gimmepie]

March - Gone Fishing

What is the single most important thing a modern video game can have? What is that one vital component that elevates a game beyond mindless entertainment and makes it art? It's probably not fishing minigames, but the gaming industry certainly seems to think these are important. And hey, they're often pretty fun, right?

This month, in celebration of the bizarrely high number of titles that have them, our theme is fishing mini-games. Whichever game you play must contain at least one fishing mini-game.