Final Fantasy XVI

• Genre: Action RPG
• Time Played: 69 Hours. (Nice)
• Too Short/Long: Just a little too long. Some individual areas went on just a tad long and a handful of sidequest kinda drag on.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, it's a new favorite.
• Why I played: Do I need a reason to play a mainline Final Fantasy game? Actually, when it was first announced I didn't care too much. They're doing a mature traditional fantasy medieval inspired setting? Ehhh, not until some friends pointed out the protagonist and how up my alley in design he was. Then I watched exactly one trailer, got excited and refrained from finding out more. I actually finally bought a PS5 mainly to be able to play FFXVI... and catch up on the (very few) exclusives I was still missing out on.
• Recommend to others: I absolutely would if it's something you expect you'll like. I would say it can be rather difficult at times. With it's action focus in the combat, it's not something you can just grind levels out to overcome obstacles.

I don't feel like I walked away having too much to say, even though I loved it. So let's get my grievances out the way. The story isn't bad, but the first third of the game is... rough. I don't mean as in poorly written. I mean as how they present one of the primary subjects. Slavery. It doesn't approach it with kid gloves and maybe even takes it's presentation a little far. I've consumed a lot of fantasy media which features slavery, and maybe it's their fault for not presenting it as a serious enough issue, as it's often just a kinda background thing, like, oh these obvious villains have slaves and we're going to free them, and now everyone is happy. This treats it in a way that can be very uncomfortable at times.

Subsurface Circular

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours? Gotta check when Switch lets me.
• Too Short/Long: Maybe a little on the short side. I was enjoying it so I would have liked to have a few more conversations before the story wrapped up. It seemed a little sudden.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: I have liked the Mike Bithell games I have played, and grabbed this when I learned about it, seeing that Bithell was doing a Tron Visual Novel looking game.
• Recommend to others: Yeah, if you don't mind that it's a bit short, I think the dialog is fun.

Subsurface Circular has you play the role of a robot detective investigating from the comfort of your own subway. As a higher intellect AI, you're not allowed to leave the train you're on, and can only investigate passengers of the train. The game is pretty much just a handful of conversations, sometimes requiring you to answer simple questions based off information provided, or figure out what you have to ask others in order to answer a question another passenger has. It's not too complicated, but I enjoyed it.

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

• Genre: 2D Action Platforming
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I would have been happy with a little more, but it was fine.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: Motorcycle Samurai Action Platformer with Mega Man elements? How could I not? Also the gorgeously detailed pixel art, even if it at times bordering on grotesque.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes games like the original Ninja Gaiden or Strider, though Hagane might be a more direct inspiration.

I've played all of Joymasher's games and enjoyed them all, even if sometimes I think they're working within their self-imposed limitations a little too much. Controls could be tighter, as they often are in modern action platforming games. In Joymasher tradition the controls are just a little stiff and it leads to missing jumps you shouldn't. Thankfully their endless pits aren't actually endless pits and even accidentally falling into spiked or electric floors, isn't too painful.

Other than that? Excellent game. Basically mixing the previously mentioned games with the Mega Man style progression/upgrades. Prologue level, 6 level choices, then a couple final levels that thankfully do not include a boss rush. I was enjoying it and would have been happy with a bit more. Joymasher seems to like to make different games inspired by different classic games each time, but I would be really happy if they turned this one into a series.

Also I would have liked more motorcycle sections. The Mode 7 style sections a couple times is nice, but the game teases you with some side scrolling motorcycling by having a couple level intros take that perspective. Only with Moonrider jumping off before you gain control.

The Stanley Parable

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played:  2.8 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I feel like it's more of a your mileage may vary situation. For me, it was fine.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased the normal amount.
• Why I played: I have had it for awhile and always meant to play it. I think I recently saw some stuff on it that inspired me to finally check it out.
• Recommend to others: I think I got it in a bundle a long time ago. I'd say if it's one of those games in your backlog that you already own, give it a shot.

The Stanley Parable is a game that I think, had I played it 10 years ago when it came out, I would have thought it to be far more poignant and unique. Playing now? I've seen other games do what it does. Not necessarily better, not exactly the same ways, but just similar enough. I also play a lot of weirdo indie games too, so it might just be something I experience more of than some others may.

Not only is the length of the game kinda a your mileage may vary type deal, but so is the whole experience. Have you seen this kind of stuff? Are you familiar with the tropes? At some point, it even references that fact. I think hinting that someone might not get the same out of the experience if they aren't familiar with some of the narrative framing in other media.

Anyway, I had fun with it and it's definitely worth it if you have it. I played the original, and more recently there is an expanded version that looks like it has far more to offer, so if you need more than 3 hours of content and want to purchase it because you don't already own it, that may be the better choice. I am fine with 3 hours of content. The game is a little bit of a mystery, but I THINK I did pretty much all it has to offer (within reason). I did get a credit roll, but that was only roughly halfway through my playtime, so I went back in for more to ensure I saw it all.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played:  3.8 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, they didn't have to go this hard for a free "April Fools" game.
• Why I played: A free Sonic game, so why not at least give it a shot.
• Recommend to others: Absolutely - if you actually care about Sonic stuff. It's mostly just fanservice.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was released for April Fools day, and absolutely sounds like a joke game, but it's no joke. It's a legit, fun little murder mystery adventure game with a serviceable runner mini-game. For free!? Honestly, I've played many little indie game I paid 5-10 bucks for that were definitely worth the price that didn't offer as much.

That said, I imagine it would be a hard sell to charge for it, but for anyone among it's intended audience, for the price of free, it's definitely worth it. The writing isn't going to blow your mind, but it's cute to see all the characters play their parts and do a fun little thing together. Also a lot of the more recent games have ignored a lot of the characters or elements in this game, so I appreciate just seeing some of them.

198X

• Genre: Arcade Compilation
• Time Played: 1-2 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: A little disappointed at the length.
• Why I played: This is basically a synthwave videogame.
• Recommend to others: Not really, it's just too short to recommend. Watch the trailer, that's the whole game.

198X is a game I should love... in theory. It does have great pixel art, it has a pretty cool compilation of made up arcade titles, it does have great music. But it's over in a flash. For a game composed of 5 games, I feel like I should have spent more time with it, though I could argue that at a couple hours, that's a visit to the arcade, playing a handful of games, just a level or two before moving on. 

Honestly, that's probably what they're going for. The little arcade games are really only framing device for the story they want to tell, which mostly happens between games, but this is also supposed to be a "part 1" and it came out 4 years ago and devs have been silent for half of them it would seem, so I wouldn't hold out for a part 2.

The games themselves each individually have heart and are carefully crafted for an experience that feels arcade-like, and with a difficulty that makes it feel like you really had to try, but clearly not for someone who is going all in on that specific game. Personally I liked the shoot em up the the most because I like shmups. The ninja, runner-style game goes on a little too long by comparison of the others, if you ask me. It has like 5 levels? And if not for the jankyness of the beat-em-up it would probably be my least favorite. The rest pretty much just have 2 levels and the RPG is just kinda one longer level.

Lil Gator Game

• Genre: Adventure
• Time Played: 5-10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right for what it is.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, it's a cute lil game.
• Why I played: Because it's like Zelda. I think I saw it in some "Games to play while you wait for Tears of the Kingdom" list, but I only put it on my wishlist and by time it was on sale, Tears of the Kingdom was out(or about to be).
• Recommend to others: It's a very cute game and if a super simplified chill game that references Zelda stuff sounds like something you're into, I would definitely check it out.

On the complete opposite spectrum of Zelda games is Lil Gator Game. I guess I shouldn't say opposite because it's all there in spirit. It would more be opposite if I just played Darksiders. But still, this was a relatively short romp through a playground with no real stakes to speak of. You have no health bar, there are no enemies that attack back, and failed challenges are very quickly restarted, the ones that are even possible to fail.

This is basically a video game version of playing pretend Zelda. For me, it's very nostalgic, because as a young kid, I would in-fact, play pretend Zelda. I only could have dreamed of it being nearly a elaborate as it is in this game though.

It's mostly just cute, a lil guy trying to get his big sister to larp with him like they used to, but she's too busy to GM a game and has to work on her project. The game definitely choked me up a bit, as I expected it would. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Time Played: 140+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: Definitely too long. I played Breath of the Wild roughly the same amount, but that was because I didn't want to stop, and played all the DLC too.
• Pleased/Disappointed: A mixture, definitely pleased in the sense that it is definitely a good game that I definitely enjoyed, but it's not to cut and dry.
• Why I played: Because it's Zelda, and I was highly anticipating it's release.
• Recommend to others: Yeah, though probably no need to recommend it to anyone as anyone who would be interested isn't gonna be on the fence. I would definitely recommend it to people who didn't think BOTW was filled enough, or somehow didn't offer them enough freedom, also who thought weapons broke too easily.

I really liked Tears of the Kingdom, but just that. I really liked it. I didn't love it, despite potentially many objective improvements over Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild just clicked with me more. Tears of the Kingdom feels like a weird middleground between DLC and a new game. It feels like when an MMO(World of Warcraft specifically?) does one of those "world shaking" events that change the entire game environment rather than a whole new game.

I feel like TotK is even more similar to BotW than Oracle of Ages is to Oracle of Seasons. I could be exaggerating but we're talking mostly the same layout of the overworld with some environmental changes and a different set of powers, right?

Chained Echoes

• Genre: RPG
• Time Played: 73+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: I would almost say it's a little long, but I also did everything everything. I'm usually not so completionist with RPGs, but I was enjoying it.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased for sure, I liked it a lot. I'm not sure it makes the ranks of best games ever, but it's very good.
• Why I played: I feel like I have to play any rpg with mech battles.
• Recommend to others: I definitely do. While I may not say it's one of the best ever, it's extremely solid and there is very little to dislike.

I was waiting to play Chained Echoes for awhile. Waiting it's release, waiting til I had time, waiting for a little bit of a sale. Waiting so much that I almost ended up not finishing it before Tears of the Kingdom came out. I am writing this after midnight, on what is technically Tears of the Kingdom's launch date. To make things clear, I am VERY eagerly awaiting Tears of the Kingdom, I'm excited for it in a way I have not been excited for a game in a long time. I'm excited for it in a way that I don't think I've anticipated a game since I was a teenager. So I was doing my best to finish Chained Echoes before I got Tears of the Kingdom.

BREAK!!

• Genre: Tabletop RPG
• Time Played: 300+ Hours 
• Too Short/Long: Honestly it depends on the game. I think this is best played in a mid-length campaign. Tell a story about adventurers facing a threat, maybe multiple, and conclude their story. Make sure there is some travel and multiple key locations. If you're playing once a week, you might wanna aim to wrap up a campaign in half a year tops.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very Pleased, even if I wasn't playtesting, BREAK!! would be in my regular tabletop RPG lineup.
• Why I played: Mainly because I know one of the creators, but what draws me in specifically is the gorgeous artwork and the inspirations behind it. I see a lot of what I want to put into games myself, in this game.
• Recommend to others: Definitely, that's why I'm making this post. SOLID recommend from me, but specifically if you want an easy to pick up and play but also content rich rpg for a group of friends specifically into anime and video games, this is the one to go for.

 Doing something a little different today. Most of my blog is for my own personal use. I write up on the games I finish to hold myself accountable so I actually finish games, and also so I can reference my thoughts on them. There are so many games I play that years later I just can't remember what I thought of them, but when I reference my own writing it all comes back to me. So pay that no mind. I'm not here to get followers for my personal notes that I make to also share with my friends.

Today I wanna talk about BREAK!! Considering I've finished several campaigns, I'd say it's fair to say I have "Completed" BREAK!!.

I have been involved in playtesting of the game for a few years, and admittedly, one thing I haven't done is run a game of BREAK!! My main reason for that is nothing against BREAK!!, but just the fact that I make an effort to play as many different games as possible, and since the writer of the game is always willing to run BREAK!!, I find myself in a position to run other games more frequently. That said, I have played BREAK!! games run by other players, not just the creator.

Witch Explorer

• Genre: Tower Defense Shmup
• Time Played: 10-15 Hours? Will update when Switch tells me. 
• Too Short/Long: About right, it could be longer if levels were shorter, but some really test your endurance.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleasantly surprised, a kinda random acquisition just because it looked cute I thought might end up sucking.
• Why I played: Cute art and Tower Defense + Shmup seemed interesting.
• Recommend to others: Maaaybe if you specifically like the genres and don't mind some blatant fan service.

I got this one on a whim because it was cute and 40% off on release. Usually 40% off on release date is what Switch shovelware does, but it seemed like a few people had good things to say about the Steam version and it looked cute.

The main gameplay is tower defense and you get a small handful of units with different abilities. I think it could have benefited from more variety in its units, but I can also see how that might make many levels too easy. However, it could have used something to make it a little more easy. Maybe just shorter levels at the same difficulty? I didn't feel like it was ever really too challenging, but the levels that were the most, were partially so difficult because they were so long, and if you had to retry and new strategy... you had to play another 10-15 minutes to catch up to see if your new strategy works.

It mixes up the gameplay a bit with some pure side scrolling shmup levels and some challenge levels to gain an alternate currency for some extra costumes for your assist character in the hub menu, and some extra scenes. There are also some unlocks for the hub and upgrades for your units. Pretty standard stuff mostly. I don't really have much else to say. I liked it though, and the devs are working on some other spin-off style sequels or something, so I'll look forward to that.

Fur Squadron

• Genre: On-Rails Shooter
• Time Played: Less than an hour to beat? I played more because of other difficulties.
• Too Short/Long: Way too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Mildly disappointed, only due to the length.
• Why I played: Because it looked like a cool synthwave Star Fox
• Recommend to others: I would if you really need some Star Fox-esque game to play, and it is only like 6 bucks not on sale, but it's very very short.

I didn't expect this to be as short as it is. I guess Star Fox games aren't super long, but all the levels besides the last one are like 5 minutes tops and the last is like 10. So I would be surprised if my first run took 45 minutes.

It's a short and sweet love letter to Star Fox, but it doesn't even bother trying to play with mechanics. You have your bomb, your "Barrel Roll" (which they even call out as an aileron roll), and you hold the button to lock on. You can "shield" to restore your health and a laser upgrade. That's about it. It's solid. It looks cool, but it's over before you know it.

It does sound like the devs miiight be releasing more content in the future? Might be worth revisiting. At least it's not the only Star Fox inspired game coming out this year.

The Adventures of Nayu

• Genre: Clicker
• Time Played: 1.5 Hour
• Too Short/Long: Way too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Mildly disappointed 
• Why I played: I saw it in my Steam library and was like "What's this?" and installed it and played it.
• Recommend to others: Not really, there are better "clicker" or auto style games that offer more entertainment and stuff to do.

I debated even including this, but I guess technically I beat it or finished it, and I got all the achievements, but it didn't really feel like I did anything. Even though auto/clicker style games are just kinda time wasters and generally do not require skill, usually there are far more steps and things to do in the middle of things. After about an hour and a half there is nothing else to do in this game. I unlocked everything and got all the achievements from it's very slightly Flappy Bird inspired mini-game. 

It has super cute art and a little story, but it would have been great to expand on that, let you switch your party members, actually have your party members do anything, have different parties you battle and advantages/disadvantages . The enemies don't even fight back, so it's not one of those where you upgrade and then start over and keep doing that, you will eventually win no matter what, if you don't click as much or select upgrades it may take longer, that's it.

Metrico+

• Genre: Platforming Puzzle
• Time Played: 4.6 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right for what it is. I was getting a little fatigued at the very end.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Kinda Neutral.
• Why I played: I played a demo of Metrico a long time ago, on Vita I think, and it left quite the impression on me. I always meant to play it. I think I got it super cheap in a recent sale.
• Recommend to others: I don't really feel like I would recommend it. It's not bad, but... it's not as special as it could be. I would probably recommend many other platforming puzzle games first.

Metrico starts off really strong, it introduces cool mechanics based off movement and a world that responds to your every interaction, and presents itself as a game inspired by... metrics/analytics... it's Excel.. the platformer, but as the puzzles become more challenging, it's more about figuring out specifically what makes the world interact with you, rather than everything you do changing the space around you.

I think it could have been really cool if the world was much more dynamic and complicated and responded to each new mechanic, causing layers of interactions, but I can also see how it would be really hard to develop puzzles around that. In the end, I feel like it's a game that starts off strong then just becomes a mess of flailing around until you figure out what works so you can solve the puzzle. It's a cool idea, but probably implemented in other games more successfully. 

Smelter

• Genre: Platforming Action / RTS
• Time Played: 20 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right, but the difficulty of replaying sections definitely increased the time by a significant margin.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, my only disappointment is due to the structure of the game you only get a short time with all your abilities.
• Why I played: I started playing Smelter almost two years ago, just a couple levels(which I ended up replaying anyway). I needed some more linear action platforming after They Always Run, but maybe something that mixed it up a bit, so Smelter was pretty perfect follow up.
• Recommend to others: Smelter is an extremely difficult game, maybe not at first, but around the middle point the difficulty jumps way up. So it's hard to recommend. I would probably recommend it to everyone if it were just a bit easier. I feel just like 15% more leeway when it came to most challenges in the game would have made the game a significantly smoother experience.

Everywhere I looked I saw Smelter compared to Actraiser, and I have only played a little bit of Actraiser, but if I recall there is a little bit more managing of your city/world, and the action platforming stuff is far less fun. It is clearly trying to be a similar game though, Actraiser you have an Angel, this game you have a demon, and I think there is some heaven/hell stuff in Actraiser, in this game you specifically are playing Eve, is in, Adam and Eve.

Smelter is more like Mega Man in it's platforming sequences and a very basic RTS with a commander unit you play as in it's overworld. When you fly around in the overworld as Smelter you can shoot and heal your locations and it really requires you to actively participate. It's simple, but still challenging.

They Always Run

• Genre: Platforming Action
• Time Played: ~12 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Just when it was feeling too long it started to feel too short.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, I liked it a lot, but there are aspects that were disappointing.
• Why I played: Kind of on a whim, I was waiting for a sale on Switch, I don't think it's been on sale yet, compared to Steam that regularly went on sale, I think it was on it's highest sale yet and just started playing it immediately when seeing what would work on Steam deck.
• Recommend to others: Tough, I really liked it, but I'm not sure everyone would see past some of the jank.

They Always Run is a pretty cool action platformer, more focus on the action - but a good amount on platforming too. Combat has a good set of diverse mechanics. It's not just stab with weapon and jump around enemy. It can be, but then you're not really doing it right. A lot of focus on counters and using your third arm, and switching up between basic attacks and guns. It does that right for the most part.

Neon Drive

• Genre: Music/Rhythm... Driving, sort of.
• Time Played: >4 hours.
• Too Short/Long: It could have more content, but for as difficult as it is, maybe it's not necessary.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, generally speaking, a bit disappointed at the end/last level.
• Why I played: The synthwave soundtrack and aesthetic
• Recommend to others: Not really, unless someone specifically mentions they like games that you have to repeatedly do the same thing over and over again until you succeed. VVVVVV, Celeste, Fighting Sans in Undertale, The Impossible Game, are some I think of off the top of my head.

Neon Drive is a pretty cool music game that has you shift lanes based off blocks in your path, at first it might not even seem like it's really a music game, just that it plays music, but then you realize you are specifically moving to the beat or melody of the music, in some fashion. 

Breath of Fire 2

• Genre: Turn-Based RPG
• Time Played: Doesn't track time, best guess is about 45+ hours.
• Too Short/Long: Honestly too long, as much as I love it, it could benefit from cutting out some unnecessary backtracking, a run button, and lowering the base encounter rate - or at least it's encounter reducing items could be more effective.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very Pleased, always. This is one of my favorite games of all time.
• Why I played: This isn't the first time I finished Breath of Fire 2, but I barely remembered so much off the top of my head. Things came back to me immediately as I played, but I was missing it from my immediate recall.
• Recommend to others: It's hard not to recommend one of my favorite games of all time, but it's very much an early 90's JRPG and I feel like you need to know that and want to experience that before going in.

Breath of Fire 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I was worried this playthrough was going to change it, since I felt like I could remember so little going in. Even roughly 25 years since I first played it, I still love this game. To be fair, it was very nostalgic for me, I played it both on SNES and GBA, but this time I opted for the SNES version since it's on the SNES service on the Switch.

The SNES version is a bit rougher, especially in the translation department, but it's mostly the same experience. I would probably recommend someone playing it the first time to play the GBA version if they can, just because of some of the really rough translation issues with the SNES version.

Biomotor Unitron

• Genre: Turn-Based RPG
• Time Played: >15 Hours
• Too Short/Long: About right, some time could have been cut from grinding.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased
• Why I played: Build a robot/mech and cute character portraits.
• Recommend to others: Not really, unless you really like playing old games.

Biomotor Unitron was originally a Neo Geo Pocket game, I never had a Neo Geo Pocket, the US only got 31 games so it's about as justifiable as a Virtual Boy, it has a few more games, but no gimmick. Thankfully they released a bunch in collections for the Switch, I love the NGP style fighting games, and the Card Fighter games.

Biomotor Unitron has an artstyle that I love and miss. It's the perfect 90's anime RPG style art. It's got that aesthetic that makes me and all those vaporwave lovers love PC-98 art, regardless of some of it's questionable origins.

Haiku, the Robot

Since I made this blog, I'm going to try updating throughout the year, rather than hold onto thoughts I may lose and clean up a post about the ~30 some games I post at once. Plus I guess I can use labels and other things to help me find the games I'm looking for when I want to reference the game throughout the year.

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platformer(Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 9h 41m
• Too Short/Long: Just about right, leaning toward too long for what it offers.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased.
• Why I played: I kept seeing it in "Indie Hidden Gems of 2022" lists, I did have it in my wishlist, but it was released in April, so it took me a year to finally pick it up.
• Recommend to others: Somewhat strong recommend, if you think it's your cup of tea.

Haiku is easy to pick up, but can be pretty challenging at times. Early game I was worried it was leaning too hard into the Souls formula, but I think early game might just be the toughest parts because you haven't quite gotten all your upgrades. While it does have a dodge roll and stamina bar I think that's where the similarities end. I wouldn't call this a souls-like.

That said, I did 100% it and many metroidvania style games leave you a bit overpowered if you get to that point, so maybe I was just overpowered come later game? But I was feeling a significant difficulty decrease roughly 75% of the way through and it helped me get through the map quickly to achieve that 100%

Bosses were still pretty well rounded, taking a couple tries to finish, but by the end traversal wasn't an issue at all.

The story/lore are fine. It's just corrupt robot nonsense, but it does a lot with the atmosphere with the music and sound effects despite a limited screen-to-screen color palette.

Few complaints with this one, I liked it most early on but am glad I played it through.