Myriad Musings

[katreus]

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, 330th game completed.

The pixel graphics are cute, and the characterization of the various alien races is wonderfully fun. Background music is inoffensive space music, but nothing that really stood out to me.

This game really reminds me of XCOM2, because of the idea of a defensive war on a set map against invasive aliens, excavating and building rooms in a base, upgrading gear and researching for better equipment and for story-related reasons, and lots of battles or missions with turn-based action.

Where the game falls apart for me is that the battles start to feel too numerous and repetitive after a while. Battles are 3v3, with approximately 3-4 powers per officer, so there's just not that much variety. Furthermore, the enemy starts to show up with giant health bars, but it feels like the damage does not scale to match. This makes battles longer and more annoying, especially because you can't really manage enemies so that they're deleted or otherwise controlled every round - it's just a slug fest.

[katreus]

Ys: Memories of Celceta. Part 2.

[katreus]

Ys: Memories of Celceta, 329th game completed. Part 1.

The gameplay / fighting is pretty fun, the voice acting is minimal and not a standout but not a detriment either, background music amazing as usual, graphics fine if a bit blocky.

Plotwise, I really enjoyed the framing of Adol regaining his memories, and also other memories that fill out his background. It did feel like there were hanging plot threads that didn't come to a satisfying conclusion or get tied into the climax / main story - two companion characters did not appear to have their subplots resolved and a mysterious character with a hidden royalty background basically had no tie in to the plot.

The number of skills and the amount of spamming for skills was somewhat annoying at times, but the skills looked cool at least. It's also somewhat annoying that you have to play the game twice in order to see all the ultimate weapons.

[kosmogrl]

[katreus]

A Way Out, 328th game completed. This game si made for co-op so grab a friend. Game itself is not difficult, but does a good job with the story and making you care about the two protagonists, making the twist more painful. Great 70s buddy shenanigan vibes, great voice acting. Note that if you want to do online coop, it (annoyingly) goes through EA app, not Steam. Also, it alphabetizes based on "W" in Way and not "A".

[katreus]

Hades, 327th game completed. What an amazing game - great gameplay loop, great voice acting, lush backgrounds, and a reason to keep playing with a good overarching plotline that links it all together.

[katreus]

Pixel Puzzles Traditional Jigsaw Puzzles, 326th game completed. Base game is free, and you pay for more puzzles via DLC purchases. You know what you're getting into with this game, and there's little to no customization of the puzzle set up. The trays are neat, but puzzle pieces just being scattered to the side of the main puzzle is annoying. Being able to fade the puzzle picture in and out is pretty necessary because the zoom is very bare bones and while there is a small completed picture in the corner, good luck with staring at it then trying to use that for these puzzles with large numbers of pieces.

[katreus]

Resident Evil 6, 325th game completed. If you manage to make some fixes so this game causes less motion sickness (as it does on default settings), the game has some fairly interesting ideas and is decently campy. I can see why a RE fan would find it verging on the action side too much, but as a non-horror fan, I found the four campaigns and their crossovers to be funny, especially since all 4 campaigns had such different tones, as if they were in different genres.

[katreus]

Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines, 324th game completed. It's a jigsaw puzzle game with some options, inoffensive background music, and stained glass aesthetic. Tried all the puzzle type pieces and modes, but I still prefer the classic. Pretty and chill.

[peachybeam]

it’s that time of year

[nomailday]

Oh thank goodness there’s still time for this.

Oh who am I kidding it’s always time for this. 

[katreus]

hexeed, 323rd game completed. The base game is free, and you pay the DLC price for the remaining maps. The base game had a ton of levels, and the DLC levels are like 100 per hexagon at the top. So, if you LOVE hexcell puzzles, this game is for you.

[katreus]

80 Days, 322nd game completed. It's basically a CYOA game adapting the classic Jules Verne story. Set in 1872 with a steampunk twist, the goal is to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. There's a lot of writing and a lot of paths. Some QOL improvements to make it more of a new game+ on subsequent playthroughs to speed through previously completed events would be nice. It's ok for the initial runs though.

[katreus]

Pictopix, 321st game completed. Fun puzzle game. Liked the various options, the classic puzzles, the mosaics, etc. Just wish the challenges (at least those for the achievements) were a bit more forgiving. Feels like you're just depending on RNG for easy puzzles, and definitely doesn't help that you get to challenge every 30 minutes instead of just being able to try again right away.

[katreus]

Yakuza Kiwami. Part 2.

[katreus]

Yakuza Kiwami, 320th game completed. Part 1.

The story is somewhat similar as to Yakuza 0 in that there is a woman that everyone is trying to find who is the key to a lot of money, so everyone is fighting to secure access to her. It's very interesting to see how the characters developed from 0 to Kiwami, although I was surprised to see so many relatively notable people die in this story. Newcomer Haruka was pretty good - a kid character, but isn't (too) annoying (Haruka Requests aside), although it's a miracle this kid is doing OK after what happens to her over the course of the story.

I like the exp and fighting system better in Kiwami, but the substories were pretty boring this time around. Minigames are, as usual, a pain, and so was the Haruka Requests based on (among other things) the minigames.

Pretty standard Yakuza-type game.

[sartorialadventure]

[pomrania]

Reblogging for reference on how to make a blanket cape.

[veradraven]

We love you HUNTR/X!!!

KPOP DEMON HUNTERS