2021 roundup

As another year passes, so does another yearly round-up blog pass by your eyes. How lucky you are, to witness another blog as great as the blogs before it in the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020... Well, much like some other things do, these blogs seem to grow larger at some points. Especially when I get very excited. 

And yes, now that I am going over this blog after writing most of it, I can indeed confirm it's the longest yet! I suppose I've had more to say about these games than before, or maybe I'm just trying harder.

There is much to write about, so let's get things started with the one thing in life that really matters...

Work and Life and Stuff: The Part Which We Must Escape

Wait, what the hell is this? Nobody cares about this stuff. In this regard, 2021 was basically just 2020-II. Nothing has really changed. Have I stagnated? Perhaps. But perhaps not, because consider all the video games I played! That's how you really determine whether a year was good, yes. 

Videogames 4: Or, the Card Auctions of the Standard Dimension LID Pendulum Summoning Course

Axe Cop

What better way to kick things off than with a OHRRPGCE game? It's a tradition by now to play at least one such game per year, and thankfully there's no shortage of good games. It seems like OHRRPGCE has been embracing Steam the last year, with a lot of quality releases making their way there. Axe Cop is one such game, from Red Triangle Games who got me into this scene in the first place with Mr. Triangle's Adventure. 

The titular Axe Cop

You might remember Axe cop as that comic written by a young child and illustrated by his father. It was relevant like 5 years ago, or something. Which might as well be the Stone Age in internet years! One cannot help but feel this game would have been more timely had it come out earlier.

The game itself is a bona fide whole-scale classic turn-based JRPG, and overall a good showcase of how to make a licensed game. This game wasn't phoned it, it's chock full of characters and story beats from the Axe Cop comic, but also puts its own spin on things. To say the plot gets wild would be understating it, what starts of as what seems like a retelling as the comic's events turns out to be anything but in one hell of a twist. 

I made a playlist of all boss battles in this game! Go check it out! There's a lot of bosses!

(WAIT I JUST REALISED I ALREADY WROTE ABOUT THIS IN LAST YEAR'S BLOG AND I PLAYED THIS IN 2020?! OH WELL.)

Iconoclasts

I really like this game. I also think it's incredibly insufferable at times. I went into this with very high expectations, and they were met in some areas, but some parts of it really just put me off from getting invested into the game.

So, the good? The presentation overall is awesome. Real good OST, amazing graphics, everything looks and feels nice. I mean that genuinely and sincerely, it is very impressive. The gameplay is also really good at times, I think the boss battles are mostly excellent, really exciting bouts of fighting and platforming backed by great visuals and audio to provide a great experience.

The story's really resonant at times, too! Other times...

Coomer

This game really did its best to keep me from not liking it early on. This is the kind of game plot where the developer thinks it's handholding and not proper to just ease the player into a setting, and instead the first half of the game is a bunch of unlikable twits ranting at your mute player character and blowing up at each other in a way that just doesn't work at all. This isn't helped by the protagonist being the most bland possible character whose entire motivation and personality ends at "I want to help people :)". I described it as I was playing it "as if the game begins with me in the middle of everybody's character arcs" and "as if I skipped the establishing chapters in a book", and it's just really awkward.

I'M ROBIN AND I LIKE HELPING :]

The worst of this is when a character forces herself into your entourage and starts to talk at lengths about her hopes and fears and dreams and whatnot, without any of the proper set-up to make it work. It made me really just hate spending any time reading her dialogue, especially when every other character had more interesting things going on.

In general I liked the antagonists more in this game, but Elro and Royal were also fun. In general it just seems like the sort of game where you get more out of it if you play it twice, but like, I already played it once, so... Eh.

You got enough of my time as-is!

Some of the plot threads and gameplay near the end of the game also seemed rushed, avoidable or just plain weird. This one definitely has the most absurd ending of any game on this list, in a way that hardly really works. There's a kernel of a great story in here and it does shine through brilliantly at times, but often it's hidden away and clouded by a layer of bullshit and inaccessibility.  

Also, those weird lolrandom chemist people. Tonally weird, don't get it, didn't laugh.

What are you driving at?

Séance

Aw yeah, you might remember I talked about Exit/Corners last year, well, this is another visual novel by the same creator! Sadly it's just a demo right now, though, but it looks promising!

It's good, OK?! It's good!!

I'm not sure whether it's coming out in 2022 or not, but I do look forward to it! The puzzle mechanics of needing to spell works using a tileset of letters seems interesting too, since you can create some silly words, like the above pictured "pog".

Together in Battle/Telepath Tactics: Liberated Edition

You might remember this one also, I did cover Telepath Tactics in last year's blog, and wrote a whole seperate blog about it too. Ah, reminiscence... Well, the dev is working on Together in Battle still, alongside the remake of Telepath Tactics in the new engine. I got to test a demo of the former, and beta test the latter! 

Things are shaping up well I'd say. Telepath Tactics is mostly familiar, using the original campaign, but there are a nice assortment of new tools for most of the classes to use, and overall the experience feels more balanced. Of particular note are the visual upgrades, the game looks much better now! 

Telepath RPG: Servants of God

Now this brings back memories... This game came out in 2012, that's like the Protozoic Eon in internet time. The gameplay is similar to that of Telepath RPG 2, turn-based tactics with an emphasis on determinism over luck, and the game's overall look and feel is like that of Telepath RPG 2, but more polished.

Pictured: Fools soon to be Light Blasted

I think the aspect of the game that held up best was the plot though. The idea of a cult as a game's antagonist is a common one, but I think most games featuring such a plot totally squander the idea by eventually passing the blame to the actual godly figure behind the cult, be that was an EVIL GOD or ANCIENT ONE or some other hokey magic nonsense.  Telepath RPG:SoG has the guts to keep its cult's beliefs intentionally ambiguous in its veracity. Does their Yahwah exist? We never find out. There's signs indicating it might be true, but those could just be manufactured thought imprints. No, the villains here are theocracy, discrimination and rhetoric, not the man behind the curtains.

I want to punch this man.

The biggest regret with this game is that in the end the scope exceeded the game itself, and it feels like there's parts between the midgame and endgame that were scrapped for the sake of having an actual product release. The endgame itself still works fine, but it's a bit of a shame since I would've wanted to see more. It's interesting to draw a line between the Telepath games over time to see how the developer has evolved.

One other thing that stood out was how open the middle part of the game is, as soon as you're done with the opening you can go explore pretty much all areas in the game, which means you can quickly get a lot of gold which you can use to train yourself way beyond where the main ques expects you to be. It also lets you get some useful party members pretty early if you spend your coins wisely. It's probably better to not put off the main quests too long since they take a while to start ramping up in difficulty. 

Also, I made a playlist of all the boss battles!

I.M. Meen

Oh look, what clever children,

See them study, watch them learn!

How I hate those goodie-goodies!

How they make my stomach turn!

I've got a little secret

That'll really make 'em cry

It's a nasty kind of magic

From a special kind of guy!

This book is made to order

But it isn't to be read

When they open up this book!

They're sucked inside instead

to the most unpleasant place they've ever seen!

The magic labyrinth of I.M. Meen!

Very scary and confusing!

Destination of my choosing!

The magic labyrinth of I.M. Meen!

Hahahaha!

It's not good, ok? It just isn't. I tried it for the meme cred, but it's no Zelda Cd-i. It just isn't.

W-what

I gave it a try, but the controls are just really awkward. The grammar and spelling correction bits are funny though, they paint a striking picture of the rather miserable I. M. Meen.

Smile for Me

A nice game about being nice to people who just need a little kindness. If there was a "Tumblr Darling Award" this one would probably be nominated, because it hits all the notes. And that's a good thing.

Yaaas

The game's most aptly described as a character-driven adventure game. You meet NPCs, listen to their troubles and figure out a solution, opening more of the game's areas along the way. These problems and solutions get quite creative, and the dialogue and characters are a joy to listen through. This game just felt nice to play, it's a smile of a game.

Chad

I also like how it slowly builds to its climax, as you learn more and more about the rather bizarre facility you're in, and find snippets of info about Doctor Habit and why he could be doing all of this. And I think it came together well in the end, especially if you're thorough and get the best ending.

Spooky...

As is typical for this kind of game, I did have a few moments where I did get a bit stuck, there was one character who keeps making terrible deals and you need to do a pretty specific sequence of events to progress through that. Also turned out that character was a major floodgate to accessing the rest of the game. I think that's the only time I got stuck on something though.

Purple lipstick... Nice. Now add some yellow accents.

OMORI

There is a part of OMORI that I started to like more and more as I kept playing it. There's also a part of the game I wanted to see less and less of as I kept playing it. OMORI is a game that pretty clearly takes place in a dream, and while those segments do start off charming and there's some bits where darker stuff happens, which are of course always fun, things start to drag once it becomes an unending sequence of excuse plots intentionally made to drag out the dream. 

Stop it! Stop it!!

I know it's by design, but that doesn't stop it from feeling tedious. It's especially obvious with the resident OHOHOHOHO-ing Ojou Sweetheart, who really wears off her welcome by the dream's end.

MFW Sweetheart

On the flipside, the real world segments are perfect all the way through. That's where the emotional core of the game lies, and it's a good core. And like I said before, the parts where the dream façade slip are also always just fun.

Fun is happening

Oh, right, there's also gameplay. The gameplay's fine! Characters have a nice and diverse array of skills, the game's emotion status system is simply and effective, and combat feels like there's just enough going on to keep it fresh. Random battles do get irksome near the end of the game though, though not to the extent of another game I played this year.

Ok this moment was based though

The game's visuals are nice as well, especially the in-battle graphics have a nice look to them. The OST is good as well, there's a lot of tracks in the game, making it so every noteworthy scene has just the right music for it.

YES

Overall I do recommend OMORI as I'm sure others have before me. Just work through those tedious segments as best as you can, I know it took me a week long break to do the final dungeon, but it's worth it in the end!

MFW fucked up stuff happens in OMORI

Sam & Max Save the World

I wrote about this before in 2018! Go read that blog! Do it!!

The remastered version features better visuals and aesthetics, but is otherwise mostly unchanged. It's interesting to replay these games with a better understanding of the plot's general structure and the puzzle solutions. It was a welcome trip back to 2018.

This line hits differently in 2021...

My opinions on this one are pretty similar to what they used to be, I think I'd still rank the episodes in the same order. Probably liked episode 2 more without the ketchup cake fiasco, while episode 6 does seem like it's a bit weak as a conclusion, not being the best episode in the season. It's only up from here though!

Alora Fane games

The Binding of Isaac: Repentance

Ah yes, my favourite game about a crying child and poop and blood and guts and fetuses and going into your mom's womb to attack and dethrone Mega Satan. 

Repentance is supposedly the final expansion to The Binding of Isaac, and it's a worthy finale. Made in collaboration with the people who made the popular Antibirth mod, this mod ports most Antibirth content alongside a whole heap of new content. And most of it is GOOD. Isaac expansions have always been a mix of good and bad additions and changes, and overall I think Repentance swings heavily to the good side.

Dogma, my beloved

The new items, floors, characters, bosses, enemies, music, it all feels like a cut above what came before. I especially like the new Home path, which feels like the true final path. Rather than diving deep into the delusions of the normal path where you go into your mom's Womb and get into all kinds of weird misadventures below there, it's instead Isaac facing the true evil that was foreshadowed all along, the Christian Broadcasts On The Television while also coming to grips with his pretty miserable lot in life. 

YGO: Duel Links

What is this pain I feel in my heart? 

This pain isn't despair...

No... It's not pain...

This aching is...

Finally, the worst of  the hellscape that is DSoD is behind us. The time has come for the pendulum of the soul to swing. Arc-V has dawned on the world, and the Chadliest of all Chads Aporia has joined Duel Links, bringing with him support for the very best deck in Duel Links, the ever-powerful MEKLORDS.

Aporia's message to DSoD stans

It is the beginning of a new world! One without sadness!

Oh, they also fixed the microwave issue that made people have to reboot the game, now you can re-establish a connection instead. This truly is hope...

Also, impractical cars. Those too.

BUT... WAIT A GOD DAMN SECOND!

WHERE THE FUCK IS VETRIX WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY-

Wait, they added Anna? ... Hm. Okay. Fine.

But they better add Vetrix. They better. Oh, they better do that or else...

ADD ME OR I'LL SEND HIM TO THE DSOD META

Ok let's actually talk a bit more about what I think of this year.

Honestly, the first half didn't have anything that was blowing me away, I was using the same old decks as I was before. I did get into Gimmick Puppets and got Grand Mole and Grand Neos for my Neos deck, but the former is super skill-reliant and still kinda weak and easily disrupted, while the latter is just held back so hard by the banlist that it's not even funny. Konami totally gutted Neos because other decks were abusing Neos Fusion and it sucks. I just want to use Neo-Spacians! Like, please just put Dragon Keeper to 1 and/or put Brave Neos and Neos Fusion to 3 or something, anything! 

Husbando Squad

The next big wave of stuff came near the year's end with Meklords, Dinomists and Abyss Actors. I've only used the first much, I just think it's a neat deck, but the other two can also do some stuff. Overall a decent year for decks for me, compared to the drought that was 2020.

MFW Meklords

The meta currently is also decent. People have been complaining that it's too low power, but I actually like that about it. So many decks can viably reach KOG and such. The distance between tiered and untiered feels smaller than ever. They just gotta hit Harpies since it's been around for so long. In contrast, I hated the DSoD era and how it shat all over previously rogue decks with the insane power creep. Al the Stroker running around everywhere. Shitranui. Dork Magicians... Blegh. Good riddance honestly, DSoD's mark on DL is an utter stain that it's still suffering under. 

Hm, what else...?

SEASON 4 WHEN, KONAMI? 

YGO: Legacy of the Duelist

Did you know this game has mods? It sure does! I played a few. It was neat. People making custom campaigns and such. Makes me wish more people would do it, this is probably the best game to do it in. Sadly the scene is pretty niche though, there's a few mods on Nexus and some more you can find on YouTube, and they're not all, well, any good either. 

Tangle Tower

Man, when did I play Detective Grimoire? I don't see it in my old blogs. It must have been 2016 or earlier... Well, the reboot of Detective Grimoire did get a sequel, and it's good! It's good! 

It also has a Dutch dub. Yeeees!!

The game plays similarly to the previous one, and features full voice acting. And it's good! It's good voice acting! And the script is fully translated in Dutch too! 

The mystery here is a murder mystery as usual, and there's a colourful cast of quirky suspects as one's expect. I really like the weirdos you come across in this game, the writing is charming and the new artstyle and animation style really elevate the game. It's smooth and it just looks good. Playing this game felt like joy.

The concept art is great too.

Of particular note is the dynamic between Grimoire and his new sidekick Sally. Adding a sidekick for the protagonist to bounce off of is incredibly helpful to liven up conversations, just look at Ace Attorney, and Sally's character here really rounds up Grimoire's character. She can be snarky, she can be earnest, I just really like the chemistry between these two dorks, it just works really well.

The mystery in this one also feels much better than the previous one, the setting of a house divided between two rivaling families is much more interesting than the bog-standard swamp monster setting of the first game. 

Overall I really recommend this game, check it out! It might be dubbed in your native tongue! The Dutch dub was good!!

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

I played this game in 2020, but the game has a bunch of extra modes that remix various aspects of the game, such as enemy layouts and item stats. These change the game sufficiently to warrant a second run, and give the game a second run I did. 

DEEEES!

What can I say? EBF5 holds up well a year later just as it did before, it's a JRPG that has been thoroughly polished, the culmination of years of making Epic Battle Fantasy games for an experience that feels like an entirely deserving conclusion to the series. 

The crew reacts to EBF5

And it was a fun playthrough. I did pretty much 100% of stuff there is to do, and it was satisfying all the way through, from start to end. It was even kinda fun to be able to enter every room in the achievement palace to start with, since progress in that area carries over between runs.

Rayman Redemption/Redesigner

Hey, do you like Rayman 1? I do. I like it a lot. So... What if I told you there was a remaster? That it had all the original content from the PS1 version, and the added stuff from the PC version, and more levels still? And what if there was a remade Rayman Designer to go along with it?

I think that's a wonderful idea.

I loved Rayman as a child, and I still have a real fondness for that original game as an adult. I still think the game's general aesthetic really holds up, the bright and bold colours, the round and comfy look of everything, it's just all very pleasant, and backed with great music as well. 

Band Land Aesthetic <3

It was just a joy to play this again, really. The level balance is also much better than in the original, the difficulty curve is now much smoother: Band Land and Picture City are easier, while the Caves of Skops and Candy Château are now harder, which fits the world progression much better. There's minigames and challenges too, as well as a whole new world between the Caves of Skops and Candy Château! 

The new content does a good job of not sticking out, you can tell it's using new assets, but it still fits the spirit of the original well. Definitely check this one out if you're a fan of Rayman!

New boss battle!

There is Rayman Redesigner as well, a remake of Rayman Designer and a thorough level editor for your Rayman needs. There's even a site for posting and sharing levels out there, with a lot of good levels on offer! Try out the levels sorted by rating, there's a lot of really good levels in there!

Hmm?

YUOAAAAH

I'm particularly fond of RaveyDavey's levels, they're all good!

Venineth

Do you remember those janky flash games where you play as a ball trying to platform your way to the exit of a stage? Venineth is kind of like that, but much better in every way. 

In Venineth you play a a weighty iron ball with the inexplicable power of rotation and jumping, with the simple goal of platforming and puzzle-solving a way through various desolate, alien planets. Many of the planets have interesting gimmicks, and there's plenty of transformations to unlock as well. Or are they abilities? Either way, the game keeps things interesting by throwing a nice variety of challenges around, as well as making every world look very distinct.

I took 2 screenshots of this game. Oops.

The tone and aesthetic of Venineth  deserve particular praise, I think. There's a somber solitude to the worlds, there is no life on them, only the smooth sounds of a rolling iron ball to keep the player company. There is no plot, no characters or dialogue to latch on to, only alien wastelands, weird marble architecture, or calming hot springs. I think this approach works well for this game, it keeps the focus on your surroundings and keeps you solidly grounded in the world, which should be the focus, as some of the puzzles will test your spatial awareness. Always a nice thing in a game, I think, that.

Ascend

If I had one issue with the game, it's that it can be pretty easy to get lost and stuck in some stages, I had this happen a few times in some early levels in particular. The game's selection of places to respawn you if your ball gets lost can also be annoying sometimes, I spent a lot of time in the second stage re-spawning very far away from where I actually thought I had to go...

Oh, I think this is also the first time I just streamed a game to the little Discord group I am in. That was nice.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass is a very funny game. Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass is also a very sad game. Yeah, it's one of those JRPG's. And it's real good. Chances are that you own it yourself, actually, since it was part of that very big Racial Justice Bundle back in... 2020? Yeah, that was a while ago, huh? I sat off on playing this for a while, until a video on YouTube spurred me into action. It was very much worth it!

Is this a Goblin? :D

This is another one of those "go in blind!!" types of games. This game's plot goes to some absolutely wild places, and while the first two dungeons are pretty slow, it's all forward momentum from the third dungeon onward. Punch Tanaka will forever live on in my heart and soul, and the Beehive? Well, you'll know when you see it. Like I said, it goes places, and it goes there with confidence and panache.

The Man Himself

One thing about this game that I like a lot is the artstyle, the style itself is pretty simple, but the sprite-work for the enemies, especially the "morbid enemies" just really sells the theme the game is going for. It's the perfect blend of a more cartoony artstyle and body horror, the sort that I suppose could be liked to LISA, but perhaps a but more child-like than that. The game isn't shy about the fact that it takes place in a child's dream, and the art reflects that, even when things do turn nightmarish.

I liked this playing-card themed area.

I'm also fond of the OST! The game has a nice suite of battle tracks, and the nightmarish areas also all have really fitting music that transfers over into the combat. I'm particularly fond of some of the game's downright weird and experimental tracks, like music for a corporate hellscape, or much of the music for the bizarre education themed areas. 

The nightmare areas have real good music

I also like how the game slowly builds its way towards the revelation of what it's all about. It didn't take me too long to speculate on what some of the themes and symbolism imply, and it was interesting to try to figure how certain elements fit into it. The fun of using dreams as a stage for your game!

Fun

An aspect of the game that does warrant discussion is the fact that it is ultimately a JRPG, one with random battles at that. The game does use a nice system that lets you skip battles if you're sufficiently high-leveled compared to the area, but random battles do start to wear thin later in the game. Battles start off being strategic affairs, but I'd say halfway through the game random battles mostly become a matter of MP management as you melt enemy groups in one turn. Especially once you unlock the glass cannon AoE attacking character. 

No, no that one. But she's good too.

On the flipside, the boss battles are great! I also think the game does a lot of neat stuff with its battles in general, the game has my favourite stealing system in a game for example. There's a satisfying amount of character customization, interesting enemy routines and layouts, and in general there's a great variety in the enemies you do encounter, things get quite bizarre!

Pleasant.

Also, one of my favourite recurring JRPG NPC mini-arcs is in this game, with a grouse banker... Oh, it goes places. It's wonderful.

Card Hunter

Ah, Card Hunter. We all thought you had died, and yet now you live again. Blue Manchu, the previous owners of card Hunter, sold it to Knights of Unity, and as a result we are getting new content! Quite exciting, and the new Eastpass Conspiracy campaign is overall my second favorite out of the campaigns. 

I'm curious to see what 2022 holds for Card Hunter. More PvE content? PvP balance adjustments? Maybe finally a playerbase that actually exceeds 2 figures?! One can only hope.

NaissanceE

Ah yes, the misadventures of Lucy NaissanceE in the land of wacky platforming. It's a neat game to play for free, a first-person platformer. Is it a puzzle game, really? There's not too much puzzling relative to the platforming.

The stages here are nicely varied, like in Venineth there is a sort of haunting emptiness to the game for the most part, though there's some sequences where that does change. Like in Veninieht, there doesn't seem to be any plot or anything of the sort to this game, it's just a fun romp through some indeterminate environments. 

Just beware of the tubes level, that one is pretty obnoxious. And be especially wary for the evils inflicted by Patricia Dallio, she can and will induce laughter fits over how the developer thought one particular sequence of platforming was a good idea. "This is like Sonic 06!" was a thought that came to mind.

Yoku's Island Express

This is a strange one, a platformer where you control a dung beetle through a world comprised of pinball mechanics. The concept sounds really weird, but it feels surprisingly intuitive during actual gameplay, you're controlling the dung beetle's dung ball moreso than the beetle itself, sending it flying all over the place through pinball segments in a quest to deliver mail and also maybe save the world. Ok, not the world, just the island, but still.

It's no Monster, it's a God!

The question of whether this game is fun or not entirely depends on how one feels about playing a pinball platformer. The controls of the pinball sequences seem good and the game has no real failstates at any point, though I had a pretty hard time with some sequences. I did like it overall, the world design is nice and there's charm to the overall art style. The story here is just a bit of an excuse plot, there's a surprise antagonist that seems kind of whatever, this is a game that definitely is about the journey rather than the destination.

Somehow not the first or last game I played where you play as a bug. Interesting.

Fae Tactics

Fae Tactics is a very different take on the turn-based tactics genre. Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics or Telepath Tactics, every character and unit in Fae Tactics only has a set total of either 3 or 4 abilities, which are customisable through equipment. These abilities come in a distinct set: Attacks against enemies, support for allies, a self-buff and an ultimate attack for "leader units". There's a lot of mechanics aside from this, units in general have a lot of passives to further set every unit apart from the others...

That's a lot

It makes for a game that is fun to tinker with, since you have a lot of control over your party configuration. You have your hyper-aggro glass cannons, your defensive cores and the game's mom character who just does everything. There is one strategy that reigns supreme though...

Well, aside from the powers of Fred, that is.

Defense. Like, not specifically defensive tactics, but the stat itself. This took me some time to figure out, but the amount of influence the game's defense stat has on the amount of damage inflicted/taken is really, really big. I was so curious why my evasion aggro unit kept dying in one hit, it's because she has a base defense of 0 and no ways of raising it. There are a lot of bosses, and the strategy for every one of them is to lower their defense to the minimum so instead of doing like 30 damage you do 450. It just makes a huge difference, overcentralisingly so. 

When someone has -DEF on hit

Well, there is also the power of a good defense, yes. A permanent fixture of my party was the skeleton guard, which could tank hits in the party's stead and only takes 25% from non-backstab attacks, which paired with a healer is incredibly potent. Unless the enemies lower its defense, of course.

Unf. Swole.

The gameplay is still good overall, anyway. There's a satisfying progression of power, and some of the later characters you unlock are a lot of fun while old characters get much stronger with new weapons they can equip.

Also Peony pogs, but like, poorly. 
You've gotta work on your pog game, girl!

I think the game also has a good artstyle, everything is vibrant and colourful. Very much so, even. The music's good too. The plot is... Eh. It's whatever. It's fine. Like Iconoclasts, I think this game does a poor job of settling me into the world since the starting party is just a rather bland Peony and her two pets, who don't have any dialogue. It's not a good way to ease me into the world, and unlike Iconoclasts the plot never goes to very interesting places either. But then it's also never quite as obtuse and annoying as Iconoclasts can be, there's no Mina in sight thankfully.

Everhood

You ever have a game where your enjoyment kind of just dips at some point and never quite reaches the same high it was at before? It's never really a nice experience, is it? Well, here's a good example of that.

I really liked Everhood at first, it's an interesting take on your typical rhythm game, but instead of pressing the buttons in tune to the song, you're a character and have to dodge all the notes instead. And it's good! It's really good. The songs are great and very diverse, both in terms of genre but also in how they correspond to the layout of notes on the board. This is accentuated by an interesting art style that makes a lot of use of dark void, which I liked a lot, and writing that seems like it might be leading up to something interesting.

I think a particularly fun segment of the game is the tabletop RPG sequence, where some of the characters gather to play a tabletop game and the mechanics are briefly switched up and your goal in battles shifts from avoiding notes to using a blade to deflect red notes. It's a fun mix-up! 

The battle with the Purple Mage was also super cool. That was a really hype battle.

And then, things change. Around the midpoint of the game the whole purpose of the game is revealed: Your goal is actually to KILL EVERYBODY! But it's OK, because the setting is some sort of weird dimension of immortality or something and living forever is bad. It's like the antithesis to Undertale, in that the theming in that game isn't super finagled to make sense of its main premise. "Living forever sucks", like, OK. But nobody lives forever anyway, so... So what? No applicability. 

Anyway, the game's tone shifts here to be a lot darker and more macabre, as you now need to KILL those character you grew fond of! Except that doesn't work at all, because I barely got to know most of these people. I don't have a connection to this cast, most of them I've barely talked with, so I don't exactly find this whole act of killing them to be much of a source of conflict. Honestly I was just doing it to progress the story. There were like two characters I did care about, the Gnome and the Green Mage, and the Green Mage seemed to be having fun till the very end anyway. 

This leads into a series of finales and climaxes that feel unearned, as the game tries to have a bunch of Big Meaningful Moments and Big Plot Twists, but like again I barely know any of these people and don't really care, so it all kinda just falls flat. The story's ambitions were much ahead of the actual story itself.

With the shift from dodging to attacking also comes a whole reversal of the gameplay, now you need to absorb two enemy attacks of the same colour and throw them back at them. It's kinda like the Tabletop RPG segment, but worse. I hated the mechanical shift at first, and though I got better at it over time, I never grew on me and I never grew to love it. Often I'd mix colours and mess up, or the song would end too early, or I'd attack and the attack gets blocked by a different note and it FUCKING SUUUUCKS. I hate that last one the most, it happened all the goddamn time, it was SO ANNOYING. AUGH.

I did beat most battles on the standard difficulty eventually, which is another issue: The game's difficulty modes aren't tuned too well. There's the standard difficulty, and then the difficulty under that makes everything massively easier, so battles that are too much for me on standard are a total and complete joke on the easier mode. It feels like there's a difficulty mode missing between these two. 

It's still a good game, I still recommend it, it's just... I was liking it so much, and then I wasn't liking it as much. Too bad.

Also I took 0 screenshots for this game. Huh.

Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

I thought the day would never come... This game came out in Japan quite some time ago for the 3DS, and it seemed like the sort of thing that was never going to get a dub. But, here we are. The game is dubbed, packaged as a duology, purchasable on Steam. Excellent. Sublime.

There's a Payne as usual, of course.

So, how does it stack up? Has Shu Takumi still got it? Well... Yes. Yes, I'd say he's still got it. These games were a joy to play for the most part, as a duology. There were spots where I had to drag myself through some bits, but in the end I think things did come together in a nice way. I'm just going to quickly give my thoughts on the 10 total cases.

1-1: Kind of in the middle on this one as an intro case, I think they handle the character progression of Ryunosuke here very well, and it also sets up Asogi and the setting well, but the pacing here is really slow. The first witnesses were kinda fillerly nonsense, but things do get going once the culprit takes the stand... Until suddenly things grind to a halt and you need to prove things all over again from the start, at which time there's a sudden convenient memory lapse. It's awkward. There's a good case in here, there's just excess fat that needed trimming.

1-2: Not my favorite case by a long shot, since it's investigation only. The location is somewhat drab, and a lot of time is spent dancing around stuff and doing rather slow-paced course corrections. FWIW, I am fine with the reveal of the culprit and motive though, I think that part holds up well, the process of getting there is just rather tedious.

1-3: Oh yeah, now things really get going. You get tossed into the fire in this case, and I love it. A lot of great twists and turns in what might be the series' most unconventional case by a mile. The first witnesses here are somewhat bland, but all the rest is top-notch. This case is also the best handling of the jury, I think. The recurring prosecutor also appears here, and I do love his overall mannerisms in court. He's a riot.

Best defendant?

1-4: Yowzers. Ok, this one is a bad case. Like, the series has bad cases before, and this one hits all the marks of a bad case. the circumstances of the crime here are as ridiculous as they come, and the location and themes of the case are generally just quite dull. Add to it a set of witnesses who're kinda annoying and don't do much, as well as a dull and prodding investigation sequence and really drawn-out trial... It's all just bleh. This case should have been much shorter than it is, given its utter simplicity, and there's a whole full day of investigation in which it feels you accomplished nothing. Also probably the worst jury in the series.

1-5 Ok, a return to form. A real classic AA case with an utterly tenacious culprit who you love to cross-examine to the point of breakdown, assisted of course by some lovable grade-A joke witnesses. This case is a joy to play through and goes in some real fun directions. The only regret is that the investigation again takes a long time, and there are some late-case revelations that the second game really glosses over despite the set-up being interesting. That trial sequence though? Love it.

Based

2-1 A real good first case. Well-paced, interesting mystery, good witnesses. All-in-all a solid case I think. They clearly learned they lesson from the first game. Kudos!

2-2 This case is a sequel of sorts to 1-4, which is quite something since this is such a good case compared to that trainwreck. There's a lot of fun twists and turns to this one, doing unusual things with the usual roles assigned to characters in a case. The witnesses are also in good form here, I quite liked the trial segments and investigations here. The pace also just felt right. I did think that the prosecution was excessively nasty in this case though, and the second day of trial I would have liked to see a bit more of, it lacked that sort of real tenacious mastermind that the best AA games have. I also think it's awkward that chronologically, this case takes place between 1-4 and 1-5. It's just kinda janky, but not to the case's own detriment. 

Best character?

2-3: Yaaaas!! I love this case! A really unique and quirky murder mystery, some great locations like a science fair and a wax museum, lovably eccentric witnesses... This case has it all. The first day trial feels well-paced, and the whole second day of the case is just a whole rollercoaster. Just a lot of great stuff packed into this case, with the only regret being that this is the only time we see some of these great characters. I'd have loved for them to get more spotlight, alas!

No, you, Madam, are based

2-4: The start of the end. A lot of stuff comes together in this case and the next, and they should be seen as a whole. I love the prosecution in this case. But there's also some reveals surrounding the defendant that I'm not fond of. Feels like the defendant gets off easy for behaving really terribly towards Ryunosuke and his friends. A misstep in the duology's handling of its most delicate point, that being the relations between the English and Japanese.  

2-5: The big climax. It's big, bombastic and epic. Pretty much everything I'd want a finale to be, really. I'm not gonna say much more, totally because spoilers and not because I already said so much. GO BUY THIS GAME UREEE.

Me when 2-5 happens

So, overall? I think the duology holds up. Relative to the core series, I think the most stark things that stand out here are the increased focus on the core cast, it feels like there's a lot more development and interactions between the regulars than in mainline games, the decreased focus on witnesses, there's a ton of day 1 witnesses that exist only during one trial sequence and nowhere else unlike the core series, and the presence of the jury, which... Honestly doesn't add too much. It mostly seems to be a way for the game to work in elements, wrinkles or expertise when it'd be awkward for the defense or prosecution to raise the point. Some jurists are better than others, and overall cases 1-3 and 2-3 I think had the most convincing juries. The jury in 1-5 is pretty much a meme-tier jury, it's laughably silly. The jury in 1-4 and 2-2 is mostly eh, though 2-2 adds some fun stuff.

So yeah, it's a good duology. If one is a fan of AA, they'll definitely like this. That's a Mania guarantee.

DELTARUNE (Chapter 2)

Oh god another game I could write BILLIONS OF PARAGRAPHS about. What can I say? Toby's still got it, and he's more on fire than he's ever been. He assembled a great team to help him realise this chapter of DELTARUNE, because this is I think as good as either UNDERTALE or DELTARUNE has been. I love every part of this chapter, and it was a moment of miracles to play this spoiler-free and experience it all firsthand, up to the reveal that there's even more lurking beneath the standard route of the game... It was magical. 

I'll be forever Team Berdly

Honestly I've talked this game's praises so much already elsewhere, I don't think I have anything left to say here. Go get it. It's free. It's awesome.

Ok, I will say this: BERDLY BEST BOY, KRIS x BERDLY OTP

West of Loathing

This was a nice present from a nice friend. From the creators of that Kingdom of Loathing MMORPG you may or may not have tried and given up on, it's the same style of writing, but set in the West. The West of Loathing.

Yuma?

Honestly, what an amazingly polished game this is. The artstyle is strikingly simple, and behind that is a real West of Loathing to explore. The core gameplay of this game is mostly in the ridiculous banter that happens while you explore the many areas in the game in a quest to make it to Frisco, and it's a joy all the way through.

How do you convince someone that a game is funny, really? It's hard to do, isn't it? But I did find this game genuinely funny, and I would always make sure to read all the writing in this game. And wow, there is a LOT. There is so much to discover here, the world feels packed with content, a lot of it connected to other content. 

GOBLINS

Also: GARY THE GOBLIN! HEEEEEEEEEEEE~

DARQ

One of the games I got for free from the Epic Games Store. Yes, I know... I SOLD OUT. I'm gonna make Steam loyalists real mad, I know. I know. 

Anyway, DARQ. It's... Ok. It's a light horror game, though it's really a puzzle game with some mild spooks. I like the puzzle aspect... The horror aspect? Frankly, it sucks and is to the game's detriment. The game is at its most fun when I'm solving puzzles, the game's at its least fun when I'm dealing with the annoying horror stuff and having to do tedious stealth bits. They were never scary, they were just annoying. 

Also the last level of the main game is just really bad, but the DLC makes up for it by being really good.

Red Triangle Super Collection

Hey, I didn't say there was only going to be one OHRRPGCE game, did I? Oh no, this one isn't just a game either, it's a collection of games! Multiple, for the price of one! The sort you'd used to find on markets when buying games for the GBC when you were vacationing in Spain, and it had 50 games! But like 25 were in Japanese, and a lot of them were reskins of the same game, but... It also had the licensed Harry Potter turn-based RPG damn it! It was worth it! And not a cent of it went to JK Rowling, SO WHO WON? ME. 

Oh, right, the Collection! Well, it had a bunch of games, some new and some old, so let's go over the ones I played:

Graffiti Goose: I own a CD of this game's OST!! Graffiti Goose is one of the old games in the compilation, a fast-paced puzzler that's a little bit like Tetris, but you have full control of where the pieces go and you want to combine primary colours into secondary colours for extra points, but avoid spills or messes. It's a neat idea, and it can be fun to go for a high score. Music's really funky.

Video Goose: Video Goose is a short point-and-click adventure game where you play as a goose in a video rental. Just when I was getting into the groove of this game, it was over! It was a fun little experience, but it is sadly really short. Too bad, I was hoping it'd be longer. But that also means it's something you can try and finish in a setting.

Self-evident

Missing You: Another real short one, it's an arcade-style vertical shmup game, except without the shooting and you collect hearts instead as two distant lovers talk about how they miss each other. It's short, it's sweet. It gets the job done.

I never miss.

Knight Slights: What if Card Against Humanity was a single player game, and also less vulgar? Well, it'd be Knight Slights. This is a weird concept, isn't it? A single player CAH game? Strange. The knights look nice though. I did also find some OHRRPGCE card pack online, I think the game makes more sense through that lense, as an in-joke game between a close-knit community made for a games contest. 

Block Bonanza: Now this is the main feature! It's kinda like Bejeweled, but WITH GUNS. Instantly better. I had fun going through this one, every stage mixes things up a bit with new block types, level clear goals and level layouts. The surrounding narrative about a Western Cowboy was neat too. 

One Going West

Inscryption

The third in a series of games from Daniel Mullins, this one is in a lot of ways a spiritual successor to The Hex, which I talked about in my 2019 blog. This one takes the form of a roguelike deckbuilder game, think games like Slay the Spire or Griftlands, but of course there's much more to it than meets the eye.

This game really appealed to me out of the gate since I've played both roguelike deckbuilders and more standard card games, while also being a fan of The Hex. And this game was everything I was hoping it'd be and more! The gameplay is the best it's been in any Daniel Mullins game, from start to finish, and the weird plot stuff that's going on was a lot of fun as usual too. The production values here are just top notch, I get the impression the game did everything it set out to do and did it all well, which is a very commendable trait in a game I think. 

UAAAAAAAGH

This is one of those games where it's hard to talk about too much without spoiling, like UNDERTALE and such. But, wow, there's so many things I liked here. So I'm just gonna say SPOILER WARNING and you'll have to deal with it.

-Love the atmosphere in the first part, the way how everything looks and feels, the way Leshy sets a powerful atmosphere, the theatrics of the back room and the magical camera, the sudden fucked up body horror with the pliers and knife. Just tons of fun stuff here, as well as the game guiding you along to the end with all these super OP mechanics you unlock along the way. It's very different from other roguelikes in that it seems to be made to ensure the player will win through attrition eventually. 

-The second part is such a good callback to old handheld card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories or the Pokémon TCG games. Going from roguelike to actual deckbuilding, having a total of 4 playstyles to mix and match, the implications and puzzlement over what the hell is even going on with this game. Particularly fun was realizing that Mox isn't the worst deck, but actually the best deck. My only regret here is how short this sequence is! It feels the most under-explored due to the lack of opponents to battle, I really hope people will expand on it with mods or somesuch.

-The third part might actually be my favourite? The gamestyle again changes and this one feels more like an RPG where you slowly build up your squad until you have an incredibly powerful deck, the permanence of things yet also the impermance of losing appeals to me in a way that the first and second parts never really got me too attached to my current deck. P03 is such a lovable shitbag, the mechanics here are a lot of fun to play around with, and I love some of the boss battles here, easily my favourite of the bunch. Especially the make your own boss one, that one's just sheer perfection. The ending segment is also just brilliant, it ends things on such a high note and leaves me wanting more, which is a good feeling to end on. 

-The overarching narrative with the card pack opening YTer. That was just a lot of fun for how authentic it feels, as well as being a fresh take on how to do a metanarrative without directly involving the player like The Hex did. 

Honestly, just what a good game. The creator's currently working on an official expansion for act 1 as a standalone mod, which is looking very promising so far. There's also a modding scene in general. I'm just hoping there can be some love for parts 2 and 3. They deserve it!!

Pony Island

Daniel Mullins' first game. And it kinda shows. You can see a lot of the seeds that would sprout in The Hex and Inscryption here, though the actual narrative and gameplay in this one are a lot more... hokey and janky. The whole "Satan just wants to make games, but he sucks ass at it" angle is a funny one, and he's an amusing antagonist to work with, but it's also kinda just that, a bit of a joke. It doesn't really build up to anything as grand as The Hex or Inscryption would. 

The gameplay also does let the game down, a lot of it is just meant to be bad on purpose, but it doesn't feel like a fun game to play during those segments. There is some good in here too, of course, there's a reason this game kickstarted Daniel's career. Some of the messing around with the SatanTech OS is a lot of fun, as are the battles of wits with Satan's surprisingly developed AIs. 

Pony Island is worth checking out, but don't except too much from the actual Pony Island gameplay itself. 

Wario Land 4: Parallel World

A mod for Wario Land 4 for the GBA, this one caught my eye when I saw the developer for Pizza Tower retweet it. This one is quite a gem, it features the same overall progression as the original game, a tutorial passage followed by 4 main passages and then a final passage, but the levels are all recreated from scratch.

The fun here is in exploring all the new levels, the game really mixes things up so all the levels feel novel and unique despite using the same mechanics and tiles as the originals. Sometimes the levels use some mechanics from other stages, some levels have radically different overall themes or progressions, it's all quite novel and it's all well-designed too. Anyone who liked Wario Land 4 would like this, I'm sure.

One thing I did think was that S-Hard mode did feel fairer than expected, mods generally have a reputation for being quite hard, but this mod never felt like it ventured into unfair territory. The only time I think it was outright excessive was one particular room in the  The Really Final Passage on S-Hard mode, where you need to go through a small obstacle course in a super fast timeframe to progress. It took me forever and I had to use both savestates and slowdown to do it...

Anyway, as I said I do reccomend this to anyone who liked Wario Land 4 and wanted more. I can't overstate how much I like the level design here and how it makes every stage feel meaningfully distinct from its original version. There's also various really cool nostalgia treats for fans of Wario Land 2 and 3.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Oh goodie, a walking simulator. Not a walking stimulator, because this one wasn't that exciting.

I didn't really get too into this one to be honest, the gameplay is divided into the bits where you solve some chronology puzzles to figure out the events of the murders that have occurred and then the bits where you are walking around and sometimes weird, wacky stuff happens.

Neither part works great, I'd say. Figuring out the chronology is weird because it seemed like the hardest ones to figure out were the first puzzles where you had to do that, while later ones were really obvious. The actual order also sometimes seems rather arbitrary, in the sense that it's a matter of trial and error to solve some of the stuff.

The walking around stuff is hampered by how vast and empty the world is in this game, the world looks absolutely amazing and the developers used some incredibly technology to get an indie game walking sim looking this good for the time of its release, but it's just... A lot of forest stuff, and a lot of a mining cave. It's not that exciting once the visual wow factor wears off. I didn't take any screenshots, apparently! This happens when I stream games, I suppose.

There was one bit where the game expects me to fiddle around with a valve in a building, but like a specific valve out of three, to operate a sluice and make a path over a river accessible. The signposting for this 'puzzle' was honestly terrible and I had to look it up online. The game doesn't want to 'hold the player's hands', but what it did here was even worse, it forced me to minimize the game and look up what to do online. Talk about breaking immersion. 

There was also like a bit where you're in an underground dungeon and you need to assemble pieces of paper while a zombie is lurking around. It's, like, come on. That's Slenderman tier of gameplay, that was not the right thing to put in a walking sim. 

The actual plot itself is, well, it's fine I guess. It does the endgame twist you'd probably expect, and there's some set-up to it. Eh, I dunno, there's just not that much to grab onto here. A family being a bunch of dicks to their son who has 'weird interests' like drawing and writing, there's not much to it really.

Webbed

Another bug game! And a real nice one. It's been a long time since I played a platformer and was just wowed by how fun it was to control your character. 

The core concept of Webbed is that you're playing as a spider, which lets you do all kinds of stuff a regular platforming protagonist can't do. The most obvious one of these is shooting webs! You can shoot webs to act as a sort of grappling hook, for some quick momentum-based platforming. You can also spin webs to make a thread of webbing between two points in the room. This latter mechanic is especially versatile, as you can also make threads between different threads, meaning you can connect a path over giant pits so long as there is some space you can latch a web onto. This can be both a powerful navigational tool, but it's also used in some physics puzzles, as the web can exert a pulling force on objects in the world. This includes NPCs, who can can web onto a ceiling. They won't mind. Probably. 

Also, skating.

Oh, and you can shoot lasers. As spiders do, of course.

There's basically no plot here, it's just you and some cute bugs on a quest to save your boyfriend from a bird. It's all there needs to be to support the excellent gameplay. I recommend this to any fan of 2D platformers, it's good and it makes full use out of its core gameplay aspects.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Ah, first Sonic Mania, now Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania... With all these royalties I am getting from these Mania games, I am well-stacked I dare say. Got oodles of cold hard cash lining my pockets, I say. Oh yes, I do. I do. I oh so doobie do.

The core gameplay here is kinda like Venineth, except rather than controlling the ball you are actually controlled the stage itself. I suppose maybe this is the most true platformer, since you're playing as the platforms? This means you don't have any controls outside of tilting the level, something that was... hard to get used to. I'm not sure I ever got the hang of something as basic as just going in a straight line, which the game likes to rub in since there's like a billion levels where you balance through a thin line. 

Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk! Nemesis Tornado!

Well, sadly, this one kinda disappointed me. I feel like the level design here is very archaic, in that early turn of the millennium bullshit game design sort of way, which is because the game is a remake from the original games made in that era. There's several modes in the game, and the most prominent one seems to be the story mode, and the levels in this mode really vary from good to, just awful really. There's a lot of levels that are all about the physics and I just never got the hang of it at all, and in some cases it seems really arbitrary, like the stage where there's a huge tower in the middle of the stage and there's these launchers you get into to rocket to there, and the outcome of where I was going seemed totally impossible to predict. I wound up skipping a lot of stages out of frustration. 

The story sequences were kinda fun, but also gibberish.

My favourite levels were the levels from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, those overall seemed like the most interesting and least frustrating of the bunch. But, eh, I just got turned off from this game. Probably the disappointment of the year? There's some others on here I'm mixed about, but those are either free games like DARQ or I also had many more nice things to say about them like Iconoclasts.

GRIS

This is a game I played early in January 2022, but since I started and finished it before starting this blog, I'll include it here.

GRIS is an art game. It's a gorgeous, visual spectacle of an art game. It is a game where you can take a screenshot of every screen and they'd all be beautiful screenshots. I cannot understate this, this game isn't just candy for the eyes, it's a full meal. A delicious meal, one of the finest I've had. But it is also, at the end of the day, a game, with a story, and with gameplay. How does it all fare?

Well, the gameplay is... OK. It's OK. It's a basic platformer that gives you new abilities throughout the game and tasks you with using them to progress through obstacles and puzzles. It starts out a bit boring, but it gets more interesting the more things are unlocked. Once you unlock swimming things get real good, I think. Funny, since usually swimming is where games get less fun, but Gris actually controls a lot more rapidly underwater. Fun subversion, that.

As for the story, it kinda takes some time to build up through the first few acts, but later on it all becomes pretty clearly crystallized what it's about, without the need for dialogue. At first it seems like the typical inconcrete art game stuff, but there's a clear narrative to the game. 

I think it was a misstep to stream this, honestly, this game is better experienced by oneself and without an attitude of cynicism. Go in expecting a beautiful game and enjoy it, it's good. 

Xenoverse: Per Aspera ad Astra

As is customary, I saved all the Pokémon games for last. Easier that way, means I can bundle them together. You know what Pokémon is, also, so it saves me some explaining.

Ok maybe some things need explanation...

Xenoverse: Per Aspera as Astra (To the stars through effort) is a Pokémon Essentials game, and date I say the best Pokémon fangame I've played.  It's a full-featured, full-lenght experience that oozes love and attention. The production values for this one are really good for a fan project, with most assets being custom-made for the mod itself, and of course a whole new region and an accompanying new region's worth of new Pokémon to find, alongside many existing Pokémon from generations 1 through 7. And they all have generation 5 style animated sprites, both front and back! Impressive!

Did I mention the translation is sometimes janky?
Daddy is a character's surname, for content.

The thing that really drew me to this one was the Pokémon, looking through the video I immediately picked out a shortlist of about 9 favorites I just wanted to put on a team, then I whittled it down to a squad of 6 and the rest was history. 

This one was on the list.

Honestly, this one is just solid across the board. It runs smoothly compared to other Essentials games I've played, the choice of Pokémon is solid, the music is surprisingly good, exploring the region and doing Pokémon battles felt just like the main series, and the game's writing even manages to not be cringeworthy! A rarity in Pokémon fangames, that. The tone of the game does get into a but more 'dark stuff', but it's nothing you wouldn't see in a shonen anime anyway, nothing that seems overwrought.

Come on, this was amazing.

Ok, things get kinda edgy later in the game, but again it's nothing too excessive. Not more than you'd find in the manga. That's more relevant than you'd think. 

The game is also still getting some updated to its postgame, so there's still a but more for me to do. Once the whole postgame is done I'll jump back in.

Team Pic

Pokémon Emerald: Doubles Edition

Not even the last time I'll play Emerald this year. And sadly the worse of the two.

The main gimmick here is a good one, Pokémon Emerald, but every battle is a Double Battle, like in Pokémon Colosseum and XD. This one is let down by a real janky difficulty curve that starts out nice and smooth, but then spikes out of control between gyms 3 and 4. Levels go up at a ridiculous pace, suddenly everybody has teams of fully evolved Pokémon and every battle is an uphill battle. It's kinda exhausting, and doesn't make for a good play experience. 

This is Gym 2...

I did see it through to the end, but really that remains what sticks out to me the most. A bit of a shame, really!

Team Pic

Pokémon Blaze Black 2

Ah... A vintage Drayano60 experience. Finely aged, like wine... Well, maybe not entirely, it's clear that the scripting for gen 5 ROMhacks was still rather in its infancy when this was made, which quite limits how much could be done. But I approve of what is there. It was a good run, and I got to use some cool Pokémon I haven't used before. 

Also I found and OHKO'ed a Shiny. It happens.

Not too much else to say really, except that this ROMhack will be getting an update apparently! Pretty recent that news came out. I look forward to it.

Team Pic

Pokémon Inclement Emerald

Ah! Ahh!! I'm Inclemeenting!!! Yuoaaaah!!

This is the next in a series of hacks by Buffel Saft, whose Wilting Y and Photonic Sun ROMhacks I have played previously! As the name implies, it's a gen 3 hack, and wow, it's extensive! It has a truckload of features. It's impressive how big it is really, it has all Pokémon and moves and items and abilities and such up to gen 7, with gen 8 also planned. It has a ton of quality of life features, and you'll need them too, since the opponents won't screw around. This ROMhack is the hardest I've played, and it was fun to challenge myself with it.

In the end I used a team of only Flying types. It was a cool run! Though I did think that by the end I had my fill, no need to do the postgame since the lategame is already quite stuffed with full teams with competitive movesets and whatnot. Not much further you can go from there. 

So yeah, I recommend this one. It's good! It also has difficulty modes you can choose if you want a more casual experience!

Team Pic

The Inextricable Return of Media: A Year Sans Vetrix

Finally, the part where you've all been waiting for. The part where I talk about cartoons and anime (cartoons). And Yu-Gi-Oh!, of course! ... Wait, what do you mean I didn't watch any Yu-Gi-Oh!? This is despair...

Dorohedoro

Yaaas, the show with the cute lizardman I saw all over Twitter for a period. This one was recommended to me by a friend for some time, so it was something I wanted to get around to. I'm glad I did! The show's got a weird setting that's fun to delve into, but it's the characters that really stand out.

Lizard Husbando <3

I particularly like how the antagonist and protagonist group both get a lot of focus, and it's easy to root for both groups. You kinda want them all to succeed, even when their goals are opposed. It was just a fun watch overall, and I hope the second season will come out eventually. I'll definitely check back in for that. 

Oh, and the dub is good. Blessed dub. 

Bob's Burgers

It's still going, it's still good. Did you know there's also a movie coming? There is! Kinda exciting, movies for shows like these are usually when they can have the suddenly big stakes, I'm real curious just what a Bob's Burgers movie will even be. Who'll even be the antagonist? Will there even be one?

Also: Bob's Burgers Goblins...

Either way, Bob's Burger is still going strong 12 seasons in.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

It's no use. I instructed Golden Wind to turn Mania's keyboard into a jellyfish. Did you know that in the old days, people used to piss over people who got stung by a jellyfish? I feel like drinking tea, suddenly.

Wait, what was I talking about?

Oh right, the fifth part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the one in which a 15-year old wants to dethrone a mafia boss and meets a crew of weirdos and then a lot of really freaking weird Stand Battles happen and a bunch of people die in horrible ways. Neat!

Every time I think they can't top what came before, they top what came before. I really admire how JJBA keeps changing its formula and tone in new ways, this part is as different as it can be from Part 4, yet they're both so quintessentially JJBA. 

Part 5 is overall a lot more brutal and less whimsical than part 4... But there's also still a lot of whimsy, of course. While part 4 was about hopping between goals and a lot of episodes were kinda just goofing off and sometimes they'd just run across a Stand, like Mikitaka or Shigechi, in part 5 there's a clear through-line of a singular endgoal, and the path to getting there. It's still cut up into different parts like other parts were (assembling and getting to know the squad, the minibosses, villain reveal and more minibosses, the final act), the pacing and structure are notable different just like they always are. Araki knows how to mix things up, and it's great.

Honestly it's just a joy to watch, and I'm not even entirely done, as there's 3 episodes left. Perhaps this is my new favourite part? Maybe that's just recency bias, though! 

Hallowed Fruits Of The Internet: Webcomics

Whoops, there aren't really any more here than last year... Let's see where the year started and where it ended, shall we?

The Order of the Stick

At the start of the year, the Order just avoided Team Evil, and then it's been a lotta comics of setting up and dealing with Serini. It's... Been a year of Serini? Huh. How time flies.

Well, Serini is based. Serini is a chad. Serini is a Sigma Halfling. Ultimate lifeform. I like Serini, ok?! She's fun. Everybody on the forum is like "Waaaaah!! She's not making sense!" and it's like, yeah, that's the dramatic irony isn't it? 

Sadly by the most important metric, how much Goblin discourse the comic causes, this year wasn't quite as impactful as 2020. 2020 was the golden era of people fiercely debating Redcloak's and Goblins's role in the comic, but 2021's Serini discourse just can't match that Goblin discourse. Sorry, Serini, but your discourse is at least better than Bandana and Andi's. And at least there was some Goblin discourse this year, courtesy of a character saying Redcloak might have a point about some things.

Anyway, OotS is still good. When there's a NEO NEW HYPER STRONGEST COMIC UPDATE OF OATMEAL, I am happy. Isn't that the real mark of quality?

Goblins

Ah Goblins. The Cd-i Zelda of comics? You just can't look away. But I like it. It's weird and janky, and it's good. Except when it isn't. 

Ok, so what did we actually do this year? We finished the rather strange angel time-clock-egg sequence of leveling up, which did seem kind of like author wish fulfillment where she squeels over best Goblin Big Ears, but like, he IS best Goblin so... Deserved. We also had Kin and Minmax re-unite from... When did they go apart? Man that was ages ago! Well, they got their happy embracing make-up scene. 

Oh also we saw Kore do some trap solving, and he's kind of lost his threatening aura by this point hasn't he? He's just kind of a bit a guy now, I feel. We already kinda dealt with him once, admittedly using some stage hazards, and now he's got magic items up the ass since this setting has those like candy, but we've already revealed Kore looks like kind of a hideous monster. There's not much else left, right? I guess we'll see.

And now we're in the polkadot maze!! Aaaaaah!!! Dots of polka!

All in all, it was a year for Goblins. Goblins happened. There were actual Goblins! There's been years where that wasn't the case, believe you me!

... Remember Dies Horribly?

Chosen Four

Whew, I almost forgot to list this one. Tisk tisk, Mania. Well, sadly, not too much to say after last year. The Earthbound crew are still dealing with the final Your Sanctuary boss. Honestly I think everybody reading the comic is really looking forward to the finale, the encounter with Gigyas had some epic build-up back in Moonside. 

Murmurs Of The Northward Questant: Collaborative Indiscretion

Wait, we're talking about quests AGAIN? How many times am I going to definitively finish questcrafting?! Good grief, past me, get a grip on yourself.

Well, that was the idea anyway, but then I had a memory come up: What about that time I and some others collaborated on making a quest? Well, we were FOOLISH CHILDREN back then. Now? Now we are FOOLISH BIG CHILDREN. The bigness makes a big difference, because now we make big people quests for big people.

Big Brain Writing

And so, I proposed the idea. And somehow it attracted sufficient interest to get some stuff going.

It's currently on hiatus at the time of me writing this, but I do like what's there so far. And I have ideas BROILING in my mind. They speak of dice rolls, of hope and despair, of themes, of ghosts of the past, of mushrooms, of imagination, and of course there's a Goblin in there somewhere. Majika won't know what's coming to him... What I'm gonna bring it to 'em. 

Also, I like this city map. My nicest city map ever, tbh.

Maybe it'll be finished some day. Maybe there will be more. Who can tell? I could. I can predict your every move. But life is fun because of the mysteries, so I won't.

2020: To Do Right Right, Right?

A follow-up to that section last year where I talked about what I wanted to do in 2021! Let's see how many of those things I got around to, shall we?

THE LONGING: Whoops! Didn't get around to this one, did I? Well, let's say I'll get it done in 2022.

Axe Cop: I don't think I got around to doing the bonus content, I think I booted the game but couldn't really figure out where to go. I should redownload the game and try again, perhaps? 

Sam & Max Remaster: I did play the season 1 remaster! And the season 2 remaster is in the list for 2022.

Heartbound: This one is still in Early Access! I'm gonna keep waiting until it's finished to play it. I'm patient, so that's fine. 

Smile for Me: I played and liked this! Thanks for the gift, whoever was it that gifted it to me!!

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: I still need to gewt around to this! Well, I will! In 2022!!

Iconoclasts: I played this and had quite a lot to say about it! It's good, I think, but it just gets off on a rocky start. It's one of those "oh well it makes sense if you play it twice" types of things, but that doesn't make for a great initial impression.

Those Homestuck Visual Novels: Yeah, that's a no. Even last year I was indecisive about it. I think I've had my fill of Homestuck, really. I'll just wait patiently for DELTARUNE instead. 

JoJo Part 5: Almost done!

Dorohedoro: I did get around to this! Glad I did, too.

2022: That Which Was Left Behind And That Which Was Left To Do

And this is where I briefly list the stuff I intend to get around to in 2022, and then in 2022 I can look over that list and be like "What the hell, I didn't do these at all" and it'll be a major downer. It'll be fun!

Let's begin with last year's remnants, without further explanation needed.

-THE LONGING
-Axe Cop
-Sam & Max Remaster
-Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

And now, for the new additions to the list, featuring some games I bought on Steam, some Wishlisted games, some remains from the Justice Bundle, some nostalgic stuff, and some non-games...

From the Library

Games I already own and intend to (re)play in 2022.

Inscryption: The endless act 1 expansion is still being updated, and the game has a budding but promising modding scene. I think there could be greatness to come here. The game's conclusion also perfectly sets up some mod ideas. We'll see how long I stick with this.

Disco Elysium: A game that was recommended to me and also seems ti be widely acclaimed. I'll see if it lives up to those standards or not, but I'll keep my expectations reasonable.

Resident Evil 2&3: The remakes, to be precise, or REmakes if you want to engage in some minor wordplay. I did play the RE1 remake and enjoyed it a lot, it's only fair I try these two.  Everyone loves the RE2 remake, while the RE3 remake is pretty divisive. I liked RE3 more than RE2, but these two are very different games, so we'll see how they stack up. 

Memody Sindrel Song: After the dev posted the game's OST online, I got somewhat of a nostalgic fever for this game. I want to go through this again and see how it fares two years after its release. I'm also curious to see how well I remember the songs, since the game's core idea is memorizing melodies.

Xenoverse: Like I said before, I want to play this one's DLC! I'm not sure when the final one is coming out, but I'm hoping it'll be a 2022 release.

The Wishlist

Games on my Steam Wishlist that I'm hoping to play in 2022, assuming they release by then!

OTHER: Her Loving Embrace: A lot of these have been on the wishlist for some time. I think this one I put on there after seeing a YT video of this game's demo and thinking it looked neat. It says the release date is 2022, so let's hope for a release. Then again, a delay is fine too if it's in service of the game's quality.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon: That Yakuza game where it's actually a turn-based RPG! This one's on the list since it was a common topic in the Discord group I'm in and it seems like it'd be up my alley. I'll probably get this when it's on sale!

Together in Battle: It is slated for a 2022 release on the Wishlist. We'll see if it comes out in 2022 or not, but I'm excited for more games using the Telepath Tactics engine!

Walthros Renewal: A game I've been following the devlog of since 2020, from the makers of Kaiju Big Battel. I loved that game's detail and soul, and this one seems to have that put more to the forefront than KBB. It's looking real good, everything I've seen about it has been charming so far.

Mr. Triangle's Maze: This one has been long in the making! The last I heard of this might have been around 2017, but it seems RTG is determined to finish this one in 2022. I look forward to it! I enjoyed Chip's Challenge and this seems like it's heavily inspired by that game. I just hope there aren't a lot of marathon levels with a lot of timing stuff, my favorite CC levels were always the brainteasers and the quick but difficult gimmicky timing/skill challenges.

Bravely Default II: Hm, I liked Bravely Default and Bravely Second, but I never did beat Octopath. That makes me unsure if I'll beat this one or not. There's also disagreement in the community if this one is the better game compared to BD/BS. Not 100% sure when I'll get around to this, maybe I'll wait until it's on sale?

Atonal Dreams: I did beta test this in 2021, but it was a pretty brief test, so I didn't write about it before. Not sure if there'll be a 2022 release, but there will surely be a more extensive beta test, and I intend to be there to test it! I'm always looking forward to the next thing that Tobias Cornwall is working on, and he keeps extensive blogs of his design process, which are interesting to read through.

From the Bundle

Since most of these are quite unfamiliar to me, they're just from a bundle after all, I'll just group these together without much fanfare. The bundle games I played in 2020 were fun, and in 2021 I did play Jimmy. I suspect One Shot would be this list's standout, but who knows? I gotta give these games a shot to know! Yes... I gotta give them One Shot.

-Clam Man
-Interactivity
-Islands
-Kids
-One Shot
-Parallax
-Ruya
-Social Interaction Trainer
-Starseed Pilgrim
-Vignettes
-Your Future Self

The Rest

Stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere!

Pizza Tower: I'm not sure what the development status of this Wario Land 4-inspired platformer is, but it has the same charm as that game and it looks quite polished. I need to keep an eye out for this one!

JoJo Part 6: Not sure if we'll get to it in 2022, our break between parts 4 and 5 was pretty long I believe. I might watch something else between parts 5 and 6. I do look forward to it though! JoJo hasn't disappointed me yet, I'm not expecting it will be different for part 6.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V: Ok this one is mostly because Arc-V released in Duel Links, but I've been curious to see whether this show is the genius-turned-trainwreck the fandom treats it as. I roped someone into watching GX with me, can I do it again? 

Victory Fire: Gasp, a webcomic. I randomly came across this in my once-in-a-while jaunts through dA where I search for Goblin-related art. It looked interesting, a webcomic set in the Mystery Dungeon setting. Looks to have good art too, and the writing seems decent. Sadly it is on a seemingly indefinite hiatus though, but who knows?

Suzumega Medabot: I have a pretty big backlog of comics in this series to read. I think I used to read these before I started including webcomics in this blog. It'd be a shame to not include them next year though, so I need to catch up!