Finally decided to try it out after a combination of having learned about it from a thread in the gaming subforum and then more recently seeing that one of my Steam friends had purchased and played it, and that officially pushed me further in that direction. Kinda reminds me of Undertale in a way. The battle system is kinda hectic, like an inverse rhythm game. Especially during the fight, with the guitar solos of death where the yellow notes coming down being like bullet hell, and it's one of the ones where you have to beat him before the music ends. The soundtrack is easily one of the best parts of the game, even bought the soundtrack to support the devs. Some parts of some of the battles are pretty much psychedelic acid trips, and sometimes the distortion creates fake difficulty (especially during one of the penultimate fights). Overall a really fun game, even if some aspects of the plot feel like incomprehensible abstract art.

Got the New Game+ achievement and that's pretty much as far as I got. Well, maybe slightly more than that. I haven't gotten any other endings yet.

This is a mod of Half-Life 1 (or Opposing Force? Either one I guess) that I downloaded from ModDB and have been playing for the past few days and despite having starting development in 2009 I was only just now made aware of its existence. It's one of those mods that feels like the gaming equivalent of a page-turner and like it could have been an actual expansion pack from back in the day. In fact, it may very well be my favorite HL1 mod I've played thus far. Just like in Opposing Force, you play as an HECU marine and throughout the game get many of the same weapons but at one point this one introduces a portable med-pack that allows you to heal yourself and whatever squad members you happen to have with you. It's also quite long for a mod.


The only issues I could think of were that some places took me much longer than I should have just to figure out how to advance, and I think there was at least one point where a Voltigore could spawn literally right where I was at that moment.

After 165 hours, I finally beat the game for the first time. Man, what a beast of a game!

Not all of its parts were equally great. I think the bosses in particular were a little "below average", as far as FromSoft standards go. Not exactly "bad". A lot of bosses were still quite decent and overall enjoyable to fight, but almost all of them had that one attack that was unnecessarily intransparent or hard to dodge. One boss was even outright unbeatable with my specific play style. I had to summon other player to deal with her. Also, for the side content in the game, it loves to just place slightly beefed up enemies as bosses. This worked somewhat decently in the early game - especially when I didn't know they were just regular enemies yet - but they became more and more trivial and less interesting the more I saw. So yeah, I think overall, Dark Souls III and Sekiro definitely had the more enjoyable bosses, but this one still gets a pass. I think it was at least about Demon's Souls still.

All that aside, I can only speak my highest praises to the game. I can barely put into words what a ridiculously awesome experience it was. FromSoft really didn't have any restraints and just made like 70% of the game's greatest content entirely optional. I mean, this game somehow contains what would probably be the equivalent of a Dark Souls IV and V, and yet you don't even have to interact with most of it. A lot of incredibly great, large dungeons are just hidden away behind a random-ass fake wall or a single easy-to-miss elevator somewhere on the overworld.

I think as a result of this, what Elden Ring ended up being for me was the best open world experience I've ever had. More exhilarating than even Xenoblade Chronicles X or Breath of the Wild. Maybe not quite with the same amount of polish, but exploring the world was so incredibly exciting. No matter where I went, I could always find something interesting and have the adventure of my life time. Part of what I love about FromSoft games is the sensation of dread they give me. In Elden Ring, that was still the case, except I never knew where or when I'd get that dread, which somehow made those moments even more special.

I highly recommend this game, even if you've never played another FromSoft title. It IS still darn tough, like all of them, but probably the most accessible the series has ever been so far. The game's beginning in particular ended up being surprisingly tame and it almost caught me off-guard when I ran into some areas that felt almost as hellishly evil as the worst of Dark Souls.

Since I played this game for 165 hours, you might think I 100%ed it, but no, far from it. That was just for a single playthrough in which I could only get a single ending and in which I was unable to do a lot of NPC quest lines, because the respective NPCs just died for no reason (it's one of those really weird FromSoft game things). I did try to do everything I could within that one playthrough, though, so that's why it took so long. I also have a very defensive play style, taking my time and taking out enemies from a distance whenever I need to. A more aggressive play style would get through the game much faster, I'm sure. Anyways, I could probably do all the missed stuff much faster in a couple of New Game+ due to my strong build, but I think I'm already fine with what I got so far and am moving to other games for the time being.

Also, a little correction on my last post: I mentioned how the game's controls were kinda borked, having a ridiculous amount of input lag for dodge rolls. I think I was wrong on that. It just so happened that I was using a medium roll all this time, thinking it was a light roll. Both have very similar animations, but very different timings. The light roll gets a lot closer to what I'm used to from Dark Souls III. It also ended up being less and less of a problem throughout my playthrough, anyways, as I was playing a shield-based build. Eventually, I just got a shield that was so strong that it made rolling almost unnecessary. Though I also had a medicine that would give me light rolls for three minutes, which was perfect for boss battles. I'm glad Elden Ring includes this mechanic.

This game is quite tough to talk about, because it feels like such an immense improvement over ZX on one hand, while also introducing it's own entire slew of unique problems on the other.

Technically speaking, ZX Advent did fix the largest issue of ZX: It includes teleporters absolutely everywhere. However, these teleporters only introduce new issues. You need EC to activate them, and since often times you just don't have enough, it means you regularly have to skip one or two, so you never have all the teleporters available that you need. Also, almost all of these teleporters are just end points. This means you can teleport to them, but not away from them. This is actually the largest issue, because it means whenever you teleport into a level - for a side quest or otherwise - you have to play to its very end before you can teleport out again.

Considering all this, it's difficult to say that ZX Advent even improved anything. I guess if you don't do any side content and only visit each level once, then it'll probably feel like there wasn't any back-tracking at all, so the game might feel like it fixed ZX's biggest issue. On the other hand, once you start doing side content, there'll even be times when it'll absolutely feel worse. So I really don't know about this.

Another annoyance in the game is that it includes a LOT of transformations. Way more than ZX. This might not sound like a bad thing at first, because more transformations means more play styles and thus more variety. However, first of all, this makes switching between them really annoying. The menu with all your transformations is now ridiculously large, and scrolling to the one you need always takes some time. In the game's original version, this issue was somewhat alleviated, because it had icons for transformations on the touch screen. You could transform into each form by just one tap. The remaster doesn't have this luxury anymore. It technically does include the touch screen still, but it's cumbersome to interact with, so usually, you just don't want to bother.

The second problem is that the game also requires you to switch between your forms much more often. It'll just throw in random segments into each level where you'll have to use a certain form to progress, so you're regularly forced to switch. To make this even worse, most of these transformations absolutely play like shit under normal circumstances. You'll never want to use them, EXCEPT to interact with their respective obstacles. This feels like such a bad deviation from the original Mega Man formula, where each form was supposed to feel empowering and useful. This does the exact opposite and just makes each form feel like yet another annoyance.

Finally, regarding forms in the game, I also have to say that I really don't like the default one you get (model A). The default moveset of your character in both Mega Man Zero and ZX felt perfect. You had your buster for ranged combat and your Z-Saber for melee combat. You could always use the appropriate weapon for the appropriate situation. This is no longer the case in ZX Advent, as the saber has been replaced by some kind of homing shot. You mark enemies with a light cone and then once you fire, you will hit all enemies within the cone. I don't like this attack. It's slow, it uses energy, it isn't fun to use, it's just not a good replacement for the saber at all. It feels like a downgrade.

You do actually unlock the original ZX transformation in this game, but that's only half-way into the story. Additionally, there's an issue I forgot to mention: Whenever you transform into anything other than your human or model A form, the game will transform you back at the start of a cutscene or when interacting with NPCs. Presumeably, this is so that your character can speak in their normal voice (the game includes voice acting), but really, this is just another annoyance you have to deal with. Once I unlocked the ZX transformation, I liked to use it as my default, but the game would just transform me back whenever entering a cutscene or talking to an NPC, making it unnecessarily tedious. It should at least have the courtesy to transform you back into your previous form at the end of a cutscene, but the developers didn't think of that.

Overall, what I can say about ZX Advent is that it's a good game, but one that still doesn't manage to get everything right and that still feels kinda compromised, especially in its remaster. Objectively, it might still be a tad better than ZX Advent, but personally, I feel like ZX gives me slightly more nostalgia and I'd rather replay that.

I've started replaying this on my Switch quite a while ago, then put it aside for a long time because some other games released in the meantime that I wanted to play, then picked it back up recently to complete it.

Honestly can't say much about it aside from... man, I'm tired of this kind of game. I don't like turn-based battles, I especially don't like ATB, and I don't like random encounters. I can only think of two games that I feel actually were enhanced by ATB (Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy XII). All other games, in my opinion, only suffer from it, and this is one of them.

When I enjoy a game that has an ATB, it's usually because it's good enough that I can look past my issues with it. This was definitely the case with FFVII when I played it for the first time, because it was just such a memorable experience. Even back then, I didn't like the combat, but I still managed to enjoy the game overall. Now, however, the experience is no longer fresh, and I'm feeling all of the game's issues more than ever. It's not JUST the ATB. It's also the horrible translation (especially the German one), the poorly aged graphics, the bad overworld controls and a bunch of other tiny issues. This game always had many flaws, and they only feel worse now on the Switch.

When I started playing the remaster, I actually tried to do it legitimately. I only used fast-forward here and there, but none of the other features the remaster includes. However, after that little break, I was so out of it that I just couldn't be bothered any longer, so I played the reminder of the game using boost mode. It basically makes your party super strong and nearly invincible. Honestly, I can't say that it made the game a much worse experience, because I really didn't want to engage with its battles any longer. On the other hand, it just made what few battles there were feel more pointless. Playing the game this way is basically playing it just for the story, but I don't think a game's story has meaning without being backed by its gameplay. That's really the dilemma of these boost modes. On one hand, they make the games less tedious to play, but on the other hand, they also make them more pointless.

Despite all the controversial stuff the remake includes, I can confidently say that I still enjoy it much more than this, and I really hope we'll see it in its entirety one day.

Objectively speaking, FFIX is a pretty good game. Subjectively, though? I've had a very meh time with it. I just didn't feel this game.

If you've read my segment about Final Fantasy VII above, you can imagine why that is. I just don't like ATB systems or random encounters. Though to make matters worse: Final Fantasy IX isn't an easy game. Far from it. It's probably the cruelest of the three main-line FFs on the PS1. It's not pulling any punches and throwing you into pretty tricky battles right from the get-go. Because of this, I hardly even bothered trying to go through the game legitimately. After experiencing a few battles and seeing how cruel they were, I gave up and just switched to permanent boost mode. This game is also probably the slowest out of all the FFs on PS1. Not only in terms of load times, but also in terms of performance and movement speed. The overworld takes ages to load and then runs at, like, 10 or so FPS. In other words: Constantly using fast-forward is basically a requirement.

As a result, as you can imagine, my time with the game felt pretty meaningless. I only really played it for its story, yet its story on its own't wasn't really captivating enough for me. I've never really been into typical high fantasy, anyways. Even within the FF series, I've always preffered the entries that were leaning more towards the science fantasy side of things.

I also feel that this game in particular had a bunch of playable characters that did almost nothing for the story. Mahagon and Quina felt like complete wastes of screen time, and Freya was only really interesting for the duration of that one chapter she was involved in. This is actually a very typical J-RPG problem. Many include playable characters just for the sake of variety, but then fail to integrate them into the story in a meaningful way. In almost all cases, I don't think this actually improves the respective game.

Anyways, despite all the issues I've had with the game, I still don't really hate it, and it still had its memorable moments for me. Mainly some of the more shocking ones in the middle. I didn't really like the Zidane and Lili pairing initially, because I just didn't like Zidane as a character. Luckily, this did somewhat improve over the story's runtime, and ultimately, the game's ending did manage to move me and make me emotional. I also liked the game's themes of life, death and finding a home.

I don't think I'll ever feel like replaying this in its current form, but just like the other FFs, I think this would benefit greatly from a remake. I've also heard that it's apparently getting an animated series at some point, so I'm very curious to see how that will turn out.

Man, this game was amazingly joyful. The last (and only) Kirby game I had played through was Kirby's Dream Land, and I've just never really gotten into the series again ever since. Yet when I saw the trailer for this, I immediately knew I had to play it.

It was a lot of fun. If I were to summarize it, I'd say it felt like the gameplay of Super Mario Odyssey combined with the level design of Super Mario 3D World. A pretty neat combination. All the levels were super cute and charming, the selection of special powers was quite solid, and I especially enjoyed all of the mouthful modes, with the car in particular being my favorite thing in the game. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if the entire game had been just car levels. The music was also extremly catchy.

All in all, this game really delivered quite an amazing package, and it got me a huge, huge step closer to actually caring about Kirby on a general level. If you are already a Kirby fan, you are definitely going to love this.

BUT... and I hate to say this, I also had quite a few major gripes with the game, and they made it a rather stressful experience for me. A lot of it has to do just with how my brain is wired. I don't have to 100% all of my games, but when I play a game where I think that I can, I often feel like I must. The closer I get to 100% in any given game, the harder it is for me to not go all the way - even when the last 10% of that process turn out to be the worst thing ever. This is kinda what defined my experience with Kirby.

First of all, each level has a number of hidden objectives to fulfil that contribute to 100% completion. You never know what these are, unless you either stumble into them by accident or beat the level. This circumstance alone pretty much guarantees that you'll have to replay a couple of them at least once. While the levels in the game aren't exactly super duper long, they're just long enough to where replaying them gets annoying - especially if you have to do it multiple times, which I had to do with some of the trickier ones. The game is also kinda flawed in this regard. Usually, the placement of objectives on the end screen reflects where in the level they can be fulfilled, but on a few rare occasions, just to trip you up, they just switch up the order. This caused me to replay one particular level like five times before I realized its secret was hidden in the very beginning.

Secondly, the game includes a bunch of optional challenges that are more so annoying than they are fun. I'm saying "optional", but I'm sure a lot of these actually contribute to 100% completion. Each boss has a "take no damage" objective, and while these actually ended up being a lot easier than I feared, just their mere existence was already enough to stress me out. Also all of the side levels have a target time to beat, and while I'm not sure if those even contribute to 100%, but the game displays a little checkmark if you do beat them. The mere existence of this checkmark was enough to make me feel like I HAD to do it. This was pretty much the only thing that made these levels annoying to me. Instead of them just being those fun little extra challenges, I instead have them saved in my brain as "GOD, DAMN IT, THAT'S STILL NOT FAST ENOUGH?". To be fair, most of these weren't really too tough to beat, but those remaining 10% just stuck in my mind. The only levels where I genuinely enjoyed going for the clear time were the car levels. Then there's also that absolutely horrible, motion-controlled ball physics mini game that drove me insane for a few hours. Let me not even get started about the post-game content. It added nothing of value to the game and was a complete waste of time. I've never been a few of game reusing levels and just filling them with different content. Mario games just love to do that, and as it turns out, Kirby game do, too.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the controls, man. Those darned controls. As I mentioned, I haven't actually played a Kirby game after Dream Land 2 for more than a few minutes, and I think the controls are the main reason for that. I just never liked them in any of the games. I hate how easy it is to accidentally float instead of jumping (especially when I don't even see the purpose of floating in a platformer), I hate how some abilities use a single button for like three different things, and I don't like how intentionally cumbersome certain things are to use. While the Forgotten Land controls fine 90% of the time, it'll still drive you nuts for those remaining 10%.

I hate how pressing jump even just a frame too early makes you float instead. I hate how pressing jumps even just a frame too late also makes you float instead (the game does not seem to include coyote time). I hate how the Dragon Fire ability shoots fire while you're grounded, yet makes you dash forward when you're in the air. I pretty much never used that dash intentionally, except in one level, where I had to. That level combined all of the issues mentioned above, and it drove me insane. You had to use Dragon Fire's dash constantly in order to make the clear time, meaning you had to press jump and attack constantly, but press the attack button just a little before jumping and you'd get a flame instead, press the jump button just a little before landing and you'd float instead (pretty much an immediate failure of the clear time). It was frustrating for all the wrong reasons.

For some reasons it's a very Nintendo thing to have games that are mostly very easy, but then with some annoyingly frustrating optional challenges. Mario games do it, and apparently Kirby games, too. I'm not a fan of this. I prefer my games to either be consistently easy or consistently hard. Haven sudden short difficulty spikes will just stress me out. I wish my stupid gamer brain weren't wired like this, because if I could just skip on all the stressful stuff, this would be one hella amazing package of a game for me. As it stands, though, it was just a game I mostly enjoyed, with a bunch of parts that I didn't enjoy at all.

Started playing this a while ago, and really liking it so far. Honestly, the gameplay isn't particularly deep or anything. Even the world itself doesn't have all that much variety. A lot of things look kinda the same.

I think there's really just one core reason to play this game, which is the relationship between the two main characters. It's cute, it's relatable, it feels genuine, and it's what carries the entire game. I enjoy it a lot.

The gameplay itself is super relaxing, though. There's some battles, but for the most part, you're just flying around and exploring the planet. Perfect if you want to play something stress-free.

I completed this game just yesterday. I think when I first talked about it, I said it seems like a pretty good an inoffensive game, even if a bit shallow in the story department. Yet despite generally liking it, I just put it aside at some point and couldn't get myself to pick it back up. Only after completing Elden Ring, I told myself to finally finish it.

I think I now know why that was. I just don't enjoy the combat in this game at all. I like the game when you're just platforming, or when fighting smaller enemies that can be staggered, but once fighting medium or big enemies, it immediately stresses me out.

Granted, I was playing on one of the higher difficulties. I would have switched to a lower one, but there was this fear of "maybe I'll get a unique achievement if I finish on this difficulty", so I kept at it. Stupid gamer brain at it once again.

Anyways, I don't think the chosen difficulty was really the main issue. I think the combat failed for me on a conceptual level, but I can't quite put into words what it was. I just had an incredibly hard time dodging attacks. Either enemy attacks came out so quickly that it was impossible to react, or they had an intentionally long delay of multiple seconds in there to throw you off. There didn't seem to be any middle ground, and on the difficulty I played on, there wasn't a lot of wiggle room. Four or three hits would usually get you killed, and there were very few healing opportunities that couldn't even be used at all times. Dying usually meant replaying the entire fight from the beginning, and some of those felt quite long. Especially the final boss, which had a phase in there that really wasn't any fun.

I dunno... I tend to just randomly have problems with combat in games. For example, I'm also really bad at combat in any action games made by Platinum, yet I know a lot of other people love Bayonetta and co. It's therefore possible that I'm the only one feeling this way and that most people would really enjoy the combat in Kena. For me, though, I'll probably remember this game with kind of a "meh" feeling, which is unfortunate, because there's a lot of good stuff in it.

Lemony Snicket goes into game development. Nuff said. Also finally figured out how to get to where you play the 4 hour baby game that I let go into the fire cuz I'm not gonna waste 4 hours doing such repetitive shit.

Currently at Experiment Z-57 (also known as the Flappy Bird boss). Still that one boss because, while I don't really have to relearn its patterns (except for the upgraded tentacle swipe from phase 2 onward), being on hard mode it deals more damage per hit, as if to make up for that, and I still sometimes find myself getting hit by its acid beam attack due to miscalculation. Every time it does the Flappy Bird attack I feel tempted to try to Shinespark to end the fight but my focus on trying to do that makes me end up either getting hit by a tentacle swipe or one of the purple air currents, either of which takes off at least 2 or 3 energy tanks at once. I hate Shinesparking in Metroid Dread. Another thing that makes this fight artificially difficult is how space jump tends to randomly disable itself when trying to dodge the tentacle attacks.