Daily Challenge - 2025-10-11
Score: 212 / 300
🟦🟪🟩 🟦 = 75 | R | Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma
🟦🟩🟧 🟩 = 51 | S | Hitman 2
🟦🟪🟪 🟦 = 86 | P | Little Nightmares II

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2025-10-10
Score: 179 / 300
🟦🟪🟦 🟩 = 81 | P | Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
⬛⬛⬛ 🟩 = 14 | S | New Super Luigi U
🟦🟪🟦 🟦 = 84 | R | Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Completely fumbled Luigi U, and it's the one game I've played of these.

Daily Challenge - 2025-10-07
Score: 216 / 300
🟩🟧🟥 🟦 = 42 | P | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
🟦🟪🟩 🟦 = 78 | R | Animal Crossing: New Horizons
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 96 | S | Venba

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I don't really have any interest in Dino Crisis or Alan Wake 2, but I did end up getting Signalis since it's on sale, it seems neat. I probably won't get to it for a bit, I may not finish it this month, but I'll definitely get around to it and post my thoughts here when I do. It seems a little inspired by Resident Evil which are some games I've been really enjoying recently.

I completed 2 games for the challenge in September, slowly working my way to finishing all of them.

22. A game heavily featuring zombies - Resident Evil
39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand - Hollow Knight

Resident Evil was a decent experience, it's a cool game that hasn't aged the greatest. Hollow Knight was alright, I had some fun with it but it's nowhere near a perfect game in my opinion.

I was planning on maybe playing Silksong for a game that made it out of development hell, but honestly it doesn't sound fun to me so I won't be playing it. Instead I'll be playing Metroid Prime 4, which did get a release date, in December which is sub-optimal. It may end up being the last game I finish for the challenge. I started Final Fantasy X/X-2, which should hopefully finally fulfill the 50+ hours game. I just came up with a game for the folklore challenge as well, Resident Evil Village apparently draws from a lot of folklore.

Collection

45/50 games completed.

1. A new game (released within the past year) - Split Fiction - Completed
2. An old game (released 10+ years ago) - Halo 3 - Completed
3. A really old game (released 20+ years ago) - Fallout - Completed
4. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago) - Final Fantasy - Completed
5. A time sink (50+ hours) - Fallout 4 (Placeholder) - Incomplete
6. A quickie (less than an hour) - Missed Messages - Completed
7. A remake or remaster of a game - Final Fantasy II - Completed
8. A game with 6+ endings - Fallout 2 - Completed
9. A collection of games - Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered - Completed
10-2. A game named after the main character - Mega Man - Completed
11. A game from a genre you don't normally play - Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! - Completed
12-2. A game adapted into another medium - Stardew Valley - Completed
13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less) - LOVE (2014) - Completed
14-1. A game with over 1k completions - Celeste - Completed
15-2. A replay - Halo 5: Guardians - Completed
16. A game that's been game of the month - Metroid Zero Mission - Completed
17. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer - Fallout: New Vegas - Completed
18. A game with a real or fictional religion - Halo 4 (Covenant) - Completed
19-2. A spin-off - Mega Man Zero - Completed
20. A cornerstone of gaming culture - Bioshock - Completed
21. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain - Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017) - Completed
22. A game heavily featuring zombies - Resident Evil - Completed
23. A game that hasn't aged well - Fallout 3 - Completed
24. An indie game - Slime Rancher - Completed
25-1. A game that takes place after a timeskip (5+ years) - Bioshock 2 - Completed
26. A sequel that's more famous than the original - Final Fantasy VII - Completed
27. A game that has no business being in its series - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - Completed
28. A game from a franchise that rarely gets new games - Mega Man 11 - Completed
29. A game with an interesting hook - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Completed
30-1. A game with a great plot twist - Bioshock Infinite - Completed
31-1. The definitive edition of a game - Mass Effect Andromeda (Deluxe Edition) - In progress
32-2. A game available on 7+ platforms - Final Fantasy III - Completed
33. A game you beat to 100% completion - Emily is Away - Completed
34. A game that started a long-running franchise (7+ games) - Puyo Puyo - Completed
35. A recent (within the last 5 years) game in a long running franchise (7+ games) - Halo Infinite - Completed
36. A game that's smaller than 100MB - Peggle Nights - Completed
37. Game that won any category in the SPIKE Video Game awards or the Game Awards Hosted by Geoff Keighly - Metroid: Samus Returns - Completed
38. A game that made it out of development Hell - Metroid Prime 4 - Incomplete
39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand - Hollow Knight - Completed
40. A game with a memorable soundtrack - Undertale - Completed
41. A game from someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list - Mass Effect (Valcrist73's 49-2) - Completed
42. A game with a female protagonist - NieR: Automata - Completed
43. A game inspired by Mythology or Folklore - Resident Evil Village - Incomplete
44. A game inspired/based on real world historical events - Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Incomplete
45. A game developed by a single person - Balatro - Completed
46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game - Celeste Classic - Completed
47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award - HuniePop - Completed
48. A game with a silent protagonist - Halo 3: ODST - Completed
49-2. A game that features space travel - Mass Effect 2 - Completed
50. A game that prominently features food/cooking - Venba - Incomplete

Date: Game - Rating
Sep 7: Donkey Kong Country Returns - 6/10
Sep 10: Hollow Knight - 7/10
Sep 11: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - 8.5/10
Sep 13: Donkey Kong Jr. Math - 3.5/10
Sep 15: Slay the Spire - 9/10
Sep 17: Resident Evil - 7/10
Sep 23: Resident Evil Zero - 6.5/10
Sep 28: Final Fantasy IX - 9/10

The best games I played is September were Slay the Spire and Final Fantasy IX. I haven't played as much Slay the Spire as I would've liked, I won my first run at ~6 hours, and I've only put in 3 additional hours since. But I've been short on time, I still really enjoyed it. Final Fantasy IX is also really good. For a bit it was a 10/10 for me, but I encountered some issues such as some boss designs and a few progression bumps that hurt my rating of it. It's still a great game, with a few flaws. DKC Tropical Freeze was another great game I played this month, it's one of the better platformers I've played recently. The only part of it I didn't enjoy were the bosses.

The more mediocre games I played were Hollow Knight, Resident Evil, and Resident Evil Zero. Hollow Knight has some really cool combat and bosses, but I found the progression and exploration to be completely lackluster. The game doesn't reward exploration well, 90% of the rewards are just Geo which is extremely uninteresting. I don't understand the love for it. I feel bad calling Resident Evil mediocre, it's a really cool game. The atmosphere is really unique and extremely well crafted, but I gave it a more poor rating because the game hasn't aged very well. The gameplay isn't great. Resident Evil 0 improves a lot of the gameplay that was in the original, but in the process completely lost the expertly crafted atmosphere that the first game has (also the story kind of sucks).

The worst games I played were DKC Returns and DK Jr. Math. DK Jr. Math was just a joke game that I played so I won't really count it. DKC Returns just isn't a very good platformer. It feels like they couldn't decide if they wanted the movement to be momentum based or not, it feels very awkward. Much of the level design is boring and uninspired, and very frustrating at times.

I started the Resident Evil series mid-September specifically because spooky season is here, so I'll be playing some more Resident Evil games in October. They are the first proper horror games I've played and I'm loving them so far. I'll also be playing Final Fantasy X/X-2, and Stellar Blade.

I agree with a lot of these placements, the biggest exception being Mario 64 which I didn't enjoy as much. I never played the Gameboy versions of all the Mario games, though I was aware of the issues with the screen size and everything. I'm also glad to see someone who agrees with my dislike for Mario Bros. 2, I didn't enjoy that one much at all. Wonder is also my favorite 2D Mario, the badges and everything add so much to it.

I hope they make another 3D-world type game, it's one of my favorites as well and I think it has a lot of potential. I also think that Galaxy 2 is better than 1, but for a different reason. The post-game content in Galaxy 1 is honestly just not good, you play through the exact same game again, just as a different character. The post-game content in Galaxy 2 is so much more enjoyable, because the stars are actually in different places, so it isn't just the same game again.

It's funny I also had the same experience with the final boss except, instead of Freya it was Vivi, I was having so much trouble beating him and being defeated over and over again, when Vivi was the only one alive, I have lost all the hope but lo and behold that little guy with auto regen and some potions eventually destroyed the final boss and one more thing, you have said that the enemy encounters were perfect but I thought there were too many especially because of how long the initial transistion takes (I played in PS1 emulator) it felt agonizing and I personally thought that boss battle were fine and not that hard expect the final boss

I agree with all your other points especially the part about Vivi's character growth feeling less natural and early to mid-game story being the strongest

Most of the bosses weren't too difficult, just frustrating. I played the PC port which is pretty much a remaster, maybe the encounter rates are different between them. I agree the battle start animation was really annoying though. It's way too long with the fade to the battle, and the 3 different camera shots the game needs to get before the fight actually starts. I personally had the battle speed turned up to the highest to make that more bearable, it made the battles a little tougher but it helped a lot. I don't know if battle speed is in the original or not though.

Post 134 - September 29, 2025
Completion - Final Fantasy IX

One of my longer completions recently.

Review
Final Fantasy IX takes a step back from all the crazy new ideas that were used in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. Instead of making the combat system even more over-complicated or taking the series to a new place, this game takes a step backward. FF9 takes a lot of inspiration from classic Final Fantasy, the first 6 games, and it's extremely cool to see these systems make their way into a newer Final Fantasy game. The theming takes inspiration from classic FF, from the world, to the music, and to the characters and story. The gameplay also takes that good step backwards, it feels refreshing to play. FF9 doesn't just move backward either, the graphics, movie animations, and overall quality is a massive step up from FF7 and FF8. It does have a few downfalls, a few parts of progression are rough, and many of the boss fights are horrendous. But FF9 is a good game for all of those other reasons.

Story
The story of FF9 is decent, but that's mostly due to the characters. It has the signature Final Fantasy story, it starts with a simple and cute story, and by the end is a cataclysmic event with the fate of the universe at stake. One thing that really enhances the experience is the cutscenes, which are a massive step up from any of the previous games. Characters actually have facial expressions, and special effects and animation quality make for some really nice looking scenes. Many of the big battle scenes in particular are extremely well done. The story is a bit hard to follow, at least later on. Early on the story is great, it's simple and sweet. And then these characters that are from a different world called Terra are actually orchestrating a lot of this. If there was more time spent introducing these characters like Kuja and Garland, the story would have flowed much nicer. The game doesn't tell you anything about them until they're the main villains, so Kuja is sort of just there for a large portion of the story.

The characters are absolutely the best part of the story. Zidane is a good main character, and he has alright character growth. Dagger is a great character, she undergoes a lot of changes throughout the story. Her character growth is slow and natural, going from a naive princess trapped in her kingdom at the start, to the strong Queen of a kingdom by the end. Vivi is also great, though his character is a bit underdeveloped. What's there is great, but I feel like Vivi only has a handful of moments in the story where he clearly has strong character growth, which makes it feel less natural. Steiner is also a great one, he has some of the strongest growth in the story. Freya was a personal favorite of mine, her story is nice but sad. As much as I like her, she doesn't have much character growth at all, and she's only relevant to the plot for one section of the game. Eiko is fine, she definitely adds a lot to the story, but her character growth is minimal. Quina is one of the weaker characters, s/he's just a comic relief character. Amarant has some of the strongest character growth in the story as well, but he's just a bit too edgy. There are also a number of good side characters like Beatrix which added a lot to the story.

The story overall is incredibly long. The early to mid-game are the strongest parts of it in my opinion. Progression feels natural, the story is nice to follow with all these new characters. You just feel like a party of outcasts trying to make their way toward similar goals, with much splitting up and rejoining for various reasons among party members. The two things that make the story good are the characters, and the cutscene quality. The story itself has a lot of depth, but a lot of it flew over my head. The storytelling is revolutionary, but the story itself isn't particularly. Also a random note, there are a ton of easter eggs in this game, and not just from Final Fantasy games. Those were fun to find.

Gameplay
The combat system is tough to learn, but once I had it figured out it worked great. Instead of limit breaks, characters can go into trance after taking enough damage, which is a buffed mode. Trance makes characters stronger, and provides some special abilities as well. I really like the trance system, the only issue with it is that it very rarely gets triggered, even in boss fights. I love that there are a lot more gear slots in this game, for the weapon, headwear, armor, gloves, and accessories. Each equippable item gives special buffs or defense against a particular kind of attack. Not only that, gear gives you special abilities, both passive ones, and even things like spells and summons. And if you use an item enough in battle, you can learn the abilities and use it without the gear equipped. This system works perfectly, all the different armor slots allow you to create curated builds to fight a particular boss or get through an area. You can have both offensive and defensive boosts from multiples kinds of gear, which makes it extremely versatile. The bosses are less of level checks, and more of skill and gear checks.

The skills are all great. One complaint I have about it though is the summons. For being such a large part of the story, summons play such a minor role in gameplay and combat. They usually don't deal enough damage to be worth using, they use so much MP. And most of time I need my white mages on healing anyways for the majority of boss fights. Aside from that, the skill system is great. It works similar to Clair Obscur for reference. Use a piece of gear enough, and you gain the ability to use that ability without the gear even equipped, but the amount of learned abilities you can equip is limited. On top of the different kinds of gear, this system adds so much to the combat. If a boss uses a particular status debuff a lot, you can equip an ability to prevent that. Unfortunately this does mean it's way more challenging to beat bosses on the first attempt, since you don't know anything about them and can't equip anything mid-battle. Overall, the combat system of FF9 is extremely well made. There is a ton of combat variety.

My biggest gripe with FF9 are the bosses. There is good variety between all of them, however the gimmicks are much too aggressive. Like I mentioned, it is very difficult to beat a boss first try, because you don't know anything about them and therefore have no idea what you should have equipped for it. If you don't have the right counter items for a boss, they will completely obliterate you. If you don't have any fire protection, then that Firaga spell will instakill your party member. And there is no way of foreseeing it. It should be difficult to fight a boss without the right gear, but it shouldn't be impossible. Also the boss behavior is completely unhinged, it is nearly impossible to revive characters in FF9. The moment you revive someone, 9 times out of 10, that boss will always aim for that character and keep them perpetually KO'd. So usually that one character that is stuck in revive hell doesn't get any experience from the fight.

That brings me to my only other big gripe with FF9, you are left without a which mage for significant portions of the game. This leaves you to spam potions as the only way to heal. When Dagger and Steiner leave the party for a portion of the story, getting through multiple dungeons and bosses with just Zidane, Freya, Quina, and Vivi was extremely annoying. Thankfully Eiko gets introduced at a certain point, she's another white mage which helped. This made the progression very tedious at times. But for most of the game you do have a white mage available, so it doesn't hinder the experience too much.

The rest of the game is good. Movement still has some of those awkward camera angles over the pre-rendered environments, but it works fine. Enemy encounter frequency is about perfect, there are too many at all. I did have to do grinding at a few points in the game, but it was never too bad. There are only a few minor difficulty spikes. The story progression earlier in the game is perfect, the world is open but limited, so you can't get lost. There's also a decent amount of side content you can do at various points in the game. Naturally though, once you get transportation that doesn't limit your movement across the world, progression became more difficult. It's also easy to fall behind on levels during these full open world sections, which led to me needing to grind a few times. Overall the progression is good, especially in the early game. The lack of exp share was annoying though, because when you're forced to use characters you haven't been leveling at all, you have a really bad time with some bosses.

For as long as they were available, Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, and Freya were my party. The end sequence is decent. The dungeon throws plenty of the best gear in the game at you, so you don't need to stress about being under prepared much. There's a good boss rush which I found enjoyable. The dungeon is also just about the perfect length, it doesn't drag on for too long at all. And there's no annoying puzzles like there are earlier in the game. So, the final boss. Deathguise and Kuja are great. They're challenging, but fair. The real final boss, Necron comes from nowhere. But that's not even the most ridiculous part. Necron took me a few attempts, he's challenging. On my winning attempt, 3 of my party members got wiped only 1 minute into the fight. Freya was the only survivor. Because she had auto-regen, and the boss being completely incapable of using strong lethal attacks, Freya completely soloed the final boss. It took 20 minutes of just spamming the attack button and the final boss went down, because he was literally incapable of killing a single party member. The final boss of FF9 is a joke.

Final Thoughts
Final Fantasy 9 is a very refreshing game. It takes great inspiration from the earlier games in the series, while also adding a lot to it. It is personally one of my favorites in the series so far, but there are a number of issues which really dragged it down. The characters, story, world, and combat are all good. But the bosses were often irritating, along with the number of other inconveniences which dampened the experience that I mentioned. For how flawed the game is, the combat system is remarkable, it's up there with FF5. The progression is also good, especially in the early game (at least when you have a white mage). The story isn't anything innovative, but following it was still very entertaining, especially with the high quality writing and cutscenes.

Rating: 9/10
Time: 37 hours, 56 minutes
Days taken: 25
Up next: Final Fantasy X
Series progress: 8/19

Other Games & Media
I finally found a new side game to play, Stellar Blade! I had it on my radar, and it just went on sale on Steam for the first time and I grabbed it. It's good so far. The combat is really difficult. It isn't my favorite, but the combat feels extremely good once you get better at it. It flows very nicely. I originally got it because it's similar to NieR: Automata, and it is, but I'm not enjoying it quite as much. It's a good game for sure, just not amazing.

Up Next & Additional Notes
Final Fantasy X is a very popular one it seems. I'll also be playing X-2 so these will be pretty long to get through, probably over a month. I've been playing Resident Evil 2, and I'm in love with it so far. It's like Resident Evil 1 if it wasn't clunky and dated (because I am playing the RE2 remake of course). I haven't had to follow a guide at all so far which has made it so much better. I just found the parking garage key and started the orphanage sequence. I'll likely play the second run with how much I'm enjoying the game, it's great. Anyway, I think that's it. Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-28
Score: 209 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟪 = 100 | S | Mega Man X
🟪🟪🟪 🟧 = 83 | R | FRAMED Collection
🟥⬛🟥 🟦 = 26 | P | A Little To The Left

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

UPDATE

AT LONG LAST! Another bloody update! Sorry for my absence. I've been definitely burnt out from work, and I'm now sitting comfortably on my break now feeling refreshed and ready to go! What does this mean? Well... I still have 2 weeks from my work-break and I'm already feeling primed and ready to go. So if anything I'm REALLY looking forward to how I'm going to feel afterwards!

Why am I doing an update? Well, I FINALLY have done a completion and despite my burnout I was DEDICATED towards finishing something. I've finally managed to achieve it, I feel bloody good about it (literally completed it just now) and if anything, opens the flood-gates up for more completions in the horizon. Why? Because I think it's one of, if not, the longest game in my backlog list. So it'd likely mean that more completions will occur at a faster pace.

Personal stuff... I had a bloody tooth break. Had to go to a dentist to get it repaired. I was warned that it was super close to the nerve, but she managed to save it. She also mentioned that I'm cavity-prone due to crowding (yay), so I might have to book another time with the dentist to get a full check-up to start really looking after them. Yeah... I could've done a much better job in looking after them, but hearing that I'm cavity-prone anyways... yeah. Not demotivating, but just another "fun" thing to deal with. As long as there's no dental pain. My goodness... it's agony.

Otherwise... things are going pretty smoothly. I'm just doing a lot of relaxing. So yes... more fun things to talk about as time progresses! Now to the fun stuff.



SERVANT OF THE EMPIRE

287/827 (34%)

Lots of things going on! It's definitely a really slow build-up as there are things going on, but I'm really appreciating the build-up. I often find that in build-up, I read the book a lot slower because it's not as "exciting" but I still am really engaged if that makes sense.

Tesaio is quite a crafty bastard working alongside his cousin (and ruler) Desio of the Minwanabi. I'm not quite sure if this is say the first level of conflict Mara will have to face. It almost feels like these 2 are either the Mid-Boss in a game. I'm not quite sure. It feels like something more ominous is on the horizon, but who knows. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Right now though, Mara is having to join the higher house in their war because her political opponents outdid her politically. I think it's going to be really exciting... I'm just intrigued to see how this plays out. Again... feels mid-boss-y as opposed to the main core part... but perhaps this will grow. Still enjoying it!



ONE PIECE

1064/1144 (93%)

Man oh man! Is this arc hitting its PEAK! Lots of freaking animation taking place to surround the awesome fights that are taking place. Admittedly, Wano had a LOT of build-up taking place, but now that stuff is going down... boy... is it going DOWN!

This is definitely one of the strongest arcs, but still doesn't compare to Water 7/Enies Lobby and Dressrosa. Not a bad thing, this arc still slaps but yes. Good times. The FREAKING animation behind my favourite character Sanji and Queen as well as Zoro and King... beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. If this is One Piece at it's best, or if there's some awesome moments to still come, I'm looking forward to it.

I REALLY have a soft-spot for Sanji. Don't get me wrong. Absolutely love Luffy and Zoro too, but in my opinion both Sanji and Robin have THE best character-writing I've seen when it comes to any medium. No this isn't a spoiler, as I'm talking about the overall story. Still lots going on, still really enjoying it. I guess I just have to wait and see what's happening next.



BACKLOG

METRO 2033 REDUX

No progress.



MUTANT YEAR ZERO: ROAD TO EDEN

No progress. But look forward to some soon!



PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER

This game... started off really strong. I was in a strong mood to play a CRPG and this game definitely delivered on that scale. To begin with, it just felt like I was playing something as I would have done many years ago. The intro quests were quite good and actually has given me some Gamemastering ideas, but does this game make me roll REALLY bad! Holy moly. The amount of Nat 1's I freaking rolled with the enemy rolling Nat 20's o.O.

Once you get past that and go into the core crux of the game... I'm... not so sure. I think this game I will occasionally pepper back in here and there... but otherwise I don't think I'm AS excited to keep playing this. I'll keep it in the Currently Playing list for now... it's just not without its issues.



THE WITCHER 3: THE WILD HUNT

No progre- AHHH just kidding. This is the bloody game that I have FINALLY finished at long blimmin' last. I must admit, I thought the final fight was going to be at Kaer Morhen and to be honest, that's where I wanted the final fight to take place. In saying that though, it really is only a minor gripe. This game still does a really good job in only giving you side-quests if you WANT to, which PERFECTLY fits my play-style. I personally don't care about any side-quests unless I happen to stumble across it and feel that the character I'm playing would actually oblige.

I completely understand why a lot of people consider this the best game ever created. I do rate it very highly. It is very much one of the stronger games I've played and I did really enjoy it. But my goodness... does it feel needlessly long in parts. I try not to skip any dialogue either because I'm invested in the story, but this game almost brought me close to doing so. The main-story is actually really well-told and you can FEEL the tension in the politics as Geralt has to navigate through many things in order to both find Ciri and save her.

The combat and customisability of the gear is truly a highlight. For someone like me, who LOVES to loot, the game definitely made me think of whether I'd like to be overencumbered or not. But not to the point where it really impacted the way I play. Going from memory, I think I only got annoyed once or twice and of course, that's due to my own decisions.

Overall, this game is a REALLY solid game. There's just something about it. It really sticks with you, the decisions you make actually impact the overall story and even if you just want a breather and take in the scenery... you can do this too. It is a really good game. I just think it takes a little too much time for certain things to take place. Overall though, quite excellent. I understand why this game is so revered now. 8/10.



ENTERTAINMENT HIGHLIGHT

Yikes, 3 weeks to get through... Okay I have to have a small think on this... but I think I've got them down-packed. 1st week goes to One Piece, 2nd week Witcher 3, then last week... yeah One Piece yet again.

One Piece has just really taken off and is doing a really stellar job in keeping me engaged and entertained.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Yikes, lots to talk about haha, but that is indeed the end of the update! I got another one coming up in 2 days. What topics will I cover within these 2 days? Well perhaps the relief of yours truly that he tackled one of the biggest games in his backlog in terms of hours. Maybe some other shenaniganry haha, but I guess we'll just have to see once Sunday comes by.

Overall, still really enjoying things. Oh yeah! I bought 2 new games! :O I got given some Birthday money... and I bought some games with half of it... and then the rest I put on the Dental bill. My tooth broke the day before my Birthday. So. Bloody. Rude. Anyways, I'll make sure to update that too. These are ones that would make sense too! So don't get in my biz alright haha. Look at my Entertainment Budget! It's continuing to grow thanks to the game completions! Need to whittle it down somehow :P. They are Pixel Remastered too!

See you in a couple of days!

Entertainment Budget: $428 - 37 (Final Fantasy V and VI) - 4 (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) = $387 + 54 (Witcher 3) = $441

^ After all that... I still ended with more...

Currently Playing
Metro 2033 Redux
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Completed
The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Overall Backlog
Games: 341
Hours: 7809

That's right around the same episode I caught up to One Piece, that part of Wano is awesome. The animation quality picks up a lot during Wano, it looks amazing. Robin is definitely my favorite character in the show. Her big "I want to live" scene in Enies Lobby is still my favorite moment in the series, absolute cinema. It's cool to see her and Sanji get some good writing and scenes in a few arcs. It's definitely a bit inconsistent though.

I'M SO FREAKING READY!!!!!

One of the most hype trailers I've watched in a long time. I can't believe we're finally getting Japan as the main setting for the festival. Can't freaking wait. I hope this will be the best Forza Horizon yet.

Yooo finally, I remember when everyone was speculating that FH5 would be in Japan. I haven't played a Forza game in a while but I'll definetely consider picking this up, it's a very nostalgic series for me.

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-25
Score: 250 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟩 = 88 | R | Another Code: Two Memories
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 96 | S | Half-Life: Blue Shift
🟪🟩🟧 🟦 = 66 | P | Anthem

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Post 133 - September 24, 2025
Completion - Resident Evil Zero


Review
Resident Evil Zero is the prequel to Resident Evil 1, and for being a prequel it doesn't add much at all. Resident Evil Zero improves in one major aspect, and that is the progression. Where the first game feels like a giant obscure mess of a puzzle game to progress through, RE0 is much less overwhelming and is actually digestible. RE0 is also worse in many ways. The story isn't good, the atmosphere isn't unique or interesting. And they removed a very helpful game mechanic, item storage. Overall RE0 is about just as enjoyable as the first game, but it's a much less unique experience so I can't give it quite as much praise. Everything that was interesting in the first game isn't present in this game.

Story
Some of the backstory that lead up to the mansion incident was interesting to see, but that's the only interesting part of the story. The whole leech theme is at least unique, but that's all I can say about it. You do get to see more of Wesker and his shenanigans leading up to the mansion, why he went there in the first place. But the whole "mysterious man" plot line is nonsense. You learn about the leeches, and the scientist going crazy while working with them. Then at the very end of the game turns out the mysterious man who looks absolutely nothing like the scientist is actually him, and just shapeshifted into the form for some reason after getting killed and revived by the leeches. And the only connection to the main story is that Wesker is the guy that just happened to kill this scientist. RE0 plays out like a generic horror action movie, especially at the end of the game.

Gameplay
The gameplay is nothing innovative. Again the progression is much more linear, which is the best change from the original game. There is the occasional obscure puzzle, for example combining chemicals to get more chemicals, which need to be used to solve some random puzzles. Even then the progression isn't particularly fun, it's pretty basic and is never really entertaining. It's essentially just there, it doesn't hinder the game, and it never makes it fun. With the game being more linear it is a bit less frustrating to deal with at least, it was only frustrating when there was a lot of backtracking. It was nice having a companion who you could separately control. It gives some more inventory space, and the mechanic is cleverly in a few puzzles.

Probably the worst part of Resident Evil 0 is the backtracking. A very nice quality of life feature that the first game has is the item box, which can be used to store and transfer items between save rooms. RE0 removes that entirely, you need to drop spare items whenever you need space. That means that if you leave an item back near the train, and you're in the treatment plan, have fun backtracking. It's very easy to lose items as well, I never used the grenade launcher near the end of the game because I didn't want to spend forever backtracking and searching where I left it. There is a nice item list on the map, which I forgot about most of the time. But even then needing to backtrack for items was a massive pain.

The combat isn't too exciting. It has the issue that whoever is being attacked is basically stun-locked, whether its the player or an enemy. One enemy that's really annoying to deal with are the giant leeches, they have very long reach, do a lot of damage, and are built like tanks. There aren't too many of them in the game thankfully, and I would've found them creepy if they weren't just annoying. That brings me to my biggest issue with RE0, the game is generic, at least in terms of atmosphere and theming. It's just a generic zombie game. The game loves to throw zombies at you, so encountering them never feels special or creepy. The atmosphere and tenseness never gets built up at all, it's just a monotone experience the entire way through. The game never managed to make me feel creeped out or unsettled.

Final Thoughts
Resident Evil 0 is a fine game, I didn't dislike it. But there's nothing special or interesting about it, nothing about it stood out to me. The gameplay is boring, even frustrating at times with the backtracking. The progression is improved, but it isn't enough to make the game enjoyable. The combat isn't special either, it functions at the basic level it needs to. And then the atmosphere is extremely basic, it completely lacks the magic that the first game has. The game never feels tense except in a few late game boss fights, it doesn't have any sort of buildup. Overall it's a fine game, but coming from the first game it's a disappointment.

Rating: 6.5/10
Time: 7 hours, 13 minutes
Days taken: 6
Up next: Resident Evil 2
Series progress: 2/13

Other Games & Media
I haven't had any time to play any side games, other than the short occasional Bloons TD 6 session. Time has been very short. School has been insane the past few weeks, I don't have time so I've just been focusing on series games lately.

Up Next & Additional Notes
It'll be nice to jump into the more modern games, these first two games weren't exactly my favorite. There may be a bit of whiplash going straight into one of the remakes though. I promise I'm making progress on FF9, it's been over a month since I finished the last one. But I'm getting close to the end of FF9, I did hit a bit of a rough patch with it. There was a difficulty spike and I was slightly under-leveled, so I've just spent the last 2 sessions finding new gear and grinding. Depending on how the next week goes, I'd estimate I'll be done within a week. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!

Didn't know this thread existed, I'll participate in this revival. I haven't watched a ton of different anime, these days I usually just watch the new weekly One Piece episode.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion
2. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
3. Violet Evergarden
4. One Piece
5. Cyberpunk Edgerunners
6. Demon Slayer
7. Oshi No Ko
8. Tokyo Ghoul
9. Naruto
10. Death Note

Evangelion isn't just my favorite Anime, but my favorite piece of media of all time. Frieren is great. Violet Evergarden has gotten me to cry more than anything I've ever watched, but it isn't quite perfect. One Piece isn't the most amazing show, but I've been watching it for 6 years and it's really fun staying caught up with it. And Cyberpunk Edgerunners is nearly perfect, it's just too short.

Demon Slayer is really good, I haven't seen the new movie yet though. Oshi No Ko season 1 is amazing, season 2 is whatever. I haven't seen Tokyo Ghoul in forever, but I remember loving it. Particularly the earlier seasons. Naruto is one of the first anime I watched, it's good, just way too much filler. I stopped watching a bit into Boruto since it's insanely boring. Death Note is also good, I remember getting hooked on it for the first few episodes.

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-23
Score: 214 / 300
🟩🟥🟪 🟦 = 61 | R | Blackwell Unbound
🟪🟦🟪 🟧 = 78 | S | The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 75 | P | The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I'll nominate Resident Evil 3. I'm guessing either the original or the Remake work, but I'll definitely play both versions if it wins.

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-22
Score: 178 / 300
🟧🟪🟧 🟦 = 65 | R | Breath of Fire
🟪🟪🟦 🟦 = 90 | P | Serious Sam 3: BFE
🟥🟥🟥 🟦 = 23 | S | Tales of Phantasia

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I've been struggling to get into a couple games lately. I tried starting The Outer Worlds and got extremely bored of it quickly, and ended up retiring it. Then I had to give up Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night because of stability/crashing issues, and I wasn't enjoying it enough to try and troubleshoot it anyway. So I've been falling back onto my comfort games recently for the first time in a while, mostly Bloons TD 6.

Bloons TD 6 is always fun for a few rounds, no matter how much time I put into it. I did unfortunately lose my original account that I had for it so I had to start a new one recently, but it's still been fun unlocking everything again. I forget how much time it takes to get everything, especially since I last played there's a lot more in the game.

Another great game I've been playing recently that's sort of saving me from these rough retirements and burnout is Final Fantasy IX. There's nothing about it that's exceptional except for maybe the story, but every single about it is at least good. There's never a moment where I'm not having a good time with it. I also absolutely love how it takes of ton of inspiration from classic Final Fantasy, it's an amazing game.

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-21
Score: 180 / 300
⬛⬛🟪 🟪 = 50 | R | Turmoil
🟧🟥🟥 🟦 = 35 | P | Detective Grimoire
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 95 | S | SquareCells

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-19
Score: 223 / 300
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 70 | S | Left 4 Dead 2
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 79 | P | Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
🟪🟦🟩 🟦 = 74 | R | Yes, Your Grace

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Post 132 - September 18, 2025
Completion - Resident Evil

Surprise!

Review
Resident Evil takes a moment to get used to, but it seems like the controls in the remaster are really well done so I never had any issues with it. I went into the game expecting an interesting experience, not in a good way. And while the game has a lot of quirks and is aged, that never bothered me too much. From the fixed camera angles to the long door animations and limited saves, that's the least of the game's issues. In fact the only bad part of the game is the progression. I ended up using a guide, this game would have taken me 3 times as long if I didn't, and that made the progression more smooth. But still, needing to follow a guide to get through a game isn't the greatest experience, it's by far the thing that dragged it down the most for me.

Story
I only did the Jill playthrough, I'm not sure if there's much different with Chris other than inventory slots and health. But the story is well written and enjoyable. It does a great job throwing you into this mansion, and leaving you to find the horrors within. A lot of the story is in notes, some of which are easily miss-able which isn't great, but I found and read as many as I could and it was interesting to follow. Apart from the notes the story is also good, it's like uncovering a big mystery as you gradually find everyone and progress through the game.

From what I got in the notes, something about the family that used to live in the mansion, and some Umbrella corporation did some gross experiments on patients most of which seemed unwilling. I'm not sure if it was to create some bio weapon or if it was just an experiment gone wrong. The present day story is a little less interesting, but still fun to follow. You're just walking through and discovering the secrets of the mansion, while also figuring out what's going on with your own team. The ending with Wesker being a traitor wasn't completely surprising, but it still works decently as a twist, and works well with the ending. The story isn't amazing, but there's some interesting stuff going on with it.

Gameplay
The gameplay isn't very strong in Resident Evil. Again the progression just isn't enjoyable, it's by far the most annoying part about the game. The entire game progression is just solving a bunch of obscure puzzles, which got annoying and tedious especially with the limited inventory space. There's a lot of back and forth in the game, which I wouldn't mind if a lot of that backtracking wasn't just inventory management. The most challenging part of Resident Evil is progressing and enduring the endless puzzles until the end of the game. To be fair I was playing on easy mode, and followed a guide, but even with the more intense encounters the combat was never too difficult. If it weren't for the slow and tedious progression, I wouldn't really enjoyed this game.

The combat is again not too challenging. It could get annoying sometimes, because in any combat encounter aside from some bosses, either you are stun locking the enemy, or you are being stun locked by the enemy. But overall the combat isn't bad, it's just serviceable for the game. It didn't necessarily drag down the experience. It's also quite easy to just ignore and run past enemies a lot of the time. The bosses are fine, none of them are very difficult including the final one. As long as you have some healing items they aren't a challenge. The enemies and bosses do convey a good sense of urgency and panic though, especially ones that are fast or jump out of nowhere, and it never feels cheap either. The enemy designs are all really good and creepy.

And that brings me to my favorite part of Resident Evil, which is the atmosphere. It's a very patient game, in that it builds up tension with ambient music and sounds, and the occasional non-threatening zombie. Then that tension eventually hits a climax with a new strong enemy encounter or a boss, or some story sequence. The horror doesn't just come from jump scares and scary zombies, Resident Evil builds up tension and uneasiness gradually and subtly. No parts of it were ever terrifying at all, but it just makes you feel uncomfortable for a lot of the experience, which is a great thing for a horror game. You never think "I was dumb for falling for that jump scare" in this game, you feel justifiably creeped out from all the tension and the atrocities that you experience in it.

Final Thoughts
Resident Evil is a cool game. The gameplay ultimately brings down the experience, it makes it a bit of a slog to get through. The puzzles are never very interesting, and they're often obscure. Not only that they compose the entire game progression. But for what it has, the story and horror elements of the game are really well crafted. There is a decent amount of diversity in the map as well. A lot of it is just in the mansion, but you also get to explore some tunnels and a laboratory. It does have to maintain the dark and eerie atmosphere, which does end up working really well. Overall Resident Evil was a really neat experience, while it isn't my favorite it's one of those games where I'm happy that I played it at least once.

Rating: 7/10
Time: 9 hours, 40 minutes
Days taken: 4
Up next: Resident Evil Zero
Series progress: 1/13

Here's all the Resident Evil games I'll be playing, I'm even going for a lot of side games in this series. I'd also like to mention that I'll be playing just the remakes for any games that have them, since I've heard good things about them.
1. Resident Evil
2. Resident Evil Zero
3. Resident Evil 2
4. Resident Evil 3
5. Resident Evil - Code: Veronica
6. Resident Evil 4
7. Resident Evil: Revelations
8. Resident Evil 5
9. Resident Evil: Revelations 2
10. Resident Evil 6
11. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
12. Resident Evil Village
13. Resident Evil Requiem (unreleased)

Other Games & Media
I've been playing a lot more of Marvel Rivals since the new season released, it's pretty decent. I haven't played much Slay the Spire, but I'm still enjoying it. And I've been playing Outer Worlds off and on. It's a fun game, I'm just struggling to find the time for it most days. I believe that is it for side games.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I wasn't planning on playing the Resident Evil series anytime soon, but I managed to find all the games on sale across various platforms, so I managed to get the entire series for quite (relatively) cheap. I've also been looking for a fresh series, the last few I've played were just alright. This is not only the first horror series I've played, but one of the first horror games I've ever played. So it should be a fun experience, I'm really excited for this particular series. I also know almost nothing about it, so I'll be going in mostly blind. I'm at least going to give RE0 a shot, but if I'm not enjoying it I'll retire it, it seems like one of the weaker entries in the series. Final Fantasy 9 is going well still, I'm making better progress. I'm a bit past halfway done with it and it's picking up really well, it'll be up there with my favorite Final Fantasy games. But I still won't be done with it for at least another week or two. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-17
Score: 181 / 300
🟪🟪⬛ 🟦 = 70 | R | The Expendabros
🟧🟩🟩 🟦 = 54 | P | Disco Elysium
🟩🟩🟩 🟦 = 57 | S | Citizen Sleeper

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-15
Score: 215 / 300
🟩🟦🟪 🟩 = 71 | R | Octopath Traveler
🟩🟩🟩 🟧 = 52 | P | Twelve Minutes
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 92 | S | Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2025-09-13
Score: 221 / 300
🟦🟦🟦 🟩 = 74 | S | Tomb Raider
🟪🟪⬛ 🟦 = 70 | R | The Expendabros
🟦🟦🟦 🟪 = 77 | P | A Space For The Unbound

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play