6 Yrs✓#
NoOne
6 Yrs✓#
Ayy, glad ya liked it! It's probably one of my favorite Vita games, definitely a must play for anyone who's got it 🫡
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D21999
5 Yrs♥✓#
Game #245: Shrek SuperSlam
Platform: GameCube
Main Story: 42m 55a
Main + Extras: 4h 53m 39s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: January 5, 2024
Picked By: Kam1999
Games Synopsis: Play as Shrek, his friends, or other fairy tale characters and fight each other in a 3D arena fighter.
Blog: This is the second game in my personal challenge, and the first one this year that I have actually played before.
Shrek SuperSlam is a 3D arena fighter based on the first two Shrek movies. It's a game I would constantly label as "Shrek's Smash Bros" to my friends who had never heard of it. This is a game I have fond memories of playing with my cousin. Despite that, I hadn't actually touched Shrek SuperSlam in over 10 or 15 years, and this would be the first time I play it since then. Does Shrek SuperSlam still hold up for me? Ehhh... we'll get to that...
I compared Shrek SuperSlam to Smash Bros, and I still believe that comparison is true... but if there were one game I would say is an even closer comparison than Smash, it would unironically be PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The sole reason being that the only way to K.O. opponents in both games is to use your ultimate move... So I guess Smash wasn't the only arena fighter Sony had copied!
This game has a lot of interesting little things that make me think this has or had competitive potential. There's fast falls, air dashes, shield breaks, being able to reflect projectiles by shielding at the right time... the combat is a bit deeper than you might think! It's no wonder I was so into the multiplayer as a kid.
As far as the gameplay, there's only really one thing I wish would change. I think being able to build up the ultimate charge by landing hits on opponents is great, and people being able to beat the charge out of you is also great. I just wish that you can only use the ultimate once. For some reason if you completely miss an ultimate, you're able to keep using it until the charge runs out. I think this should be changed so you can only use it once. Some characters like Cyclops have a massive ultimate that just covers the whole stage and it's crazy that if you're lucky to not be hit by it, he can just use it again. It's so bonkers to me!
I would say the multiplayer for SuperSlam is where it shines the most, but it's far from perfect and I would say is very flawed. You only get two modes in this game: a two minute timed match where you need to K.O. as many people as possible, the other is a king of the hill mode where you need to be at the top of a hill the longest out of anybody else. That's it. There's no lives mode (despite some single player modes having it), no adjusting the time limit, no customization options. You aren't even able to change the difficulty of any CPU players. It feels incredibly limiting for no real reason.
The single player stuff is even worse. I'd say the training mode is the only real positive, giving you instructions and directions on how to move in the game. Too bad there's also nowhere to try out a character and practice combos.
The story mode is mediocre. I think the cutscenes were the best part, they were funny and the voice acting was great! It sounded like they kept most of the voice actors (Prince Charming sounded a little off though). However, the story mode consists of only 8 battles, with the final 2 having a wild and sudden difficulty spike. It's very short, taking me just about 40 minutes, and being unable to change characters also provides no replayability. The story is really only useful for those cutscenes and unlocking some costumes.
Probably the worst mode is the Mega Challenge mode. A mode that consists of roughly 200 challenges! Some of these challenges do offer some unique aspects, having lives for example, or needing to fight enemies using a certain move or item. But those unique challenges are few and far between. The main thing they throw at you are tournaments where you have to go through 2 to 7 fights in a row ranging from one-on-ones to one against three! It's just not very fun, and very frustrating as you get further into it as the difficulty ramps up.
I honestly wouldn't really recommend doing any of the single player content outside of unlocking characters and stages, and if you must do that I recommend finding a cheat code to unlock all of the challenges so you can skip to the ones with the unlockables.
I have also unfortunately ran into some bugs and other technical issues. I think the biggest issue I had was with the camera. It moves around so much during fights for certain stages, I wish it would just be stationary the whole time. Then also on certain stages, the frames will just suddenly drop to a crawl if you play on them with four characters. It was like a few frames from being unplayable!
And for as many issues as Shrek SuperSlam might have, at the very least the music is so good. And none of it's from any of the movies, they're all original Here's a few of my personal favorites: Kung Fu Dojo, Dragon's Gate, Gingerbread Hizzle.
I think Shrek Superslam has so many issues, but if you only play for the multiplayer and don't take it too seriously, the game is pretty fun. However, the flaws are still pretty hard to ignore. So even with my bias towards this game, I would give it a 6/10. It's probably higher than it should be, but nostalgia is a hell of a drug, man.
TL:DR: Shrek SuperSlam is a fun Smash clone to play with friends, and while the combat is deeper than it might seem, it's missing quite a lot essentials in both single player and multiplayer content that can really be felt throughout the game.
Up Next: Shrek SuperSlam was a fairly quick completion for me. Will the next one be as fast? Let's see...
Call of Duty: Black Ops! Picked by Vxpok! Well I guess we're just saving the longer games for later then!
Platform: GameCube
Main Story: 42m 55a
Main + Extras: 4h 53m 39s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: January 5, 2024
Picked By: Kam1999
Games Synopsis: Play as Shrek, his friends, or other fairy tale characters and fight each other in a 3D arena fighter.
Blog: This is the second game in my personal challenge, and the first one this year that I have actually played before.
Shrek SuperSlam is a 3D arena fighter based on the first two Shrek movies. It's a game I would constantly label as "Shrek's Smash Bros" to my friends who had never heard of it. This is a game I have fond memories of playing with my cousin. Despite that, I hadn't actually touched Shrek SuperSlam in over 10 or 15 years, and this would be the first time I play it since then. Does Shrek SuperSlam still hold up for me? Ehhh... we'll get to that...
I compared Shrek SuperSlam to Smash Bros, and I still believe that comparison is true... but if there were one game I would say is an even closer comparison than Smash, it would unironically be PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The sole reason being that the only way to K.O. opponents in both games is to use your ultimate move... So I guess Smash wasn't the only arena fighter Sony had copied!
This game has a lot of interesting little things that make me think this has or had competitive potential. There's fast falls, air dashes, shield breaks, being able to reflect projectiles by shielding at the right time... the combat is a bit deeper than you might think! It's no wonder I was so into the multiplayer as a kid.
As far as the gameplay, there's only really one thing I wish would change. I think being able to build up the ultimate charge by landing hits on opponents is great, and people being able to beat the charge out of you is also great. I just wish that you can only use the ultimate once. For some reason if you completely miss an ultimate, you're able to keep using it until the charge runs out. I think this should be changed so you can only use it once. Some characters like Cyclops have a massive ultimate that just covers the whole stage and it's crazy that if you're lucky to not be hit by it, he can just use it again. It's so bonkers to me!
I would say the multiplayer for SuperSlam is where it shines the most, but it's far from perfect and I would say is very flawed. You only get two modes in this game: a two minute timed match where you need to K.O. as many people as possible, the other is a king of the hill mode where you need to be at the top of a hill the longest out of anybody else. That's it. There's no lives mode (despite some single player modes having it), no adjusting the time limit, no customization options. You aren't even able to change the difficulty of any CPU players. It feels incredibly limiting for no real reason.
The single player stuff is even worse. I'd say the training mode is the only real positive, giving you instructions and directions on how to move in the game. Too bad there's also nowhere to try out a character and practice combos.
The story mode is mediocre. I think the cutscenes were the best part, they were funny and the voice acting was great! It sounded like they kept most of the voice actors (Prince Charming sounded a little off though). However, the story mode consists of only 8 battles, with the final 2 having a wild and sudden difficulty spike. It's very short, taking me just about 40 minutes, and being unable to change characters also provides no replayability. The story is really only useful for those cutscenes and unlocking some costumes.
Probably the worst mode is the Mega Challenge mode. A mode that consists of roughly 200 challenges! Some of these challenges do offer some unique aspects, having lives for example, or needing to fight enemies using a certain move or item. But those unique challenges are few and far between. The main thing they throw at you are tournaments where you have to go through 2 to 7 fights in a row ranging from one-on-ones to one against three! It's just not very fun, and very frustrating as you get further into it as the difficulty ramps up.
I honestly wouldn't really recommend doing any of the single player content outside of unlocking characters and stages, and if you must do that I recommend finding a cheat code to unlock all of the challenges so you can skip to the ones with the unlockables.
I have also unfortunately ran into some bugs and other technical issues. I think the biggest issue I had was with the camera. It moves around so much during fights for certain stages, I wish it would just be stationary the whole time. Then also on certain stages, the frames will just suddenly drop to a crawl if you play on them with four characters. It was like a few frames from being unplayable!
And for as many issues as Shrek SuperSlam might have, at the very least the music is so good. And none of it's from any of the movies, they're all original Here's a few of my personal favorites: Kung Fu Dojo, Dragon's Gate, Gingerbread Hizzle.
I think Shrek Superslam has so many issues, but if you only play for the multiplayer and don't take it too seriously, the game is pretty fun. However, the flaws are still pretty hard to ignore. So even with my bias towards this game, I would give it a 6/10. It's probably higher than it should be, but nostalgia is a hell of a drug, man.
TL:DR: Shrek SuperSlam is a fun Smash clone to play with friends, and while the combat is deeper than it might seem, it's missing quite a lot essentials in both single player and multiplayer content that can really be felt throughout the game.
Up Next: Shrek SuperSlam was a fairly quick completion for me. Will the next one be as fast? Let's see...
Call of Duty: Black Ops! Picked by Vxpok! Well I guess we're just saving the longer games for later then!
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #246: Call of Duty: Black Ops
Platform: Xbox 360
Main + Extras: 7h 55m 10s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: January 7, 2024
Picked By: Vxpok
Games Synopsis: One of Activision's most well-known first person shooters, arguably the most well-known!
Blog: This is the third game in my personal challenge of 2025. This is a game in which I've played before at my cousin's house, but have never actually owned until very recently.
Also full disclosure, this review will not be including anything from multiplayer. I do not have online for Xbox, and I don't really want to buy it for a game that has likely long since died.
Anyway, this was my second time playing single player stuff on a CoD game. Last year was my first time with Ghosts, and I wasn't particularly a fan of that one. I gave it a 5/10 overall, playing both the campaign and the extinction mode. I'm aware of the negative reputation Ghosts had, but even then I came into Black Ops feeling a bit skeptical. I came away a little surprised!
First off the campaign. This is regarded as one of the best CoD stories... at first I somewhat disagreed. I thought the campaign was kind of boring and a little too "military bro" for me. Even in terms of gameplay im regards to the campaign I thought Ghosts slightly did better in that regard due to Ghosts having some more variety in its levels, such as shooting in space, water, etc. So my thoughts so far weren't as positive as others. However, then I started noticing something was kind of off and things got interesting. Then the "thing" happened and I understood why people liked the campaign so much. I won't spoil it for people who haven't played, but anyone who has played it knows what I'm talking about.
I definitely think the campaign is better than Ghosts due to the story alone, but it was still quite a drag for me to get there. Especially with how hand-holdy and restrictive these campaigns are.
And before I stop talking about the campaign there's one more thing I want to talk about: I can hardly tell the difference between the enemies and my allies. I don't know why I had this issue, if it's just me or the game. I don't recall having this problem with Ghosts, so I'm sort of leaning towards Black Ops being the problem. They all look very similar to each other in like 95% of the levels. It also doesn't help that sometimes the names that are supposed to appear for the allies just don't appear for some reason. There was even one level where I was clearly shooting at someone with a gun who was nameless but after killing them I was given a death screen and told to "not kill your brothers." It's just a very weird situation all around.
If I were rating Black Ops just on campaign alone, it would be a 6/10. The Zombies mode brings it to a 7/10 and is easily the best part of the game.
I remember loving Zombies when playing it with my cousin. I was a little worried about playing it single player, and while it's definitely not as easy it's still a good time and something I would easily play with friends trying to see how long we last.
Something I also didn't know about: there's a top-down Zombies arcade mode! This one is not as good as Zombies, but it's more fun than the campaign! It's a top down shooter similar to stuff like Smash TV. It's a fun highscore chaser! Although it is very ugly visually... you can definitely tell they did not put any effort into making it look good.
Honestly there's not much more I have to say about Black Ops. It's your typical first person shooter, aside from Zombies there's not really much outstanding in the gameplay from other FPS games I've played like Bioshock. It's very industry standard, but some people might like that. Although I'm sure most people who played this a lot back in the day have long since moved on to future iterations. I say it's still worth going back to for Zombies though!
TL:DR: Call of Duty: Black Ops is a very standard FPS. The campaign shines with its story near the end but rather lacks much else for me. The Zombies modes however are the best part of the game and is something I would easily go back to with friends.
Up Next: Black Ops was another pretty short completion, will the next one be three in a row?
Affordable Space Adventures! Chosen by Tiamat! It is a short one, but it's interesting. It's supposed to be a Wii U exclusive and a good one at that! Very exciting.
Platform: Xbox 360
Main + Extras: 7h 55m 10s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: January 7, 2024
Picked By: Vxpok
Games Synopsis: One of Activision's most well-known first person shooters, arguably the most well-known!
Blog: This is the third game in my personal challenge of 2025. This is a game in which I've played before at my cousin's house, but have never actually owned until very recently.
Also full disclosure, this review will not be including anything from multiplayer. I do not have online for Xbox, and I don't really want to buy it for a game that has likely long since died.
Anyway, this was my second time playing single player stuff on a CoD game. Last year was my first time with Ghosts, and I wasn't particularly a fan of that one. I gave it a 5/10 overall, playing both the campaign and the extinction mode. I'm aware of the negative reputation Ghosts had, but even then I came into Black Ops feeling a bit skeptical. I came away a little surprised!
First off the campaign. This is regarded as one of the best CoD stories... at first I somewhat disagreed. I thought the campaign was kind of boring and a little too "military bro" for me. Even in terms of gameplay im regards to the campaign I thought Ghosts slightly did better in that regard due to Ghosts having some more variety in its levels, such as shooting in space, water, etc. So my thoughts so far weren't as positive as others. However, then I started noticing something was kind of off and things got interesting. Then the "thing" happened and I understood why people liked the campaign so much. I won't spoil it for people who haven't played, but anyone who has played it knows what I'm talking about.
I definitely think the campaign is better than Ghosts due to the story alone, but it was still quite a drag for me to get there. Especially with how hand-holdy and restrictive these campaigns are.
And before I stop talking about the campaign there's one more thing I want to talk about: I can hardly tell the difference between the enemies and my allies. I don't know why I had this issue, if it's just me or the game. I don't recall having this problem with Ghosts, so I'm sort of leaning towards Black Ops being the problem. They all look very similar to each other in like 95% of the levels. It also doesn't help that sometimes the names that are supposed to appear for the allies just don't appear for some reason. There was even one level where I was clearly shooting at someone with a gun who was nameless but after killing them I was given a death screen and told to "not kill your brothers." It's just a very weird situation all around.
If I were rating Black Ops just on campaign alone, it would be a 6/10. The Zombies mode brings it to a 7/10 and is easily the best part of the game.
I remember loving Zombies when playing it with my cousin. I was a little worried about playing it single player, and while it's definitely not as easy it's still a good time and something I would easily play with friends trying to see how long we last.
Something I also didn't know about: there's a top-down Zombies arcade mode! This one is not as good as Zombies, but it's more fun than the campaign! It's a top down shooter similar to stuff like Smash TV. It's a fun highscore chaser! Although it is very ugly visually... you can definitely tell they did not put any effort into making it look good.
Honestly there's not much more I have to say about Black Ops. It's your typical first person shooter, aside from Zombies there's not really much outstanding in the gameplay from other FPS games I've played like Bioshock. It's very industry standard, but some people might like that. Although I'm sure most people who played this a lot back in the day have long since moved on to future iterations. I say it's still worth going back to for Zombies though!
TL:DR: Call of Duty: Black Ops is a very standard FPS. The campaign shines with its story near the end but rather lacks much else for me. The Zombies modes however are the best part of the game and is something I would easily go back to with friends.
Up Next: Black Ops was another pretty short completion, will the next one be three in a row?
Affordable Space Adventures! Chosen by Tiamat! It is a short one, but it's interesting. It's supposed to be a Wii U exclusive and a good one at that! Very exciting.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #247: Affordable Space Adventures
Platform: Wii U
Main + Extras: 4h 45m 13s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: January 8, 2024
Picked By: Tiamat911
Games Synopsis: A puzzle game where you must manage different parts of a spaceship to get past obstacles.
Blog: This is the fourth game in my personal challenge.
For those of you who don't know, Nintendo made a little system called the Wii U. It's one of Nintendo's worst selling consoles and came out between two of Nintendo's best selling consoles as of today. The Wii U's main feature was its gamepad that was asynchronous from the tv, allowing you to have a second screen. A lot of games on the system used the second screen as either a way to display on the gamepad so you can play while the tv was off, or it will have nothing at all.
However, some games used the gamepad in unique and interesting ways. One of the most notable is Affordable Space Adventures. An indie game which even by Wii U standards is largely forgotten.
Affordable Space Adventures is about you going on a cheap adventure in space provided by company UExplore. However you wake up on a planet in which an unexplained accident has occurred, and you are stranded on an unknown planet in a small, damaged spacecraft. You must navigate the planet in the spacecraft.
The spacecraft is all controlled through the gamepad. You have various engines and systems that you have to utilize in order to get past enemies and obstacles safely. All of this is controlled through the gamepad. Need to get past an enemy that can detect the heat from your gas engine? Tap the electric engine. An enemy that can detect sound? Lower the use of your engine to make it more quiet. Need to go underwater? Increase your weight. A small diagonal path that you can't fit through normally? Try tilting the gamepad to also tilt your ship. There's so many scenarios that require you to rely on the gamepad. There's even a Miiverse feature that's used in a really cool way... RIP Miiverse...
The game also doesn't hold your hand at all. It'll give you a brief pop up on the gamepad when you unlock a new ability, but that's about it. There's no tutorials to follow at all beyond that. The game isn't easy either. I often found myself trying to rack my brain around some of the really difficult ones. It's really hard!
There isn't much of a story beyond what you get at the beginning, end, and a few sections in the middle. But that's honestly fine. What little story there is, is both humorous and somewhat fearful. I thought it had just the right amount of story for what the game needed.
If there's one thing about the game that I had to speak somewhat negatively on, it's not particularly the most exciting game. It's not boring by any means, but the environments all somewhat look the same and with how generally quiet the game is, I felt like I was getting exhausted throughout my playtime with it. Some puzzles also weren't exactly the most interesting either until they introduced something new or gave a new layout that was more than just a hallway.
But obviously I did enjoy my time with it. I'm not sure if I would replay by myself. It does have co-op so if I do ever go back to it, I'll probably be doing it with a friend instead of on my own again. For me, it's an 8/10. What a shame that this game is stuck on the Wii U, with no other currently possible way to play it on something else. Not only that, it was an eshop exclusive. So most people won't even be able to play it normally. It's truly a shame.
TL:DR: A wonderful Wii U exclusive that uses the gamepad well, while also being a very difficult game. It doesn't have much replay value beyond co-op though.
Up Next: With Affordable Space Adventures wrapped up, that's yet another game off the list. The next game to work toward is...
Balatro! Chosen by me! I've been avoiding gameplay of this one so I could see it for myself. So I finally get to see what all the fuss is about!
Platform: Wii U
Main + Extras: 4h 45m 13s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: January 8, 2024
Picked By: Tiamat911
Games Synopsis: A puzzle game where you must manage different parts of a spaceship to get past obstacles.
Blog: This is the fourth game in my personal challenge.
For those of you who don't know, Nintendo made a little system called the Wii U. It's one of Nintendo's worst selling consoles and came out between two of Nintendo's best selling consoles as of today. The Wii U's main feature was its gamepad that was asynchronous from the tv, allowing you to have a second screen. A lot of games on the system used the second screen as either a way to display on the gamepad so you can play while the tv was off, or it will have nothing at all.
However, some games used the gamepad in unique and interesting ways. One of the most notable is Affordable Space Adventures. An indie game which even by Wii U standards is largely forgotten.
Affordable Space Adventures is about you going on a cheap adventure in space provided by company UExplore. However you wake up on a planet in which an unexplained accident has occurred, and you are stranded on an unknown planet in a small, damaged spacecraft. You must navigate the planet in the spacecraft.
The spacecraft is all controlled through the gamepad. You have various engines and systems that you have to utilize in order to get past enemies and obstacles safely. All of this is controlled through the gamepad. Need to get past an enemy that can detect the heat from your gas engine? Tap the electric engine. An enemy that can detect sound? Lower the use of your engine to make it more quiet. Need to go underwater? Increase your weight. A small diagonal path that you can't fit through normally? Try tilting the gamepad to also tilt your ship. There's so many scenarios that require you to rely on the gamepad. There's even a Miiverse feature that's used in a really cool way... RIP Miiverse...
The game also doesn't hold your hand at all. It'll give you a brief pop up on the gamepad when you unlock a new ability, but that's about it. There's no tutorials to follow at all beyond that. The game isn't easy either. I often found myself trying to rack my brain around some of the really difficult ones. It's really hard!
There isn't much of a story beyond what you get at the beginning, end, and a few sections in the middle. But that's honestly fine. What little story there is, is both humorous and somewhat fearful. I thought it had just the right amount of story for what the game needed.
If there's one thing about the game that I had to speak somewhat negatively on, it's not particularly the most exciting game. It's not boring by any means, but the environments all somewhat look the same and with how generally quiet the game is, I felt like I was getting exhausted throughout my playtime with it. Some puzzles also weren't exactly the most interesting either until they introduced something new or gave a new layout that was more than just a hallway.
But obviously I did enjoy my time with it. I'm not sure if I would replay by myself. It does have co-op so if I do ever go back to it, I'll probably be doing it with a friend instead of on my own again. For me, it's an 8/10. What a shame that this game is stuck on the Wii U, with no other currently possible way to play it on something else. Not only that, it was an eshop exclusive. So most people won't even be able to play it normally. It's truly a shame.
TL:DR: A wonderful Wii U exclusive that uses the gamepad well, while also being a very difficult game. It doesn't have much replay value beyond co-op though.
Up Next: With Affordable Space Adventures wrapped up, that's yet another game off the list. The next game to work toward is...
Balatro! Chosen by me! I've been avoiding gameplay of this one so I could see it for myself. So I finally get to see what all the fuss is about!
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #248: Balatro
Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 25h 46m 30s
Rating: 10/10
Date Completed: January 19, 2025
Picked By: R2D21999 (me)
Games Synopsis: A poker game that changes everything you know about poker with rogue-like, deckbuilding elements.
Blog: This is the fifth game in the challenge, and the one personally picked by me.
When Balatro was nominated for game of the year at the 2024 Game Awards, I did not doubt that Balatro was a good game. I've played so many games of different varieties, including indie games. I knew Balatro was going to be a good game. But oh boy I did not realize just how much I liked this game.
Balatro is a game with a lot of simple systems that when combined make a very complex game. It takes a lot from poker but with scoring a certain amount of points each round instead of having to bluff to someone. The points being determined by the ranks of the cards, the rank of the hand you play, special cards you might find along the way, etc. There's so much to this game than what you might initially expect. One of the big elements of this game involves the joker cards. These change how the game is played and are essential in scoring big points and being able to go into the next round.
There's so much more to explain about the game, but I don't want this review to turn into a guide or tutorial. Just know that this game is just one big dopamine rush. Getting a big score from a combination of cards, poker hands, and jokers is one of the most satisfying feelings. The first time I played Balatro, I accidentally played until about 3 am on a work night. It's dangerously addicting!
And don't worry if you don't know anything about poker or general card games. I admittedly didn't have too much knowledge on poker but the tutorial and just generally playing the game definitely helped me understand more now. I however am still not confident enough to play a proper poker game without any rules.
There honestly isn't that much more I have to say about Balatro. It's not a game that has some huge involved story or insane graphics. It's just a fun game with fun gameplay. It's something I see myself going back to when I have some downtime, and there aren't really many games I can say that about. Balatro is a 10/10 in my books.
TL:DR: Balatro is a fun game that is dangerously addicting. It's a game I will come back to every now and then.
Up Next: Balatro is the best scoring game so far in the challenge. Will the next game also be a 10?
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag! I've heard a lot of positive things about this one. Excited to see how it differs from 3, which is the only AC game I've played.
Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 25h 46m 30s
Rating: 10/10
Date Completed: January 19, 2025
Picked By: R2D21999 (me)
Games Synopsis: A poker game that changes everything you know about poker with rogue-like, deckbuilding elements.
Blog: This is the fifth game in the challenge, and the one personally picked by me.
When Balatro was nominated for game of the year at the 2024 Game Awards, I did not doubt that Balatro was a good game. I've played so many games of different varieties, including indie games. I knew Balatro was going to be a good game. But oh boy I did not realize just how much I liked this game.
Balatro is a game with a lot of simple systems that when combined make a very complex game. It takes a lot from poker but with scoring a certain amount of points each round instead of having to bluff to someone. The points being determined by the ranks of the cards, the rank of the hand you play, special cards you might find along the way, etc. There's so much to this game than what you might initially expect. One of the big elements of this game involves the joker cards. These change how the game is played and are essential in scoring big points and being able to go into the next round.
There's so much more to explain about the game, but I don't want this review to turn into a guide or tutorial. Just know that this game is just one big dopamine rush. Getting a big score from a combination of cards, poker hands, and jokers is one of the most satisfying feelings. The first time I played Balatro, I accidentally played until about 3 am on a work night. It's dangerously addicting!
And don't worry if you don't know anything about poker or general card games. I admittedly didn't have too much knowledge on poker but the tutorial and just generally playing the game definitely helped me understand more now. I however am still not confident enough to play a proper poker game without any rules.
There honestly isn't that much more I have to say about Balatro. It's not a game that has some huge involved story or insane graphics. It's just a fun game with fun gameplay. It's something I see myself going back to when I have some downtime, and there aren't really many games I can say that about. Balatro is a 10/10 in my books.
TL:DR: Balatro is a fun game that is dangerously addicting. It's a game I will come back to every now and then.
Up Next: Balatro is the best scoring game so far in the challenge. Will the next game also be a 10?
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag! I've heard a lot of positive things about this one. Excited to see how it differs from 3, which is the only AC game I've played.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #249: Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag
Platform: Xbox One
Main + Extras: 60h 08m 21s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: January 30, 2025
Picked By: GCTuba
Games Synopsis: An Assassin's Creed game taking place on the ocean during the big pirate craze in the Caribbean.
Blog: If I were to compare Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag to Assassin's Creed III, the only other AC game I've played, I would probably pick AC3 as my preference.
That's not to say AC4 is not a bad game by comparison, in fact I also gave AC3 the same 6/10 score. I would definitely say it's kind of average though.
I think for example, the land portions aren't too exciting when comparing it to AC3. For example, the weapon variety is lacking in 4. You get pistols, swords, smoke bombs, and a few different darts. AC3 has all of that, and more with tomahawks, axes, muskets, clubs, and probably more that I'm forgetting. For me AC3 offered a lot more toys for messing around and provided a variety that AC4 just couldn't match up with. It's also especially weird considering that axes and muskets are in the game and you can use them, but you can't keep them.
I do feel that AC4 adds a different feel to some of the weapons though, mainly the swords and pistols. Swords are duel wielded and fighting just seems to be faster. Pistols especially can be upgraded to where you're able to have four pistols that you can use consecutively. This just felt so much more fun in comparison to AC3's which were pretty much always reloaded after every shot.
The land sections also don't feel as developed or have as much variety like AC3. Aside from maybe Havana, Kingston, and the final area there isn't much going on the land. Not too many high places to go and not much to see either.
But this is a game about the ocean. So how is the ocean in AC4? Only a little bit better honestly.
I did enjoy going into ship battles, both on the water and fighting aboard other ships. This is definitely what the focus was on, and it works. It's fun. Especially when you massively upgrade your ship and you're able to shred large ships, and go to fight one of the four legendary ships. It is rinse and repeat after a while, and there's only so much variety with the enemy ships.
There's also fort battles that can be pretty fun, they're honestly just big ship battles, although there's only seven of them.
So what about the other stuff on the ocean? Aside from some rinse and repeat side quests you can partake in, the ocean isn't very interesting otherwise. There's collectibles such as treasure chests with money and animus fragments that do... something?... but the collectibles are on tiny islands that all look and act the same which all screamed lazy. Harpooning I really only did for crafting materials and wasn't really interested in. And then diving was literally the worst thing about this game, the movement controls for the diving sections were really bad.
Speaking of movement, parkour is pretty much a key factor of AC games. You need to be able to run, jump, climb, etc in these games. I don't know if it's just me, but often times the games are kind of janky in this area. Both AC 3 and 4 had issues where I wasn't able to climb sections that were obviously climbable, or making jumps in the wrong direction when I'm pointing the stick forward. In particular whenever I run into a small alley, I find myself sometimes running up the nearest wall when I'm just trying to run straight forward through the alley. It's just annoying to deal with and will often cause me to get discovered in missions.
In terms of story, I honestly didn't really like the story or even Edward up until sequence 10... and there's only 13 sequences! I thought Edward was pretty unlikable, and all the characters surrounding him didn't really have much going on for me. I didn't care about Blackbeard at all either, partly because he wasn't around too much. But at sequence 10 it all gets better. Edward isn't so annoying, and the story finally had some interesting moments while also not having as many tutorials.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag is a pretty decent game. Honestly, if you have interest in it at all, I would recommend it. It's a game where you can pretty much turn off your brain and listen to some podcasts.
TL:DR: In my opinion Assassin's Creed Black Flag pales in comparison to AC3, with not as much weapon variety, towns being lackluster, and even some parts of the ocean being pretty mild. But the parts where you can really play and act as a pirate are quite a hoot.
Up Next: Black Flag was I think the longest game in the challenge so far. So what's next on the list?
Patrick's Parabox! Picked by GreenStarfish. This is a puzzle game that messes with perspective I believe? I always love playing these kinds of games.
Platform: Xbox One
Main + Extras: 60h 08m 21s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: January 30, 2025
Picked By: GCTuba
Games Synopsis: An Assassin's Creed game taking place on the ocean during the big pirate craze in the Caribbean.
Blog: If I were to compare Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag to Assassin's Creed III, the only other AC game I've played, I would probably pick AC3 as my preference.
That's not to say AC4 is not a bad game by comparison, in fact I also gave AC3 the same 6/10 score. I would definitely say it's kind of average though.
I think for example, the land portions aren't too exciting when comparing it to AC3. For example, the weapon variety is lacking in 4. You get pistols, swords, smoke bombs, and a few different darts. AC3 has all of that, and more with tomahawks, axes, muskets, clubs, and probably more that I'm forgetting. For me AC3 offered a lot more toys for messing around and provided a variety that AC4 just couldn't match up with. It's also especially weird considering that axes and muskets are in the game and you can use them, but you can't keep them.
I do feel that AC4 adds a different feel to some of the weapons though, mainly the swords and pistols. Swords are duel wielded and fighting just seems to be faster. Pistols especially can be upgraded to where you're able to have four pistols that you can use consecutively. This just felt so much more fun in comparison to AC3's which were pretty much always reloaded after every shot.
The land sections also don't feel as developed or have as much variety like AC3. Aside from maybe Havana, Kingston, and the final area there isn't much going on the land. Not too many high places to go and not much to see either.
But this is a game about the ocean. So how is the ocean in AC4? Only a little bit better honestly.
I did enjoy going into ship battles, both on the water and fighting aboard other ships. This is definitely what the focus was on, and it works. It's fun. Especially when you massively upgrade your ship and you're able to shred large ships, and go to fight one of the four legendary ships. It is rinse and repeat after a while, and there's only so much variety with the enemy ships.
There's also fort battles that can be pretty fun, they're honestly just big ship battles, although there's only seven of them.
So what about the other stuff on the ocean? Aside from some rinse and repeat side quests you can partake in, the ocean isn't very interesting otherwise. There's collectibles such as treasure chests with money and animus fragments that do... something?... but the collectibles are on tiny islands that all look and act the same which all screamed lazy. Harpooning I really only did for crafting materials and wasn't really interested in. And then diving was literally the worst thing about this game, the movement controls for the diving sections were really bad.
Speaking of movement, parkour is pretty much a key factor of AC games. You need to be able to run, jump, climb, etc in these games. I don't know if it's just me, but often times the games are kind of janky in this area. Both AC 3 and 4 had issues where I wasn't able to climb sections that were obviously climbable, or making jumps in the wrong direction when I'm pointing the stick forward. In particular whenever I run into a small alley, I find myself sometimes running up the nearest wall when I'm just trying to run straight forward through the alley. It's just annoying to deal with and will often cause me to get discovered in missions.
In terms of story, I honestly didn't really like the story or even Edward up until sequence 10... and there's only 13 sequences! I thought Edward was pretty unlikable, and all the characters surrounding him didn't really have much going on for me. I didn't care about Blackbeard at all either, partly because he wasn't around too much. But at sequence 10 it all gets better. Edward isn't so annoying, and the story finally had some interesting moments while also not having as many tutorials.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag is a pretty decent game. Honestly, if you have interest in it at all, I would recommend it. It's a game where you can pretty much turn off your brain and listen to some podcasts.
TL:DR: In my opinion Assassin's Creed Black Flag pales in comparison to AC3, with not as much weapon variety, towns being lackluster, and even some parts of the ocean being pretty mild. But the parts where you can really play and act as a pirate are quite a hoot.
Up Next: Black Flag was I think the longest game in the challenge so far. So what's next on the list?
Patrick's Parabox! Picked by GreenStarfish. This is a puzzle game that messes with perspective I believe? I always love playing these kinds of games.
5 Yrs✓#
GCTuba
5 Yrs✓#
Sorry to hear AC4 didn't vibe with you as much as it did with me.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #250: Patrick's Parabox
Platform: PC
Main + Extras: 12h 31m 16s
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: February 10, 2025
Picked By: GreenStarfish
Games Synopsis: A puzzle game of boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes....
Blog: This is probably going to be the worst review of the lot because of how mind-bendy this game is, as well as me not wanting to spoil certain mechanics the game introduces.
The overall objective of the game is to get a box and yourself to goals, which are outlined in the levels themselves. This likely sounds incredibly plain and boring, but the game quickly introduces some very mind-bending mechanics to the game, such as needing to put boxes in other boxes to reach the goals.
One example of an early mechanic I'll give is that the level itself is a block, and inside the level is a block of the exact level that you're in. So if you go out the left exit of the level, you'll then come out of the left side of the block. This mechanic as well as others will be used throughout the oncoming puzzles to maneuver boxes.
And this might sound like all these mechanics would be overwhelming, but the game will give you the basic understanding of a mechanic, as well as giving you the option to do more advanced puzzles surrounding that particular mechanic. The new mechanics added every couple of levels make the game feel fresh and interesting. They never overstayed their welcome aside from some post game levels that I ended up not finishing.
As weird as this sounds, I don't have much else to say about the game. There's no story to it after all, so it's a game that entirely relies on the quality of its puzzles, and I think it does that amazingly well. To me, Patrick's Parabox is a game I would say is almost a 10/10, but it doesn't speak to me as a 10/10 even if I have no negative qualities to give it. It's a game I would recommend to anyone who likes puzzle games, but it's not necessarily a game I would think about beyond that. For that reason, I am giving it a 9/10. I do highly recommend it.
TL:DR: Patrick's Parabox is a great puzzle game that's all about the idea of recursion within boxes, and I think it does that idea very well.
Up Next: What game is up next in the challenge? Time to randomize once again and find out.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective! Picked by Siver. I believe this game had the same director or developers as some of the Ace Attorney games, which were some of my absolute favorite games. So I'm very much looking forward to playing this.
Platform: PC
Main + Extras: 12h 31m 16s
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: February 10, 2025
Picked By: GreenStarfish
Games Synopsis: A puzzle game of boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes in boxes....
Blog: This is probably going to be the worst review of the lot because of how mind-bendy this game is, as well as me not wanting to spoil certain mechanics the game introduces.
The overall objective of the game is to get a box and yourself to goals, which are outlined in the levels themselves. This likely sounds incredibly plain and boring, but the game quickly introduces some very mind-bending mechanics to the game, such as needing to put boxes in other boxes to reach the goals.
One example of an early mechanic I'll give is that the level itself is a block, and inside the level is a block of the exact level that you're in. So if you go out the left exit of the level, you'll then come out of the left side of the block. This mechanic as well as others will be used throughout the oncoming puzzles to maneuver boxes.
And this might sound like all these mechanics would be overwhelming, but the game will give you the basic understanding of a mechanic, as well as giving you the option to do more advanced puzzles surrounding that particular mechanic. The new mechanics added every couple of levels make the game feel fresh and interesting. They never overstayed their welcome aside from some post game levels that I ended up not finishing.
As weird as this sounds, I don't have much else to say about the game. There's no story to it after all, so it's a game that entirely relies on the quality of its puzzles, and I think it does that amazingly well. To me, Patrick's Parabox is a game I would say is almost a 10/10, but it doesn't speak to me as a 10/10 even if I have no negative qualities to give it. It's a game I would recommend to anyone who likes puzzle games, but it's not necessarily a game I would think about beyond that. For that reason, I am giving it a 9/10. I do highly recommend it.
TL:DR: Patrick's Parabox is a great puzzle game that's all about the idea of recursion within boxes, and I think it does that idea very well.
Up Next: What game is up next in the challenge? Time to randomize once again and find out.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective! Picked by Siver. I believe this game had the same director or developers as some of the Ace Attorney games, which were some of my absolute favorite games. So I'm very much looking forward to playing this.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #251: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Platform: Switch
Main: 12h 01m 20s
100% Completion: 13h 21m 03s
Rating: 10/10
Date Completed: February 14, 2025
Picked By: Siver
Games Synopsis: Solve the mysteries behind a death... YOUR death...
Blog: One of my favorite gaming trilogies is the original Ace Attorney trilogy by Shu Takumi. So when this game was announced for a remaster a few years ago, I was excited. This also meant I wouldn't have to shell out over $100 for a DS game! This game was pretty infamously expensive on the second-hand market.
Collector issues aside, Ghost Trick lived up to my expectations. It's a great time and you can definitely tell that there's a lot of similarities to Ace Attorney even though the games are very different.
As I always do, I'm going to talk about this game but I'm going to speak vaguely on everything to not spoil anything.
In Ghost Trick, you play as a ghost solving the mystery behind your death. You aren't a typical ghost however. You can't float around, you can't posses people. Your only way of getting around is by possessing certain inanimate objects and interacting with those objects to get certain results.
Probably the biggest gameplay schtick about Ghost Trick is being able to interact with dead bodies. When you interact with a dead body, you can then go back in time to try to prevent the death of that person by interacting with objects. This is pretty much how you get through the story is by messing with the timeline to save any persons of interest.
And the story is really good. Again, not spoiling anything in particular, but if you recall the crazy twists and turns of the Ace Attorney games, it's pretty similar with this game. Absolutely crazy stuff that you wouldn't expect and it's all a fun ride.
And the gameplay is good too. It's a neat concept where you have to think creatively with just your general movement and how you use objects to your advantage. Puzzles are of course easy at the beginning, but it gets pretty difficult the further you go.
The music is good too. Maybe not as many bangers as Ace Attorney but there's some really good stuff. The art and visuals looks really good too, especially for a DS game brought over to Switch. I'm not sure how different the original game was on DS, but you honestly can't even tell that this was a DS game.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a really good game. It's up there among my favorite DS games like The World Ends With You. I highly recommend it.
TL:DR: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a fantastic game that needs way more love than whatever amount it gets currently. Please play this game, especially if you like Ace Attorney.
Up Next: You know the drill. I am once again randomizing my next game in the challenge.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc! Picked by ThomasE! This is kind of funny. Just after playing a game by the Ace Attorney director, I will now play a game that's similar to Ace Attorney... I think? I don't really know anything about the Danganronpa series, but I've heard a lot of comparisons to Ace Attorney. So if it's anything remotely similar, I think I should enjoy it.
Platform: Switch
Main: 12h 01m 20s
100% Completion: 13h 21m 03s
Rating: 10/10
Date Completed: February 14, 2025
Picked By: Siver
Games Synopsis: Solve the mysteries behind a death... YOUR death...
Blog: One of my favorite gaming trilogies is the original Ace Attorney trilogy by Shu Takumi. So when this game was announced for a remaster a few years ago, I was excited. This also meant I wouldn't have to shell out over $100 for a DS game! This game was pretty infamously expensive on the second-hand market.
Collector issues aside, Ghost Trick lived up to my expectations. It's a great time and you can definitely tell that there's a lot of similarities to Ace Attorney even though the games are very different.
As I always do, I'm going to talk about this game but I'm going to speak vaguely on everything to not spoil anything.
In Ghost Trick, you play as a ghost solving the mystery behind your death. You aren't a typical ghost however. You can't float around, you can't posses people. Your only way of getting around is by possessing certain inanimate objects and interacting with those objects to get certain results.
Probably the biggest gameplay schtick about Ghost Trick is being able to interact with dead bodies. When you interact with a dead body, you can then go back in time to try to prevent the death of that person by interacting with objects. This is pretty much how you get through the story is by messing with the timeline to save any persons of interest.
And the story is really good. Again, not spoiling anything in particular, but if you recall the crazy twists and turns of the Ace Attorney games, it's pretty similar with this game. Absolutely crazy stuff that you wouldn't expect and it's all a fun ride.
And the gameplay is good too. It's a neat concept where you have to think creatively with just your general movement and how you use objects to your advantage. Puzzles are of course easy at the beginning, but it gets pretty difficult the further you go.
The music is good too. Maybe not as many bangers as Ace Attorney but there's some really good stuff. The art and visuals looks really good too, especially for a DS game brought over to Switch. I'm not sure how different the original game was on DS, but you honestly can't even tell that this was a DS game.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a really good game. It's up there among my favorite DS games like The World Ends With You. I highly recommend it.
TL:DR: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a fantastic game that needs way more love than whatever amount it gets currently. Please play this game, especially if you like Ace Attorney.
Up Next: You know the drill. I am once again randomizing my next game in the challenge.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc! Picked by ThomasE! This is kind of funny. Just after playing a game by the Ace Attorney director, I will now play a game that's similar to Ace Attorney... I think? I don't really know anything about the Danganronpa series, but I've heard a lot of comparisons to Ace Attorney. So if it's anything remotely similar, I think I should enjoy it.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #252: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 28h 31m 29s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: February 20, 2025
Picked By: ThomasE
Games Synopsis: Solve murders while being trapped in a high school with other students.
Blog: I think this is a pretty good game, although it has some pretty big flaws.
First of all, I want to say that I very much enjoy these kinds of games. I really loved Ace Attorney, and while I don't think Danganronpa 1 is as good as any of the games in that series, I think it can still stand on its own as a good game.
For those who aren't familiar with Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, it's a visual novel where a group of students are trapped in a high school, where they are encouraged to kill one of their fellow students and go through a trial without being voted off as the killer. Your job as the main character is to solve the murders and convince everyone else to vote for the true murderer, or else everyone besides the killer will die.
I really like the set up of these. You have a few in-game days before any killings take place to learn a little more about the school you're in as well as your fellow students. This gives a bit of a breather between all the killings and trials you'll be going through, and it's nice to learn a bit about the characters.
Quick tangent: one of the criticisms towards the game that I've seen is that the characters aren't really given much depth. While certain characters I could definitely see that criticism applying, I don't think it fits or works with every character. For example, the people who die in the first chapter aren't really going to have much depth to them versus the characters who end up making it to the final chapter. That's just the reality of this kind of game, and in some cases I felt it heightened the sense of dread or guilt that I felt because it would take away these characters that I wanted to learn more about. That fit with the theming for me.
Sorry that tangent was not at all "quick." Back to the game itself.
The investigation portion of the game is pretty self-explanatory. When a murder happens, you check any related areas for clues.
The class trial is arguably supposed to be the main focus... but to be honest some of my bigger criticisms come from this portion of the game. Before I get into that, the class trial is where you learn about all the details of the case and finally start connecting the dots with all of the evidence you found. However, this is not exactly like Ace Attorney where you present evidence and press people for more details to find contradictions. You do indeed do that in Danganronpa, but they're like mini games rather than going through dialog options. It's really interesting in concept and they all revolve a neat gun motif that looks pretty sleek.
These mini games were kind of the bane of my existence. The tutorials were terrible and only made things more confusing. What's worse is that every trial they added something new to one or multiple of the mini games which only added to the amount of tutorials and confusion. One of the mini games, Bullet Time Battles, I genuinely went through almost the entire game without figuring out how it worked, stumbling my way to success the few times it popped up. It wasn't until literally the last trial that I basically became "perfect" at it. This and chapter 2 were basically the biggest flaws for me.
Speaking of chapter 2... this one was a mess. I am going to be very vague as to not spoil what happens, but anyone familiar with the game knows what I'm going to touch on. Chapter 2 started out just fine for me but at some point in the trial portion, the game seemingly decided that it wanted to make some social commentary on gender, gender roles in particular. I am not against the discussion of gender or other such social topics. I am not one of those loud gamer types on Twitter who thinks that politics should stay out of gaming. However, this topic is handled so tactlessly that I wish they didn't cover it at all, particularly to how the class even come across this discovery. What's more is that I think due to some potential mistranslation Japanese to English, the game can come across a little... bigoted between reveals. I don't think that was intentional but it easily comes across as such, and the debates about this online... 10+ years later only cements my belief on that.
Chapter 3 I also didn't like too much but only because I already figured out who the killer was by the time the dead body was discovered. It was so obvious and the antagonist for that chapter was quite underwhelming despite their ultimate ability. I was surprised by how unsurprising that chapter was.
Everything else I thought was pretty good. I didn't really have anything negative to say for the other trials, I thought they were quite good. My favorite trial probably being the one in chapter 4. I liked the character designs, everyone looked great. The music was fantastic and probably my favorite part of the whole game.
This game definitely has some major flaws for me, but I think it's pretty good.
PS, the "School Mode" that you unlock after beating the game is kinda boring. I won't count that against the game but I'm sorry it just sucks.
TL:DR: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a good murder mystery visual novel game with some nice art, great music, and is overall intriguing to follow the story to see what happens next. It certainly has its issues for me with trial tutorials being terrible while also having two chapters that just aren't up to par with the others. If you can get past that, and also some content that can be a little triggering for certain people, I think this could be a solid visual novel for most people.
Up Next: I think this was my longest review yet. Will the next game be as opinion heavy? Let's see...
Stardew Valley! Picked by Uvehj! Spoilers: I very much love this game since I've played it on Switch already. This time I'll be playing on my Steam Deck.
Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 28h 31m 29s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: February 20, 2025
Picked By: ThomasE
Games Synopsis: Solve murders while being trapped in a high school with other students.
Blog: I think this is a pretty good game, although it has some pretty big flaws.
First of all, I want to say that I very much enjoy these kinds of games. I really loved Ace Attorney, and while I don't think Danganronpa 1 is as good as any of the games in that series, I think it can still stand on its own as a good game.
For those who aren't familiar with Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, it's a visual novel where a group of students are trapped in a high school, where they are encouraged to kill one of their fellow students and go through a trial without being voted off as the killer. Your job as the main character is to solve the murders and convince everyone else to vote for the true murderer, or else everyone besides the killer will die.
I really like the set up of these. You have a few in-game days before any killings take place to learn a little more about the school you're in as well as your fellow students. This gives a bit of a breather between all the killings and trials you'll be going through, and it's nice to learn a bit about the characters.
Quick tangent: one of the criticisms towards the game that I've seen is that the characters aren't really given much depth. While certain characters I could definitely see that criticism applying, I don't think it fits or works with every character. For example, the people who die in the first chapter aren't really going to have much depth to them versus the characters who end up making it to the final chapter. That's just the reality of this kind of game, and in some cases I felt it heightened the sense of dread or guilt that I felt because it would take away these characters that I wanted to learn more about. That fit with the theming for me.
Sorry that tangent was not at all "quick." Back to the game itself.
The investigation portion of the game is pretty self-explanatory. When a murder happens, you check any related areas for clues.
The class trial is arguably supposed to be the main focus... but to be honest some of my bigger criticisms come from this portion of the game. Before I get into that, the class trial is where you learn about all the details of the case and finally start connecting the dots with all of the evidence you found. However, this is not exactly like Ace Attorney where you present evidence and press people for more details to find contradictions. You do indeed do that in Danganronpa, but they're like mini games rather than going through dialog options. It's really interesting in concept and they all revolve a neat gun motif that looks pretty sleek.
These mini games were kind of the bane of my existence. The tutorials were terrible and only made things more confusing. What's worse is that every trial they added something new to one or multiple of the mini games which only added to the amount of tutorials and confusion. One of the mini games, Bullet Time Battles, I genuinely went through almost the entire game without figuring out how it worked, stumbling my way to success the few times it popped up. It wasn't until literally the last trial that I basically became "perfect" at it. This and chapter 2 were basically the biggest flaws for me.
Speaking of chapter 2... this one was a mess. I am going to be very vague as to not spoil what happens, but anyone familiar with the game knows what I'm going to touch on. Chapter 2 started out just fine for me but at some point in the trial portion, the game seemingly decided that it wanted to make some social commentary on gender, gender roles in particular. I am not against the discussion of gender or other such social topics. I am not one of those loud gamer types on Twitter who thinks that politics should stay out of gaming. However, this topic is handled so tactlessly that I wish they didn't cover it at all, particularly to how the class even come across this discovery. What's more is that I think due to some potential mistranslation Japanese to English, the game can come across a little... bigoted between reveals. I don't think that was intentional but it easily comes across as such, and the debates about this online... 10+ years later only cements my belief on that.
Chapter 3 I also didn't like too much but only because I already figured out who the killer was by the time the dead body was discovered. It was so obvious and the antagonist for that chapter was quite underwhelming despite their ultimate ability. I was surprised by how unsurprising that chapter was.
Everything else I thought was pretty good. I didn't really have anything negative to say for the other trials, I thought they were quite good. My favorite trial probably being the one in chapter 4. I liked the character designs, everyone looked great. The music was fantastic and probably my favorite part of the whole game.
This game definitely has some major flaws for me, but I think it's pretty good.
PS, the "School Mode" that you unlock after beating the game is kinda boring. I won't count that against the game but I'm sorry it just sucks.
TL:DR: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a good murder mystery visual novel game with some nice art, great music, and is overall intriguing to follow the story to see what happens next. It certainly has its issues for me with trial tutorials being terrible while also having two chapters that just aren't up to par with the others. If you can get past that, and also some content that can be a little triggering for certain people, I think this could be a solid visual novel for most people.
Up Next: I think this was my longest review yet. Will the next game be as opinion heavy? Let's see...
Stardew Valley! Picked by Uvehj! Spoilers: I very much love this game since I've played it on Switch already. This time I'll be playing on my Steam Deck.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #253: Stardew Valley
Platform: PC
Main + Extras: 100h 46m 13s
Rating: 10/10
Date Completed: March 18, 2025
Picked By: Uvehj
Games Synopsis: Move to Stardew Valley and live a new life as a farmer. Grow crops, raise animals, talk to to the townsfolk, mine for resources, and do so many other tasks around your new home.
Blog: I am no stranger to Stardew Valley. I played for the first time back in 2018/2019 and absolutely loved it then. Now over half a decade later, do I still love it?
Yes!
Stardew is the absolute gold standard for farming and casual/relaxing games in general. I say that as someone who grew up with Animal Crossing. AC is good, SV is better.
Stardew Valley just has so much to do. There are so many goals to accomplish, so much so that it can seem very overwhelming. Admittedly it is. But the beauty of this game is that you can just take your time. You can min/max the game if you want, and you definitely learn how to use your time more wisely as the game progresses. I think the game shines more if you don't treat this super sweaty though.
What I especially loved about Stardew Valley is just how much stuff has been added over the years, and all for free. When I came back to Stardew, it was like a whole new game for me. Tickets for helping people that can be exchanged, a whole entire island, new resources, books that level up experience, and so much more. It is ridiculous and I love the developer ConcernedApe so much because of it.
I honestly can't think of anything bad about the game, nothing that sours my experience at all. The art is pretty nice pixel art, the music fits the aesthetic very well, the characters are great while also having some particularly flawed characters that add depth to the socal element. It's a fantastic game and would recommend this to anyone who likes these sorts of games where you can just relax.
TL:DR: Stardew Valley is a farming game with so much to do, it's a really well-done game and I look forward to ConcernedApe's future endeavors with stuff like Haunted Chocolatier.
Up Next: What a great game. This will probably end up being the longest time I spent on a game in the challenge. So what's next?
Persona 3 Portable! Picked by Exi! I beat Persona 5 Royal for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. I've heard this one has a much better story, so I'm excited to play this one though...
However, I should also add... Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition comes out this week, and is also a very lengthy JRPG. Admittedly, P3P will likely be on the back burner as I play XCX... so do be patient! It will come, I promise!
Platform: PC
Main + Extras: 100h 46m 13s
Rating: 10/10
Date Completed: March 18, 2025
Picked By: Uvehj
Games Synopsis: Move to Stardew Valley and live a new life as a farmer. Grow crops, raise animals, talk to to the townsfolk, mine for resources, and do so many other tasks around your new home.
Blog: I am no stranger to Stardew Valley. I played for the first time back in 2018/2019 and absolutely loved it then. Now over half a decade later, do I still love it?
Yes!
Stardew is the absolute gold standard for farming and casual/relaxing games in general. I say that as someone who grew up with Animal Crossing. AC is good, SV is better.
Stardew Valley just has so much to do. There are so many goals to accomplish, so much so that it can seem very overwhelming. Admittedly it is. But the beauty of this game is that you can just take your time. You can min/max the game if you want, and you definitely learn how to use your time more wisely as the game progresses. I think the game shines more if you don't treat this super sweaty though.
What I especially loved about Stardew Valley is just how much stuff has been added over the years, and all for free. When I came back to Stardew, it was like a whole new game for me. Tickets for helping people that can be exchanged, a whole entire island, new resources, books that level up experience, and so much more. It is ridiculous and I love the developer ConcernedApe so much because of it.
I honestly can't think of anything bad about the game, nothing that sours my experience at all. The art is pretty nice pixel art, the music fits the aesthetic very well, the characters are great while also having some particularly flawed characters that add depth to the socal element. It's a fantastic game and would recommend this to anyone who likes these sorts of games where you can just relax.
TL:DR: Stardew Valley is a farming game with so much to do, it's a really well-done game and I look forward to ConcernedApe's future endeavors with stuff like Haunted Chocolatier.
Up Next: What a great game. This will probably end up being the longest time I spent on a game in the challenge. So what's next?
Persona 3 Portable! Picked by Exi! I beat Persona 5 Royal for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. I've heard this one has a much better story, so I'm excited to play this one though...
However, I should also add... Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition comes out this week, and is also a very lengthy JRPG. Admittedly, P3P will likely be on the back burner as I play XCX... so do be patient! It will come, I promise!
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✓#I like how you utilize howlongtobeat screenshots in your blog
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Fyi, this review is not part of my personal challenge, but I was requested by some to give my thoughts on the game as I was in the middle of playing it, so here it is. I am still doing the challenge, I swear.
Game #254: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Main + Extras: 147h 35m 23s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: April 27, 2025
Games Synopsis: The last of the human race is on the run after the destruction of Earth by the hands of aliens. Play as one of the last survivors as you and others of the human race have crash landed on a new planet.
Blog: Back in 2015/2016, I played the original Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U. It was the first Xenoblade game I played and was the one to kick start my love for the overall franchise.
That being said, I had my criticisms of X even way back when. The original had issues such as its mediocre story, affinity quests that you could be trapped in due to questionable game design, and collectibles being a pain to get.
Some of these issues Definitive Edition has either fixed, not touched, or in one major case... has been made worse.
What was improved: the collectibles! In the original you can accept quests where you will have to find a certain collectible, the collectibles being represented as blue crystals scattered throughout the world. The problem with these quests is that the specific collectibles you'll need are exclusive to specific areas in the specific regions with absolutely no guidance or hints about where they could be. And even if you know where they're located through online guides, certain collectibles are extremely rare. I recall in my first time playing the Wii U game I would run around the area collecting all of the blue crystals, not finding the item I need in any of them, reloading the area to spawn the crystals again, and then repeat it all until I found what I needed. This would often take me hours straight, especially if the quest is asking for more than one of them. When I replayed Xenoblade X a year ago, I actually skipped these quests entirely because no way was I going to deal with it.
Definitive Edition does some simple things to fix this: it puts an exclamation mark above the crystals that have the item needed for a quest, and it shows you where they are on the map. Sure you could argue this makes the quests unnecessary and redundant, but this was a godsend and took what was the equivalent of real life hours searching for the right items to less than 5 minutes. It was glorious and felt very vindicating coming from the Wii U.
What problem has Definitive Edition not fixed? The affinity missions. These are specific missions that either offer new characters you can play with in your party or even introducing new groups of characters that offer new minor storylines. The problem with these, however, if you choose to accept an affinity mission you can't accept any other affinity missions or even story missions until you finish the one you're on, and you can't cancel mid-affinity mission.
This becomes an issue if the mission you accepted turns out to be much harder than the recommended level. Because if you're stuck, then you're out of luck unless you load up a manual save from before the mission. The game also has some weird game design that can especially mess you up because often times the quest will be listed as level 30, but the level 30 enemy you have to kill is surrounded by level 40 enemies that will obliterate you!
I had this exact problem happen to me back in 2015 with the Blitzkrieg mission, I had to kill a level 30 enemy in a base surrounded by level 40 enemies that would instantly aggro on you and kill you in seconds. I had to grind myself up for hours to about 10 levels to even give myself the chance because my manual save was too far back to load up.
And this issue is still in the game! I didn't go into Blitzkrieg until I was at least level 50, so the level 40 enemies didn't bother me as I knowingly prepared for it. But this was still a level 30 recommended mission! And I just looked it up, people who never played the original are complaining about this exact mission, because of course they are! The issue still exists!!
Of course, at least the Definitive Edition didn't make that situation worse... unfortunately I can't say the same thing about the story. The story for Xenoblade X was never particularly bad. But it was rather lackluster despite there being some interesting mysteries around everything. Largely though, the game left a lot of those mysteries unanswered and even left the ending on a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger that was left unanswered for 10 years.
I will keep details extremely vague to avoid spoiling the game for those who wish to play it for themselves. But those mysteries and cliffhangers? They are left mostly unanswered, and in some cases, are hinted at to likely never be answered. This absolutely frustrated me, I waited 10 years for answers about stuff... and THAT was it? They literally abandon all of it. Even worse: the theming of the added epilogue goes against many themes that Xenoblade Chronicles X had gone over, and these weren't changed in the DE version either, so the inconsistencies really get in your face.
They also introduce a new character in the epilogue and I really wish they added some affinity missions in the middle of the main game to talk about this guy, because he just shows up almost completely unannounced and it's the strangest inclusion. I can't talk about that aspect much because he is unfortunately entirely spoiler territory. I will add, this character has a weird running gag and it is so incredibly annoying and comes up at such weird times. If you think the jokes about eating Tatsu were annoying, this gag felt worse than that.
Elma was also weirdly out of character. She's someone who for the most part is very calculating, cool-headed, and independent. But the epilogue has her reacting a little more... rash? This is especially so at the start of it all. It's very weird.
The conclusion of the story was so disappointing. I gave the original Xenoblade X an 8, and while the Definitive Edition definitely does some gameplay things better, the story was enough for me to give it a 7/10. The game does hint at the end that there could be a continuation so hopefully that could fix things, but I doubt it.
With all the negative I just said, I want to emphasize that Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition is still a great game as a whole. This has one of the best open worlds I've ever seen in a game, giving games even like Breath of the Wild a run for their money in that aspect. You can pretty go anywhere in this game, and exploration becomes even better when you get access to mechs. Yes, you heard that right, halfway through the game you can start piloting a mech and it's awesome! You can customize it to have different weapons and abilities during combat, you can go so much faster in the vehicle mode, and when you get the upgrade for it, you can even use it to fly. It's so much fun.
Side quests are also some of the best. No Xenoblade game even comes close to the side quests in this game. You can make decisions in this game that can have drastic consequences if you're not careful. You can easily get NPCs killed with the choices you make and it's a wild time. I always liked the side quests so much more than the story in any of the Xenoblade X versions.
I also want to add that the Definitive Edition makes the game look so much better. Characters look gorgeous, Elma especially had a major face lift and I prefer her look over the original.
And as much crap as I gave the epilogue, I liked that new area they added. It's definitely smaller than any other region in the game, but it was nice to have something that's more focused on using the mechs to fly around than anything else in the game.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a great game... if you ignore the epilogue. The rest of the game is truly great.
TL:DR: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition turns a great game with a mediocre story, into a great game with an even worse story. Otherwise, this game has one of the best openworlds and sidequests of any other game out there. It's good, I promise.
Game #254: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Main + Extras: 147h 35m 23s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: April 27, 2025
Games Synopsis: The last of the human race is on the run after the destruction of Earth by the hands of aliens. Play as one of the last survivors as you and others of the human race have crash landed on a new planet.
Blog: Back in 2015/2016, I played the original Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U. It was the first Xenoblade game I played and was the one to kick start my love for the overall franchise.
That being said, I had my criticisms of X even way back when. The original had issues such as its mediocre story, affinity quests that you could be trapped in due to questionable game design, and collectibles being a pain to get.
Some of these issues Definitive Edition has either fixed, not touched, or in one major case... has been made worse.
What was improved: the collectibles! In the original you can accept quests where you will have to find a certain collectible, the collectibles being represented as blue crystals scattered throughout the world. The problem with these quests is that the specific collectibles you'll need are exclusive to specific areas in the specific regions with absolutely no guidance or hints about where they could be. And even if you know where they're located through online guides, certain collectibles are extremely rare. I recall in my first time playing the Wii U game I would run around the area collecting all of the blue crystals, not finding the item I need in any of them, reloading the area to spawn the crystals again, and then repeat it all until I found what I needed. This would often take me hours straight, especially if the quest is asking for more than one of them. When I replayed Xenoblade X a year ago, I actually skipped these quests entirely because no way was I going to deal with it.
Definitive Edition does some simple things to fix this: it puts an exclamation mark above the crystals that have the item needed for a quest, and it shows you where they are on the map. Sure you could argue this makes the quests unnecessary and redundant, but this was a godsend and took what was the equivalent of real life hours searching for the right items to less than 5 minutes. It was glorious and felt very vindicating coming from the Wii U.
What problem has Definitive Edition not fixed? The affinity missions. These are specific missions that either offer new characters you can play with in your party or even introducing new groups of characters that offer new minor storylines. The problem with these, however, if you choose to accept an affinity mission you can't accept any other affinity missions or even story missions until you finish the one you're on, and you can't cancel mid-affinity mission.
This becomes an issue if the mission you accepted turns out to be much harder than the recommended level. Because if you're stuck, then you're out of luck unless you load up a manual save from before the mission. The game also has some weird game design that can especially mess you up because often times the quest will be listed as level 30, but the level 30 enemy you have to kill is surrounded by level 40 enemies that will obliterate you!
I had this exact problem happen to me back in 2015 with the Blitzkrieg mission, I had to kill a level 30 enemy in a base surrounded by level 40 enemies that would instantly aggro on you and kill you in seconds. I had to grind myself up for hours to about 10 levels to even give myself the chance because my manual save was too far back to load up.
And this issue is still in the game! I didn't go into Blitzkrieg until I was at least level 50, so the level 40 enemies didn't bother me as I knowingly prepared for it. But this was still a level 30 recommended mission! And I just looked it up, people who never played the original are complaining about this exact mission, because of course they are! The issue still exists!!
Of course, at least the Definitive Edition didn't make that situation worse... unfortunately I can't say the same thing about the story. The story for Xenoblade X was never particularly bad. But it was rather lackluster despite there being some interesting mysteries around everything. Largely though, the game left a lot of those mysteries unanswered and even left the ending on a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger that was left unanswered for 10 years.
I will keep details extremely vague to avoid spoiling the game for those who wish to play it for themselves. But those mysteries and cliffhangers? They are left mostly unanswered, and in some cases, are hinted at to likely never be answered. This absolutely frustrated me, I waited 10 years for answers about stuff... and THAT was it? They literally abandon all of it. Even worse: the theming of the added epilogue goes against many themes that Xenoblade Chronicles X had gone over, and these weren't changed in the DE version either, so the inconsistencies really get in your face.
They also introduce a new character in the epilogue and I really wish they added some affinity missions in the middle of the main game to talk about this guy, because he just shows up almost completely unannounced and it's the strangest inclusion. I can't talk about that aspect much because he is unfortunately entirely spoiler territory. I will add, this character has a weird running gag and it is so incredibly annoying and comes up at such weird times. If you think the jokes about eating Tatsu were annoying, this gag felt worse than that.
Elma was also weirdly out of character. She's someone who for the most part is very calculating, cool-headed, and independent. But the epilogue has her reacting a little more... rash? This is especially so at the start of it all. It's very weird.
The conclusion of the story was so disappointing. I gave the original Xenoblade X an 8, and while the Definitive Edition definitely does some gameplay things better, the story was enough for me to give it a 7/10. The game does hint at the end that there could be a continuation so hopefully that could fix things, but I doubt it.
With all the negative I just said, I want to emphasize that Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition is still a great game as a whole. This has one of the best open worlds I've ever seen in a game, giving games even like Breath of the Wild a run for their money in that aspect. You can pretty go anywhere in this game, and exploration becomes even better when you get access to mechs. Yes, you heard that right, halfway through the game you can start piloting a mech and it's awesome! You can customize it to have different weapons and abilities during combat, you can go so much faster in the vehicle mode, and when you get the upgrade for it, you can even use it to fly. It's so much fun.
Side quests are also some of the best. No Xenoblade game even comes close to the side quests in this game. You can make decisions in this game that can have drastic consequences if you're not careful. You can easily get NPCs killed with the choices you make and it's a wild time. I always liked the side quests so much more than the story in any of the Xenoblade X versions.
I also want to add that the Definitive Edition makes the game look so much better. Characters look gorgeous, Elma especially had a major face lift and I prefer her look over the original.
And as much crap as I gave the epilogue, I liked that new area they added. It's definitely smaller than any other region in the game, but it was nice to have something that's more focused on using the mechs to fly around than anything else in the game.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a great game... if you ignore the epilogue. The rest of the game is truly great.
TL:DR: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition turns a great game with a mediocre story, into a great game with an even worse story. Otherwise, this game has one of the best openworlds and sidequests of any other game out there. It's good, I promise.
5 Yrs♥✓#
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Game #255: Persona 3 Portable
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Main + Extras: 74h 09m 26s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 18, 2025
Picked By: Exi
Games Synopsis: Live your normal high school life while also battling monsters through the floors of Tartarus to learn more about its purpose as well as the Dark Hour to prevent disasters.
Blog: I was a big fan of Persona 5 Royal after playing it for the first time last year. But since that was the only Persona game I had played, I couldn't really ever call myself a fan of the Persona series. I think after my playthrough of Persona 3 Portable, I can say I at least have an appreciation for the series.
P3P is quite good. Does it reach some of the gameplay highs of Persona 5 Royal? Definitely not, but I would say that the story is often a bit better. There were more emotional impacts, it felt like most of the main cast had a good amount of focus outside of the social links.
Speaking of social links, I think these were also very good, for most characters anyway. There are some characters like Kenji, who has very questionable crushes, that aren't very good. But it has some other great ones. There's a particular one at the shrine that's probably my favorite in the series.
I won't lie though, not getting upgrades or having skills unlock after reaching certain social link ranks is quite a disappointing in comparison to Persona 5, but I understand the series just hadn't gotten to that point yet when Persona 3 Portable released. P5 spoiled me man!
While I wouldn't knock off any points for the lack of social link rewards, I would for other gameplay choices. In particular, a lot of my complaints have to do with Tartarus. I think one of the most frustrating parts of this game is that attacks just seem to miss quite consistently. It feels like every other attack just straight up misses, and I don't understand why. I've seen other people online also complain about this, so I don't think this is just a me thing. There were times where I have attacks miss three times in a row! At one point, I missed twice and then my whole party was killed by a one hit ko attack from the enemy, and there was literally nothing I could have done to prevent that. Situations like that are just so unfair.
Another thing that happens is while going through Tartarus, sometimes my characters will get caught on a corner or pillar and end up straggling behind because the AI is stupid. Often times, they can straggle so far behind that they end up excluded from a battle. It happens so quickly, I don't even notice they weren't with the group until the battle had already started. Better hope you weren't relying on them for a specific type weakness!
One thing I've seen mentioned before is how it's possible to reach a certain point in the game where you have nothing to do in the evenings, especially if you have already done both available social links and maxed out your social skills. I somewhat agree with this, but I kind of realized in the late game you can actually use that time for some easy stat increases for a persona. I especially found this helpful for the very long final boss battle as I would use spare time in the evenings to focus on one particular persona in preparation. But I understand some people may just not find that too interesting.
I enjoyed P3P quite a bit. I enjoyed the themes it explored. I liked the music although I still probably enjoyed Persona 5's music more. I didn't play as the girl character, but apparently there are quite a bit of story differences in that route and I'm interested in going back and playing that sometime, although it will be quite a while until I play it again
If you're remotely interested in P3P, I recommend it.
TL:DR: Persona 3 Portable is a good game that has very good story moments although some very frustrating moments when it comes to battling at night. However, it's still very enjoyanle.
Up Next: Persona 3 Portable was a great time, but I am ready to move on from RPGs. What's next? Time to find out.
Mass Effect. Picked by Alpha. Never played Mass Effect game, don't really know too much about them. Alpha keeps demanding I play this one over on Discord, so I guess he finally gets his wish.
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Main + Extras: 74h 09m 26s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 18, 2025
Picked By: Exi
Games Synopsis: Live your normal high school life while also battling monsters through the floors of Tartarus to learn more about its purpose as well as the Dark Hour to prevent disasters.
Blog: I was a big fan of Persona 5 Royal after playing it for the first time last year. But since that was the only Persona game I had played, I couldn't really ever call myself a fan of the Persona series. I think after my playthrough of Persona 3 Portable, I can say I at least have an appreciation for the series.
P3P is quite good. Does it reach some of the gameplay highs of Persona 5 Royal? Definitely not, but I would say that the story is often a bit better. There were more emotional impacts, it felt like most of the main cast had a good amount of focus outside of the social links.
Speaking of social links, I think these were also very good, for most characters anyway. There are some characters like Kenji, who has very questionable crushes, that aren't very good. But it has some other great ones. There's a particular one at the shrine that's probably my favorite in the series.
I won't lie though, not getting upgrades or having skills unlock after reaching certain social link ranks is quite a disappointing in comparison to Persona 5, but I understand the series just hadn't gotten to that point yet when Persona 3 Portable released. P5 spoiled me man!
While I wouldn't knock off any points for the lack of social link rewards, I would for other gameplay choices. In particular, a lot of my complaints have to do with Tartarus. I think one of the most frustrating parts of this game is that attacks just seem to miss quite consistently. It feels like every other attack just straight up misses, and I don't understand why. I've seen other people online also complain about this, so I don't think this is just a me thing. There were times where I have attacks miss three times in a row! At one point, I missed twice and then my whole party was killed by a one hit ko attack from the enemy, and there was literally nothing I could have done to prevent that. Situations like that are just so unfair.
Another thing that happens is while going through Tartarus, sometimes my characters will get caught on a corner or pillar and end up straggling behind because the AI is stupid. Often times, they can straggle so far behind that they end up excluded from a battle. It happens so quickly, I don't even notice they weren't with the group until the battle had already started. Better hope you weren't relying on them for a specific type weakness!
One thing I've seen mentioned before is how it's possible to reach a certain point in the game where you have nothing to do in the evenings, especially if you have already done both available social links and maxed out your social skills. I somewhat agree with this, but I kind of realized in the late game you can actually use that time for some easy stat increases for a persona. I especially found this helpful for the very long final boss battle as I would use spare time in the evenings to focus on one particular persona in preparation. But I understand some people may just not find that too interesting.
I enjoyed P3P quite a bit. I enjoyed the themes it explored. I liked the music although I still probably enjoyed Persona 5's music more. I didn't play as the girl character, but apparently there are quite a bit of story differences in that route and I'm interested in going back and playing that sometime, although it will be quite a while until I play it again
If you're remotely interested in P3P, I recommend it.
TL:DR: Persona 3 Portable is a good game that has very good story moments although some very frustrating moments when it comes to battling at night. However, it's still very enjoyanle.
Up Next: Persona 3 Portable was a great time, but I am ready to move on from RPGs. What's next? Time to find out.
Mass Effect. Picked by Alpha. Never played Mass Effect game, don't really know too much about them. Alpha keeps demanding I play this one over on Discord, so I guess he finally gets his wish.
5 Yrs✓#
Skyhler
5 Yrs✓#
Alpha can be quite persistent haha, but in this case Alpha definitely has good taste. Only played the first, but it's definitely impressive. Hope you enjoy!
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #256: Mass Effect
Platform: PS4
Main + Extras: 31h 01m 16s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 30, 2025
Picked By: Alpha
Games Synopsis: Take the role as Commander Shepard to stop the plans of an alien that could bring grave consequences to the galaxy.
Blog: Mass Effect? More like... M-"it's pretty good" Effect!
I don't play many western RPGs. The only ones I can think of are Outer Worlds and Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey. So it's kind of a special occasion when I do play one.
Mass Effect is definitely a special one. It's not perfect and it certainly has its problems that I'll expand on later. But it's definitely a good game.
I think the story and the world building are the best parts of this game. It's interesting to see the story continue, and seeing the various species interact and comment on the seemingly recent inclusion of the human race to their council of various species. It's interesting to see the politics going on within the galaxy and the different planets.
Combat is also very good. Four guns to use, which you can upgrade to have different effects. Various powers you and your crew can utilize to your advantage. I actually went about halfway through the game without really using the powers and I kind of wish I realized their potential and entertainment early on.
As much as I like the story, I wish there were more character moments. Other than the romanceable characters, you don't get much other than more world building and one interesting case in the story where a character makes an outburst.
Something I definitely didn't like was the exploration. Exploring space sounds incredibly interesting, but you end up just driving around barren wastelands looking at rocks, occasionally fighting enemies, and going to side quest destinations. It's incredibly boring.
Another issue I have are any environments that aren't part of the main story. A lot of them are copy-pasted, and I discovered this pretty quickly. Dock on a spaceship? It looks exactly like every other one. Go into a research facility? It's exactly like every other facility. Go into a base? Exactly like every other base. Go into a mine? Exactly like every other mine. And that's all of the environments too, those four locations all share the exact same layout. This coupled with the boring exploration put me to sleep half the time because it's not interesting.
The teammate AI seems to be bugged. There are occasions they get caught on corners or doors. There was one situation where it was totally bugged and my teammates were frozen in place with their backs to each other and teleporting to an area if there was a cutscene. It had to be fixed by me leaving the game. Such a weird situation.
Despite these problems, Mass Effect is a great game. If I ever play it again, I would probably skip the exploring and just go straight to the story and various side quests. I'm looking forward to the other games in the trilogy.
TL:DR: The first Mass Effect is a great game with a great story and combat. The side quests are awesome and the world building is expansive. The exploration and optional area layouts leave a lot to be desired, however.
Up Next: Another great RPG. Will the next game also be a great RPG? Time to find out.
Tomodachi Life! Picked by Finnedorb! Quite timely to play this one now with the sequel coming out next year. I'm looking forward to this one.
Platform: PS4
Main + Extras: 31h 01m 16s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 30, 2025
Picked By: Alpha
Games Synopsis: Take the role as Commander Shepard to stop the plans of an alien that could bring grave consequences to the galaxy.
Blog: Mass Effect? More like... M-"it's pretty good" Effect!
I don't play many western RPGs. The only ones I can think of are Outer Worlds and Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey. So it's kind of a special occasion when I do play one.
Mass Effect is definitely a special one. It's not perfect and it certainly has its problems that I'll expand on later. But it's definitely a good game.
I think the story and the world building are the best parts of this game. It's interesting to see the story continue, and seeing the various species interact and comment on the seemingly recent inclusion of the human race to their council of various species. It's interesting to see the politics going on within the galaxy and the different planets.
Combat is also very good. Four guns to use, which you can upgrade to have different effects. Various powers you and your crew can utilize to your advantage. I actually went about halfway through the game without really using the powers and I kind of wish I realized their potential and entertainment early on.
As much as I like the story, I wish there were more character moments. Other than the romanceable characters, you don't get much other than more world building and one interesting case in the story where a character makes an outburst.
Something I definitely didn't like was the exploration. Exploring space sounds incredibly interesting, but you end up just driving around barren wastelands looking at rocks, occasionally fighting enemies, and going to side quest destinations. It's incredibly boring.
Another issue I have are any environments that aren't part of the main story. A lot of them are copy-pasted, and I discovered this pretty quickly. Dock on a spaceship? It looks exactly like every other one. Go into a research facility? It's exactly like every other facility. Go into a base? Exactly like every other base. Go into a mine? Exactly like every other mine. And that's all of the environments too, those four locations all share the exact same layout. This coupled with the boring exploration put me to sleep half the time because it's not interesting.
The teammate AI seems to be bugged. There are occasions they get caught on corners or doors. There was one situation where it was totally bugged and my teammates were frozen in place with their backs to each other and teleporting to an area if there was a cutscene. It had to be fixed by me leaving the game. Such a weird situation.
Despite these problems, Mass Effect is a great game. If I ever play it again, I would probably skip the exploring and just go straight to the story and various side quests. I'm looking forward to the other games in the trilogy.
TL:DR: The first Mass Effect is a great game with a great story and combat. The side quests are awesome and the world building is expansive. The exploration and optional area layouts leave a lot to be desired, however.
Up Next: Another great RPG. Will the next game also be a great RPG? Time to find out.
Tomodachi Life! Picked by Finnedorb! Quite timely to play this one now with the sequel coming out next year. I'm looking forward to this one.
5 Yrs✓#
Skyhler5 Yrs✓#
Glad you really liked Mass Effect for the most part. It is definitely a game that has aged well in some aspects ie. the World-Building and storytelling, but terrible in others like the bland areas you mentioned. Totally get you'll only want to play it for the main story reason. Granted, I have some bias towards that as that's the main reason I play any game atm, because of my backlog obsession haha. Anyways, glad you liked it :)
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #257: Tomodachi Life
Platform: 3DS
Main + Extras: 45h 04m 23s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: July 28, 2025
Picked By: Finnedorb
Games Synopsis: Get your friends, family, and favorite characters all together on an island and have them interact in wacky scenarios.
Blog: For years I've been hearing about Tomodachi Life and how good it is. I've even heard of some people saying it's one of the best 3DS games. In my opinion, I think Tomodachi Life is just okay.
It's by no means a bad game, but I would say the novelty wears away pretty quickly depending on the type of person you are. I would make the comparison of Animal Crossing in where you may slowly lose interest over time, and in my opinion your interest will probably wane based on how creative you are.
Personally, I'm not very creative, I'm just a guy who wanted to marry Selena Gomez and did a bunch of stuff in between all that.
I just didn't really have all that much interesting stuff to do in Tomodachi Life. I didn't particularly care for making songs. I did that once and thought about doing some more but never really cared enough to do it again. Tomodachi Quest was kind of mediocre and a little dependent on luck with what Miis you randomly get. For me that only left dealing with Mii problems, trying to get Miis to hate each other, and trying to collect what all I could.
Tomodachi Life is not a bad game. A 6/10 is still a pretty good game, and I played it for 40+ hours so I had to have liked it of course. It was fun to see my friends and my favorite characters interact with each other. It was funny to see one of my friends end up marrying Shrek. It was funny watching my Mii confess his love to Kamala Harris, but then a friend coming in to steal her from me at the end. It's all so funny.
However I also think it's missing some things. I wish I could have Miis become enemies. I wish the Mii Maker was more creative on allowing you to make certain characters and stuff. I wish it didn't take as long to do certain things like Miis having a baby. I wish there was more to do. I hope for the upcoming sequel they add stuff like that.
I think Tomodachi Life is good, but I just feel like it holds back in a lot of areas that I wish to see it improve.
TL:DR: Tomodachi Life is just okay for me. Personally it feels like a novelty that wears off after a few play sessions and sort of becomes a daily chore. However, it does feel like fun in those first couple of weeks. I can't wait to see the sequel and hope it improves things.
Up Next: A pretty good life Sim, which took me many months to play through. Now I'm ready to move on to the next game which will be...
(Imgur is acting weird for me right now, so I don't have any images to share)
Scorn! Picked by Cock! I have no idea what kind of game this is other than it's supposed to be gross I think? It shall be an interesting ride.
Platform: 3DS
Main + Extras: 45h 04m 23s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: July 28, 2025
Picked By: Finnedorb
Games Synopsis: Get your friends, family, and favorite characters all together on an island and have them interact in wacky scenarios.
Blog: For years I've been hearing about Tomodachi Life and how good it is. I've even heard of some people saying it's one of the best 3DS games. In my opinion, I think Tomodachi Life is just okay.
It's by no means a bad game, but I would say the novelty wears away pretty quickly depending on the type of person you are. I would make the comparison of Animal Crossing in where you may slowly lose interest over time, and in my opinion your interest will probably wane based on how creative you are.
Personally, I'm not very creative, I'm just a guy who wanted to marry Selena Gomez and did a bunch of stuff in between all that.
I just didn't really have all that much interesting stuff to do in Tomodachi Life. I didn't particularly care for making songs. I did that once and thought about doing some more but never really cared enough to do it again. Tomodachi Quest was kind of mediocre and a little dependent on luck with what Miis you randomly get. For me that only left dealing with Mii problems, trying to get Miis to hate each other, and trying to collect what all I could.
Tomodachi Life is not a bad game. A 6/10 is still a pretty good game, and I played it for 40+ hours so I had to have liked it of course. It was fun to see my friends and my favorite characters interact with each other. It was funny to see one of my friends end up marrying Shrek. It was funny watching my Mii confess his love to Kamala Harris, but then a friend coming in to steal her from me at the end. It's all so funny.
However I also think it's missing some things. I wish I could have Miis become enemies. I wish the Mii Maker was more creative on allowing you to make certain characters and stuff. I wish it didn't take as long to do certain things like Miis having a baby. I wish there was more to do. I hope for the upcoming sequel they add stuff like that.
I think Tomodachi Life is good, but I just feel like it holds back in a lot of areas that I wish to see it improve.
TL:DR: Tomodachi Life is just okay for me. Personally it feels like a novelty that wears off after a few play sessions and sort of becomes a daily chore. However, it does feel like fun in those first couple of weeks. I can't wait to see the sequel and hope it improves things.
Up Next: A pretty good life Sim, which took me many months to play through. Now I'm ready to move on to the next game which will be...
(Imgur is acting weird for me right now, so I don't have any images to share)
Scorn! Picked by Cock! I have no idea what kind of game this is other than it's supposed to be gross I think? It shall be an interesting ride.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #258: Scorn
Platform: PS5
Main + Extras: 5:22:35
100% Completion: 5:34:47
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: August 16, 2025
Picked By: Cock
Games Synopsis: Solve puzzles as you explore a world of body horror.
Blog: Scorn is a strange game to talk about... mostly because it's kind of hard to describe without seeing it. It has a very unique aesthetic that I don't think I could compare to anything other than body horror. It doesn't really have a story either, there's no dialog or any words so you have to take it as it comes.
What I do understand about the game are the puzzles. I like the puzzles and Scorn has many for you to solve on your journey. It doesn't hold your hand or give you the solution, it allows you to figure them out all on your own. It's very satisfying and there's many different puzzles so it's never boring.
I really liked Scorn and loved its creativity. Unfortunately it's not all great. Scorn decided to throw combat into the mix, and it's some of the clunkiest I have ever seen in a game. It's not impossible to figure out, but it's such a hassle that I would rather there not be any combat.
Scorn really doesn't have any other problems though. I suppose perhaps the game is a bit open-ended narratively, so some people might not like that. Of course with it having a focus on body horror, some people will also not like that. I do recommend it if you're even the least interested though.
TL:DR: Scorn is a great puzzle game with a unique and memorable aesthetic, but the combat is not very good and could largely be done without it.
Up Next: It's time to pick the next game after Scorn. The next game will be...
Jeanne D'arc! Picked by boh! I... think it's a tactics game? Which is fine by me. I love games like Fire Emblem.
Platform: PS5
Main + Extras: 5:22:35
100% Completion: 5:34:47
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: August 16, 2025
Picked By: Cock
Games Synopsis: Solve puzzles as you explore a world of body horror.
Blog: Scorn is a strange game to talk about... mostly because it's kind of hard to describe without seeing it. It has a very unique aesthetic that I don't think I could compare to anything other than body horror. It doesn't really have a story either, there's no dialog or any words so you have to take it as it comes.
What I do understand about the game are the puzzles. I like the puzzles and Scorn has many for you to solve on your journey. It doesn't hold your hand or give you the solution, it allows you to figure them out all on your own. It's very satisfying and there's many different puzzles so it's never boring.
I really liked Scorn and loved its creativity. Unfortunately it's not all great. Scorn decided to throw combat into the mix, and it's some of the clunkiest I have ever seen in a game. It's not impossible to figure out, but it's such a hassle that I would rather there not be any combat.
Scorn really doesn't have any other problems though. I suppose perhaps the game is a bit open-ended narratively, so some people might not like that. Of course with it having a focus on body horror, some people will also not like that. I do recommend it if you're even the least interested though.
TL:DR: Scorn is a great puzzle game with a unique and memorable aesthetic, but the combat is not very good and could largely be done without it.
Up Next: It's time to pick the next game after Scorn. The next game will be...
Jeanne D'arc! Picked by boh! I... think it's a tactics game? Which is fine by me. I love games like Fire Emblem.
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #259: Jeanne d'Arc
Platform: PSP
Main + Extras: 42:17:35
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: September 9, 2025
Picked By: bohemu
Games Synopsis: Go through an alternative history of Joan of Arc where she has to battle English, demons, and English demons to protect France.
Blog: If you like when games about history are 100% accurate, you will not like Jeanne d'Arc. If you like games about history with a fun spin, you will like Jeanne d'Arc.
Jeanne d'Arc is a tactics game much like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. If you like those kinds of games, there's a really good chance you'll like Jeanne. As far as difficulty, it's not too hard, but it's not easy either. There were many times throughout the story where I was thrown for a loop because an event in the mission happens that drastically changed how I approached levels. A few times where I'd also have to grind to get some of my team into shape, particularly for any characters I wasn't actively using.
You might be thinking, "Oh, well I can just use only Jeanne or another character as a crutch," but there will be times in the story where you won't be able to use your best character for many missions, including the main protagonist herself.
I think what's also unique is that you're "timed" in each battle. You have a limited number of turns to beat the level, if you don't beat the level in time, then you lose. Most of the time the limit doesn't really pose too much of a challenge, but there were a few battles where it was pretty dang close.
I want to touch on the story briefly. I won't go into very heavy spoilers, but after I briefly read some of the history of Joan of Arc, and comparing it to the game, there's events that line up with the actual history. Obviously there's no magic involved in real life, and there's a certain point in the story where it very clearly separates itself from history, but it's pretty good if you're into history. For example the real Joan of Arc claimed to be following a divine guidance, in the game she obtains an armlet in which she does hear a heavenly voice that guides her through her journey. It's really fun to read into.
It's also fun to see some of the anime-ness to it. There's some anime cutscenes and Jeanne even gets her own magical girl transformation.
The game has some quality of life issues that rub me the wrong way. For example, I think the game is pretty slow in its gameplay. There's times where it will lag on my PSP, and enemies will take forever to get through their turn. It's especially bad when enemies have a passive self-healing ability, because it will go through every enemy you've damaged and give them a 5 second spotlight. You can't speed it up or skip it, you have to sit and watch each and every one. And then it will also go through your team and do the same thing with their passive self-healing.
Another qol thing is I wish the game would allow you to back out of battles while you're in the prep stage. I don't understand why it's not an option. You're able to leave during the shop section. It's literally the same screen.
Now, if these were my only issues, I would give Jeanne d'Arc a 9/10. But if you noticed, I gave this game an 8/10. That's because, I left out my least favorite part of the game: the final boss. (I won't go into spoiler details on the boss, except for some genral game mechanics revolving around the boss. So no worries on spoilers).
The Final Boss Rant: This fuck ass final boss is genuinely one of the worst bosses I've fought. It's probably the worst final boss I've fought, potentially giving Half Life 1 a run for its money on that criteria. It's the slowest, most boring battle in the entire game and it's quite ludicrous how unfair it is as well. The boss itself is fine. It was definitely annoying in that it would constantly teleport around making it really difficult to pin down at times.
The real assholes are the enemies that accompany the boss. With the boss are these four living towers. They hit hard, they charge up their mana to unleash these devastating gigantic AOE attacks that will nearly kill off your entire party, or they will decide to heal the boss or themselves instead, and they heal a lot of health as well as have a lot of health. Also, I swear every time they did anything there would be a 20 second animation for each enemy. It takes like over a minute to get through them! Very annoying. But they still aren't the main problem with the boss fight. It's the other enemies. The darkest demons.
The darkest demons are the most annoying pieces of shits to deal with. They won't show up right away, but they'll spawning starting on turn 3. There are two types of these guys: one is resistant against all magic, the other is resistant to all physical attacks except for a specific skill that only lances know. The ones resistant to magic weren't really as much of an issue. The main issue had to do with the physical resistant ones. For me, I unfortunately did not have the spear skill on my only spear user, which means for these guys in particular I had to rely on my two magic users to deal with them. Unfortunately, my magic usually wasn't enough unless my mages were fully focused on only one of the enemies, and these fuckers would keep spawning, and don't forget that I also had to deal with the four towers! And having the mages deal with healing themselves and others! To top it off, they not only have a passive self-healing, they also had healing magic! They would heal the towers or the bosses whenever they had the mana to do so. They also had another special ability where they have a chance to hit you twice in a single move, and perhaps I was just unlucky, but it seemed that almost every time they attacked, the ability would proc.
So just imagine... a teleporting boss accompanied by four enemies with heavy-hitting aoe attacks and great healing magic; and then about 5 or 6 more enemies that are almost invincible with self-healing passives, more healing magic, abilities to attack twice in a turn, lightning magic, and constantly respawning every other turn... I had to deal with all that while also having to sit there for 5 minutes for the enemies to do all their stuff. It was bad. It was atrocious. This boss single-handedly put it a point lower. Wow!
TL:DR: Jeanne d'Arc is a great tactics RPG, I really do recommend it for fans of the genre. It does need some qol changes though, including the removal of the worst final boss ever!
Up Next: After Jeanne d'Arc I don't think there's very many big games left. Other than maybe Bloodborne? Well let's see what the next game has in store for me.
Bloodborne! Picked by YassinB! I know I literally just mentioned in it the previous line, but I did not plan for it to show up so soon. Bloodborne seems to be around 40 or 50 hours, so it'll probably be a while until I post about it.
On top of that, I am actually very close to my 999th and 1000th completions for the site, and I would like to get to those games as well. Bloodborne will unfortunately be on the backburner for a bit, but I will get right on it once my 1000th completion is done and blogged. Please stay tuned!
Platform: PSP
Main + Extras: 42:17:35
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: September 9, 2025
Picked By: bohemu
Games Synopsis: Go through an alternative history of Joan of Arc where she has to battle English, demons, and English demons to protect France.
Blog: If you like when games about history are 100% accurate, you will not like Jeanne d'Arc. If you like games about history with a fun spin, you will like Jeanne d'Arc.
Jeanne d'Arc is a tactics game much like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. If you like those kinds of games, there's a really good chance you'll like Jeanne. As far as difficulty, it's not too hard, but it's not easy either. There were many times throughout the story where I was thrown for a loop because an event in the mission happens that drastically changed how I approached levels. A few times where I'd also have to grind to get some of my team into shape, particularly for any characters I wasn't actively using.
You might be thinking, "Oh, well I can just use only Jeanne or another character as a crutch," but there will be times in the story where you won't be able to use your best character for many missions, including the main protagonist herself.
I think what's also unique is that you're "timed" in each battle. You have a limited number of turns to beat the level, if you don't beat the level in time, then you lose. Most of the time the limit doesn't really pose too much of a challenge, but there were a few battles where it was pretty dang close.
I want to touch on the story briefly. I won't go into very heavy spoilers, but after I briefly read some of the history of Joan of Arc, and comparing it to the game, there's events that line up with the actual history. Obviously there's no magic involved in real life, and there's a certain point in the story where it very clearly separates itself from history, but it's pretty good if you're into history. For example the real Joan of Arc claimed to be following a divine guidance, in the game she obtains an armlet in which she does hear a heavenly voice that guides her through her journey. It's really fun to read into.
It's also fun to see some of the anime-ness to it. There's some anime cutscenes and Jeanne even gets her own magical girl transformation.
The game has some quality of life issues that rub me the wrong way. For example, I think the game is pretty slow in its gameplay. There's times where it will lag on my PSP, and enemies will take forever to get through their turn. It's especially bad when enemies have a passive self-healing ability, because it will go through every enemy you've damaged and give them a 5 second spotlight. You can't speed it up or skip it, you have to sit and watch each and every one. And then it will also go through your team and do the same thing with their passive self-healing.
Another qol thing is I wish the game would allow you to back out of battles while you're in the prep stage. I don't understand why it's not an option. You're able to leave during the shop section. It's literally the same screen.
Now, if these were my only issues, I would give Jeanne d'Arc a 9/10. But if you noticed, I gave this game an 8/10. That's because, I left out my least favorite part of the game: the final boss. (I won't go into spoiler details on the boss, except for some genral game mechanics revolving around the boss. So no worries on spoilers).
The Final Boss Rant: This fuck ass final boss is genuinely one of the worst bosses I've fought. It's probably the worst final boss I've fought, potentially giving Half Life 1 a run for its money on that criteria. It's the slowest, most boring battle in the entire game and it's quite ludicrous how unfair it is as well. The boss itself is fine. It was definitely annoying in that it would constantly teleport around making it really difficult to pin down at times.
The real assholes are the enemies that accompany the boss. With the boss are these four living towers. They hit hard, they charge up their mana to unleash these devastating gigantic AOE attacks that will nearly kill off your entire party, or they will decide to heal the boss or themselves instead, and they heal a lot of health as well as have a lot of health. Also, I swear every time they did anything there would be a 20 second animation for each enemy. It takes like over a minute to get through them! Very annoying. But they still aren't the main problem with the boss fight. It's the other enemies. The darkest demons.
The darkest demons are the most annoying pieces of shits to deal with. They won't show up right away, but they'll spawning starting on turn 3. There are two types of these guys: one is resistant against all magic, the other is resistant to all physical attacks except for a specific skill that only lances know. The ones resistant to magic weren't really as much of an issue. The main issue had to do with the physical resistant ones. For me, I unfortunately did not have the spear skill on my only spear user, which means for these guys in particular I had to rely on my two magic users to deal with them. Unfortunately, my magic usually wasn't enough unless my mages were fully focused on only one of the enemies, and these fuckers would keep spawning, and don't forget that I also had to deal with the four towers! And having the mages deal with healing themselves and others! To top it off, they not only have a passive self-healing, they also had healing magic! They would heal the towers or the bosses whenever they had the mana to do so. They also had another special ability where they have a chance to hit you twice in a single move, and perhaps I was just unlucky, but it seemed that almost every time they attacked, the ability would proc.
So just imagine... a teleporting boss accompanied by four enemies with heavy-hitting aoe attacks and great healing magic; and then about 5 or 6 more enemies that are almost invincible with self-healing passives, more healing magic, abilities to attack twice in a turn, lightning magic, and constantly respawning every other turn... I had to deal with all that while also having to sit there for 5 minutes for the enemies to do all their stuff. It was bad. It was atrocious. This boss single-handedly put it a point lower. Wow!
TL:DR: Jeanne d'Arc is a great tactics RPG, I really do recommend it for fans of the genre. It does need some qol changes though, including the removal of the worst final boss ever!
Up Next: After Jeanne d'Arc I don't think there's very many big games left. Other than maybe Bloodborne? Well let's see what the next game has in store for me.
Bloodborne! Picked by YassinB! I know I literally just mentioned in it the previous line, but I did not plan for it to show up so soon. Bloodborne seems to be around 40 or 50 hours, so it'll probably be a while until I post about it.
On top of that, I am actually very close to my 999th and 1000th completions for the site, and I would like to get to those games as well. Bloodborne will unfortunately be on the backburner for a bit, but I will get right on it once my 1000th completion is done and blogged. Please stay tuned!
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #260: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Platform: DS
Main Story: 7:02:52
Main + Extras: 19:31:43
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: September 15, 2025
Games Synopsis: Play as Junpei, a young college student who is trapped on a ship with 8 other people. Help him solve puzzles to escape
Blog: I typically don't do "random" blog posts on the games I beat anymore. But this game marks a special commemoration for me. 999 is the 999th completion marked for me on HLTB. For months I have been saving 999 just for this occasion, and it finally got here. But was it worth all that waiting?
999 is a great mystery visual novel/escape room game. If you don't like visual novels, you probably still won't like this one too much, but the story is quite good. Due to it being a VN and my self-inflected rule of not talking about spoilers in reviews, I unfortunately won't be able to talk too much about the story except for some characters and the general story.
First of all, if you are someone who is hoping to playthrough once and experience the "whole story" you will be disappointed as that is impossible to do on a first playthrough. In fact even if you followed a guide, you would still have to do two playthroughs at minimum. And there's a reason for that, which I unfortunately can't explain. I understand some people might not like that, and that might be a skip for some people. It didn't really bother me though, I kind of went in expecting to play this multiple times to get that true ending. In fact, I played it a total of 5 times, getting 4 of the endings... and accidentally repeating one too. Aside from getting the repeat ending, I enjoyed going through and experiencing more of the story and the characters
There's an aspect that I did not like about the game and that's the lack of a skip button on repeat playthroughs. After you beat the game a first time, they do grant you a fastforward button that speeds through dialogue you've already seen, and even stops fastforwarding on dialogue you haven't seen before. But even with the fastforward button, there are times where I'm holding that button down for 10+ minutes until I get to a part where I have to make a choice or solve a puzzle. I wish we could just skip to those parts instead. That beginning section was so tiring to go through again and again.
That's really the only qol issue I had with the game, other than maybe some voice acting would be nice but that might be asking too much.
Character-wise the only one I didn't really care too much for was Junpei, the main character. Particularly when it comes to his feelings for June, for a college kid he acts like he's in middle school whenever he's around her. It's so odd and I'm not about it.
Other than those moments, the characters are great.
Puzzles are great too. I loved running into new rooms and getting a new puzzle. I think there was only one time where I had to look something up because I just wasn't sure what to do, but in most cases you can sort of just examine stuff and characters will give you hints. It's not too hard and not too easy. I think it's at the appropriate difficulty.
999 is a great game. I recommend it to anyone looking to get into visual novels, it's a great starting point. Funnily enough, 999 is a 9/10 for me.
TL:DR: A great visual novel with an escape room feel to it. Puzzles and story are great. I just wish cutscenes were skippable on replays, and that the main character wasn't so childish.
Up Next: I know, I know. I still have Bloodborne to get to, and I will. I have one more game to finish before I do that: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. That will be my 1000th completion. Stay tuned for that review in the near future!
Platform: DS
Main Story: 7:02:52
Main + Extras: 19:31:43
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: September 15, 2025
Games Synopsis: Play as Junpei, a young college student who is trapped on a ship with 8 other people. Help him solve puzzles to escape
Blog: I typically don't do "random" blog posts on the games I beat anymore. But this game marks a special commemoration for me. 999 is the 999th completion marked for me on HLTB. For months I have been saving 999 just for this occasion, and it finally got here. But was it worth all that waiting?
999 is a great mystery visual novel/escape room game. If you don't like visual novels, you probably still won't like this one too much, but the story is quite good. Due to it being a VN and my self-inflected rule of not talking about spoilers in reviews, I unfortunately won't be able to talk too much about the story except for some characters and the general story.
First of all, if you are someone who is hoping to playthrough once and experience the "whole story" you will be disappointed as that is impossible to do on a first playthrough. In fact even if you followed a guide, you would still have to do two playthroughs at minimum. And there's a reason for that, which I unfortunately can't explain. I understand some people might not like that, and that might be a skip for some people. It didn't really bother me though, I kind of went in expecting to play this multiple times to get that true ending. In fact, I played it a total of 5 times, getting 4 of the endings... and accidentally repeating one too. Aside from getting the repeat ending, I enjoyed going through and experiencing more of the story and the characters
There's an aspect that I did not like about the game and that's the lack of a skip button on repeat playthroughs. After you beat the game a first time, they do grant you a fastforward button that speeds through dialogue you've already seen, and even stops fastforwarding on dialogue you haven't seen before. But even with the fastforward button, there are times where I'm holding that button down for 10+ minutes until I get to a part where I have to make a choice or solve a puzzle. I wish we could just skip to those parts instead. That beginning section was so tiring to go through again and again.
That's really the only qol issue I had with the game, other than maybe some voice acting would be nice but that might be asking too much.
Character-wise the only one I didn't really care too much for was Junpei, the main character. Particularly when it comes to his feelings for June, for a college kid he acts like he's in middle school whenever he's around her. It's so odd and I'm not about it.
Other than those moments, the characters are great.
Puzzles are great too. I loved running into new rooms and getting a new puzzle. I think there was only one time where I had to look something up because I just wasn't sure what to do, but in most cases you can sort of just examine stuff and characters will give you hints. It's not too hard and not too easy. I think it's at the appropriate difficulty.
999 is a great game. I recommend it to anyone looking to get into visual novels, it's a great starting point. Funnily enough, 999 is a 9/10 for me.
TL:DR: A great visual novel with an escape room feel to it. Puzzles and story are great. I just wish cutscenes were skippable on replays, and that the main character wasn't so childish.
Up Next: I know, I know. I still have Bloodborne to get to, and I will. I have one more game to finish before I do that: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. That will be my 1000th completion. Stay tuned for that review in the near future!
5 Yrs♥✓#
R2D219995 Yrs♥✓#
Game #261: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Platform: GameCube
Main + Extras: 36:03:28
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: October 1, 2025
Games Synopsis: Play as Mario in a paper adventure. Peach has gone missing and left a map behind for Mario to locate the crystal stars. Find the secrets behind the stars and use them to find Peach
Blog: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is my 1,000th completion on HLTB. Yes, I did save this game to be 1,000 just because of "thousand" in the title.
I had never played Thousand-Year Door until now. Up until now I had only played Super Paper Mario on the Wii and Bug Fables on Switch, that last one being a successor to the original Paper Mario games. I had heard of the following behind the game of course, I even had a childhood friend who absolutely loved this game. So with me playing this game for the first time, it was time for me to see if this game was worth all the hype.
I would say TTYD is a game with a surprising amount of quality to it. I thought the story was really good for a Mario game. It had quite a lot of good writing in it. It's serious at times, it's funny at others. It's really good! The only nitpick I have is that the Bowser parts arguably didn't need to be here. I think if you just removed those parts, the story wouldn't be all that different.
The characters are also good. The characters aren't all just your standard toads, goombas, koopas, etc. They are these uniquely styled individuals. For example, Goombella, your first partner character, is quite obviously a goomba, but her design so clearly stands out from any other goomba design I've seen in the Mario series. As you play through the game you see more and more of all these great and unique characters, some being completely original species to TTYD. I don't think there was a character I disliked.
Then of course there's the combat. I do wish the combat was a bit more difficult. I didn't really struggle all too much until the end. However the combat is still really good. Being able to make attacks stronger by pressing buttons at the right time or doing certain actions felt very engaging. There's also the parry system where you can press A during the defense phase to recieve less damage, or if you're really good enough you can press B to counter their attack. It's a really good system, it's just a bit too easy.
Difficulty isn't the only problem I had though. In the game there are various amounts of quests. The quests themselves are fine for the most part, but what I don't particularly like is that there are certain quests just have you going everywhere throughout the world, and it's just a drag. Most of these are optional of course, but there's at least one time in the game where you are required to go to every single world within the game and it's so incredibly boring and not fun.
Despite my complaints, I think Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great game. I absolutely understand the hype behind it, and I know now why fans are frustrated with the later Paper Mario games. If anyone is also looking for a similar game, I would recommend Bug Fables. I'd even go as far as to say that I like Bug Fables slightly more due to the difficulty. Both games are great though. TTYD was a great game to make my 1,000th HLTB completion.
TL:DR: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great game. It has a great story for a Mario game, unique and interesting characters, and fun combat. I do think it's a little too easy, and I wish that certain quests didn't have you do a large amount of backtracking.
Up Next: Now that TTYD is finished, I can finally go back to doing the challenge once again. Please stay tuned for my next review which will finally be about Bloodborne... hopefully I won't take too long but I assume most of my time will be spent dying.
Platform: GameCube
Main + Extras: 36:03:28
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: October 1, 2025
Games Synopsis: Play as Mario in a paper adventure. Peach has gone missing and left a map behind for Mario to locate the crystal stars. Find the secrets behind the stars and use them to find Peach
Blog: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is my 1,000th completion on HLTB. Yes, I did save this game to be 1,000 just because of "thousand" in the title.
I had never played Thousand-Year Door until now. Up until now I had only played Super Paper Mario on the Wii and Bug Fables on Switch, that last one being a successor to the original Paper Mario games. I had heard of the following behind the game of course, I even had a childhood friend who absolutely loved this game. So with me playing this game for the first time, it was time for me to see if this game was worth all the hype.
I would say TTYD is a game with a surprising amount of quality to it. I thought the story was really good for a Mario game. It had quite a lot of good writing in it. It's serious at times, it's funny at others. It's really good! The only nitpick I have is that the Bowser parts arguably didn't need to be here. I think if you just removed those parts, the story wouldn't be all that different.
The characters are also good. The characters aren't all just your standard toads, goombas, koopas, etc. They are these uniquely styled individuals. For example, Goombella, your first partner character, is quite obviously a goomba, but her design so clearly stands out from any other goomba design I've seen in the Mario series. As you play through the game you see more and more of all these great and unique characters, some being completely original species to TTYD. I don't think there was a character I disliked.
Then of course there's the combat. I do wish the combat was a bit more difficult. I didn't really struggle all too much until the end. However the combat is still really good. Being able to make attacks stronger by pressing buttons at the right time or doing certain actions felt very engaging. There's also the parry system where you can press A during the defense phase to recieve less damage, or if you're really good enough you can press B to counter their attack. It's a really good system, it's just a bit too easy.
Difficulty isn't the only problem I had though. In the game there are various amounts of quests. The quests themselves are fine for the most part, but what I don't particularly like is that there are certain quests just have you going everywhere throughout the world, and it's just a drag. Most of these are optional of course, but there's at least one time in the game where you are required to go to every single world within the game and it's so incredibly boring and not fun.
Despite my complaints, I think Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great game. I absolutely understand the hype behind it, and I know now why fans are frustrated with the later Paper Mario games. If anyone is also looking for a similar game, I would recommend Bug Fables. I'd even go as far as to say that I like Bug Fables slightly more due to the difficulty. Both games are great though. TTYD was a great game to make my 1,000th HLTB completion.
TL:DR: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a great game. It has a great story for a Mario game, unique and interesting characters, and fun combat. I do think it's a little too easy, and I wish that certain quests didn't have you do a large amount of backtracking.
Up Next: Now that TTYD is finished, I can finally go back to doing the challenge once again. Please stay tuned for my next review which will finally be about Bloodborne... hopefully I won't take too long but I assume most of my time will be spent dying.