Games We Complete In 2024

[Colly]

On 23/02/2024 at 14:20, Colly said:

Not a finish (sadly), but I'm still plodding through The Last of Us (I think it's the remastered PS4 version) for the first time and I'm just not enjoying it. I'm playing it, and it's obviously quite good, but I find the stealthy bits dull, I'm sick of being jumped on by monsters, and it's just so dark that it's annoying. I've got to about halfway through and switched it to easy just to get through quicker (I'm interested in the plot), but I'm slowly starting to accept that it isn't for me and if I wasn't such an irritating completist I'd have given up by now.

Might just watch the TV show...

Finished. I actually got into it a bit more once I grasped the structure of "self contained fight bit"/"explorey bit", but I didn't enjoy it enough to want to dive into Part 2.

[Ruki]

Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Makes Friends randomly showed up on Gamepass the other day and I thought I would check out the trailer. The premise is great... you're a sushi making robot who goes to a small town to make sushi and friends! I thought it would be similar to Moonlighter or Recettear and it wasn't really. It's a short, but very simple game. Sushi comes out on the belt, and you basically have to match the color and number to what the customer wants, but the sushi that comes out is completely random. You can upgrade the dishes, decorate your restaurant, and make friends with the characters in town but it all feels kinda shallow. It's a short game (Gamepass says I clocked in at 10 hours), so it's worth it if you want to play something you can chill out and listen to a podcast to. 

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Unicorn Overlord

10. Buckshot Roulette

11. Open Roads

12. Soccer Story

13. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

14. Eiyuden Chronicles

15. Little Kitty Big City

16. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

17. Animal Well

18. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

 

[Your Mom]

It appears great minds think alike. A game where I'm a tiny robot making sushi for my pals? How could I turn that down? I could not  

 

 

Games Completed in 2024:

1. Spider-Man 2
2. Mineko's Night Market
3. Open Roads
4. Resident Evil 2 Remake
5. Little Kitty Big City
6. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

[Ruki]

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is done. About 71 hours, and damn... so many amazing JRPGs this year. The gameplay, the mini games, the story... it just worked. I hate being caught up on the series! I need more Kiryu and Ichi. Like A Dragon is absolutely top 5 video game franchises for me.

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Persona 3 Reload

10. Unicorn Overlord

11. Buckshot Roulette

12. Open Roads

13. Soccer Story

14. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

15. Eiyuden Chronicles

16. Little Kitty Big City

17. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

18. Animal Well

19. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

20. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

 

[stokeriño]

1. Persona 3 Reload*
2. Unicorn Overlord*
3. Final Fantasy XVI
4. Sonic CD (Sonic Origins*)
5. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
6. Professor Layton and the Lost Future
7. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
8. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

(* = also platinumed)

We are firmly past the AA peak (ignoring The Great Ace Attorney spin-offs, aka the actual peak) but there's a lot of good content here still.

Highlights of Dual Destinies for me were case 3 (just very solid) and the twist in case 4 (holy shit). Lowlights were the loss of 2D sprites (inevitable, but sigh) and the writing losing some of its nuance/charm, presumably due to the departure of Shu Takumi. Oh, and Trucy basically being binned off as a character. Minus five stars for that.

[Your Mom]

Just finished Dead Rising 3 and I'm not sure why I was so worried about the time limits. There was more than enough time to do everything. Lots of silly fun to be had and the story was pretty interesting too with a few surprises near the end.

 

Games Completed in 2024:

1. Spider-Man 2
2. Mineko's Night Market
3. Open Roads
4. Resident Evil 2 Remake
5. Little Kitty Big City
6. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends
7. Dead Rising 3

[Ruki]

Finished Shin Magami Tensi V: Vengeance and got the Law Ending. A fine JRPG, not great, a decent 7/10. But near the end the difficulty spike was wayyy too annoying because enemies weren't giving enough experience to level up, and I didn't want to grind for hours on end. So I dropped the difficulty to casual and the level difference made it feel like the rest of the game for me. The final boss (in my route anyways) was SUPER annoying and had way too much health. No way am I replaying this to see the other endings. 

 

Fake edit: jk, there was one more boss after the SECOND 'final' boss. Take that....

Spoiler

Lucifer.

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Persona 3 Reload

10. Unicorn Overlord

11. Buckshot Roulette

12. Open Roads

13. Soccer Story

14. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

15. Eiyuden Chronicles

16. Little Kitty Big City

17. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

18. Animal Well

19. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

20. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

21. Shin Magami Tensei V: Vengeance

 

[Ruki]

I got a notification that A Short Hike was leaving gamepass soon, so I thought I would give it a try before it goes. It's a cute and short little game. I probably beat it in about 2 hours? Seems like there's a ton of collectables too. 

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Persona 3 Reload

10. Unicorn Overlord

11. Buckshot Roulette

12. Open Roads

13. Soccer Story

14. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

15. Eiyuden Chronicles

16. Little Kitty Big City

17. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

18. Animal Well

19. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

20. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

21. Shin Magami Tensei V: Vengeance

22. A Short Hike

 

[Baddar]

I never got around to completing Days Gone when I first played it on PS4, so recently restarted on PS5 and managed to finish it either side of going away. Really enjoyable combat, good story. Surprised it got the flak it did.

[Mick]

Simon's Quest  

[Ruki]

My friend bought Platform 8 on steam, and because she is a member of my Steam 'Family', means I had access to it! Just like Exit 8, a simple game with some slight spookiness. Took me a few minutes to figure out what I needed to do. Quick and easy, but an enjoyable playthrough. 

 

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Persona 3 Reload

10. Unicorn Overlord

11. Buckshot Roulette

12. Open Roads

13. Soccer Story

14. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

15. Eiyuden Chronicles

16. Little Kitty Big City

17. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

18. Animal Well

19. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

20. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

21. Shin Magami Tensei V: Vengeance

22. A Short Hike

23. Platform 8

 

[Ruki]

Two games in one day! This time it was Dragon's Dogma. At first I was really enjoying it, but it began to drag and show it's warts. The combat was fun and exploration was neat, there wasn't a lot of hand holding. But it could use a couple quality of life passes. First off... you literally have to pay for fast travel, and it only goes to certain locations. And traversing the world can take a long ass time. Also.... enemy variety. There was basically humans, goblins, harpies, ogres, skeletons and dragons. Everything else is more or less a re-skin. And then the main quest was.... shockingly short. And pretty vague/basic. I was on my way to do a side quest and it started the final quest. There's new game plus and a true ending... but I have no desire to seek that out. 

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Persona 3 Reload

10. Unicorn Overlord

11. Buckshot Roulette

12. Open Roads

13. Soccer Story

14. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

15. Eiyuden Chronicles

16. Little Kitty Big City

17. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

18. Animal Well

19. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

20. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

21. Shin Magami Tensei V: Vengeance

22. A Short Hike

23. Platform 8

24. Dragon's Dogma 2

 

[stokeriño]

1. Persona 3 Reload*
2. Unicorn Overlord*
3. Final Fantasy XVI
4. Sonic CD (Sonic Origins*)
5. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
6. Professor Layton and the Lost Future
7. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney*
8. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies*
9. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice*

(* = also platinumed)

Took a while getting round to it, but I've finished the last of the Apollo Justice games (and platinumed the trilogy in the process).

Just in time for the AA: Investigations remaster releasing next month! 😆

[Bobfoc]

7 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

1. Persona 3 Reload*
2. Unicorn Overlord*
3. Final Fantasy XVI
4. Sonic CD (Sonic Origins*)
5. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
6. Professor Layton and the Lost Future
7. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney*
8. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies*
9. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice*

(* = also platinumed)

Took a while getting round to it, but I've finished the last of the Apollo Justice games (and platinumed the trilogy in the process).

Just in time for the AA: Investigations remaster releasing next month! 😆

Which Ace Attorney game would you consider to be the best? I've still only played the first one, but I got the two collections from the most recent Humble Bundle.

[stokeriño]

17 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

Which Ace Attorney game would you consider to be the best? I've still only played the first one, but I got the two collections from the most recent Humble Bundle.

As a total package, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles duology is the best. No I will not divide one from the other.

It makes sense, because you can see how Shu Takumi develops his craft and slowly grows in ambition throughout his writing of AA1-4 (and Ghost Trick! EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY GHOST TRICK!), and TGAAC feels like the culmination of all that mastery.

For the other games, it is SO DIFFICULT to single out one. I'm fairly confident that Trials & Tribulations (AA3) is the best of the original trilogy, though even that has the odd lull. I was not prepared for how much I would love Apollo Justice (AA4), which has undeniably the best first case in any AA game I've played - but suffers from a slightly janky final case, in contrast to virtually other AA game wherein the final case is always the peak.

(And the non-Takumi games, AA5 and AA6, are absolutely worth playing, even though the lows and highs are mixed in throughout) 

I've considered trying to rank the games, but I may instead try ranking the cases (and even then, I may be forced to sub-divide them into different categories to compare like with like)...

[Krabby]

Mrs. Krabby and I completed This Bed We Made and absolutely loved it! We could have done a little better but overall I think we did ok!

That makes for the year:

1. Mega Man Battle Network 1
2. Paper Mario
3. This Bed We Made

[Ruki]

My 25th game of the year (jeeze) is Octopath Traveler 2, which was my second favorite game last year! Decided to play it again once it came to Gamepass, and it is still a fantastic game that any JRPG fans should play. Beautiful HD-2D graphics, outstanding music, wonderful JRPG combat, and of course, the job system that just cannot be beat! Got all the secret weapons this playthrough to, and even with them, the final boss was a bit trickier than I remembered it being. Gonna give the superboss a try or two... probably failing hard. 

Edit: Fighting the superboss did not go well.

 

Spoiler

1. Super Mario Wonder

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

3. Mario RPG

4. Dave The Diver

5. Silent Hill: Short Message

6. Balatro x6

7. The Exit 8

8. Luck Be A Landlord

9. Persona 3 Reload

10. Unicorn Overlord

11. Buckshot Roulette

12. Open Roads

13. Soccer Story

14. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

15. Eiyuden Chronicles

16. Little Kitty Big City

17. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

18. Animal Well

19. Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends

20. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

21. Shin Magami Tensei V: Vengeance

22. A Short Hike

23. Platform 8

24. Dragon's Dogma 2

25. Octopath Traveler 2

 

[Skummy]

Thank Goodness You're Here!

It's only a few hours long, I finished it in two sittings, but I love it and it might be one of my favourite games ever. Just absolutely brilliant, great attention to detail, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and always feels like the game organically points you where to go without feeling like you're just being sent down a corridor. 

[Captain Kirk]

4 hours ago, Skummy said:

Thank Goodness You're Here!

It's only a few hours long, I finished it in two sittings, but I love it and it might be one of my favourite games ever. Just absolutely brilliant, great attention to detail, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and always feels like the game organically points you where to go without feeling like you're just being sent down a corridor. 

Just bought this after seeing IGN UK saying it was possibly the funniest game ever. Looking forward to trying it tonight.

[stokeriño]

1. Persona 3 Reload*
2. Unicorn Overlord*
3. Final Fantasy XVI
4. Sonic CD (Sonic Origins*)
5. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
6. Professor Layton and the Lost Future
7. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney*
8. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies*
9. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice*
10. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight*

(* = also platinumed)

Having picked this up in late 2020, played barely an hour of it, and never felt compelled to return... Today I stumbled upon the information that actually it's a very easy platinum (that doesn't require you to get loads of really good scores, thank God) - so I blitzed it. Now I can finally lay this worthy winner of the 'Persona-Spin-off-With-Least-Reason-To-Exist' award to rest.

(And sometime soon I'll probably do the same thing with P3D.)