Currently Playing

[Nester the Lark]

So, I've finished Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. My final time is 14:25, but that does not take into account having to reload after the many game overs I got, so maybe add a couple of hours to it. (Also, a lot of time was spent backtracking to save points.) I got a D rank, but I have no idea exactly what that's based on.

Everything I said in my previous post still stands. This is very much an old school survival horror game with only marginal updates. I did start to get a little tired of it towards the end. Like a lot of old survival horror games (and maybe new ones?), it has a New Game+, but I think I'm going to take a break from it for now.

The story was very convoluted and told in fragments, and also not in chronological order. Frankly, I didn't understand most of it, and had to look up explanations online. However, this was also the case with Maiden of Black Water, so maybe this is normal for the series. Also, I didn't find the ending as cathartic as FF5.

Between FF4 and FF5, FF4 was scarier. It has more jump scares, creepier atmosphere, and it had more unsettling content.

Overall, I still prefer Maiden of Black Water. I preferred its more modern approach, being more straightforward, having standalone chapters, more action-oriented gameplay, and I liked its story better.

I'm glad I got the chance to try another Fatal Frame game, but I'm not sure if this will be a series I continue to follow going forward. I think it'll depend on what kind of mood I'm in, and the type of approach the next game would take... if there is a next game.

[Nester the Lark]

So, I bought the Hatsune Miku DLC for Crypt of the NecroDancer, and I've been enjoying it so far.

Like all of the other characters, Miku has her own gimmicks and play style. I don't normally like to play as most of the other characters besides Cadence because having to learn each character's nuances is almost like having to relearn the game from scratch, and frankly, the game is hard enough as it is. But Miku is pretty fun once I got the hang of her. The way her attacks pierce through enemies encourages chaining attacks together, and it can be really satisfying, but can also get you in trouble.

One thing I don't care for is that she takes damage if you miss a beat. This is particularly cruel given that some of her songs have beats that can be hard to follow, even with the on-screen indicator.

Speaking of which, I think the real attraction of the DLC is the soundtrack that includes 15 Hatsune Miku songs, two of which were made specifically for Crypt of the NecroDancer. I've enjoyed all that I've heard so far. Of course, as with all of the other soundtracks in the game, it can be used with any character, not just Miku. Conversely, Miku can use any other soundtrack in the game, which solves the beat problem, but also feels like it's missing the point.

Or just use No Beat Mode and disable the beat altogether.

But yeah, that's about it. It's fun DLC. Definitely worth the price, in my opinion.

On a side note, I learned that it was apparently Crypton that approached Brace Yourself Games about including Hatsune Miku. I wonder why now after all this time.

Aside from Crypt of the NecroDancer, I've also been playing Freedom Planet 2, but I'll write about that later.

[Nester the Lark]

There haven't been too many big releases for me this year, so I've taken the opportunity to go back and play some games that I had put off. Coincidentally, they both have similar themes.

The first is Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection, which originally came out in 2021. It's interesting in that it feels both old school and modern at the same time. It's old school with its extreme (and often unfair) difficulty, but it feels modernized to fit in with more recent hardcore platform games, like Celeste, that expect you to die over and over. There are no lives or game overs, and you can continue infinitely from the most recent checkpoint. You can use magic like in previous games, but instead of requiring the gold armor to use it, you have to unlock spells by collecting Umbral Bees that are hidden in each stage. You can have multiple spells at once and can cast them anytime. This ads a layer of character progression and replay value to the game.

When it was first revealed, I thought that the "paper cutout" style graphics looked a little cheap, but now that I've seen them in more detail, I actually think they look pretty good. Capcom has said that they're meant to give the game a "storybook" look, but I have a different theory. I recently heard that series creator Tokuro Fujiwara was a fan of Monty Python, and that's why the Ghosts 'n Goblins series has comedic elements like Arthur losing his armor and running around in his underwear. So, I wonder if the graphics of Resurrection (which Fujiwara returned to direct) were intended to look like the similarly styled animation segments used in the Monty Python TV show and movies.

There are multiple difficulty levels, the easiest of which instantly re-spawns you when you die, so you can brute force your way through the game, but you don't get access to the "shadow" stages (this game's version of the second loop). Even the easier difficulties are extremely hard, though. I think I agree with the general opinion that Resurrection is that hardest of all the Ghosts 'n Goblins/Ghouls 'n Ghosts games. Overall, I've really enjoyed it.

The other game is Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which was released in 2019. I decided to play the game on PC since the Switch version is still considered the worst version.

Ritual of the Night is pretty much just a straight-up Castlevania game in everything but name. It doesn't reinvent the genre in any way, but it is a reminder of why IGA is a master at creating these types of games. It's filled with his trademark attention to detail, with tons of secrets and easter eggs to discover. Overall, the game is more of a faithful tribute to the Castlevania series rather than an experiment to introduce new gimmicks.

It also seems to be fairly long for this type of game. I was about a dozen hours in when I defeated the main antagonist and got the worst ending, but I had only revealed 50 percent of the map, so there's clearly a lot I still have yet to do to get the "proper" ending.

I have not tried any of the extra modes yet. In particular there's the "Classic" mode, which is in the style of the linear Castlevania games. There's also paid DLC for a "Classic II" mode that's modeled after Casltevania II: Simon's Quest on NES. It was released very recently, and is supposed to be the final DLC addition to the game.

But yeah, I'm really impressed with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. I was actually a Kickstarter backer for it in 2015, and now that I've finally played it, I can confidently say that my $5 donation was money well spent!

[nocturnal YL]

Not a "currently" playing, but a small announcement on what I'll be doing for the rest of the year.

After days of waiting for the residual recency of Atelier Shallie DX (which is at 104 hours) to dissipate, I'll be starting my next game soon. Barring any sudden anouncements, my planned next few games will be from series I'm unfamiliar with.

I'll be turning my attention back to SEGA for now, with Shining Resonance Refrain. Way back when Nintendo Switch was new, I thought I'd branch out to a larger variety of games (mostly PlayStation 3/4 games that got Switch ports), and this is one of the games I've set my eyes on. As the name suggests, it's a Shining game, and it's an ARPG. Reviews suggest that it's a solid, but not particularly outstanding title.

I lost interest in it once other games showed up in my queue, but back when I went to Japan a few months ago, I found a second-hand copy of this game (and a few others).

This strategy guide suggests that the Refrain version shouldn't be too frustrating. As of this writing, I know nothing about this game, which should be interesting.

I'm thinking about playing Wreckfest and Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin after that. I haven't planned what to play after those, but in terms of games I have, there's Marie Remake, Ys Memoire Felghana and Ys X, Aiyoku no Eustia (that adult game I mentioned earlier; I'm still interested in it, story-wise), Fuyu Kara Kururu (another visual novel), Fatal Frame 5 and Warriors All-Stars (a PS4 crossover of multiple KOEI TECMO IPs).

I wonder when will I clear my backlog. You know, so that I can buy another dozen games and wait forever to finish those.

[Fryguy64]

I've just finished up Nintendo World Championships NES Edition. S-Ranks all over - though I've yet to S-Rank the "All Legends" speedrun.

I'm playing a bunch of Mach Rider and its variants while writing the guide, but I'm also working on A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars DLC with my daughter. Compulsive organisation is genetic, it seems!

[nocturnal YL]

I'm done playing Shining Resonance Refrain. It's a very "standard" kind of action RPG.

The story is relatively unflavoured, with a group of young warriors fighting against an invading empire, which later turns out to be an orchestration by an evil church who wish to harness dragon power and who are prone to in-fighting. It has themes like dragons, special weapons and comically evil villains, giving off a very orthodox feeling. It's a reasonably well-executed story with multifaceted characters, but you'll also know everything about said characters as soon as you meet them.

The gameplay lacks varierty, with many moves but very few "best" setups for each character. Quests are recurring and repeats show up rather quickly, the NPC dialogs don't change much throughout the game, and dialogs other than main story cutscenes aren't voiced.

The pacing is slow, but fortunately it doesn't overstay its welcome. There is only one-way warping (from anywhere back to the town), loading takes notable time and the running speed is slow. Grinding is present but mild. There aren't many required tasks, so even with grinding and loading it took me just 56 hours to over-level the party and beat the game.

I played at Casual difficulty, which alleviates the grinding issue a bit. Since fighting isn't that interesting, there isn't much incentive to play at the Standard difficulty.

My biggest disappointment is that the story has a focus on music (with the Dragoneers wielding instruments that double as weapons), but it doesn't feature a notable soundtrack, nor does it have dedicated singing sequences like Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE and Ciel nosurge do.

On the technical front, this game is fine. It has a reasonably good UI that doesn't feel too archiac. When loading save data, the loading screen would give a story summary of what has happened so far. And this game has never crashed despite it having never received an update. It runs at a nice 1080p at 30 fps and looks very clean.

One thing I'm thankful is that the Refrain version (PS4/Switch re-release) has gotten rid of all in-game transactions. SEGA had this brilliant idea to make the original game microtransaction-driven despite being a single-player game, with in-game consumables costing real money (and counters save data manipulation by forcing saves each time such an item is used). Refain is a fully single-purchase game at a discount, and I got it second hand at about ¥1700.

There is a fighting game pseudo-sequel, which rather awkwardly re-opens an otherwise ended story (like what Yoshi's Island DS did to the SNES original).

This is a medium-quality but still enjoyable game overall.