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SNES
Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome
Equipping at Lodestar Harbour (Port Selmi) before heading to Hay (Kabochi).
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Updated about 16 hours ago
An astoundingly solid entry for 1992, I'd wager it's better than FFV even. It's mostly the basics of Dragon Quest that carry this, but the solid story, little touches in presentation and the mechanical refinements really help. I cannot overstate how powerful the story is, one of the all time greats on the SNES. The monster recruiting mechanic isn't too deep, but the ability to customize your party with cool beasties like Megami Tensei and Wizardry 4 is super fun.
PS2
Summon Night 3
Chapter 12: Thus, Night Falls ~Colorless~. Levelling up, this plot is fucking Destroying me gamers (positive, crying)
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Updated about 17 hours ago
Another smash hit after 1&2, which were pretty good in their own right. The amount of chapters were toned down from 2, though the runtime length is roughly equal. The teacher-student aspect is super cute, and I like the setting of helping a bunch of castaway stray summons. The difficulty is kinda welcome, but the Schaltos mechanic (think Mono Shift in Swordcraft 2) is a good equalizer for casual players. It does add to the Karma/Bad End value, but it only screws you over with overuse.
NDS
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Equipping at Helmunaptra.
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Updated about 2 days ago
A portable rendition of the PS2 original on DQ4 PSX/DS' engine. People tend to prefer PS2 for its 3D graphics, but I'm more fond of this one due to its pixel art and low-poly aesthetic. Either way, both are pretty good versions of an already great game, that heavily expand on the original tenfold. I do feel like Debora's presence is a good selling point for this version alone, but this is mostly me speaking here. I love men, but I think women should be total gremlins more often.
SNES
Super Mario World: A Super Mario Thing: Demo's Journey
Replay. World 5 - Cave, at Night of the Living Charlie. Going for all raocoins. By raocow's talkhaus.
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Updated about 3 weeks ago
An iconic, yet very flawed romhack. For its release year, 2010, the stages are relatively solid for a game made mostly by first timers and children, though as a result of being an older SMW collab hack, it has quite a lot of duds and just downright unfair levels. The flavor and vibes it gives off help make it digestible, with the added benefit that there's still quite a lot of fun levels, despite the difficulty. My advice is to approach this with savestates, the postgame (and W4 castle) is BS.
PC
Fantasia Sango
Getting our bearings in Xudu.
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Updated about 4 weeks ago
SNES
Secret of Mana
Replay. Script Augmentation patch on, first visit to Kakkara, heading to the Ice Country.
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Updated about 4 weeks ago
You can really tell this game is a direct follow up to the original FF Adventure. It shares a lot of its quirks, from the focus on multiple weapons to its more Zelda-ish structure, where the map feels more like a game world than having a sense of place. Overall it doesn't feel as staggered as the gameplay in Trials, but something that does knock it down a bit is the "attack buffering" mechanic, the clunky AI that mustn't go offscreen or no scroll, and the slight focus on grinding proficiencies.
PC
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut
Replay. Heading to Ice Cap as Sonic. Have to redo my progress due to reinstalling the Dreamcast mods, 3/130 Emblems.
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Updated about 1 month ago
A worse port of the GameCube version which was a worse port of the Dreamcast version. It's a very sad way to treat a game that was on the cutting edge of graphics in 1999, what with worsening its lighting engine, simplifying its graphics and artstyle... If you respect art direction in games, the PC port doesn't come recommended. However, now you can use the SA Mod Launcher to restore it to its Dreamcast glory, so I encourage anyone to give it a go with that mod. Please enjoy!
GBA
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Preparing for Battle Arena grind (raise to Lv80, get Gambler Armbands, grind recovery drops, go ham). Map: 93.9%
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Updated about 2 months ago
Not the best follow up from SotN, but a decent enough showing regardless! The bigger emphasis on grinding isn't something I'm kind of a fan of, though I do appreciate the concept of the card system and the increase in difficulty. Generally a pretty well done game, that just needed a little bit of time to be better balanced while retaining some of the challenge. Maybe just altering how Luck affects drop rates.
X68k
Aquales
Stage 2: A Search of Edias Rith (i think they mean "Recon Mission at Edias Rith"?)
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Updated about 2 months ago
PC
Cave Story
By Pixel. Bad and Neutral endings run, Waterway boyeeeee. DL: https://www.cavestory.org/download/cave-story.php
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Updated about 3 months ago
An old gem from the early days of indie game awareness. It hasn't aged as gracefully, a lot of the subareas involve going back and forth a billion times (Sand Zone...) and the physics are floaty in a bad way, but its storytelling, visuals+music and /most/ of its gameplay are terrific. The storytelling especially makes a compelling case to encourage people to play this game. If you're curious as to which version to play, the freeware version is fine, but just make sure you avoid the 3DS version.
TG16
J.J. & Jeff
Field 4: 4-1.
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Updated about 3 months ago
A comedic Wonder Boy 1/Adventure Island inflected platformer based on the likenesses of Ken Shimura (RIP) and Cha Katou, as well as their Gokigen TV skit show. As expected of WB1, it's a very slippery platformer, but I quite enjoy the physics and gameplay myself. It's not ideal (enemies are hard to time jumps on due to how small they are), but I feel like its jank is part of the joke. The "collect the hidden key to access stage 4" mechanic is also weirdly cruel, but I think it's funny too.
PS
Resident Evil
Director's Cut, no Samuragochi. Chris run, currently at the Storage Room with Rebecca.
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Updated about 3 months ago
PS2
Tales of Destiny 2
Completionist run idea aborted, will just focus on levelling up for Rimul and Magnadeus.
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Updated about 4 months ago
A step up from Destiny 1, of which the PSX ver. I was pretty underwhelmed by. The battle system has the benefit of being made after Eternia, and I like its emphasis on defensive play, with Kyle being a wall to ward off the enemies, while the others cast spells. The story is still Tales High Concept™ which I'm not a fan of, but the story centered around society being sheltered for its protection feels interesting all of the same. The characters are also just much more likable, still miss Kongman.
PC
Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the 7 Devils
By Platine Dispositif. Bunny run. 50% Item completion, at Jade Tower.
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Updated about 4 months ago
Super good retro hard-style metroidvania. I appreciate its humorous nature, but I also adore how deviously challenging it is despite it being mostly fair. Mostly. Jade Tower is can be a total pain. It's also not too long either, clocking in at 8 hours if you just do Bunny's story and around 15 if you do Chelsea's as well. It is currently delisted, sadly, though pirating it isn't too hard if you know where to look. Another classic by Platine Dispositif.
PSP
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection: Final Fantasy IV
Zeromus beat with the main cast, need to do it with the optional cast to unlock the rest of Lunar Ruins. Cave of Trials done, not going for Pink Tail.
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Updated about 5 months ago
A superb port of Final Fantasy IV Advance, though the same issues with Final Fantasy IV apply here. The difficulty can be a bit overwhelming, especially due to how ATB works, but something that is a small bugbear to me is how the encounter rate is still high in the level of late era NES, early era SNES games. Personally, I would have toned it down and adjusted EXP rates accordingly.
TG16
Momotarou Densetsu Turbo
Bartering at the Capital of Hope.
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Updated about 5 months ago
A pretty good graphical upgrade to the original Momotarou Densetsu. The overworld graphics feel less generic, and the colorful lightheartedness and dumb jokes of the original are still there. It's still a Dragon Quest clone at heart, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
PC
Fallout
Hub quests, Junk Town mostly clear of EXP outside of recruiting Dogmeat, need to check if I can recruit Tycho.
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Updated about 1 year ago
An impeccable game. It's a bit clunky, but it's very rewarding to explore. The quests are pretty fleshed out, most of them do have different ways of progressing making you able to say, avoid combat as much as possible, which is very good. There's a lot of choices for builds that can beat the game, though for some you're gonna have to have quite a bit of knowledge and experience under your belt. It's also phenomenally written. 100% recommended, could just use more cute men /joke