I beat Fable: The Lost Chapters on the Microsoft XBOX this afternoon!

Back when I first got the original XBOX, Fable was one of those quintessential XBOX games that went straight to my Wishlist. I found other games first to satisfy my XBOX RPG style need, but eventually, I wanted to see for it myself. The lore and hype surrounding the game and the series I remember to be quite large. Thankfully, while walking around a Game Convention last year before everything was shutdown, I finally found a copy of the game along with all of the extra content. It was the first game I bought at that convention and made the whole experience worth while. Looking for an XBOX game to beat this year, Fable stood out and I decided that I would finally sit down and play the game.

The famous Peter Molyneux developed the game and I never really got into his games. I had played Populous and Theme Park, but they felt too SimCity like. With Fable being an Action-RPG in a fantasy world, it felt more my style and I was glad I got to play it. And Fable is very much in that Fantasy world as I think it hits every old school Fantasy trope that I can imagine. You fight goblins and orcs, you wield sword and magic and the setting is very Lord of the Rings. My favorite part of the game is the choices you make can affect your character and the world around you. By the end of the game, I was so good that I had a Halo around me and people cheered my every action.

Unfortunately, the game isn't as wide-open as you would imagine. Much like KOTOR, you are pretty much dictated to go down the path of good or evil. And the paths are so blatantly obvious that there is no gray area. But, my main grip in the game is that the combat is so dull. You are basically mashing one button the entire time. It works somewhat well when you are fighting one single enemy, but you are fighting multiple enemies throughout the entire game. You are constantly targeting the wrong enemy and getting stabbed in the back quite frequently.

Overall, I would say I had a mixed experience with Fable. I think the game is a little dull and gets very repetitive for such a short game. However, it still is an interesting experience and if you like High Fantasy and Action RPG games, then I think you would find some enjoyment here. I would just lower my expectation as Fable falls in the middle of the road for me with some good ideas here and there.

I beat Gunbird 2 on the Sega Dreamcast this evening!

Before COVID, I used to frequent a Pinball Arcade every other Saturday. They are still open infrequently and we don't go as much, but it is still a regular occurrence for me. One of the aspects I love is they have several MAME machines that have emulated versions of Arcade and old console games. I have spent many hours up there discovering new games and playing new ones that I had never played before. Before of that, I have discovered many great Shoot'em Ups, which is a genre that I enjoyed, but knew very little of. One night, I discovered Gunbird 2 and loved every moment of it. Thankfully, I came home to find that a fairly faithful DreamCast port was released many years ago. Well, during the beginning of the Pandemic, I decided to treat myself with a copy as they are fairly expensive. Deciding it was time to play it for myself, I decided Gunbird 2 would be my Dreamcast game to beat this year.

Gunbird 2 is an extremely faithful arcade port of a fantastic 2D Shoot'em Up. You have several characters to choose from at the beginning. Each character has its own shot type and sub weapon, so each character feels unique and different. Also, one of the characters is Morrigan from Darkstalkers, so that is a nice Easter Egg for Capcom fans. You then go through eight different levels with a boss at the end of each level. The levels are fairly short with the majority of the time being taken up the boss. That aspect reminds me of Treasure games, where the boss fight is the meat of the game. Each character has their own story that unfolds throughout the game as well. You also have bombs at your disposal and a large charged shot that fills up with each enemy that you kill. Both of those are unique to each character as well, so that is more incentive to replay the game. The game has really great music and some beautiful 2D graphics. It also never really feels cheap, which is great in a Shoot'em Up.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Gunbird 2. The game doesn't have much meat to it outside of beating the game with all of the characters. But, the gameplay and the different characters bring out a great experience overall. Shoot'em Ups that are good for even basic players to play are really hard to find as most of them dive straight into the Deep End. With Gunbird 2, it's a great example of Shoot'Em Up that anybody can pick up and play.

I beat Phantasy Star IV on the Sega Genesis this afternoon!

Long before I discovered the Backloggery, I had bought all of the Phantasy Star Games for the Genesis. At the time, they were only like $40 and I found them all in a pretty short order. They sat Unfinished for a very long time until I discovered the Backloggery and started to go through them. I also had many Unfinished Dragon Quest games at the time, so instead of burning myself out, I decided to jump between the two series' every year. Well, after several years, it has come time to play Phantasy Star IV. I've heard that it is the best in the series and makes it all worthwhile. With my excitement ready, I put it as my Genesis game to beat this year and started it up.

I can safely say without a doubt that Phantasy Star IV is the Phantasy Star on the Genesis. It amazes me how much it blows the other two games out of the water. Phantasy Star II has great music, but is grindy as all hell and can be rather mean. For Phantasy Star III, it had an interesting generational aspect, but it was also grindy and very slow. For Phantasy Star IV, the game still has amazing music, but everything else about the game is also great. The grind is far less steep in the game as having 5 Party Members helps in the damage output. Also, the levels go by fairly quickly, you gain money easier and the dungeons are fairly short. The game seems to fly by as I was able to go through chunks of the game in a fairly quick fashion. The story is mostly interesting, but it still has some confusing points. You beat what you think is the big bad several times before you actually do, so the surprises land kind of weakly. You rotate several characters throughout the game and each one brought a new personality to the story along with the team makeup. At times, I mostly had fighters while others had a bunch of mages, so I had to change my way of attack a few times throughout the game.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Phantasy Star IV. It is the best in the series by far and the best pure RPG on the Sega Genesis. I don't normally say this, but I don't think playing II and III are necessary to enjoy IV. There are some small callbacks, but Phantasy Star IV is so good compared to its predecessors that you can almost skip them. Play them if you love history and game progression, but if you are a fan of traditional turn-based JRPG's, then Phantasy Star is a must play!

Thanks so much!

Hopefully I'll put a decent dent into it this year, and possibly finish it by 2022...that's the goal at least. Also, you're getting pretty close to finishing yours as well. Not to mention you're about to join the decadeloggiversary club.

Thanks! I really like your reviews and was hoping to learn a thing or two about what's good to play! I'm really bad about beating games, but I'm much better at adding to my collection.

Small world, I went to school in Evansville. Glad you were able to get out, hoping one day to escape myself.

All this talk of Illusion of Gaia and Soul Blazer is really making me wanna get back into Terranigma! I always hear that it takes the best elements of the first two games and makes them even better. Sounds almost too good to be true, considering how good those games are! There's also another game that's sometimes considered to be part of the series, The Granstream Saga for PS1. I never hear much about that one, but I look forward to checking it out.

I'm enjoying Skies of Arcadia so much! My biggest problems initially were the encounter rate and the difficult bosses. Turns out it was mostly just the Piastol and bounty battles that I was having the most trouble with. Once I got a firmer grip on the game's systems, I haven't had much trouble. They're still a bit difficult, but in a fun and rewarding way! As for the encounter rate, it was pretty bad when in the airship. Like, pinpointing a Discovery could take forever because the battles kept coming every 10 seconds and it was really frustrating. But once I got the White Map that decreases encounters, I've been having so much fun. I can sail halfway across the map with no battles whatsoever sometimes. Since then, I've been addicted to this game and find myself thinking about it when I'm not playing. I've already found all but the last two Discoveries!

I think I skipped almost all the side content in FFX... woops. I think Yojimbo was an optional aeon, so I guess I did that, but I didn't touch Blitz Ball, chocobos, or any extra dungeons or battles. I guess that could be why I had such a hard time. I was probably pretty underleveled! I remember it taking me over 50 hours to beat and I played it all in a very short span of time. This was a fairly long time ago.

How are you liking Phantasy Star IV? I played the SEGA AGES version of the first game a couple years ago and liked it a lot, so I've been meaning to give PSIV a try. I was actually considering playing it as my next game once I finish Skies of Arcadia! Seems fitting since both games were created by the same person!

The next Mega Man I play will either be X3, since I just finished X2 a couple months ago. If I DO play a classic style Mega Man game soon, it's probably gonna be The Wily Wars, since it's on the Genesis Mini where I'd be playing Phantasy Star IV. I really know nothing about that game though. Have you played it?

Oh man, and your thoughts on Xenosaga III make me wanna play that series as well. So many games, so little time...!