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1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) 13. Jet Set Radio 14. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE (Platinum Trophy) 15. :ps1: Legend of Legaia (88.84%) 16. :switch: Super Mario RPG Remake 17. Ghost of Tsushima (Platinum) 18. :PS1: Crash Bandicoot: Warped (100%) Holy fuck, Ghost of Tsushima is so good. If I wanted to be nitpicky, I could say the combat was a bit repetitive and it eventually started feeling a bit formulaic. But that was never at the forefront of my mind because this game is just a vibe. All the side things you can do like the hot springs and haikus just helped immerse me in this world. At all points I was just engulfed in the sheer beauty of the visuals and the presentation while also just feeling absorbed into the gameplay and story. I can't think of many games that just the feel of the game had me entranced more than the overall package. I completed everything in the base game. Probably won't do New Game + or Legends Mode, but at some point I may want to play the DLC. Overall, I really did love the combat and the capabilities for mixing direct combat and stealth operatives. And just enough climbing/platforming to make this feel a bit different than most open world games. And hooooly shit do I love the story and characters. This had all the room to be a basic story of honor and revenge, but especially when you do the Tales of Tsushima, it's really an exploration in human nature and figuring out what is right and wrong in your eyes. I love that each of the main characters are flawed in different ways. None of them are clear-cut as "good people," but it's clear they are all people reacting to the trauma of the invasion as well as personal traumas, and how in life that is messy and there's no clear answer for what is morally right or wrong. And the way it's reflected in Jin and the choices you can make with gameplay and endgame stuff...man, I can't help but just be super into how it was handled compared to how I think most games in this style would be handled in the years before. Top tier modern game, stunning visuals and sound design, excellent story and characters. Very glad I took the time to finish this before fully moving to the next gen. 9/10 Crash Warped remains my favorite entry in the series. The boss battles are even more creative(though I'd argue Crash 2 had a harder final fight), it's a completionist's wet dream, and the level designs are just more tight and varied. I took some time away after completing the main levels and I think there was something I liked about Crash 2 more, but they're pretty close for me either way. I got all the gold relics except for 4 because two of them just felt like I would be trying at it for hours on end and the others I just didn't have the patience to go back to. And I'm not even bothering with the Platinums. The 105% for the gold relics is tempting, but I'm satisfied with where I'm at. Happy to finally have properly completed the original trilogy. 8/10 And I think that about rounds it out for the year. Got a lot of stuff I've been meaning to get off my backlog, some recent, some since my childhood. I'm excited to keep churning through it next year, with FF7R Rebirth and Thousand Year Door on the horizon for new releases. Think I'm gonna buy Disco Elysium and make that happen this year, too. Probably Baldur's Gate as well.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) 13. Jet Set Radio 14. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE (Platinum Trophy) 15. :ps1: Legend of Legaia (88.84%) 16. Super Mario RPG Remake And I breezed through this. As painfully easy as this game can be, it's still so much fun. The video be and story is enjoyable, the graphics, while maybe a bit too polished and plain for the remake, are still such a joy. The soundtrack is fantastic and think they did a good job with the reorchestration. I loved the addition of the Triple Moves and the bonuses for consistently getting your action commands right. While it may have contributed to making the main game easier, it was so engaging to participate in that it overrode that. Very minimal changes to the script was nice, and the few changes that exist make sense. I also really enjoyed the post-game bosses. This was the first time I beat Culex, the only really challenging fight in the main game, and the post-game bosses almost all took me a couple tries to get finished. Would be kind of cool if there was a hard mode or something, but I'm hoping that the game sells well and Nintendo finally decide to go all in on a new Mario RPG game that has a bit more challenge. Nostalgia obviously factors in, but such a great game and a great job for a Remake overall. 9/10

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) 13. Jet Set Radio 14. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE (Platinum Trophy) 15. :ps1: Legend of Legaia (88.84%) This has been a really long-time coming. This game was was like the holy trinity of PS1 JRPGs that got me hooked to the genre when I was a kid alongside FF7 and Star Ocean 2. Except when I first played it and didn't really grasp the concept of grinding, I couldn't get past the Viguro boss fight in East Voz Forest. That's how early it was for me. And then a few years later I started a replay and got a bit farther, but not much past the first continent. So I was determined to actually finish the game this time, as I've recently been on a mission to pretty much complete all the PS1 JRPGs that I never finished. I didn't go too hard on completionism because I felt I had everything I needed to fight the final boss, and wasn't sure if I would be ready to take on the optional boss nor did I want to do all the grinding necessary to do so. Still, I can see myself going back to try this at some point. I still love this game though. It surprisingly holds up as far as presentation goes, with the 3D sprites being incredibly expressive and the writing, while somewhat simple, having so much character to it. I absolute love Noa and her characterization/antics throughout, and when you get to her more emotional moments, it just hits so hard. And while I used to just see Gala as some meathead and didn't care about him before, he ended up being my dark horse favorite. Especially with the level of damage he can end up doing both with his magic and power. And the story just feels like it has a good journey that you can invest yourself in. And of course the battle system is great. I love the fighting game-like inputs and the various combos you can get(I only looked up miracle arts and how many arts have so many inputs), and the way it works with the Spirit system just had me really engaged during some of the hardest fights. The Delilas trio and the final Songi battle stand out the most for me, but a lot of the fights kept me on my toes since I did minimal grinding past the first 10-15 hours. Anyone who hasn't played this, if you want an old school JRPG experience that can still deliver in the modern era, I recommend checking this out. 8.5/10

I never finished it, but when I was playing the MSX Metal Gear, I was going without a guide and I remember not having much trouble. Though there may be some stuff after where I got that was worse.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) 13. Jet Set Radio 14. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE (Platinum Trophy) Finally knocked this one out. Completed the Hard Mode run, finished all the combat simulator/colosseum stuff, and got the platinum. Later today I'm gonna get the final Chapter 14 resolution and get my last two enemies to assess(Cactuar and Ifrit) and I'll have the Play Log 100%'d except for one manuscript, because fuck you, I'm not fighting that house on hard mode again. I loved it just as much, if not more, than the first time. The Train Graveyard section is probably the slowest to get through and definitely feels more like a distraction than an engaging portion, and the Phantom boss was pretty annoying to deal with. Hard Mode in general really does test your knowledge of the materia and how well you can manipulate the system. The Hell House and Specimen H0512 probably gave me the most trouble for standard bosses, but most of them either had me hanging by a thread or taking two or three tries to finish off. And the final chapter was a pain in the ass, too. Dealing with the Whispers was more trouble than it should have been and I had to swap materia setups a couple times before I got it right. I feel like I beat Sephiroth relatively easy in comparison, but he was an ass, too. And then the final Combat Simulator fight...Jesus it was frustrating. I managed to beat Pride and Joy in two tries, but that was after getting stomped by Bahamut like 10 times more. The two times I did beat him, I was definitely hanging by a thread. God, I can't wait for Rebirth. Gonna play the DLC soon to tide me over.

God, it really sucks not having a proper party or any party control. Pretty sure I said as much in my Completed post, but they should have in the least made you manage their hp with control over AI settings. Same with Torgal, who has a bunch of special abilities in their Limit mode yet I've never seen one. It holds the active engagement/dragging sections back so damn much. And having just finished FF7R on hard mode, the contrast is fucking dire. Even the slow sections are more engaging because the combat keeps you on your toes and there's enough difference in character play styles that it always feels fresh. No amount of Eikon abilities can make up for the sameyness of Clive. All that said, I hold very much the same opinion as you that I really enjoyed it overall. Especially in the story department. Just felt there was so much more to be done that had been done better in both XV and FF7R.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) 13. Jet Set Radio This has been a long time coming. Always loved this game, but never completed it all the way. I'd usually get to the point where the Golden Rhinos got involved, get frustrated with the increase in enemies combined with the awkward controls and would eventually just get bored/throw in the towel. Same thing sort of happened last time I started the game about a year or two ago, but I picked it back up to night to polish it off. Didn't really bother with getting every Graffiti Soul, but maybe I'll come back and do that piece by piece over time. Still a great game, even if the movement could be more responsive. The entire aesthetic of the game is just too cool that it's worth getting through any of the awkward bits.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI 12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (100%) And I finally polished off the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. This one has a ton more content, and I think the various styles of gameplay were a great change to the formula. The final boss is less satisfying than Ripto though. All 100%. Now I just need to polish off Crash Warped, which is at like 89% but the golden relics are a fucking pain.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered 10. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) 11. Final Fantasy XVI I actually beat Crash 2 a couple months ago and just forgot to post it: Finally finished XVI. Did all the sidequests and got all but one of the achievements I can reasonably get without grinding(which this game is not designed for) or playing New Game+, and while I mostly enjoyed the game, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play it again. Overall, it's a really good game that's held back from being great because of some design issues. I think other than scope, it tends to feel like FF7R ran so FF16 could jog brisquely. So, yeah. There are a lot of flaws. Especially with FF7R staring it right in the face doing mostly everything 16 did but better. And I see myself wanting to replay XV before this one to be honest. But as a brand new story and experience in an engrossing world that constantly drew me in, this was still a really good Final Fantasy. 8/10 God I hate copy/pasting from modern forums on mobile

Yeah, I'm like...I dunno, halfway through it? I got to the point where the game opens up and have done like 3 main missions since then? Not sure how much is left for me but I've probably put in about 35-40 hours. Storywise it's easily in the top 3-5 so far from where I'm at. I agree that the combat is kinda lacking a bit. Like it's good, but I feel like they nailed it better with the FF7 Remake. The lack of a true party dynamic/switching between characters takes away some of the magic for me. Even beyond that, I've been loving it so far.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) 8. :ps1: Crash Bandicoot 9. Spider-Man Remastered Crash Bandicoot is another game I started playing with my partner. We just went through and beat it as is. I think I'll slowly work on getting all the gems, but surviving some of those stages by getting all the boxes and not dying sounds like torture, so happy to count this as completion. Just finished Spider-Man yesterday. 100% the main game and got the platinum trophy. Really fun game that feels like a natural evolution of Spider-Man 2 way back in the 2000s. Webslinging was superb, and I had a lot of fun finding different ways to travel by trying to reach the benchmarks. I liked the greater crime varieties, and the combat was pretty fluid. The story was really well done, perfect blending comic book canon with an altered history where not ALL major events have happened yet. I liked the unique turns they took, and unlike the previous games, they did a great job of making you feel like Peter Parker as well as Spider-Man. I think the boss battles could have been a bit harder and/or more dynamic, because as is they were just glorified versions of the usual beat-em-up brawls with grunts, but there were still some cool moments. The MJ missions were mostly annoying until the very last one, though. Could have done without. Story Spoilers At some point I'll play the DLC and go for the Remastered specific trophies, but not sure I'll ever get around to a New Game+. At this point I'm ready to give Miles Morales a spin and get hyped for Spider-Man 2.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee 7. God of War (2018) Finally 100%'d this and got the platinum trophy. I was originally gonna try and take on the Valkyries on Give Me God of War mode, but I opted not to for the sake of time and sanity. Glad I did because Sigrun, the final Valkyrie, fucked my day so many times. Then I just had to polish off the second set of Muspelheim trials and find a missing jotnar shrine, and now I can finally move on. It was an awesome game. Really carried the spirit of the original, and though Niflheim felt pretty tedious and annoying, most of the other challenges were enjoyable, and felt like an accomplishment when you finished. Beating Sigrun was such a cathartic moment. Probably gonna focus on FF7 Remaster and whatever other small things that sound fun when not playing Spyro/Oddworld. Then I'm either gonna move on to Ragnarok or Tears of the Kingdom.

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler 5. Metroid II: Return of Samus 6. :ps1: Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee Beat these in the last couple weeks. I started dabbling with Metroid II when the Gameboy games were released for Switch Online, and since I had some days where the TV was being used, I started digging deeper into that. First time actually playing it, and it's a really fun adventure. The "gameboy-ness" fades after you get into it a bit more. A little less exploration than normal, but introducing a lot of series staples(including the Spider Ball which I always thought was a Prime innovation) and just making a generally enjoyable adventure with better control and not as punishing health respawning and such makes this a really fun playthrough. Could see myself wanting to speedrun it at some point. And finally beat Oddworld for the first time ever. 100% completion, very minimal walkthrough help(some of the early ones are tricky and I used it as a double check to see how many mudokons were in each area). I definitely still love this game, even if the controls aren't the best. I get the feeling emulating on the PS3 meant the where was an input delay that probably made it worse, but having started Abe's Exoddus, I can tell they actively made it control a bit tighter. Also, the save/checkpoint system is brutal, especially with some of the challenges/puzzles you're expected to gruel your way through. But for me personally, the satisfaction of getting it done right always overrode any frustration in my attempts. Overall, I think puzzle and level design is fantastic, and it's no surprise to me that this game has stood in ny conscious for so long even if I never beat it as a child. Also, the ending is hella satisfying. Another moment where all the annoying struggling that came before felt justified. Most people would probably recommend New 'n Tasty, but I think if you can get over aging, the original PS1 release is still an amazing game that tried something different than what a lot of the competition was doing. Abe's Exoddus has already been started and it's basically improved everything that needed to be improved, the quiksave function in particular is crucial.

It was a birthday gift in 2021 which is part of why I had a physical cartridge. And also why I feel even worse about losing it. I'm hoping at some point I at least find it whenever we move from here or something. The last I remember is putting it inside a pouch in my backpack. I fear that it accidentally fell out when I was reaching for something else or something like that. Holy shit, I found it! It was in a duffle bag that was in my girlfriend's closet. I literally checked every other bag and coat I owned and finally asked her about any time she remembered me using one of her bags. All is good

I want to get Bravely Default II also. I wanted to wait until I finished the first one, but I can't find my 3DS cartridge anymore -_-

1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 4. Octopath Traveler I FINALLY DID IT! I 100%'d the whole game. Beat all the side stories, beat all the main stories, and went to the Gate of Finis and whooped Galdera's ass. Not after he fucked me up two times prior. I loved this game so damn much. It has just about everything I would ever ask for in a JRPG. Multiple characters, can start as any of them, they're not necessarily mandatory, and all the secret optional stuff to find. Optional dungeons and bosses, hidden equipment, engaging stories and characters, a real difficulty curve that is only easy if you learn how to break the game - which is kind of the reward. By the time I was strong enough to beat the first Chapter 4, the rest of the final bosses were relatively easy (Simeon sucked, though), but that also gave me more incentive to swap up my team a bit. I also loved the job system. It's a bit annoying not being able to double up with the secret jobs, and I would love if you could add one command from the other jobs(ala FFV), but it forces you to think more carefully about your setup, and keeps the 8 characters more unique. Only Alfyn can concoct, and while that was annoying to me because I really wanted Tressa to be my Alfyn, it made me develop them into their own personalities that could even work in conjunction with each other. I started with Therion because I love thieves and wanted to be able to steal and open up all the chests from the get-go. If I ever do a replay, I feel I'd struggle to pick a different character, but it would probably be Ophilia, because she's a monster. My primary party was basically Therion, Olberic, Ophilia, and Alfyn, though I also liked swapping Olberic with H'aanit and liked the cut of Tressa's jib. Part of me wishes I gave more attention to Primrose early, but after a bit of grinding, she was pretty essential in the final boss. An ultimately minor, but should-be-addressed complaint is the formulaic structure of the stories and the fact that the stories aren't really interwoven. There are small connections that have huge implications in the final boss story, but the lack of important interactions between the characters hindered the immersion for me a bit. The Travel Banter and especially the Tavern Banter was a novel way to include, but the lack of voice-acting and actual scenes makes it feel more tacked on than profound, which is a shame since most of these characters have interesting backstories and personalities that deserve more of a highlight. Some of the dialogue during the banters only confirms this. The formulaic feel can also be said for the dungeons, which very few felt notable or significant from the others. The ones in the forest or inside a building were always the most engaging, but the myriad caves all blurred together. And the shape of them all gives little but "find the boss fight and get the loot, maybe a cutscene." I think something like that could be at least masked by putting some of the dungeons in your way. There is no actual dungeon you have to go through to reach a town or settlement, and I think having some areas like that - where the area has a transient, but significant plot connection - would help in making the chapter-locked dungeons feel less repetitive. I don't know if this specific idea has been implemented, but from what I've heard, the sequel does a lot to fix the formulaic feel and the lack of real party interaction. The last complaint I have is the final dungeon, which I guess I'll put in spoilers just in case. I also ramble a lot here about my specific strategy, so you know, if ya wanna skip: So yes, the final dungeon is annoying, but I kind of liked that it forced me to really take my setups more seriously. I know there are ways I could have cheesed even more damage, but it involved strategies I didn't want to take the risk on or do the research to figure out how to safeguard them. I do think it's a big ask for people who don't want to get into math and hyper analyzing your setup, and I'm sure some would be upset that the one unifying element of the stories is locked into a boss like that, but then again, those who are looking for the optional dungeons are probably willing to put in that work anyway. Fantastic game. I can't wait to buy the second one. It only took me 4 years to beat it, but it happened.

I saw a video recently where someone absolutely loved Dirge of Cerberus, and it made me want to give it another shot. Wish I still had my copy from years back. I'm sad to hear about Zack's voice actor. I've been watching these FF retrospective videos and someone was talking about how the new Zack voice actor in the VII Remake wasn't as strong, and hearing he did the same thing here...god, I hope they pull it together for Rebirth.

Kinda sad this ended up being my full list for the year, but college kicked my ass 1. Pokemon Violet 2. :snes: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past I still technically need to make trades t complete my Pokedex, but I finished all of the story and the post-game stuff for Pokemon Violet. I honestly don't have the patience or the motivation to do EV training, so I probably won't participate in the raids. That said, I had a blast with this game. I kept finding every chance to play, even if it was just for 10 minutes. The game kind of had hills and valleys, where I was enamored for like the first 10-20 hours, then I saw through the matrix after getting all Miraidon upgrades, then I fell in love with exploring again. Overall, I think this game has the same problem Final Fantasy XV does: the open world is a great concept with less cool stuff filling it out. For XV, it was the lack of actual towns. Here, I wish there were more sidequests and random locations that gave more incentive for exploring. I was also annoyed that the Team Star boss monsters were essentially the same after being so impressed with the first one. I think you should be able to ride Pokemon other than the legendary. I also wish the wild Pokemon actually like...did stuff. That said, it was still so joyous to be flying around and seeing some Pokemon I had never seen in the distance and rushing to go grab it. Or getting excited whenever I come across one of my classic faves and feeling the deep need to catch it. A lot to improve upon, but I think they have a winning formula here. As for A Link to the Past, this was actually my first time completing it. Or really playing it at all when it comes down to it. I played it in retrospect during the PS1 era, and I never stick with it past the first dungeon. But even all these years later, it holds up and was impressive. Love the aesthetic of everything, and it's truly a graphical accomplishment on many fronts. The dungeons were really creative with some tough(at times frustrating) bosses, though a decent deal of them were manageable with some fairies in bottles. I also love how natural it felt discovering things and solving problems on the overworld, with the fortune teller hints helping fill the gaps when I was otherwise a bit lost. I definitely see why people love this game, and it's definitely one of my favorite Zelda experiences.