Psycho666Soldier

Happy New Year everyone!

Here's to a better 2024, regardless of whether 2023 was good for you or not 

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.

Second pretty much everything here(these are also the three I've read so far)

On Elusive Samurai

My girlfriend got me this beauty

I also got some cool Simpsons, Sanic, and Mario socks, a couple cute blindboxes, a Mario figure, Vol. 1 of Dr. Stone and Mob Psycho, and then a luxury foot massager.

Pretty good haul for me.

I'm just hanging with my partners and watching some holiday stuff while we play with our new toys(watching the Beavis & Butt-Head Christmas episode right now).

Merry Christmas everyone.  Hope it's chill and nice for everyone.

Me and my girlfriend also went in on a Switch Lite for my boyfriend that comes with Animal Crossing and he was super stoked about it.  We've been letting him borrow ours to play it over the last year, so figured it was about time he got his own.

I got my girlfriend the Sailor Moon rod that makes noise.  She was pretty excited for that.

And then I got them both a few different comics/manga they've been wanting(Higurashi for my girlfriend, Transmetropolitan and I Feel Sick for my boyfriend).

I'll still be watching Undead Unluck, but not seeing anything that I recognize looking at the list.  Will probably just wait and see if any of you point something out as good and decide from there.

This was mine:

Feels about right, though I feel Beat & Motion, Spy x Family and Martial Master Asumi are snubbed by not having as many chapters.  If this was expanded to a Top 10, Show-ha Shoten and Elusive Samurai would definitely be in there as far as enjoyment goes.

21 hours ago, dr. b said:

 

On 12/18/2023 at 6:52 AM, Psycho666Soldier said:

I fucking love the action shots in Martial Master Asumi.  The art is so damn good.

Agreed! But I am going to be supremely bummed out if Nao doesn’t win

They honestly did a good job of making feel bad either way with the way they characterized her opponent's backstory.

I also finally caught up on Elusive Samurai.  I don't know why I was having trouble before.  I read the exact same chapters and didn't feel nearly as lost.  It's all been good stuff, though.  Enjoying the setup for the rematch with Sadamune.  Here's hoping this is the day Tokiyuki actually kills his ass.

I can't believe I forgot Spy x Family.  That was also good. It's interesting to see that even some of the basic everyday people in this world don't exactly see their political leaders as good/great, with getting a glimpse into Millie's past.  Good stuff.

4-D Science was good. I liked the cliffhanger.

Akane-Banashi #91

I fucking love the action shots in Martial Master Asumi.  The art is so damn good.

Also, that final page in Sakamoto Days #148 was so awesome.

Happy Birthday @Rulkster!!

Martial Master Asumi #25 was such a good in between chapter.  Asumi getting over mental boundaries, Nao giving us her backstory, and the intrigue/setup for their next fights. I feel this gonna be one of those manga where you fall in love with the entire character roster.

The most recent Sakamoto and Akane-banashi were also enjoyable as always, but less to talk about lol

A little bit of catch-up

In short, I love the direction Martial Master Asumi is going and I'm hyped for the upcoming fight.  Should be heartbreaking.  And Akane-banashi is still great stuff too.  The tease at the end of the last chapter has me really curious.

Beat & Motion

Show-ha Shoten!

Sakamoto Days

3 hours ago, dr. b said:

Chainsaw Boy #150

 

  Hide contents

 

FINALLY

 

Bummer about the pets—that dude is cruel, whoever he is (I am really struggling with who’s who in this arc)—but I really want to see Denji running wild as Chainsaw Man again. 

 

It definitely feels like a cork is gonna pop soon with a bunch of gore to follow

I will say in its favor that it doesn't really feel like it follows a lot of Shonen Tropes other than there's a lot of action in it and there's an emphasis on friendships, but I can't even imagine comparing it to Bleach or Black Clover.  You could argue it has the too many characters issue and it did have a lull in the manga where it felt a bit stretchy, but I feel they turned it around in a way that makes it feel special.

If nothing else, the style of the anime has done it a lot of favors to help it stand out.

1 hour ago, dr. b said:

I wanted to but I don’t know where to find it. If it ain’t on Crunchyroll, I give up pretty quick  I guess I do have access to Prime Video and Disney+ … I never use them for anything though and never think to check them for anime. 

It looks like it's only on Hulu in the states.  Not sure if it's different anywhere else or it's on another app I've missed, but yeah, thought it was a bit odd it wasn't on Crunchyroll

Any of you checked out Undead Unluck yet?

No clue how Morbid Angel got on there.  I don't even remember listening to them this year lol

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

I've been doing Super Mario RPG and Ghost of Tsushima, though the latter is on hold while I blaze through the former.  Currently in Nimbus Land. My Switch just died at work in the middle of the Birdo fight.  Thinking I might be able to have this beat all the way by the end of this week depending on how my free time goes.

I think the main thing that bothered me, from what I remember, is that he supported Ymir's ambition by carrying out the king's will, whom she loved, despite the fact that the king was a manipulative, abusive piece of shit, and it comes off like abuse apologism.  I think there was something about how doing this somehow set her free from that, but it didn't seem like enabling her desire to carry out the king's will was the right way to do that.  What makes that particularly bad is the manga painted it as it was somehow noble and it just made me feel all kinds of ick.  I might have read a fan translation so maybe something was lost/misconstrued there, but it made it a little harder for me to accept the ending as a good one.

Anyway, I'll probably catch up on all the last bit of AoT anime I skipped so far and see if that is the case or if they framed it better.  Still overall love the series.  And am happy with an "Eren did bad things" ending, just didn't really like the framing of it from my read.

I'm assuming they kept the manga ending fully intact?  Because Eren's reason for doing what he did for Ymir is hella fucking yikes.

Martial Master Asumi #21

Loved the color spread for Akane-banashi #86

Really enjoyed the Spy x Family chapter too.

Just read the Dr. Stone special, and it looks like we're getting a continuation!

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 was legit torn because I'm like, "I want the boys to win finally!" but goddamn did they make me just buy all the way into Broken Glass Slipper.