#Runi's Gamelog 2024

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #42 Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit

I was originally going to play this via the fan translation back in June but then the shitty ds flash card I was using was being temperamental (wouldn't load the game when I was using my DSi which is my preferred og ds model and when using my 3DS instead would sometimes crash when saving) so eventually got a flash card that actually works and was about to try it again only for the Investigations Collection to be annouced. Let's call it divine intervention, so I decided to wait again for the collection to release... and then the day that it came out I got covid and couldn't go grab my copy from the store... but have it now and have played through it and that's all that matters

This is the final Ace Attorney I had yet to play, it's probably been close to ten years since I first played Phoenix Wright 1 which is kinda crazy to think about. I'll admit I don't really remember much of the first Investigations other than kind of feeling a little underwhelmed by it. That is very much not the case here! Miles goes through a pretty big character arc in this game and the plot of every case ties into that arc really well. I was surprised how continuity heavy this one was too, alot of very surprising old faces show up, and i gotta admit I though I was 3 steps ahead of everyone in the game for every case but that big final twist got me good. Just a fantastic game!

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #29 Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

I played this because I played it's recently released prequel Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince back at the end of June and I wanted to see how the two games flowed as a pair as someone who had no prior experience with IV, and honestly I'm really glad I did play them in this way I think it added a lot to this playthrough for me. Like if I played this without Dark Prince I probably wouldn't have thought much of Psaro but every time he was one screen I was like "that's the boy!!!"

It also makes me appreciate The Dark Prince more in retrospect i had assumed there were some stuff conveniently being skipped over for the sake of making Psaro more likable or just keeping the plot less messy, especially towards the end of game during the moments before the "spilt" happens but no, Psaro is genuinely pretty separated from heroes the entire game. It honest crazy how ripe he was for a game from his POV.

I played the DS remake with an patch that restores the party chat to the English version by injecting the mobile version script back into the ROM, I guess when Square Enix first localized this on the DS they wanted to save some money so they removed the ability to talk to your party member but added it back in when they did the IOS version. I'm glad I played it with the patch, it honestly surprised me how much dialogue the party members had, just talking to any random NPC usually added a unique conversation it was pretty neat and it gives the game and it's party member a lot more flavor and personality.

you can get the patch here-> https://github.com/scbroede/dq4-partychat-patcher

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #39 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

This game is delightful, I'm not sure if I'm in love with it as much as other people seem to be since I think there's i have a problem where there's a part of my brain where when I managed solve a puzzle that I don't think I really understood properly I still feel frustrated, even though the entire point of the game IS to find your own solution. It's a mental roadblock that I think if I ever replayed the game I'd probably get over that feeling, especially since I've listened to some discussion about the game and heard a lot of similar "im not sure that's what I was meant to do" so i know its not just me being the biggest idiot in the world lol.

Other then that, the only other really criticism I have is the stuff everyone has with the game's performance and UI. I will say that like the original Link's Awakening remake on switch the performance is only really noticeable when you first start playing and then it fades to the back of mind quickly once you get used to it. not ideal but this is far from the worst performance I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing from a game.

Everything else from the story to general gameplay I had a great time with. I love that the Diorama style from the Link's Awakening remake gets to be flexed with an original title & that Zelda finally gets lead her own game! It's all very cool stuff and I hope that Grezzo gets stick around now to continue doing their own stuff and not just remakes.

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #37 Gravity Rush Remastered

Astro Bot had me wanting to play some PlayStation stuff in my backlog, this is probably like my third attempt to actual sit down and play this, as when i first tired too on my ps4... I learned that all my Dualshock 4's all had severe deadzone issues... which was fun. then the second time my friend wanted to borrow my PS5 for Spider-Man 2 and FFVII Rebirth which was fine it just pushed this back.

Until now! and yeah I enjoyed it! I love the Magical Girl/Steampunk/Comic Book aesthetic that the game has and changing gravity as a movement ability is incredibly cool. though i will say combat did still feel a bit repetitive... It's at its best when your bouncing between enemies, changing gravity on the fly but some enemies break that flow and making you play a waiting game and early on so enemies can feel a bit spongey though that is less of a issue later in game when the gravity kick is maxed out.

Still a solid time though, I'm excited to check out the second game at some point and see what changes and where this world goes from here.

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #35 Astro Bot

I was a really big fan of Astro Playroom the free pre-installed game for PS5 that's a celebration of the PlayStation's history through the lens of a very solid platformer, so when this was announced I was excited to see what a full game worth of Astro could be and man this did not disappoint.

It's very easy to write this off by just looking at it as a glorified commercial, which isn't inaccurate (it made me remember there's a ton of PlayStation titles I wanna clear off my backlog so it definitely did it's job in that department) but this is honestly a really incredible platformer in it's own right and it'll genuinely remind you why video games are great. I hope Team Asobi will get to conutine making titles like this because it feels the type of games Sony really needs again.

Bonus point I can play as a Sly Cooper Bot 10/10

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #33 Gravity Circuit

I unfortunately have covid right now, a very mild case mind you but nonetheless all my plans i had for this weekend have crumbled. it does give me the opportunity to mess around with some games in my steam backlog in between all the episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura that i've been watching. Most of the stuff I've been trying out isn't really worth doing a write up on it's on yet, I played a couple levels of Wolfenstein 3D which gave me the worst motion sickness i've ever gotten from a video game for some reason, I beat Twinkle Star Sprites which is a neat little game but I don't really have much to say about it other then: "game fun" and then there's Gravity Circuit, which damn this game rules.

A Mega Man style platformer that can honestly hang with the best of the X or Zero series. fast paced, challenging but fair, great music and most of all just fun. I will say i've never been good at the grappling hook from the Zero Series games and that remains very much true with this game's version of it haha,

If your a fan of these kinds of games definitely give it a try.

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #44 Sonic X Shadow Generations

We're so back yall, Shadow The Hedgehog (2005) was the first Sonic game I owned, so i have soft spot for that stupid game. So the fact that we basically got a sequel to it is kind of surreal. I do wish there was a clear Shadow (2005) Stage representation, I think that the Ark is suppose to be that because it's uses a Final Rush remix like the Ark does in that but y'know that's kind of cheating. I would've loved Lava Shelter, Black Comet, Digital Circuit, Gun Fortress, Glyphic Canyon- any of them really but other then that I repeat, We're So Back!

The levels that ARE there are so damn good man! I just think it's feels like it's missing just one more zone to round it out. Sonic Generations is here too and yeah it's still Sonic Generations, I wish the texture pop in was fixed here but it's still one of the best Sonic games, just a great package overall. I'm so excited for that movie level!

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #43 Mega Man: The Sequel Wars - Episode Red

A fan remake of the rest of the NES Mega Man games that were not remade for The Wily Wars (4-6) in the style of those Wily War Remakes, Currently Episode Red which is the Mega Man 4 one is the only one public released so far and adds a bunch of extra features on top of being a genesis remake, like the ability to play as Proto Man and Roll. I did two playthroughs, one with Mega Man and one with Roll

I had a pretty good time! Everything looks and sounds nice, there were a couple of tight jumps that ... felt a little off for me? I haven't played the NES version of 4 in a very long time so I can't really say why or maybe the bigger sprites of the Genesis were throwing me off... or maybe I'm just bad idk that's probably it.

I loved playing as Roll, she kind of cracked in this game! I love that she has Tango from Mega Man V on the Gameboy as her version of Rush and she can tear through bosses really quickly with her broom which is fun. That said I only realized she had a Charge Shot in the very last room of the game, knowing that would've probably made Ring Man's stage a little easier with her 😅

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #41 Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Trunks: Warrior of Hope

Dragon Ball Daima and seeing all the Sparking Zero posts across various social medias had me in a Dragon Ball mood and since I don't really want to pay full price for Sparking Zero, I decide to pop this game in to satiate my desire to play a dragon ball game. I really only bought this game (for cheap!) because the Trunks DLC intrigued me and so since I wasn't too interested in doing the whole Raditz to Buu thing that is the only part I played (aside the tutorial).

And it's tricky for me to evaluate this because all the expanded History of Trunks story stuff that drew me to wanting to play the DLC in the first place... is all really good! From the added bonding moments between Trunks and Gohan, the side stories that flesh out this world's few surviving cast members and being able to play Future Trunk's version of the Buu Saga is all really neat stuff.... I just don't know if really like actually playing it... The combat and gameplay loop just doesn't really do it for me, so I don't think i'll be itching to pop this in again to playthrough the main game unfortunately but hey, one thing for sure CyberConnect sure does know how to make a flashy cutscene!

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #40 Mister Mosquito

When I first got my PS2 like damn near 15 years ago or something this was one of the games I got with it... not sure if it was a great idea to give this to a 8 year old considering some of the game's content but it undoubtable why I'm the freak I am today! Still have my copy though I wasn't the most kind to it... it's pretty scratched up seems to be a 50/50 shot on whether it wants to load and I'm not sure that it would hold up for a full playthrough, luckily against all odds this game was somehow added for PlayStation classics.

Here in Mister Mosquito you control the aforementioned Mister Mosquito as you absolutely torment the Yamada family with the hope of sucking enough blood to survive the winter. It's a very memorable game for sure, though some of that is down to how uncomfortable the game can admittedly be for some people, with it's premise that can definitely feel a little voyeuristic (in some levels a lot voyeuristic) it's eerie early ps2 models and animation and it's claustrophobic cutscene presentation. I get why not everyone will jibe with it, hell even for me a lot of my enthusiasm for this game was dampened by Stage 11 which features maybe the most unclear and unfair boss fight I've genuinely ever seen.

Still I think it is worth a look for the curious because whether you love it or hate it... you'll probably never forget it even with it's short runtime.

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #38 Teenage Mutant Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

Played this with a friend and damn this is so damn delightful to play, it takes everything great about the old Konami brawlers and expands and improves on them in a really great way. I can't wait to boot this up again for another round with a different group.

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #32 Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge

Decided there was no better time to mark this off my list, It's interesting but i'm not really a fan of auto-battlers and I don't really think this is all too great of one anyway. I did use the chip control rom hack to help make this a little more palatable to me, which I do get you can make the argument I didn't actual play the game properly which is fair, I do know there are defenders of this game but personally it was probably the only way I was gonna get through this.

I only did Mayl and Roll's story but i watched the rest of the stories on youtube and while the story themselves aren't ground breaking or anything the characterization and localization is pretty good, especially coming directly after playing BN4 it just a little dull for me to want to do more then one playthrough.

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #31 Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun

This is one of the games on my "play every Mega Man marathon" that I was super afraid of doing, whenever talking online about Battle Network or what the worst Mega Man game is this game is always inevitably brought up. and? I do get it, this is very frustrating game design-wise and the botched translations doesn't help but... I don't think it's irredeemable, there's plenty of stuff added in this that I love it's just buried under an endless pile of fetch quests.

First off, since I grew up with one of the later half games I was happy to see the new art style and portraits, I do understand why not everyone jives with the smaller redesigned ACDC but whenever I had to go to Higsby's I'd always instinctively go to the wrong side of town, this version of the town is just the one burned into my brain.

Also Soul Unions! Which are probably my favorite battle gimmicks in the series, their so cool! I just wish that what souls you got over a playthrough wasn't so random because I picked Red Sun over Blue Moon because it had Roll Soul which I wanted to mess around with but wasn't lucky enough to get that. I got Guts->Wind->Search. GutsSoul is kind of boring, WindSoul is a fun build around and SearchSoul is the main soul I used for the rest of the game

also emotions, I like the emotion system.

Other than that though it's a pretty hard game to defend, there are just way too many tedious design decisions that make playing this a slog but y'know as someone who grew up watching a bunch of hobby anime I always liked that the BN games felt like a hobbyani simulator and the fact that this game's story is almost entirely made up of actual filler esc plots is kind of perfect in that way. it's not a masterpiece, it is probably my least favorite game in the BN series so far but the battle system is so solid that it'll still do just fine in a pinch

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #30 Sonic Battle

This was actually one of the first games I ever emulated as a kid, never got past the first Knuckles fight how ever so I wanted to finally actually playthrough this given Emerl's appearance in the upcoming Shadow Dark Beginnings shorts and potentially in Shadow Generations and boy I tend to not really vibe with arena fighters but this was genuinely miserable to play through, There's so many times in the story where it's like "KO 5 times" and then immediately after they go "do the exact fight again but KO 10 Times" or the game will throw you into a 1 v 3 fight like "have fun getting railed by these Gamma bots they kill you in one combo loop and you have to do multiple loops to kill <3"

I do like Emerl, seeing them grow and take up mannerism of the other characters is fun and mechanically their customization system is actually really cool to mess with. The 3D arenas are really impressive for the GBA and the sprites are clean, this is far from my favorite sonic story but atleast the characterization is mostly solid (this game gives us official Rouge and Shadow GBA sprites which is cool since they skipped out the Advance games) but when the actual gameplay is so dull and frustrating it's hard to appreciate any of it

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #28 Sonic Forces Overclocked

I bought Sonic Forces on PC during the sale purely because I wanted to check out this mod and man, this is such an impressive mod. Basically a full overhaul of Forces with an original story that serves as a bit of an epilogue to the original game. Cutscene are told out through comics panel and a pretty solid voice cast!

I do have minor grip is that while boosting with sonic it's sometimes hard for me to see what exactly going on with all the camera panning up and down on slops and sharp 90 turns, idk but these stages are such an improving from base Forces, They're actual levels! With actual set pieces! not just straight lines that last for 40 seconds.

Lastly uh I made an avatar not thinking about the fact the 2D cutscene would obviously just use the default avatar so I'll just force everyone else to look at her. Let's name her... Kotone the Rabbit, she a magical girl that transforms to fight the forces of Eggman armies!

The actual last thing I want to say is it's been a rough week for everyone but with a certain Sonic voice actor shoving his foot in his month on Twitter I want to end off by reminding everyone that from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #27 Sonic Advance

(there's no good long banner I can use, here's a giant PNG of Sonic)

So this is (ironically) the last of the Advance games that I had yet to play and beat (due to it just being the order I found & bought them I went 2,3,1) it's also Dimps first Sonic game, I've been on record on how I think the Dimps games- even the most beloved ones have some really frustrating design. So many bottomless pits, and cheap enemies and trap placements that knock you into those bottomless pits, heck in this game if you hit certain springs and ramps the wrong way they'll just toss you into hazards, like my bad king, sorry for the crime of existing.

But the Dimps games have a lot of style to them also, especially in early years and all that style starts here, I mean the sprite work here is pretty iconic and the vibes are pretty great, and the early game levels are pretty fun though I think they're still trying to figure out the physics here because the way momentum acts on slopes can be a bit janky and springs and rails don't always work how you'd think they would, but it's fine for the most part

.... until the end game starts to hit, Egg Rocket Zone might be my least favourite Sonic Zone in the series, by my fourth play through I knew the path and could get through it just fine but there are so many ways to launch yourself off or the path with split left and right and if you go right the boost pad will send you back to where you've already been. It's a pain the first time through.

This game also has special stages, and they're also my least favourite special stages in the series, they're pretty similar to the half pipe stage in sonic 2 just more complicated, but it is genuinely for me at least so hard to gauge the perspective of where I am in relation to were the rings are, I eventually got it but only after hours of agonizing trial and error, and even after I figure that out I still had to spend like an hour each (sometimes more) on trial and erroring each emerald, and for what? An extremely nothing Super Sonic fight that ends in 20 seconds?????

I guess the last thing that I want to talk about it this game's most hated playable character, Amy and she's.... fine, you hear about player's complaining about how bad she is so much that the devs put her behind an extremely hard to unlock wall in Advance 2, and it makes you think that she this completely unplayable character but she really not that bad, the stages are absolutely not built with her in mind, but she can still get through them alright. Some routes are harder for her as she can't build her own momentum with a spin-dash, but I honestly didn't have too much issue with beating all the stages with her. Her not being able to curl into a ball with a down press messes with my muscle memory though.