2024 Game Clear Thread

[Kong Wen]

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's the annual Game Clear thread for logging all of our wonderful gaming progress, backlog clearing, and goal accomplishment throughout the year. Feel free to post your thoughts and reflections on the games you beat and look back and summarize your gaming achievements as well.

I'll add some links to previous years' clear threads here soon:

[Kong Wen]

Just like I did last year (last year lol, in 2023) I'll be silently making updates to this main post as I beat games, and then doing a monthly round-up in the replies.

2024 PROGRESS

FINISHED:

01-02 - 10 Seconds to Win (Steam)
01-02 - Dogs Organized Neatly (Steam)
01-03 - Microsoft Wordament (Mobile)
01-04 - Cats Organized Neatly (Steam)
03-11 - Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PS5)
08-01 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (PS4 via PS5)
08-05 - Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (PS5)
10-24 - Howl (PS5)
10-26 - Balatro (PS5)

COMPLETE:

01-02 - 10 Seconds to Win (Steam)
01-02 - Dogs Organized Neatly (Steam)
01-03 - Microsoft Wordament (Mobile)
01-04 - Cats Organized Neatly (Steam)
08-01 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (PS4 via PS5)
10-24 - Howl (PS5)

MASTERED:

08-01 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (PS4 via PS5) - Red Mage Rampage

PLATINUM:

08-01 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (PS4 via PS5)
10-24 - Howl (PS5)

PROGRESS   2020   2021   2022   2023   2024
Finished     10      2     10     39      9
Complete      3      1      8     33      6
Mastered      1      1      1      2      1
Platinum      2      0      2      9      2

PREVIOUS   2010   2011   2012   2013   2014   2015   2016   2017   2018   2019
Finished     36     59     57     96     58      7     14     17     17     11
Complete     12     27     27     46     28      7     10      9     11     10
Mastered      1      0      1      3      2      1      0      4      2      1
Platinum      5      3      2     13      8      3      4      5      5      4

2024-10-26 - Balatro (PS5) - I guess this is technically beat, since I've cleared the goal ante with like 6 decks now, but there's a long road before completion. A fun, snappy little fake-roguelite-like slash deck-builder, quick runs, takes quite a bit of RNG to get a good engine off the ground, but it's perfect for mindless play while doing something else. And it cost me $0 (thanks, PlayStation Stars that I forgot I had been accruing for 2 years!)

2024-10-24 - Howl (PS5) - Excellent little turn-based puzzle game. Picked it up on sale for $7.50 CAD and finished it in 7.5 hours, for a cool $1/hr of entertainment value. Every time you act, the enemies act. You have to use your skills and enemy positioning to clear levels and accomplish feats (defeat all enemies, reach the goal within a certain number of turns, etc.). It has a nice aesthetic, but the plot is ultimately secondary to the puzzles.

2024-08-01 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (PS4 via PS5) - Completed my Red Mage Rampage all-RDM autobattle-only (except Chaos) challenge run. Fun little remaster, but astonishingly easier and quicker/shorter than the original. That's fine. The music was the highlight!

2024-03-11 - Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PS5) - Finally finished this expansion off! It was a diversion from what I think is the main story of FFXIV, but I guess that's to be expected in an MMO every once in a while.

2024-01-04 - Cats Organized Neatly (Steam) - They were a bundle lol

2024-01-03 - Microsoft Wordament (Mobile) - This is kind of an endless game, so I'm going to count 1000G achievements as having completed the primary objectives. Fun Bogglevania, great for keep the brain active and make sleepy at night.

2024-01-02 - Dogs Organized Neatly (Steam) - My hope was that this game would be a mindless block shuffler that I could play while Mrs. Kong had a documentary on in the background, or while falling asleep, etc... and it absolutely was that! It would have felt more fleshed out if each dog had their own bark. And if there had been a Doberman. Alas.

2024-01-02 - 10 Seconds to Win (Steam) - The title piqued my interest because I like fast-twitch platforming, especially for a buck. In hindsight, the price should have tipped me off that this was shovelware. Some of the stages were indeed a little tricky, but overall they were not really cleverly designed, just rehashes of some of the shorter and simpler Super Meat Boy set pieces. Well... cheap and easy and fast, so at least it was no great loss of money or time.


To avoid clutter, I'll keep my mini-summaries/pseudo-reviews in my monthly update summary posts:
January // February // March // April // May // June // July // August // September // October // November // December

[Claytone]

Beaten:
01/02 - Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5)
01/05 - Fighting Vipers 2 (PS5 [Arcade])

Knocked out a couple things out the gate. First a fairly long game whose final moments I wrapped up just after the new year, then a tiny arcade fighter I beat in one sitting. Hopefully I'm back here soon having finished Like a Dragon Gaiden, whereupon I will finally be fully caught up on the series for a few fleeting days.

Completed:
None

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0024 - 0041 - 0034 - 0022 - 0025 - 0014 - 0019 - 0025 - 0038 - 0060 - 0042 - 0038 - 0002
Complete - 0000 - 0004 - 0005 - 0001 - 0002 - 0001 - 0002 - 0002 - 0006 - 0006 - 0005 - 0006 - 0000
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

[Claytone]

Beaten:
01/02 - Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5)
01/05 - Fighting Vipers 2 (PS5 [Arcade])
01/12 - Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)

Staying current on the blog for once. Really great, smaller game from RGG Studio that lets us know what Kiryu was up to during the events of LAD7. Can't wait for Like a Dragon 8 next week, but I'll enjoy being caught up on this series for the brief period of time that I am!

Completed:
None

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0024 - 0041 - 0034 - 0022 - 0025 - 0014 - 0019 - 0025 - 0038 - 0060 - 0042 - 0038 - 0003
Complete - 0000 - 0004 - 0005 - 0001 - 0002 - 0001 - 0002 - 0002 - 0006 - 0006 - 0005 - 0006 - 0000
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

[The Shoemaker]

Finished:
Jan 18. Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp (AW1 - Switch)

First game of the year, finished up the first Advance Wars on the switch remake. I had only played an AW game on the DS once but never made it very far. I had a lot of fun with this one! Actually quite a bit longer than I expected. Story is pretty throwaway, but it's nice to have a game to play that's no nonsense, straight gameplay.

[Kong Wen]

Finished:
Jan 18. Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp (AW1 - Switch)

First game of the year, finished up the first Advance Wars on the switch remake. I had only played an AW game on the DS once but never made it very far. I had a lot of fun with this one! Actually quite a bit longer than I expected. Story is pretty throwaway, but it's nice to have a game to play that's no nonsense, straight gameplay.

Yes! I was wondering when we were going to hear from someone who had played these! Overall enjoyable for someone who has Fire Emblem experience?

[The Shoemaker]

Finished:
Jan 18. Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp (AW1 - Switch)

First game of the year, finished up the first Advance Wars on the switch remake. I had only played an AW game on the DS once but never made it very far. I had a lot of fun with this one! Actually quite a bit longer than I expected. Story is pretty throwaway, but it's nice to have a game to play that's no nonsense, straight gameplay.

Yes! I was wondering when we were going to hear from someone who had played these! Overall enjoyable for someone who has Fire Emblem experience?

Oh yeah definitely enjoyable. The game has a unique set of rules which makes for a pretty different experience than Fire Emblem. I found the classic mode to be tough but fair. Great music and presentation throughout. Story is just an excuse to get from one chapter to another, but the characters are fun.

I picked the game up for 50% off at gamestop about 2 weeks ago so I thought that was a pretty good deal. Took me 22 hours to finish just the first game.

[The Shoemaker]

Finished:
Jan 18. Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp (AW1 - Switch)
Jan 21. Bayonetta 3 (Switch)

Bayonetta 3 was awesome, just like the last couple games. Ridiculous over the top action and cheese in the best way. Lots of gameplay variety in this one between different characters, weapon types and side modes. I found it a bit long in the tooth at times, but it all came together really nicely and closed out the trilogy in a way I wasn't expecting.

[Sharecrow]

Got my first beat of the year in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. Best dungeon crawler I’ve ever played. Just fantastic. Difficult, but fair.

+ Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Steam)

2024 total games beaten = 1 (1 new)
2023 total games beaten = 23 (19 new)
2022 total games beaten = 35 (26 new)
2021 total games beaten = 18 (12 new)
2020 total games beaten = 26 (16 new)
2019 total games beaten = 28 (20 new)
2018 total games beaten = 29 (16 new)
2017 total games beaten = 25 (22 new)
2016 total games beaten = 38 (21 new)
2015 total games beaten = 25
2014 total games beaten = 35
2013 total games beaten = 17
2012 total games beaten = 37
2011 total games beaten = 35

[The Shoemaker]

Finished:
Jan 18. Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp (AW1 - Switch)
Jan 21. Bayonetta 3 (Switch)
Feb 04. Cocoon (XSX)


Cocoon is a great little puzzle adventure game. The puzzles slowly expand in complexity at a very good pace. Had me scratching my brain a few times.