2021 Game Clear Thread

[Kong Wen]

2021 PROGRESS

FINISHED:

01-05 - Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)
01-19 - Picross S5 (Switch)

COMPLETE:

02-24 - Picross S5 (Switch)

MASTERED:

02-24 - Picross S5 (Switch)

PLATINUM:

PROGRESS   2020   2021
Finished     10      2
Complete      3      1
Mastered      1      1
Platinum      2      0

[Claytone]

Beaten:
1/1 - Tetris Effect (PS4)
1/5 - Yakuza 3 Remastered (PS4 [PS3])

Two quick beats early this year! Tetris Effect was a game I'd been very close to beating for ages but never polished off. Finally did! Tried to squeeze it in to 2020 to get one last beat, but I ended up finishing it at about 12:30AM Jan 1.

Meanwhile, with my remaining vacation, I put a lot of time into Yakuza 3 Remastered, which I really enjoyed. Given how much this formula works for me, I kind of get the appeal of some of the annualized games I so bemoan like AssCreed. Yakuza 3 makes some interesting changes to Kiryu's life that mix things up to good effect. Good game! I'm sure I'll enjoy Yakuzas 4 and 5 when I get to them. I think I might move back to Dragon Quest IV next. I've beaten 4 Yakuzas now, so I gotta get back to the other series I really took a shine to last year!

Tetris blog post
Yakuza blog post

Completed:

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

[kitroplious]

Finished:

1.4 — Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch)

—————

A couple of bosses that were annoying but generally progressed through the story without much trouble. The quests and the forging though were difficult for me. On the post game right now but might go to another game after spending so much time on it lately, in celebration of the PS4 and XB1 release of the definitive edition.

[Kong Wen]

Alright, last night I beat Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4), which means I should be on pace to beat last year's excellent record and maybe do one game per month.

This game is very Square Enix, characterized by inconsistent highs and lows. It does some things great, but it executes other things poorly, and it has a great central concept, which it also squanders. I was holding out hope for it throughout the whole game—at the ending, they had the opportunity to do something startlingly different, but instead they opted to give us a nonsensical 2-hour animu cutscene while remaining as vague as possible about the whole Remake concept—you know, the thing in the title.

The battle system, which was one of my worries going into this game, based on the past few entries in the series, was actually executed fairly well. The system itself, anyway. As a stand-alone thing. It just wasn't nestled into the game very neatly.

This is where the game's excessive padding is really unforgivable. They worked so hard to pad this game out to 40 hours that they added unnecessary cutscenes with prattle that doesn't advance the story, slow-walks down narrow corridors when they could have added... content?... instead. For example, the stagger system: each enemy has different requirements for how to stagger them. Pretty good. But instead of being consistent and systematic, it seems like they just tossed every random mechanic they could think of in, once. New weird enemy? Uh... hit it while walking backwards to stagger! Yeah, that makes sense, then never even think about that again. New weird enemy!? Uh... hit it while listening to Mariah Carey on your console's Spotify app. There's a Materia that lets you learn & mimic enemy skills, but you can only learn 3 enemy skills in the whole game (4 if you count the post-game). There's a whole Materia and skill-learning mechanic for 3-4 skills. WTF?!

Much more to say about this one, but this isn't the place.

[SkyPikachu]

2021 PROGRESS

FINISHED:
09-Jan - Pikmin 3 Deluxe (Switch)
25-Feb - Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (PS4)
29-Mar - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)
04-Apr - Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure (Switch)
09-Apr - Unravel 2 (Switch)
28-Apr - Yooka Laylee (PS4)
28-Apr - Pokemon X (3DS)
14-May - Hey! Pikmin (3DS)
15-May - Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
17-May - ABZU (PS4)
04-Jun - Dragon Ball Origins (DS)
12-Jun - Hollow Knight (Switch)
21-Jun - Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
13-Jul - Final Fantasy X HD (PS4)
14-Jul - Digimon Cyber Sleuth (Vita/PS4)
19-Jul - Pokemon SoulSilver (DS)
21-Jul - The Last of Us Remastered (PS4)
28-Jul - The Last of Us Remastered - Left Behind (PS4)
28-Jul - Scribblenauts (DS)
04-Aug - Spyro the Dragon (PSone Classic)
10-Aug - Super Mario 3D All-Stars: Super Mario 64 (Switch)
16-Aug - The Witness (PS4)
23-Aug - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch)
02-Sep - Dragon Quest Builders (PS4)
06-Sep - Yoku's Island Express (Epic)
21-Nov - Celeste (Steam)
15-Dec - Balan Wonderworld (PS4)
19-Dec - Pokemon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)

COMPLETE:
30-Mar - Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)
06-Apr - Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure (Switch)
14-May - Hey! Pikmin (3DS)
04-Aug - Spyro the Dragon (PSone Classic)
11-Aug - Super Mario 3D All-Stars: Super Mario 64 (Switch)
23-Aug - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch)


———————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2021 - 2020
———————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0028 - 0023
Complete - 0006 - 0006
———————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016 - 2015
———————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0030 - 0049 - 0021 - 0009 - 0013
Complete - 0005 - 0007 - 0002 - 0001 - 0004
———————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010
———————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0008 - 0012 - 0020 - 0025 - ????
Complete - 0003 - 0002 - 0005 - 0004 - ????
———————————————————————————————————————————

[Claytone]

Beaten:
1/1 - Tetris Effect (PS4)
1/5 - Yakuza 3 Remastered (PS4 [PS3])
1/15 - Altered Beast (Genesis Mini)

Impulse bought the Genesis Mini at long last, as my mind has been on the Genesis lately. Never had beaten Altered Beast before, so I decided to finally make an honest effort to knock it out. It's extremely primitive and kinda bad, but I still enjoyed it.

Been playing the Genesis Mega Man ports too, so those may make an appearance on here before long.

Blog post

Completed:

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

[Kong Wen]

Alright, last night I beat Picross S5 (Switch), which means I'm already 20% of the way through 2020's total and the first month of the year isn't over yet. I don't know why people think of January as the Monday of the year—it's still part of the holidays for me, and it's also my birthmonth! I love January! It's also the month when we usually start getting our first taste of winter after a long wet autumn, which is glorious.

Anyway, standard-mode Picross is a beat for this one. As with every other Picross game, I'll continue playing this when I need to unwind of an evening, chipping away at the different modes (my favourite Mega Picross, and the newly-improved with colour-blindness sensitive options Colour Picross). Good games.

[Claytone]

Beaten:
1/1 - Tetris Effect (PS4)
1/5 - Yakuza 3 Remastered (PS4 [PS3])
1/15 - Altered Beast (Genesis Mini)
1/23 - Beyond Oasis (Genesis Mini)

Another one knocked out on the baby Genesis. Really liked this one. Combat feels good and is a bit more nuanced than the Zelda games that so clearly inspired it. Really pretty game too. Maybe my favorite thing about it was that I knocked it out in about 5h30m. Just enough time for the game to get its hooks in you but not so long that it overstays its welcome. Nice break from the lengthier DQ and Yakuza games I've been playing the past few months (with that said, it's probably time to get back to beating Dragon Quest IV!). I think I'll try to grab the Saturn sequel, but it's awfully expensive on eBay. That said, I am by no means above buying a repro disc.

Blog post

Completed:

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

[Sharecrow]

+ Dead Space 3 (PS3)

2021 total games beaten = 1 (0 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

[Claytone]

Beaten:
1/1 - Tetris Effect (PS4)
1/5 - Yakuza 3 Remastered (PS4 [PS3])
1/15 - Altered Beast (Genesis Mini)
1/23 - Beyond Oasis (Genesis Mini)
1/25 - Sexy Parodius (Saturn)

Busted the Saturn back out because I may be looking at modding it sometime soon, and I decided to revisit Sexy Parodius, a game I bought a few years ago but never really played. Wow it rules! Complete whiff that I didn't try this at the time I bought it. It's a totally insane casual shmup that I was happy to credit feed my way to the end of on easy. I didn't complete many of the mission requirements, though, and I know this game has branching paths, so I'm definitely gonna look at replaying it. Very glad I tried this out again on a whim.

Blog post

Completed:

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