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Do I have to reach a certain stage very quick? I like exploring thoroughly. I might check out the expansion, but I do have a few challenges I haven't even touched?

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Do I have to reach a certain stage very quick? I like exploring thoroughly. I might check out the expansion, but I do have a few challenges I haven't even touched?

 

Yeah, you have to reach and beat Mom's Foot in 20 minutes.  Tough, but not too bad once you get used to it.  I generally prefer taking my time and exploring, but it is a nice change up on some runs to just haul ass and go for it.  Obviously a few characters are much, much, much better for this than others. 

 

Also, did you beat Satan, or Mega-Satan?  Because Mega-Satan is a thing as well now (behind the Golden Doors in heaven/hell).  

 

If you're feeling done with ReBirth, I don't want to encourage you to keep playing because you feel like you need to see everything.  But if you're still digging it, there is just a ton of stuff left to do. 

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How do I trigger Mega-Satan? I've never seen Heaven either, but I guess since I made pacts with the Devil it would make sense to not be able to get there?

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How do I trigger Mega-Satan? I've never seen Heaven either, but I guess since I made pacts with the Devil it would make sense to not be able to get there?

 

I should use the right actual level names instead of just what I say in my head, so it's not confusing.

 

On the devil side, after the Womb you go to Sheol (Satan is boss) and then you go to the Dark Room (accessible after beating Satan 5 times).

 

On the god side, after the Womb you go to the Cathedral, and then you go to the Chest.

 

Both the Dark Room and the Chest each have locked golden doors in them that lead to the final, final boss of Rebirth (both doors go to the same thing, it doesn't matter which you use).  There's a couple of ways to unlock the doors, though I won't spoil that unless you want me to.  

 

Afterbirth adds a new secret final boss, which is another timed thing and is a legitimate pain in the ass, because it requires beating the Womb in less than 30 minutes, which I find very hard to do. I've only done it a couple of times and decided it was too hard to want to keep throwing myself against. 

 

If you're curious about the expansion at all, the favorite thing it added for me was Greed Mode, which is a horde/arena mode focused on fighting rather than exploration.  I enjoyed it as a way to mix things up when I wasn't feeling like taking the time to try and make a full run all the way to the Dark Room or the Chest, as you can generally finish a Greed run quite a bit faster than a full regular run. 

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He's also working on another expansion and some of those items look funnnnnn.

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He's also working on another expansion and some of those items look funnnnnn.

 

I didn't know that!  Neat, new challenges!  I really think that Challenges are one of my favorite things about Isaac, I find it really interesting to be limited in that way without having to force myself to self limit. 

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I really haven't even touched the challenges, do they go all the way up to Mom or even further?

 

I'm also debating on whether to figure out the unlocking on my own or not, the Gumpy surprise wouldn't have been as cool if I had know what was going to happen. 

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Each challenge has a different set end point.  They can be as short as going to Mom's Foot, or as long as going to the Cathedral/Sheol.  I don't think there are any challenges that go all the way to the Chest/Dark Room.

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I just beat Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman, a rogue-like dungeon crawler from the Disgaea people.

 

I never played a Disgaea game, but I know they were grindfests, so I was worried about this game, but I loved it! It has the typical starting over at level 1 and losing everything when you die, but as you progress in the game you can unlock stores in your base like an insurer who you can pay to keep your stuff after dying, for example. 

 

It has unlockable dungeons based on shows like Oreimo and Boogiebop Phantom with tickets you find by "excavating" with your caravan, which you can meet at certain floors.

 

It just seems pretty well balanced, you can set the caravan to rescue you at a certain level if you think you won't make it to the end or you just want to safe and keep the loot.

 

The story has about ten chapters and dungeons with about 10 floors each. Whether you win or lose you will gain a stat boost depending on how many levels you gained.

 

The game gave lots of crazy moments, like falling for a log trap that threw me half over the map into a room filled with sleeping monsters, who awoke the moment I moved, or finding out that not only you can equip the mermaid's tail... you can eat it.

 

The most hilarious moment was wearing a Prinny hat, getting thrown by another moments and die in a horrible explosion for wearing Prinny gear.

 

The game also seems to have several endings, and lots of extra dungeons I'm trying to unlock, but I wonder... Since I'm enjoying Z.H.P. I wonder if this means I'll enjoy Disgaea or Phantom Brave?

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Finished A Link Between Worlds. Maybe best Zelda game? Not time for proper thoughts but I really loved it and think it tweaked the Zelda formula in a few clever ways.

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Finished two short ones recently. 
 

Grow Home was a pretty excellent game to play while in a bad mood. Such a calming experience when you aren't falling to your death. The movement feels surprisingly good for a game where the movement is purposefully awkward. 

Similar but also very different was Journey. Don't really have a whole lot to say about this one other than it was just a beautiful experience. Was especially in awe during that last bit. 

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Finished A Link Between Worlds. Maybe best Zelda game? Not time for proper thoughts but I really loved it and think it tweaked the Zelda formula in a few clever ways.

 

I really loved it to. It was my game of the year whatever year it came out.

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DOOM, it's good, enjoyed it throughout which is saying a lot because I burnt out hard on FPS games years ago.

 

Inside, it's great, looks so good and the sound, man it's be best sound design I've heard in a game in a long time!

 

ABZU, it's alright. Graphics were disappointing despite using the highest setting.

 

Braid, been banging my head against the wall on this one since it came out. I then install it for my 4yo boy because you can rewind if you mess up. I had no intention or hopes of progressing any further but then he goes 'daddy why don't you use that platform to get the piece'. And it worked and he even managed to point me to a few more pieces I was stuck on. Dumbass father? Genius boy? A testament to Johnathon Blow's design skills? Maybe I should pick up The Witness?

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I think I'm going to call Starward Rogue finished, even though I suspect there's still some content, and perhaps even another boss, left (although there's very little information in guides or wikis about the game for me to know for sure).  But I've reached an end, and if it takes multiple more runs to unlock more stuff, I don't really have an interest in doing that.

I started off really lukewarm on Rogue, but I'm glad I gave it another shot.  A bullet hell, sci-fi roguelike is a good idea, and I had a bunch of fun with this one.  My only real complaint is still that it really lacks a feeling of character or progression.  You get nothing, really, for finishing a run (versus clear unlocks or a weird cut-scene, like BoI).  Even if those things are artificial or just flavor, I still ultimately think they do add a good impetus to keep making runs and trying different things.  I think clearly acknowledging the player has finished a run in a roguelike in some way is almost always a good idea. 

If you got this in the Humble Monthly (like I did), I'd certainly suggest giving it a shot though.   :tup:

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I beat DOOM (2016)! It's pretty good. I didn't love it. I still think Destiny (2014) is a much better shooter and here is where I would say something about how they're very different but I don't know that they are? DOOM (2016) sorta just felt like Destiny (2014) sped up %100 with less interesting abilities but more interesting maps. DOOM (2016) is pretty dang good but I would rate it as more of a 4 out of 5 the an OMG WHY ISN'T EVERY SHOOTER LIKE THIS?!?!

 

Also it could be about 2 hours shorter.

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Finished Deus Ex:HR

 

Pacifist run, going stealthy and using non-lethal options along the way. Eventually tried for the "pacifist" achievement, and to my suprise, got it! Tempted to try a a different playthough next time (if there is a next time, damn backlog) since I missed a good chunk of the augments and weaponry on offer.

 

Overall, it did a good job of following the original, although it isn't so heavy on philosophy. I did struggle a bit with the story which seemed to want to say "augmentation is controversial/dangerous" when the gameplay so clearly thinks that augmentations are fucking awesome. The new additions, like the cover system, worked well. The bosses were stupid, but easy to cheese through. On the other hand, that hacking minigame was tense. The city hubs were atmospheric for the most part - did anyone else notice how, no matter where in the world you were, everybody listened to the same conspiracy theorist on the radio?

 

I also did have a good chuckle at the ending:

 

having chosen Taggart's option, theres a line "how bad will their leadership be?" juxtaposed with a picture of Tony Blair... Oh god, I regret everything.

 

Will I get Deus Ex, M.D.? Maybe after a break, I'm all Deus Ex'd out for now. It's a loooong game.

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You Must Build a Boat :tdown:

Too me a long time to finish it. It's quite tedious. It's more about luck than skill. That and grinding.

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Eliminage Gothic

 

Very good jrpg dungeon crawler.

 

+ Lots of inspiration from Wizardry (Town Hub, change classes, classes like Lord, Ninja, Valkyrie).

+ Some unique classes (Shaman, Servant (which is kind like a maid/butler) and Summoner).

+ Amazing Music.

+ Great artwork for sprites.

+ "Events" which are kind like quests you could trigger in certain situations.

+ Instead of a single large dungeon you have small number of them which you visit, each one try to have it own theme and number of floors.

+ Most party combinations appear to work fine, I played most of the time without a mage and alchemist, and it was ok. But once I changed two characters to this classes, the game begin a lot easier.

+ Overall pace is quite fast, it not too combat intense (dungeons have some fixed encounter and random one are rare, also combat don´t last too much).

 

 

- Slight frustrating navigation in some dungeons (specially if you don´t have a mage with the diomende spell (aka teleport)).

- Finding a couple of key items require you to wander around until random chance make you find the said stuff. That said, most time this don´t take that long.

- Some monsters are kind unbalanced and too difficult.

- The graphic for the dungeons itself it quite simple.

- When you level up you could both gain and lose attributes, which might lead to a lot of save scumming.

- When a character dies and is resurrected they grow old one year, there more old they are larger the chance to lose attribute points to level up, to revert this, there very little you could do (either have a alchemist which maybe could create a item which reduce age by one, or have luck to find chest trapped with the "Kissing of the Goddess" which reduce the character age by one).

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I finished the Witcher 3 last night! This is the first RPG I've completed since Final Fantasy 9. Typically what happens is after I spend 15 hours in a game I end up moving on to some other game because I just don't have the attention span anymore. Then when I come back to it a few months later I completely forget how any of the systems work, and have completely forgotten the plot. So I just give up and leave the game behind. But the Witcher 3 actually has a great interface (and the interface kept getting better as the game got patched), and it does a really smart thing by having the loading screen act as a recap of the plot. So the game basically did everything right for someone like me who just kind of sporadically does games.

 

The ending made me feel appropriately bummed about my choices throughout the game because that is definitely a universe where people are just kind of shitty and the best you can hope for is to make things slightly less terrible than they might otherwise be.

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I finished the Witcher 3 last night! This is the first RPG I've completed since Final Fantasy 9. Typically what happens is after I spend 15 hours in a game I end up moving on to some other game because I just don't have the attention span anymore. Then when I come back to it a few months later I completely forget how any of the systems work, and have completely forgotten the plot. So I just give up and leave the game behind. But the Witcher 3 actually has a great interface (and the interface kept getting better as the game got patched), and it does a really smart thing by having the loading screen act as a recap of the plot. So the game basically did everything right for someone like me who just kind of sporadically does games.

The ending made me feel appropriately bummed about my choices throughout the game because that is definitely a universe where people are just kind of shitty and the best you can hope for is to make things slightly less terrible than they might otherwise be.

What you've said about this game accommodating scattered gamers like us is so encouraging, really looking forward to getting the GOTY version down the road some time. I wish more RPGs and games and general behaved this way.

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It took me about 20 years but I finally beat Baldur's Gate.

 

It's still a pretty decent game too. Not as great as everyone thinks it is, like the later Black Isle games, but still worth playing if you can get around the sorta clunky interface and adaptation of the AD&D ruleset. Actually the biggest failing of the game is that the pacing is so hit or miss. There's long chunks of the game where you're just kind of doing boring sidequests so you won't get demolished later on. Whining aside, the writing is still fun and it provides the multiple solutions for quests that you still see in Bioware games today.

 

I'm glad that the expansion for the game was released this year because that was my whole motivation for playing through it. I've started it and it seems pretty solid so far. It's a little weird that an expansion was made using the lessons people have learned from the 20 years of game development that have happened since then but they've done some pretty cool things with the game already and the new story doesn't seem like anything that would offend people that are huge fans of the series since it takes place between BG1 and 2.

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I just beat Legend of Kay Anniversary...  an unremarkable PS2 platformer updated for newer systems. 

 

Well, maybe it is remarkable for having "races" like every PS2 platform game from that, but no frustrating? It's mostly squandered opportunities.

 

I had too much money and nothing to spend it on since I can only carry a few items with me, you get different weapons, but no reason to use them, I'm pretty sure I never needed the claws and the hammer should only be used on the few stone enemies that appear, since it's too slow to work well on anything else.

 

The game has hidden "demon gates", but they don't really seem to serve a purpose except to get a better score since I got every upgrade and never found any of these gates. Speaking of the scoring system it's only purpose is too unlock concept art.

 

The bosses were almost boring except for the final one and in the end, the game neither disappoints or impresses.

 

Come to think of it, the story is terrible, the keep talking about "The Way" their people have forgotten and talking about some magical wells that... never get restored and "The Way" isn't really resotered either. The bad guys speak of the "Din", which is never explained either. And there is also the part of the plot were they insist the volcano is about to blow and bring tragedy, while the game ends in the volcano, nobody mentions it's status at all and forget about the possible eruption.

 

Who cares about "The Way" or the volcano, the bad guys were defeated... although since they planned on betraying each other... Kay, the hero, doesn't even seem to be needed in this story?

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Just finished:

Doom: So incredibly fun. Now all I want to do is shoot things but I don't have any other decent shooters installed. Played switching between Nightmare and Ultra-Violence, thoroughly enjoyed the difficulty curve throughout. Loved searching for and discovering secrets, planning another playthrough to find them all. The weapon mods encouraged me to try many different play styles and gun combos, and rewarded me with interesting new perks. I grew to love using the plasma rifle, firing it wildly to get it to overheat, running into a cluster of weaker enemies, and expelling the stored heat in a wave of explosive force, then scooping up the health powerups. The music was great, the plot and design sense were boring but fun. I can't wait to spend more time in that power fantasy, and I hope they have some DLC planned. 

Never Alone (KIsima Innitchuna): I was very excited about this, and I suppose it fulfilled it's intended purpose. That is, I knew a lot more about Inuit culture and history than I did at first, had greater respect for anyone who lives in that part of the world, and had some cool stories to share. The game was ok. Not too hard, often very easy, often frustrating. Would have been more fun with a co-op partner, as several of the puzzles seem designed with 2 players in mind. It did make me wonder at times if they could have just made a full documentary to accompany as an extra, and a lot of the time I was more interested in the interviews than the game. Still, I finished it, I had fun, I'd recommend it, especially to play with a kid. 

Witcher 3 Main Quest: Goddamn. Of course a lot has been said about this. I loved it, and I was so happy with my decisions. They were not all happy or smart ones, but I tried my best to do what I felt my version of Geralt would have done, and the world really reflected what I was striving for. I got what I wanted, without knowing that it was even a possible ending. I'm a little emotionally wrung out and am going to take a break before starting into Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine. Seconding what a previous poster said about the game's menu and loading screens helping to ease you back in after being away. Also, that slide that Geralt does down steep slow is super cool. Nothing beats slaying a beast on a slope, then skiing downhill against the setting side as he sheathes his sword. Can we have an extreme winter sports game that also has swordfighting? Or just a ski-jedi game set on Hoth?

 Over the course of the game I really came to be most interested in Dijsktra and Avellach. I liked them, I respected them, their honesty in pursuit of their beliefs. I was glad that I was able to help both of them, and my Geralt's arc was after spending the whole game being suspicious of them he came ultimately to cede control in greater affairs to these two. I never trusted anyone, but I felt that their agendas would be for the greater good. Avellach much more than Siggy, obvi.

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided :tup:

That went by quite quickly. For some reason I did not expect the game to end where it did. Even though all signs pointed to an end-game situation I somehow got the idea that this was just the ending of a major mission rather than the whole game.

I played this game pretty much like I played DX:HR. So all skills on hacking early on, finding all possible routes, and non-lethal.

I did not like the branching point in the second act where you pick to either do mission X or mission Y. I played both missions, and X was clearly the more interesting one (and more valuable I guess).

Besides missing out on a single side mission I think I did every thing. There were some really fun side missions. And all the order stuff you could do. So many areas which had absolutely nothing to do with any mission or story element.

 

The Breach game mode is dumb. It forces me to play the game in the way I do not want to play it (i.e. stealth).

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Just finished Obduction :tup:

There sure is a lot of running around and getting stuck because you missed a small thing here or there. But in the end I made it without a walk through. The maze teleportation puzzle was a pain. It wasn't difficult, just really slow in solving it due to all the loading time. And there was this weird alien keypad thingy which I never figured out, just used trial and error until I got the desired effect.

The game world is really gorgeous, except for the cheesy explosion. I really liked the design of the world with the big chains and stuff.

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