Street Fighter II (Game Boy, 1995)

 

I'm reading that this version only contains six of the original eight fighters. Much like the portable versions of Mortal Kombat, someone had to get the axe. Who would they pick? Normally I'd guess Blanka and Dhalsim; The latter would probably be harder to program than the other characters due to his long reach, while the former never struck me as a particularly popular character. I've never heard anyone talk about how much they love Blanka, or seen anyone playing as Blanka. ...he's on the box, though, so it was probably E-Honda and Dhalsim that got dropped due to their unconventional proportions. Well, let's find out.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Part 3 - Club Vandermon

 

Today on Pokémon Legends Z-A, Cataluna gets dragged into more of this Poké-battling nonsense, as I begin to wonder if anyone actually goes to college in this universe. Is she never going to start the European Sex Tour with her new best friend Lida? It was supposed to be their journey of self-discovery, ending in Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen.

Dragon Quest VII? There is no Dragon Quest VII.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Part 2 - The Quest For Shoes

 

Previously on Pokémon Legends: Z-A...our protagonist Cataluna had to cancel her planned European Sex Tour to instead be a looker for the Looker Bureau. Apparently you gotta look pretty good to be a looker and solve detective cases. All of that said, the main mystery for me to solve in this game is finding some damn decent shoes.

Dragon Quest VII is on my desk, we're reviewing it right now, it's pretty shocking stuff.

Romancing SaGa 2 Remake (Multiple, 2024), Part 1 - The Lion and the Sun

 

This is a really, really good remake. Wow. I think it flew under the radar to an extent. I really enjoyed playing the original version of this game and it's obscure enough that I'm surprised to see it remade. This is a bit of a hidden gem in the Squaresoft library, and the original RS2 is probably the best out of all the SaGa games outside of maybe SaGa Frontier. This series is very spotty, very hit-or-miss. Looking forward to seeing if this remake surges out ahead of Frontier to become the new SaGa best-in-series.

Rather than being HD-2D, they gave this one a full 3D makeover. It's different from most 3D remakes though, with a very distinct visual style that prioritizes light effects and really nice environments over framerate. On Switch you're stuck at 30 FPS or so, but damn, the visuals in this game sure do have a lot of personality regardless. I tried the PS5 version and that's at 60 FPS, presumably Switch 2 is also pulling that off. The visuals are so distinctive and classy that I didn't even particularly mind when it was 30. Anyway, I'm not going to cover this game for real until/unless I wrap up the SaGa series, but I'm down to check out the demo now and I might as well post it rather than leaving it for later.

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#596 - 621)

 

#596 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (Playstation 4) – Fall 2015

This impossibly-hot character isn't from the game and has nothing to do with the game. It's just a reminder of how cool it'd be to have ever gotten a female version of Ezio, a female assassin main character who is just absolutely gorgeous and formidable. Not very subtle, but still, the outfit can be explained by her working in a cabaret or as a dancer/woman of the night in order to get closer to a target she's hellbent on felling, before being handpicked to join the Assassin Order.

I mention all of this because Assassin's Creed: Syndicate... is the first main-series, console AC game to actually give us a female protagonist! We waited a long time to get a female protagonist in this series, watching absolute lay-up Elise de la Serre get passed over as playable in AC Unity.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A (Switch 2, 2025), Part 1 - Eurotrip and the Looker Bureau

 

I interrupt this DQ-palooza to briefly check out the latest Pokémon game. I wasn't crazy about Arceus, while lots of others were. Last I checked, this game isn't exactly getting rave reviews, so maybe I'll conversely really like it. They took the bold step of making this a real-time hybrid action game (with dodge rolls, for some reason, cause everybody wants to be a Soulslike now).

This game takes place entirely in the hub city from Generation 6's Kalos. It's an interesting idea that I'm not sure really pans out. At least they're trying new things with the Legends games; Arceus introduced some open world concepts that were then heavily-refined by the Generation 9 games (IMO Gen 9 is waaaay better than Arceus specifically because it takes what worked and makes it much more appealing... sorry the framerate is bad and whatnot, but Gen 9 otherwise worked).

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Part 9 (Epilogue Final) - Father and Son

 

DQIII's postgame was too much for one post, so here's the back half. Will Erdrick get closure with the loss of his dad? What will the final postgame superboss be? Will I get the platinum trophy? Will I ever move on to Dragon Quest VII? Tune in to find out.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Part 8 (Epilogue) - Rainbow Push

 

The Dragon Quest III HD-2D posts were over a year ago, but I'm going to go ahead and add to the stack. That's right, I've been revisiting DQIII to do the platinum trophy and (hopefully) dominate the endgame that gave me quite a bit of grief the first time.

Have a score to settle with King Hydra, and a wrong to put right for Ortega.

Dragon Quest II HD-2D, Part 13 (Finale) - You Are Beautiful On The Inside

 

Today on the final post of Dragon Quest II (ever), I must Rock The Dragon.

Dragon Quest II HD-2D, Part 12 - Surrounded By Demons, I Fight

Next stop, I go and get all the Ultimate Key chests. The undersea world doesn't have much in it, but it does have these store-rooms with Ultimate Key chests and optional semi-bosses.

The Best And Worst Thing In Each Yakuza Game

 

This will include the Yakuza games that I've played (which is all of them, but not the original versions of some of them from 20 years ago, just the most current and modern versions of each).

Dragon Quest II HD-2D, Part 11 - Deep Lies The Snow

 

Rhone gets built up a lot in this game. As well it should be. It takes a lot more to give the audience the same kind of feelings that snow tiling did on the NES almost 40 (Jesus) years ago.

"I am cold like December snow!"

Dragon Quest II HD-2D, Part 10 - Panem et Circenses

At this point I have no problem saying that this is one of the best games in the whole Dragon Quest series. While the original DQII is still down a few tiers, this remake could be up there with the DQVs and DQXIs of the world in the upper tier.

Four sigils down! One sigil left! Because it's time...for our main event. Brrrrr.

Mortal Kombat Master Post

 

Here are all the MK links in one place and a tier list now that I (completely) finished the series. What a completely bonkers series.

MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero (N64 and PS1, 1997)

They should have called this MK ULTRA because it's torture.

Originally posted a few years ago, now completely re-written

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#592 - 595)

 

#592 Dark Souls (Playstation 3) – Fall 2015

Now this was the perfect Halloween game, and I basically spent the month of October playing it. Out of the Fromsoft Big Seven (Dark Souls 1-3, Demon Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring) this is the one I enjoy revisiting the least; it's dark, grungey, muddy, and just generally the least-sexy of the lot.

That said, it's still one of the best of those games from a world design standpoint. Everything clicks here. After playing the hell out of Bloodborne and Scholar of the First Sin a few months previous, I was willing to go back to PS3 yet again to play what came before.

Wasn't sure what to expect with this one, or how playable it would be with the lower-res, lower-FPS visuals. Well, once I got used to the system downgrade, it was fine, and it very effectively captures the retro vibe of challenging games on the NES, SNES, PS1. It doesn't hold your hand, and it's all about finding your way through an interesting series of interconnected levels. In short, it feels like a GAME, and it steps back and lets you PLAY. Which both seem obvious, but they weren't a given anymore by the 2010's.

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#581 - 591)

 

#581 Fallout: New Vegas (Playstation 3) – Summer 2015

This game has five expansions and they're all great. Each one tells a different story and the game almost takes on a Twilight Zone type episodic feel because of it. I started this one way back in mid-2012 after Fallout 3 and played a lot of it then, but it didn't grab me the same way FO3 did at the time. FO3 has that incredible setting with post-apocalypse Washington DC, while this is less post-apocalyptic and more just a desert. It's got a completely different mood.

This one feels more like a Western, more like Twilight Zone, more like something out of the 1950's. FO3 feels more futuristic, with lasers and whatnot being emphasized while this game errs more towards the classical weapons.

Code Vein Boss Fights

 

This is a great game. It's basically Souls with less polish, much worse world and level design, and way more attractive characters. The sum total of all of that is that it's a blast. One thing's for sure, ally characters being able to revive you (on a 30 second or so cooldown) really saved me in this game. Recorded all the boss fights, here they are.

The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#573 - 580)

#573 Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Playstation 3) - Summer 2015

In some ways, more like a Chrono Trigger sequel than Chrono Cross is. A game where you travel through time to various eras of the planet's history to solve problems and put right things that once went wrong. While Lightning is featured heavily in the game's artwork, cases, etc, she takes a backseat to Serah in this one. Serah was more or less the "8th main character" that was never actually playable in FF13, so it makes sense that they'd bring her out for the sequel and make her the focal point.

This game is very, very solid. I liked FF13 more than most people already, but I admit it has numerous flaws. This game managed to fix most of them, and was a rare instance of a developer actually listening to player criticisms. Not many people played it, but the ones who did generally sung its praises.

Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (PS1, 2000)

 

My God. Look at how they massacred my boy.

This spinoff centers around Jax versus Kano and his Black Dragon Syndicate. It's safe to say that right now (or the last few months, anyway) is the most that anybody has played or thought about this game ever (yeah, even when it first came out). It got a lot of press due to being included in Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection. I previously did a post on this and MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero, but it only covered the first few minutes of each game before I tapped out. So I dug that post up specifically to actually cover the whole game now that it's available and playable on a TV. I'll also be re-doing MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero and covering that.

God Help Me.

Originally posted a few years ago, now expanded