#729 Dragon Quest XI (Playstation 4) – Fall 2018
After a regression in DQIX and a game nobody stateside could play in DQX, this game finally gave us the follow-up to DQVIII that people waited ten years for. This ranked very, very highly in my Post-Milennium RPG Ranking - out of all those games, it was essentially in a three-way tie for second place - and deservedly so. This takes everything that makes the DQ series, well, DQ, and cranks it all up with modern QOL and 3D visuals. It's done in a smooth graphical style that probably won't age, either.
I think the coolest thing about DQXI is how similar it is to the rest of the series. It's instantly recognizable as a Dragon Quest game, despite how much more advanced it is than most of the others. The enemies, weapons, characters, and environments all give it away, and it has that characteristic DQ charm all throughout the game. You actually want to see what happens next with these characters, and you actually want to help each town solve their problems. In a time where the Final Fantasy series really dropped the ball with acting like traditional RPGs after FFX or so, here's the DQ series picking up the slack and proving that RPGs can still look and feel like RPGs in this modern 3D era of high-tech special effects. I'd rather play this than the Devil May Cry clone FFXVI any day of the week. Final Fantasy hasn't been Final Fantasy for a while now.
I'd love to play this again at some point, and do posts for it, but we'll see. It'd be a tall order at this point to finish the DQ series, as high of a priority as it is for me. Just getting to DQVIII alone would be long, long overdue as it's the only one I never played.
Favorite Character - Sylvando. The human peacock himself is very entertaining, and more than that, unique in RPG-dom.
Top Bae - Jade is gorgeous, certainly one of the most gorgeous women in the DQ-verse. Her being a martial artist makes her even more appealing.
There Was Also A 2D Version - At some point I had a ball with the later "DQXI S" version of the game, where you can choose to play the game in 2D with Dragon Quest VI level visuals. I should have really counted that as a second game, but I didn't and it's too late now. In any case, the battle system was different in that version, replaced with traditional agility-based turn orders where you enter all character commands at once every turn rather than as they come up, then the actions are taken in order of agility. This made it more difficult to adjust on the fly to the actions of the enemy, compared to the normal 3D version where your characters and the enemies would all alternate moves and moves would be immediate.
Hardest Part - The last few postgame fights in the 2D version were insanely hard compared to the normal version, due to the differences in the battle system. I'd go so far as to say that the last 3 or so postgame fights in 2D are the hardest fights in the entire Dragon Quest series. Not sure if the 2D mode was even designed with these fights in mind, or accounted for them, which might explain why they're so far off the reservation. I was level 99 on all of my characters and still took a complete ass-kicking a bunch of times before I got lucky and won those fights.
#730 Mega Man 11 (Playstation 4) – Fall 2018
The long-awaited return of Mega Man was in no way a letdown, and made for a super-enjoyable game. It's what Mighty No. 9 should have been, and then some. Great soundtrack, great visuals, some cool new powers with the Gear system.
Easiest Starting Level - Block Man. Lots of Mega Man games have a particular level that's easier than the rest, or clearly best to do first for whatever reason. Toad Man, Chill Penguin, Wire Sponge, etc. Well, in this game it's Block Man, easily.
Favorite Tune - Block Man's level theme is a total banger that never fails to hype me up. Especially since it's ostensibly the first level.
#731 Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Playstation 4) – Fall 2018
After the visually-stunning second game made some odd choices and was kind of a letdown, this one was a lot more interesting and I'd call it the best of the three reboot trilogy games. It's probably the closest to old-school TR games out of the reboot trilogy, both in Lara's personality and also the general style of the gameplay. Lara is also back to some of her old outfits, no more baggy coats. The only real downside to this game is that it's over a bit too quickly.
Toughest Part: I remember the final boss fight being a real bastard in this one. Takes place in a large multi-floor arena, with lots of minions interfering.
#732 Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (3DS) – Fall 2018
The next generation of the Four Swords lineage, except now it's 3-player instead of 4-player. They also made this playable solo which is appreciated. I went through it over a couple of nights while working a grave shift with copious free time (not bad work at all, really). This game wasn't particularly well-liked or anything, but at least it wasn't outright despised like Metroid Prime Federation Force in the same timeframe. I wish I remembered much about it.
#733 Five Nights At Freddy's 4 (Android) – Fall 2018
At this point I was tired of this series; I should have stopped after FNAF2. Though FNAF3 at least had some good aspects. This one changes the setting to a creepy house, and relies heavily on a "listen for the enemy's breath" mechanic. This means cranking the sound up and wearing headphones, so the jump scares are extra obnoxious. And half the time I didn't even hear the breathing and got killed anyway. What a nightmare of a game. It still has the "FNAF Vibe" that makes these games compelling, so I stuck it out and got through it.
It took me way longer than the first few. This is very much a "diminishing returns" series. The first game is classic. The second improves on it in some ways while losing some of the elegant simplicity. The third is tougher and less fun, but it still works. The fourth overhauls the formula and makes mistakes that bring it down. The fifth (still to come) overhauls it even more into a series of challenges, none of which are particularly fun and some of which are tedious as hell. If one is gonna get into FNAF, do yourself a favor and just play the first one, maybe the second...perhaps the third if you're curious.
Funny thing is, the settings I played these five games kinda matched the settings of the games. I played the first 3 (which transpire in a workplace) at a workplace during my free time. I played the fourth (which transpires in a house) at home after moving into a new place. And finally I played the fifth (which transpires at an opposing workplace) at an opposing workplace to the previous one.
#734 Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Playstation 2) – Fall 2018
An old-school (as of 2018) FPS that I heard a lot of good things about, so I gave it a try. It isn't as good as the The New Order reboot in the 2010's but it is better than the other, less-successful late-2000s reboot that I played back in 2009 or so. Some occult elements and medieval castles are the main things that stood out as memorable in this one.
#735 Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds (3DS) – Fall 2018
The sequel to A Link to the Past. This was an odd, but really good, game. This is pretty much the third game to utilize the LTTP world: Four Swords Adventures was the second, and did some really interesting stuff with that world. So does this one. Wonder what it'd be like to play through the three of them like some sort of trilogy. The ship long since sailed on anything like that since I doubt I'll have room to play this or FSA again- both are just wistful memories, especially FSA (seriously, check that one out if you've still got a Gamecube or Wii)...
The cool thing about this game is how often you see things that are instantly familiar from A Link to the Past. Only now everything's 3D...more or less. See the above comparison of Link's House.
Believe it or not, I still to this day have six unplayed Zelda games. Six! Wild. I never finished that "Zelda Crusade" I promised a friend I'd do back in 2004.
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