A summer of games 15-20

Usually autumn is the time for games but this has been a real
gaming summer for me, let’s get right to some of the beaten games:

-15 Inside-

It was a long wait but the end result is one of the most polished games.
Of course, not a game for everyone but this really is the game I had hoped
it to be and all the things Limbo wasn’t. I know a lot of people was
disappointed by especially the ending and most seem to miss the fact that
there is a cool story told through the environments etc.
I would probably have missed a lot too but luckily me and my brother
spent 5 extra hours on analyzing it all after I beat it on his PC.

-16 Child of Light-

I bought the PC version on release but sadly my computer back then
was too weak. Playing it now was beyond all my expectations back then,
I was sceptical about a “platform” game where you just can fly everywhere
and I was sceptical about all story being written in rhyme but somehow
it actually works and it turned out to be one of the better RPGs
in modern time. The music is of course a big part of that,
Aurora’s theme is a true masterpiece. I regret not choosing the
harder difficulty because the fights was far to easy.
Such a beautiful and gloomy world.

-17 I am Setsuna-

It hurt my collector heart more than my wallet to buy my first
“digital” game at “full-price” but in this case the RPG heart won
since I really want to support Squareenix when they start a new
studio just to make RPGs like they used to be.
Everyone who has played it seems to agree that the big flaw is in
the variation, both in the music since all tracks are piano only and
in the environments since most of it is snow. Even the few real
dungeons look the same so you can’t blame the snow theme there sadly.
Adding to the low variation is the fact that I found a combo that ended
all but the boss battles instantly… so yeah, the main problem
is variation. Despite that, it did many things right and even if it
can’t live up to the old games it is trying to be it does
make a better job than most other games these days.
I look forward to see what the RPG Factory will do next.

-18 AM2R: Samus Returns-

A project I have checked in on now and then for many years but never
thought I would be able to play! A really ambitious fan-remake of
Metroid 2, I don’t feel like writing too much about it, it is just
better to play yourself, a true Metroid game and a better remake
than Nintendo could ever hope to make.

-19 Evoland 2-

What to say about this one, hm. It somehow feels like a dream and not
a game that actually exists,
a game I would have made myself if I could,
a game that is every game combined into an RPG,
a game that mixes resolutions, tiles and 3D and still gets away with it.
Maybe I am blinded since it is partially my dream game come true but I
REALLY enjoyed it.

Mostly the game is a simple action RPG, Zelda-style with levels but as
you play it just gets bigger and bigger, there is 2D platform sections,
Metal Gear style stealth, you get a ship and the game turns into both a
vertical and horizontal shooter, you travel trough time and each time
is represented by different graphic style, future is 3D, past 8bit,
present 16bit. My favorite part is probably when you replace the sword
with bombs and realize that you suddenly are playing a bomberman RPG
with levels etc!
There is so many references and sections from other games in here
that it is ridiculous. Usually I don’t like this kind of pointless
references about cakes of lies but in the end the game manages to
combine every game made into something truly unique, it even has the
best card mini game I have seen. Like I said, I may be blinded but this
was THE game for me, when you enter a factory, the battles turns into
ATB from Chrono Trigger and you find a tube with a Metroid in it,
it is just priceless.

-20 La-Mulana-

Rumored as one of the hardest and most cryptic of games I have been
saving this and I probably like the thought of the game more than the
game itself. I always wanted to see for myself how hard it could be
and try to beat it without a guide.
After about 30 minutes of playing I was sure I had seen everything
and looked everywhere…
I did end up using a guide for a lot of things, my will was not
strong enough.
The rumors where true and it is a very overwhelming game.
Even with a guide it not an easy task to beat this.

About halfway in the bosses became a real problem and a
guide couldn’t help me with that, luckily my patience is near infinite
and fighting the same boss for 3-4 hours and 50+ tries is not
a problem that will make me give up.
This more or less became routine when finding a boss but after 42 hours
I FINALLY beat the game of mystery and hardship.

I later found out that I had accidentally activated HARD 1/3 into the
game and made more enemies appear, the bosses had faster movement and
sometimes made 5 times the damage… also, there is no way to deactivate
hard once activated…
Oh well, beating one of the harder games on hard feels like a good
accomplishment and I strangely miss the game already.
Quite the hate-love situation.