Games Finished in 2020
This is a list of all the games, new and old, I completed in 2020.
Here are my lists for past years:
List items
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(2/11) - This was a game I was really excited to check out since it had so much hype coming out of Japan. The premise is pretty similar to stuff like Danganronpa and Zero Escape, you are trapped in a place with a group of people who must kill each other in order to survive, but Raging Loop differentiates itself enough that it feels like its own thing. For example, the werewolf game the characters play does not have very well-defined rules since all the rules were passed down through oral traditions in the rural mountain village you are trapped in. On top of that there is no referee character like Monokuma that will stop people from breaking the rules so there is a suspenseful sense of uncertainty where characters are trying to navigate through this complex game without totally knowing exactly what they are doing. The resolution to the story’s core mystery is ultimately a little underwhelming and you can tell right away that Raging Loop was originally a budget mobile game. While the character artwork and voice acting are very nice, the backgrounds, sound effects and UI look/sound kind of cheap and the presentation in general doesn’t have a lot of variety. However, none of these drawbacks ruin the game thanks to its very strong writing, fun characters and interesting rural setting that explore a lot of local mythology. Plus, there is a ton of extra story content to experience even after the game is finished, which I haven’t gotten to yet. This includes extra epilogues and even a “new game plus” mode that adds extra scenes and dialogue to the original story. So while Raging Loop falls a little short of being truly great, I still enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
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(2/20) - Got a lot of history with this game. Rented Mega Man Legends on the N64 back in the day and loved it. My brothers and I obsessed over the game for a few months. Even started drawing the characters and all that. But I never beat the game, in fact I never even got that far in it, but the overwhelming charm the game exudes stuck with me for many years. I bought the game on PSN back in 2016 and started the game again but didn’t end up getting that much further than I did on the N64 before I got distracted by something else. Years later, I’m dusting off my PS3 to play Killzone 2 of all things and I see the Mega Man Legends icon and decide to just play a little bit just to see where I left off. A few days later and I finally finished the game after all these years. The game was just as charming as I remembered and I loved the sense of adventure and danger you get when exploring the dungeons. It was an oddly powerful experience that gave me a weird sense of nostalgia. Good times.
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(2/29) - Started playing Tron Bonne after enjoying Mega Man Legends so much. It was a humble little game but still had a lot of the same charm of the main game.
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(3/7) - Played through this as part of some research I’m doing for a video. Don’t know if I should say I finished the game, since I didn’t obtain the main love intrest’s ending, but I did get one of the good endings. Playing a game on a DVD player. It was an interesting experience.
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(3/13) - This was also a game I played for “research.” Don’t know if I should count this as “finished” since I sort of zoned out a few times while playing it. Not that great. Hourglass of Summer was much better.
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(3/14) - Yet another “research” game. I didn’t mean to beat Ai Yori Aoshi, just sample it for a few minutes, but before I knew it I was watching the credits. I thought I got a bad ending or something but no, the game is based off an anime and it’s about as long as a 30 minute TV episode. I have no attachment to this series so maybe a fan would enjoy this more but I can’t imagine paying full price for this game back when it first released.
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(3/27) - I played the original Black Mesa mod all the way back in 2012 and now here I am finally playing the finished game in 2020. I still think the game is a great remake of Half-Life but funnily enough the remake has been in development for so long that it now looks a little dated (especially when you can now compare the title to the newly released Half-Life Alyx). While I enjoyed the game, and the redesigned Xen section is much better than the original Half-Life, I couldn’t help but think if it was worth waiting so many years to play this remake. The mod began development around 2005 and I had been aware of the project since about 2008. I was a teenager that had just finished the Orange Box when I saw that old trailer for Black Mesa which advertised it was going to come out in 2009 and now I’m a grown man. 15 years is about half of my entire life. Not sure if anything is worth waiting that long for but, existential crisis aside, the game is still a good time.
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(4/26) - So, I got into the Final Fantasy series in the GBA era, playing the ports of FF4 and FF6. I had known about the Final Fantasy franchise even before that but I had never really played the games myself until experiencing those ports. I really loved those games but for various reasons I didn’t go back to the other entries in the series, mainly because I didn’t own a PlayStation (However I did watch my brother play through XII and IX on his PS2). Instead I spent the better part of a decade waiting for new Final Fantasies to be released and then being disappointed by them once they were finally published many years later (talking about XIII and XV). So I wasn’t honestly that excited about the FF7 Remake due to my FF fandom basically being crushed before it could even start. However, I bought FF7 Remake due to the hype and actually really enjoyed it. The game has actual good characters that are fun to hang out with. The story’s progression actually makes sense. The combat is fun and strategic. The very end of the game sort of jumps the shark but overall I actually enjoyed the story. Sure the pacing is a bit slow at times, and even though I’ve only played an hour of the original game I could tell it was stalling for time in certain sections. But after playing so many entries in the Trails series, the pacing in FF7R felt fast and breezy in comparison. The FF7 Remake has sort of reawakened my love of the series in a way I didn’t think it would and makes me want to go back and experience the original. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this is literally the first time I’ve just straight up enjoyed an FF game since playing 4 and 6 on the GBA 13 years ago. It was just really nice to finally play a “new” Final Fantasy game that was just… good.
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(6/16) - Did a blog post on this game. I liked it but it has problems with its pacing and story (just like pretty much every Trails game I guess).
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(6/19) - This was a fun little game that was only an hour long. Back in 2008 I played a bunch of freeware games and Helltaker reminded me of some of my favorite titles I played during that time. A super short experience that is packed with charm.
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(6/24) - Certainly not as good as the RE2 Remake but still an okay time. Glad I didn't pay full price for it though.
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(6/28) - An okay time walking through graphics.
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(6/28) - A silly dumb game that I played on a whim.
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(6/29) - A very charming platformer. It gets close to being a little too twee but I ended up liking it a lot in the end.
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(6/29) - Got this during the Steam sale and had a weird time with it.
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(7/5) - So I've been playing this game off and on since I was in college and I finally got around to finishing it in 2020. It is a super cute little game. I think some of Falcom's later games have better gameplay than Gurumin, like Nayuta no Kiseki, but none of them are nearly as whimsical.
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(11/15) - I enjoyed this game so much. I feel like I have a lot to say about it but don’t know how to say it. 13 Sentinels feels like untangling a messy yarn ball. There are 13 characters whose stories are all basically told out of order since the player can swap between protagonists at any time (with a few restrictions). Because of this nonlinear design the game will just drop huge plot twists on you like its no big deal. You’ll be playing as a character who is further in the story’s timeline and they’ll just mention that there is a huge UFO buried underneath the city. Everyone will act like this is totally normal but I’ll be like “Wait… WHAT?” The feeling of playing through 13 Sentinel’s story is almost like stumbling across spoilers for a TV show online but in a good way. The game keeps dropping information that changes your perspective on what is happening. I felt like I was piecing together some giant puzzle as I learned more and more about the overall mystery. The end of the game felt like it dragged a little since the story had basically given the player all the information needed to figure out the mystery but the narrative had to get all the characters on the same page. So the moments leading up to the ending feel like the story is just making sure it has dotted all its i’s and crossed all its t’s. Despite that, my experience playing through 13 Sentinels was so much fun. Definitely one of my favorite games I played this year.
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(12/14) - I was not a very big fan of the first Ace Attorney Investigations title. In fact I downright hated the game when I played it in 2009. So when it was revealed that the second Investigations game would not be localized I was not really upset since I couldn’t imagine the game being worthwhile after my disappointment with the first game. However, over the years, my disdain for Ace Attorney Investigations 1 has softened and I finally decided to play through the entire fan translation of the second game after playing a bit of the sequel years ago. I’m really happy I did because I feel that the sequel does a lot to improve upon the original. I remember always thinking that Miles Edgeworth was a bad choice for protagonist in the first game. The investigative gameplay and out-of-court setting felt ill fit for a character who was a prosecutor. In fact Miles acted more like a defense attorney in the first game. However, the sequel does a lot to make the game feel more like a “Miles Edgeworth game” with the narrative having a larger focus on his character and his relationship with his deceased father. In fact the game gives Miles a nice character arc where he questions whether he still wants to be a prosecutor and instead become a defence attorney like his father. On top of that the writing in general just feels stronger overall with the game weaving the threads of a grander mystery inside each episode, leading to a grand finale in the final case. The new characters are entertaining too with Courtney and Debeste being fun antagonists that have entertaining story arcs of their own. And even the locations of each case are far more specific and interesting than the first game, with Miles and friends visiting everything from an animal themed prison to a mansion hosting a dessert competition. Not everything is perfect, I still think it’s weird that the characters act like they are in a courtroom during an investigation, but I had a good time playing through Investigations 2. It’s a great example of a sequel that learned from the mistakes of the original.
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(12/28) - Been eyeing this game on Steam for a while and finally played through it on the Switch. It is a very fun little action platformer. The pixel art is smooth and stylish. The controls are crunchy and satisfying. I have no familiarity with the Touhou franchise but I still had a blast playing through Luna Nights.
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(12/28) - Cute, fun and funny. Donut County was oddly cathartic and a good time.
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