beard_of_zeus

Your impressions of this are very similar to mine, good writeup! I just finished Chapter 2 myself and am very curious about the Weird Thing that happens at the end there. I have a feeling it is related to the bit of voiceover you get from the reading of Adol's journal early on.

I'm a longtime fan of this series (I've played all the entries that have come out in English, and even some that didn't, but have fan translations like Ys V) and was very surprised about the atypical tone of the game; they usually don't start out so supernatural from the get-go like this one does. And your framing of it as a goth-tinged superhero story is 100% the same thought I had.

I love the mobility additions that they have added due to the Monstrum gifts (aka superpowers), being able to just straight up wallrun makes even the early dungeons/areas fun to traverse, and they are able to hide treasure chests in fun, out of the way places.

I will echo other people's sentiments, and say if you are not familiar with this series (which I feel like you should be, it is basically the granddaddy of action RPGs), Ys VIII is a fantastic entry. I love the setting and structure of that game, and it has a killer soundtrack that I still consistently listen to (which is generally the case for Falcom's games).

You can jump into any game in the series, really, they are all basically separate adventures that Adol (and your best friend Dogi!) goes on. Ys IX does have a lot of fun nods early on to other entries, though, if you are a longtime fan. The starting point of this game is very funny in that context, you are basically thrown into jail because of the running gag of the series that basically every time Adol is on some sort of water travel device, there is some sort of mishap - Ys V has a bit with a raft, the intro of Ys VI is Adol being washed up on a beach, being shipwrecked is the entire conceit of Ys VIII, etc. (p.s. I appreciate the use of the screenshot where Adol is being interrogated about this).

Looking forward to playing the rest of this! (Although I am currently juggling this & Atelier Ryza 2, so it might take a little longer than usual...they scratch 2 very different JRPG itches, but both are quite good so far).

@magnetphonics: Yeah, I liked that in Unavowed. It reminded me a lot of a similar thing that happens in Baten Kaitos for the Gamecube. (which is like 18 years old now, I can probably mention it without the spoiler tag, haha).

This was my first thought upon reading the thread title. Still one of my favorite games of all time, like top 3 ever probably. It's one of those games I wish I could forget and experience again for the first time.

@mezmero: @the_nubster: Haha, I was also thinking about mentioning Breakdown, but I honestly don't remember if it is actually good or not? It definitely has the best first-person vomiting.

Folks mentioned a lot of the ones I would have said. I personally have a fondness for Maken X, even if its combat is not as mechanically dense as these other games. You do get to possess (sorry, "brainjack") different people over the course of the game that fight pretty differently though; there's one character you can get that has 6 arms, that's pretty trippy in first-person.

This game will definitely be on my GOTY list this year. You are right that it is missing some qualify of life stuff on both the picross and VN side, but it didn't really bother me all that much.

The character designs, writing, and music are all top-notch. As you touched on, a lot of super-diverse representation, and they get into some themes that I was not expecting (but it is all very welcome). And to re-iterate, the writing is bonkers good, I was not expecting it in a Picross game, honestly. I hope the writer(s)(?) on this get more work; let them write a big RPG or something like that, please.

And you know I let that intro movie play out every time I booted this game up. Use your CPU, look at every clue...

I have finished 122 games so far this year (if you check my lists, I have catalogued them there; I hit the 100-item limit so had to make a second list, whoops); if my knowledge of release dates is correct, it looks like 25 of them were 2020 games:

• Journey to the Savage Planet
• Kunai
• Good Job!
• Doom Eternal
• Resident Evil 3 (remake)
• Zombie Army 4
• Murder by Numbers
• Sakura Wars
• Trials of Mana
• Desperadoes 3
• Maneater
• Carrion
• Panzer Paladin
• Paper Mario: The Origami King
• Death End Re;Quest 2
• Superhot: Mind Control Delete
• Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
• Destroy All Humans! (remake)
• Paradise Killer
• Ministry of Broadcast
• Tony Hawk 1+2
• Hades
• Disc Room
• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
• Crash Bandicoot 4

I'm close to the end of Yakuza: Like a Dragon right now as well, so that should make the list as well :)

Oh, hey I picked this up on the Switch earlier this year for like 3 bucks. I basically agree with your writeup, I found it pleasant, with a great art style, and better/more interesting puzzles in general than I expected. I definitely found the dialogue as nonsensical as you mentioned as well.

I just played with the Joycons, so didn't run into any of the touchscreen issues you mentioned.

...like putting something on the side of a building or edifice and hoping players know to click the side of said structures to pan the camera around to find it.

This definitely got me stuck most often in this game. There's a bit near the end where you take a boat to that lighthouse and I totally did not realize you could go around the backside of it. I think that was the one time I had to consult a walkthrough, haha.

Also, this is not the original question, but my favorite piece of box art ever is probably for the Super Famicom release of Shin Megami Tensei 1 (thank you to whoever already uploaded a very high-res version of it to the site already!!!)

The art in general is killer, and I love the tiny human characters in front of the imposing as hell demons (who to be fair, are the star of any SMT game). I feel like I don't have the skills/vocabulary of art to express why I find this so evocative, but I truly love it. (A lot of Super Famicom box art in general rules pretty hard, so this is not surprising.)

I feel like maybe I'm being a little hypocritical, since this is "collage of characters" yet again, so sue me, I guess :P

After my previous complaining post, these are the best examples I could think of that meet the given criteria:

• Oxenfree: This is a very minimalist one that gets across the right amount of creepiness and "the unknown", reflecting the game pretty well.

  

• Firewatch: This one I will agree with folks on, it's a cool minimalist and pleasant vibe.

  
• Children of Morta: This falls under the "collage of characters" cliche, but I REALLY like the art, and it is pretty different from the game's actual art style, to be fair. And plus the game really is about this tight knit family, so it seems appropriate.

  

• Fight Crab: I don't have to explain this one, it's just GOOD. (This is from the Asian physical release, which I do own)

I ABSOLUTELY agree with you. I dunno if folks are having trouble separating box art from the games they like (multiple people saying Bloodborne is wild to me, it's just "character with back to the player", and uh, that's it?), or maybe my standards are high/picky, but 90% of the stuff folks posted is not that interesting to me. Examples B & C that you mentioned I find especially boring.

I don't mind a collage of characters, but in those examples, I probably just like the artist's work in general rather than the box art design itself (like Akihiko Yoshida for the FF12 steelbook box art that was posted, or Yoji Shinkawa for the Left Alive art).

I have been wracking my brain, and checking the shelves of my recent games, and this challenge is embarrassingly hard to do.