1. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon [ PS5 ] - 9
2. Dragon Quest [ SNES*] - 7.5
3. Another Code: Recollection [ NS ] - 6
4. Trace Memory (7th Playthrough) [ DS ] - 9
5. Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain [ PC ] - 3
6. Silent Hill: The Short Message [ PS5 ] - 4
7. Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice (4th Playthrough) [ NS ] - 6 - 1st Switch
8. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (3rd Playthrough) [ NS ] - 9 - 1st Switch
9.- Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3rd Playthrough) [ NS ] - 10 - 1st Switch
10. Baldur's Gate III [ PS5 ] - 10
11. Infamous: First Light [ PS5 ] - 6
12. Resident Evil Village + Shadows of Rose [ PS5 ] - 6
13. Ufouria: The Saga 2 [ NS ] - 9
14. Elden Ring [ PS5 ] - 10
15. Detective Ridelle [ PC ] - 7
Zero Escape puzzle rooms, Ace Attorney personalities, a Danganronpa-ish confrontation sequence, and walking around in the 3D environment with the 2D character stills reminded me of Hotel Dusk, a pretty solid murder mystery game with some pretty obvious inspirations, it doesn't quite reach the heights of those but is a nice game to spend an afternoon or two.
16. This Bed We Made [ PS5 ] - 7
1950s Max Caulfield.
A choice driven mystery adventure game where you are piecing together the lives of some of the characters staying at the hotel and making some decisions based on that which will affect their fate at the end. Loved the overall setting and ambiance of the game, mechanically is pretty simple with pretty straightforward puzzles, I liked that the choices you make aren't exactly clear if it will have a positive or negative effect on you or other character, is something you have to deduce for yourself and pay attention to the story, and even if you f*ck up and want to try a different approach, the short lenght of about 4 or 5 hours makes it not frustrating to give it another go. Cool little game.
17. Carpathian Night starring Bela Lugosi [ PC ] - 8
A pretty good tribute to Dracula and Castlevania. This is a level based game with fairly large levels for this style, with a pretty gradual difficulty curve, does well for someone's first classicvania with how it slowly introduces enemy variety, bottomless pits and the difficulty of the boss fights, which is interesting because this is the style of Castlevania kind that only appeals to a more niche group of people that most likely already knows how to play these.
How it handles checkpoints is kind of weird, it basically sends you back to the last safe spot, meaning a place where you don't have enemies, the game does track your deaths alongside collectibles, so there is some incentive to do well even with the lack of death concequences.
Collectibles are of two kinds, lore bits for the location and boss you are going to fight, and skill orbs to unlock new abilities and or health/magic upgrades, some of them are pretty cool in terms of tricky is to find them, or having extra challenge rooms to get to them, gives it a pretty unique level feeling which makes it stand out compared to the series it's inspired by.
The pixel art is pretty solid and the music goes pretty hard, featuring some nice arrangements from classic music, like getting chiptune Swan Lake that played in the opening credits of 1931's Dracula as the title theme.
18. Dragon's Dogma II [ PS5 ]
Is Capcom back? Busy already doing a NG+ playthrough to answer that question.
If there is something to admire about DDII it is the decision to not budge to ideas of making the sense of adventure be filled with tons of conveniences and if there are, have limitations or some level of risk for the player.
The world design is basically what an open world Dark Souls would be funnily enough, considering the different direction that Elden Ring went. Most of the map is a series of choke points that forces you to engage with the enemies, mini bosses, while collecting or not items and equipment, which are tied to a weight system that affects your stamina, you can't change vocations on the fly and your abilities loadout also have to be changed either at an inn or a camp, you can only make camps in select locations and have to make sure enemies aren't around so they don't break them, night time and caves can be pretty dark so you have to keep your oil lantern, also pack some oil or craft some on the road to maintain it lit. You can't fast travel anywhere, have to use oxcarts which travel to one of the few sparse settlements or towns, you can stay awake for the ride if maybe you want to drop off in the middle of it or doze off, the oxcart can be attacked through the trip and even break so have to be careful with them. Another method of transportation are ferrystones which you can find a few exploring around or buy from select merchants, they take time to restock tho as you can only buy one from them at a time and they are fairly expensive, and you can only warp to some crystals, even get at least a couple of portable ones to set on a location you find convenient, like getting a portcrystal after the first story arc, which you'll probably use on the second major city as that one doesn't have a permanent warp point.
This is a Capcom game so the action combat is really good as usual, the vocations start fairly simple yet satisfying and as you use them more you get crazier abilities and spells that make for a lot of flashy combat scenarios. It has a really good weight to it added to all the ragdoll physics going on.
Presentation wise the game looks great and the music has some bangers, tho the style is pretty different from the first game, focusing purely on orchestral track this time around.
Vernworth's area in terms of its design and enemy pacing is incredible, but the game does take some hits in the Battahl region, feels like you can't go a few steps without triggering another enemy encounter, with far more dangerous enemy reskins and a higher frequency of boss encounters, which is really more exhausting on the annoying side than anything, since I don't really die in these stretches, it just feels like it halts your progress a bit too much compared to the excellent Vernworth area. It also wraps up the storyline a bit too quickly compared to Vernworth a lot less to do but seemingly making you walk back and forth through larger stretches of land with the high enemy encounters.
Another problem with the game is the enemy variety, some of the more unique boss encounters are pretty hidden behind some caves and paths so the bulk of what you fight are goblins, harpies, wolves and salamanders, it can feel rather repetitive at times, even taking into account your skill sets and the more creative stunts you can pull with the environment are also relegated to more specific points in the map.
The story and quests are definitely a thing, some pretty good, even taking basically multiple smaller storylines to get through like Ulrika's, others are just there. The narrative is not the most interesting around and it makes you engage with it just enough that it feels like there is stuff missing at times, and the characters don't have enough to them to make them likeable straight away or quirks like other games with minimal traditional storytelling like an Elden Ring.
That being said the final stretch of the game is nothing short of f*cking amazing, the Unmoored World with the changes in the world and the title screen, how it finally drops the II in the title is peak gameyness, the Majora's Mask setup of the end of the world being on a timer as you go around the world saving as much people as you can, this is my jam dude.
And then literally the last 11 minutes of the game, truly a Dragon's Dogma.
And as very much a side note, considering the director of the original is still there, and how this game turned out mechanically, there is a little bit of hope in my heart, that maybe, just maybe, Capcom can make another proper Dead Rising someday.
