Alastor

I just beat Corruption and I prefer it to 4 but honestly the decline started there so I can't make 4 bear the cross completely alone, I think 4 probably has better combat then 3's roid mode hyper blaster gameplay too, also 3 definitely has a more limp finish.

I am glad you like it, maybe you'll encourage more people here to try it, but from reports it's not even the game Retro Studios wanted to make, it's the one they had to make best off from what they were handed. In light of that, and how you can really feel the development hell of the game as you play it, feels weird to see people say an unfinished, half baked mess of a game is somehow not even the worst in the series, different priorities for people and that but still.

It has great boss fights, a godlike soundtrack and it feels nice to play but for me it has almost negative atmosphere (worst thing to say about a Metroid, honestly) and barely feels like a Metroidvania. It's broken up in to so many segments and that fucking desert is right in the centre of all of it, you're not exploring anything you're just driving from point A to B, it offers absolutely nothing in terms of content besides maybe the ««shrines»» which took potential exploration rewards and just basically say 'can you solve the really easy puzzle?' and then just… gives it to you, also more time wasting as you Professor Xavier the door open, go down, and realise you can't do the shrine yet and go back out. Also the Green Crystals, yeah, fuck off Metroid Prime 4. A common defense of the desert is to compare it to Hyrule Field for some reason, an N64 game. 🤔

The biomes, which are usually called 'dungeons' online because…they kinda' are, are usually said to be where the game is allowed to be a Metroid, but it varies imo. Like you say, it's still linear, including these bits, and for every Ice Belt you have the Lava Area which honestly feels about as Halo as Metroid ever has, constant npc interaction and feels very set piece-ey.

Also you missed nothing, the finale is a wet fart, and a reminder that this game basically has no villain.

Tried Ghostrunner a bit and I'm not sure on it yet, it's probably just me but it does feel as polished as it think it is for the type of game it is (speedrunning parkour cyber ninja simulator). I'll try play some more but the flow isn't quite there in the way that it is for Neon White, I know Ghostrunner is a melee game and NW is an FPS but they're in the same tree it feels like.

Didn't help that there was Plot Exposition after the second level in the form of some enemy-less platform jumping whilst listening to someone talk at me for a fair bit, at least in Neon White you can skip the story scenes.

Not going to start any new big game yet until the new Trails game is out, so I might aswell just play a lot of Sektori

New Year, New thread, New Me, New Games, New Lease on Life I hope!

Shinobi Art of Vengeance
This is an absolutely stunning looking game with fun combat but if I'm honest, I really started to dislike how damn long some levels were. If they were more compact, you'd still have the fun platforming and combat but they'd be closer together and not spaced by a bit of wondering about like a semi-metroidvania, something I'm not sure enhanced this game for me at all.

And as fun as combat is, it's pretty damn easy to the point of being pretty unengaging after a while, and why engage when the game design has you revisiting old maps with new powers and thus you can basically not fight them anyway? And the bosses were fun in the moment but they all blended into each other because of the low difficulty.

In short, the demo had me thinking this was a 10 but it's more like a 7 or 8, maybe Ragebound is the superior 2D Ninja sidescroller eh? AoV isn't bad, but I beat the PS2 Shinobi a few months ago and it was never boring the way this could be. I still have more stuff to do, it is a (sort of) Metroidvania after all but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to do it, the Goro Majima and Eggman DLC? Now that has me intrigued.

Played 2025
Clair Obscur is a game I think is also deserving of the almost comical praise it got and I think the E33 haters are more annoying the E33 glazers it has to be said, not saying you can't hate it but some people clearly have a chip on their shoulder over it being the sacred cow right now. I also played BG3 last year and I think it's one of the best games I've ever played.

Strange as it seems, emulation was a big part of my year, partly because I have like 8 or so devices at this point but also, I can't take my Switch 2 or Steam Deck into work, but I can take my RP Mini or Odin 2 Mini into work and play Gamecube games during my work break, through this alone I've beaten the entire Shadow Hearts Tetralogy(Quadrilogy? Yes Koudelka counts fight me) in commutes/work and they're full on PS2 RPGs, as well as Fire Emblem on the Gamecube.

Nintendo adding Gamecube to the NSO and with good titles is a great sign though, the more availability rises, the less I need to do it. They added Soul Calibur 2 too late for me, but Sony DID add Soul Calibur 3 to PSN and I've abruptly stopped my playthrough on the O2M to just play that version, availability is cool!

Play 2026
Need to get back to Atelier Yumia but I think I still want to rejoin Samus on a few more adventures. I am in dire need of another commute game so I think I'll get back to We Love Katamari which I think is the sequel.

Also I would really like get back to reading my Visual Novels on the steam deck, other than that I am trying to play Ys 1 as much as I can without a guide and I got way further than I thought, it's actually not that confusing pre-Darm Tower, it's also a little gem of a game in my opinion, it's just not all that newbie friendly.

Want
Trails Beyond the Horizon is out this very month, the 13th game in the series, I'm obviously really excited for it (Rean is back ) but I'm even more excited for the Trails 2nd Chapter remake, which is my favourite of the entire series, the first game remake released late last year and as far as remakes go it's one of my favourites, up there with Resi 2.