Games Beaten - June 2023

Since no one has started the monthly thread yet, I thought I'd go ahead and do the honors this time.

Compared to last month, this was a pretty okay month in general for games. Two Games were completed.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer (PC, 06/06, 7/10)
Smushi Come Home (NS, 06/29, 6/10)

The one I'd easily recommend is Slayers X *Insert Clunky Overlong Title Here*, considering it's immensely refreshing to play an FPS/Boomer Shooter with a good story and actually has a sense of humor to it. The aesthetics of the game were excellent throughout and the FMV cutscenes were pretty incredible to be honest. The protagonist in this game, Zane is one of the best FPS Heroes we've had in a long time and is not only funny but has noble intentions and doesn't mess around despite how immature he is. The game is just one big homage to the character's hometown of Boise, Idaho and the stuff he loved and hated during his youth. The music is kick ass, it's a mix of alt rock and nu metal with tons of original songs that are just fantastic bangers throughout. The gunplay is decent and the level design and world feels lived in thanks to some really interesting world building. I know this is a spin off of Hypnospace Outlaw but I judged it as a Boomer Shooter itself and I felt this is definitely one of the better ones I've played despite the issues I had with it.

The other game I completed was Smushi Come Home which I was very excited for considering I played the demo for it back a couple Steam Next Fests ago, but I was disappointed by it in the end. Compared to Lil Gator Game, which has spawned many similar games like this, it's lacking in comparison. It's a very shallow experience and the only reason to keep playing is because the protagonist is so adorable and you want to see him home. The characters are not compelling and the game thinks SPEAKING IN ALL CAPS MEANS QUIRKY AND FUNNY when it gets annoying rather quickly as every character talks like that since they're all so over the top in general making them mesh together. The Glider is not that smooth to control and the level design is extremely redundant as well. But the graphics do look nice and there's a couple of moments that won me over like the Obstacle Course and getting to ride a Capybara which is CUTENESS OVERLOAD. Otherwise, get it on sale or just play Lil Gator Game for a better time.

Diablo III is going to be my main game next month since I'm very into it at the moment, then probably will move on to Diablo IV on PS5 later. I might try some other things as well but who knows, plans change every month. All I know is that I'm hoping to get at least one game completed in July. Hope you're all doing good everyone!

1. Street Fighter 6 (PS4)
2. New Super Luigi U (WII U)
3. Grid Runner (SAT)
4. Gebockers (SAT)
5. Mystaria: The Realms of Lore (SAT)

One completion by me this month, which I originally didn’t think I’d actually beat 😅

6/22 - Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (Switch) - 3h 24m

If it weren’t for save states I definitely would’ve struggled to get past the first few worlds and would have retired this game. Thanks to save states though I was able to have fun and not get too frustrated with the difficulty and constant failure 😅.

Cultic: Chapter One (2022)
The Last of Us Part I (2022)
HROT (2023)
System Shock (2023)
Prince of Persia 3D (1999)
Amnesia: The Bunker (2023)
Trepang2 (2023)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen (2000)

Just a couple for me: Chuchel and Chook & Sosig Walk the Plank.

I was hoping to get in LoZ: Minish Cap, but I'm not quite there yet.

I just beat one game on June, and that would be Inbento.
Hopefully July will be a better one!

June 5th - Hollow Knight (replay) - 6 h 21 m - (Main) 9/10 - Beat the Hollow Knight in a randomizer run.

June 29th - Persona 5 Royal - 182 h 14 m - (Main+) 10/10 - Beat the third semester, maxed out 22/23 confidants and dated Futaba.

I really only beat one game this month (I don't count replays.) but it's the longest single-player game I've ever beaten so that has to be worth something. From now on I'll try to finish as many of my digital Switch games as I won't be able to play them once I go to college as they're all on my brother's Switch.

Super short TLDR of the reviews I gave for each game:

Hollow Knight (replay): Fun variety

Persona 5 Royal: As close to perfection as you can get

Oh it's July already?

June 01 - Doom (the old one) [Steam Deck] (4/5) - didn't time
June 15 - Star Trek: Resurgence [Steam Deck] (3/5) - 9h 19m - Main Story
June 19 - Kingdom Come: Deliverance [Steam Deck] (4/5) - 51h 20m - Main + Extra
June 20 - Planet of Lana [Steam Deck] (5/5) - 4h 21m - Main Story
June 27 - Metal Gear Solid [PSX emulated on Steam Deck] (4/5) - 12h 16m - Main Story

Played the og Doom while on holiday, was a nice game to quickly play through, and a good game to pick up for short gaming sessions. Held up fine enough from a modern POV, just some dumb fun shooting through hordes of enemies with decent level design.

Star Trek Resurgence was a neat Telltale-like Star Trek story packaged in peak jank and shitty graphics and performance. Still fun, and not too long of a game.

KCD was pretty good, although also held back by little annoyances and bugs, and the historical accuracy getting in the way of some of the fun of it. Still a fun and interesting story with good writing and characters, and loved the freedom you had in exploring the world and facing situations, as well as the way the skill system was implemented.

Planet of Lana was a banger. Great indie puzzle platformer, with a cute alien sidekick, beautiful art and an interesting story that is told entirely without dialogue. The OST being great is just icing on the cake.

MGS is too hard and the controls are janky from a modern standpoint. Very impressive what it has done for the time on PSX though, and it had a lot of very innovative ideas. Good story, completely fire OST. The difficulty on normal was way too high though towards the end. Had to savestate abuse and cheat to not die repeatedly. Old games were hard, I keep forgetting that for old games, easy means normal, normal means hard, and hard means insane. Some of the backtracking was a bit annoying, but luckily there wasn't too much of it. The game had a great atmosphere. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a masterpiece, but it's arguably one of the best PSX games.

So I have only finished one game in the previous month. And not a particularly long one either, so I had to briefly wonder where all my gaming time went. Then I realized that a new chapter had just been released in Fate GO, and new content dropped in Star Rail, as well as a new season in Deep Rock Galactic. So in June, I spent more time on the new content of old games than on new games.

Breathedge - It was kind of mediocre, to be honest. In itself, it would be a solid enough survival game because the mechanics are alright but a bunch of annoyances drag down that experience. Then the game drops the survival aspect in the last third and along with it, the ball. And if you bring up Subnautica, the game it's most often compared to then the whole thing gets worse. Subautica did everything better.

Etrian Odyssey HD (60%) (PC)
Etrian Odyssey II HD (60%) (PC)
Etrian odyssey III HD (50%) (PC)
Red Bow (60%) (PC)
My Big Sister: Remastered (70%) (PC)
Tchia (75%) (PS5)
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode Intermission (95%) (PS5)
Persona 5 Royal (100%) (PC)
Coffee Talk 2 (70%) (PC)

A mediocre month with two great games mixed in. The whole Etrian Odyssey series was on the super easy mode because I very quickly realized these early games weren't worth the time it'd take to complete them on normal, but I was still curious enough about them to want to finish. Tchia started extremely promisingly and then mostly lost me by the end, and Red Bow/My Big Sister just didn't do anything memorable compared to their sequel Ashina. Oh well.

P5R was a replay, albeit that I hadn't played on PC or with all the DLC before and I did this playthrough as switch off co-op instead of by myself. It's still a masterpiece. Intermission was also just about flawless for what it was.

Haven't managed to beat anything this month, which is a first for me since I've joined the site.
Played a lot of big games in which I'm getting close to finishing them, so next month should hopefully be packed, but this month sadly nothing.

Happy gaming for July!

only one game this month, but it was Stardew Valley, which I've been playing on and off for years. I finished the Community Center, and I know there's more after, but I consider that done for now! It was also enough for me to confidently pick up some randomized Stardew games as well, which was a lot of fun!

6/1- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(40%)
6/12- Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order(80%)
6/18- Call of Duty WWII(70%)
6/20- Unravel(80%)

Besides TotK, which I'm sure many people have beaten in June, I've officially beaten the main story, along with multiple other missions in No Man's Sky! Unpopular opinion, but definitely one of my top ten favorites in gaming,

Just finished Yoshis island. I started this a long time ago so it doesn’t really count as a July finish imo but I’ll take it anyways.

I've been lucky to have substantial gaming time this month. On June _____, I beat:

29 - Citizen Sleeper (+DLC)
25 - Road 96
21 - Vampire Survivors
21 - Far From Noise
20 - Monument Valley 2 (+DLC)
16 - Monument Valley (+DLC)
11 - Metal: Hellsinger
09 - Tunic
02 - A Plague Tale: Requiem

I also retired Amnesia: The Bunker on 6/24.

Best
This is a toss-up between Tunic and A Plague Tale: Requiem. I'm leaning toward Tunic because it was a big surprise. I had been wavering about even playing it because I'm not a huge old-school Zelda or Soulslike fan, which the game kept being compared to. And I had read that the instruction manual was in a different language and you had to collect pages and decipher it. I thought I might find it tedious. Well, I stand corrected about any hesitation I had. The game is phenomenal and among the best I've played all year.

Worst
Easily Amnesia: The Bunker. I can't recall a more tedious mechanic than using the crank flashlight for illumination. If you're thinking about this, and you haven't played Alien: Isolation yet, go play Alien and skip this one. The Bunker tries to mimic the xenomorph with its monster and fails. I didn't find it scary. It was tense, but I was more frustrated at the light situation and the persistently appearing monster than anything.

The Rest
I recommend most of the others for various reasons, too. Citizen Sleeper has a great story and a chill gameplay loop (though it goes on for too long and quickly becomes easy). Road 96 was unique and tells its story in an innovative way. Recommended if you can stomach a game about politics. Vampire Survivors was surprisingly deep and my first one of these survival whatever-genre-it-spawned is called. I had a great time chasing achievements. Finally, Metal: Hellsinger is a fascinating rhythm FPS with metal music (a no-brainer for metal fans). The way the tracks build as your combo multiplier increases is consistently cool for the duration--the drum track with a low combo multiplier, guitars slide in as you build the meter, full instrumental track as it gets high, then the vocals kick in when you're in the groove. It felt awesome. The other three completions for the month (Far From Noise and the two Monument Valley games) are totally skippable.

6/07 The Last of Us Part 1
6/11 Remnant: From the Ashes
6/12 No More Heroes
6/15 Halo 3: ODST
6/20 The Haunted Ps1 Demo Disk 2020
6/29 Horizon: Call of the Mountain

Pretty good month for completions overall, though I did get wrapped up in rather long games in the middle of it all which I suspect will go on well past this month also. The best game I did play was The Last of Us Part 1, but saying it my favorite is cheating since this is already one of my favorite story-based games of all time and this technically was my 3rd time playing through the Last of Us, 4th if you considered watching the TV series playing through it again. Besides that, I would otherwise say No More Heroes was my favorite completion of the month. This game is an absolute blast with a few of its own pacing issues that make an already great game a bit less great. There really weren't any games I checked out this month that I disliked, but if I had to choose the worst, I would say Remnant: From the Ashes. One of my friends has been recommending me this for quite some time now, and I honestly wasn't super impressed with what I played. It's definitely a good bit of fun and plays really well, but is heavily lacking in terms of the overall level designs, mainly due to the stupid randomized campaign mechanic, which is kind of a pain in my own opinion.

Started off strong but adopted some more extensive games later in the month so I ended less strong

June 5th - It Takes Two (8.6 hours)

June 7th - Undertale (11.5 hours)

June 8th - Resonance of the Ocean (22 minutes)

June 8th - How Fish is Made (42 minutes)

June 10th - Dead Seater (2.36 hours)

Undertale was my favorite game out of the bunch, while also taking the longest of the collection. i was definitely late playing this but it was overall entertaining and the gameplay style defintiely still holds onto its unique charm. The fighting (or lack thereof) was entertaining and I found myself genuinely invested in what happened during the different endings and what my choice to stay passive's effect on the story was. Overall a fun throwback experience.

It Takes Two was also a very fun play with a friend, Very different than what I was originally expecting. Story is pretty good at hooking you in and the varying styles of gameplay and controls is a fun switch up throughout the entirety of the game. The only complaint from mostly the person I played with, was that it seemed a tad too long for what it had to offer. After a certian point it seemed like we were just waiting for it to end. There is a lot to explore throughout the various levels and maps though, so I'd rate it second on my list for the month.

Dead Seater was begrudgingly the third on my list for the month. It was close, especially since the last 3 games on my list for the month were free. I had some various problems with this game, but it was overall entertaining and kept me interested enough to finish the story. It offers a lot for a free game and offers a very stylistic approach that I like to see in games. Some solid occasional jumpscares and the enemies were somewhat difficult depending on if you can get the camera to work. Overall, would recommend considering it was free but if I had paid a lot for it I would have been dissapointed.

How Fish is Made was another free game on the list, with it's runtime being under an hour. That being said,, it was somehow charming, despite not much being offered via dialogue or content. It follows a similar semi-grunge style while maintaining some type of charm under its animation and small dev team. I would recommend a quick play while you drink a cup of coffee or want something to sink an hour into. Definitely the type of game that pushes you to think a little about what you just played.

Finally, Resonance of the Ocean. It wasn't a bad game by any means, but it was a short free game that left me somewhat bored despite the short runtime. Beyond the simple collecting mechanics, there isn't much to it. The music is simple and cute but I couldn't see myself playing the game ever again or continuing to play if it were even an hour long.

June has been my first month working, so I hadn't as much time for gaming as I used to. However, I managed to finish a couple of games:

- Etrian Odyssey HD - PC - 21/06 - 38:19 h
- Slay the Spire - Switch - 22/06 - 28:44 h

My favourite one was Slay the Spire. I enjoy roguelikes a lot and this one was great. I stopped because I want to try more games, but this could have easily been one of that a 100h games.

Etrian Odyssey was one of my childhood's game. I started it several times on Nintendo DS, but I found it difficult (I was pretty bad at gaming jajaja). It was great to start it again and finish it in the end.

A reasonable June saw me finishing 2 large games, one expansion and one DLC:

06-Jun-2023 - F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn (PC) – 2H01M
16-Jun-2023 - Banners of Ruin (PC) – 21H13M
22-Jun-2023 - Sleeping Dogs: The Year of the Snake (DLC) (PC) – 2H26M
29-Jun-2023 - Just Cause (PC) – 15H22M

F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn, marked the completion of the main game and its expansions. Overall, this was a better experience than the first F.E.A.R and I enjoyed this expansion with its high octane tempo and a nice little story.

in Banners of Ruin, I faced my first deck-building game. It took me far too long to figure out some of the more important mechanics in this game, but once I did, I progressed much faster. While very repetitive, if one willing to simply cushion yourself into the game cycle and enjoy it a run at a time, I think most will enjoy this. As an introduction to the genre, this was an okay experience.

I actually retired Just Cause Donkeys ago. The amount of bugs and dodgy gameplay was just not a nice experience. This time, with a much newer computer I managed to get through it - but it's definitely my worst game this month.

For July, I'm tackling a Spiders game. It's a company that makes interesting budget RPGs and I've been looking at them for a while. Some time ago I picked "Mars: War Logs" for a few pennies on a sale, and now playing it just to get some perspective on their development history. So far it's okay. Nothing to write home about... it's okay.

The summer sale is here but this time I'm only going to pick a couple of select games - I got to much on my backlog to go through.

My Game Size Guide:
Tiny (0-2 hours), Small (2-6 hours), Medium (6-14 hours), Large (14-30 hours), Huge (30-62), Epic (62+)

I think this was a good month for completions for me in term of numbers, although the quality was a bit all over the place. I also had a bit of a short game spree after finishing the main story of TotK...

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Jun 05
Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble - Jun 09
Super Princess Peach - Jun 11
Pinball - Jun 12
The Last Campfire - Jun 14
Kirby's Block Ball - Jun 19
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - Jun 20
Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Jun 26
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Jun 27
Cinderella Phenomenon - Jun 29 (Kind of. This is the date of the first route finished. Currently finished 3, and 2 are remaining)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Jun 30

Completely forgot before compiling this list that I went through a bit of a Kirby side-games tangent this month. I blame Tilt n' Tumble being released on NSO.

Another thing on my mind from checking this list is that the next Yakuza game is 3 Remastered, which will probably be quite a change from playing 0 and Kiwami 1-2. Not sure if that is going to be in August, but I'm kinda looking forward to how different it may be. Also this month I broke my rule about not playing more than one game at the same time, which makes it difficult to check how much time I spent on a game just by looking at the completion dates. Not really a bad thing, but interesting to see.

Also on June the current season of Splatoon 3 dropped, so I've been working on my catalog over there. I'm making good progress on that so far and enjoying some of the new stuff (don't think there are any big Splatoon fans here, so won't bore with details)

Small amount of games but played some good stuff this month.

06/06-Splatoon 3 (8/10)
06/12-Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening - Special Edition (9.5/10)
06/14-Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (8/10)
06/21-Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (9/10)
06/21-Mega Man & Bass (4/10)
06/22-Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (6.5/10)
06/28-The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (8/10)

Biggest month yet, since I have managed to complete 29 games. Most of them are very short games that can be completed in under an hour, so I won't be listing all of them. But here are my notable completions for this month:

06/03 - Gotham Knights
06/16 - Sludge Life
06/19 - 3 out of 10
06/26 - Persona 3 Portable
06/27 - Sons of The Forest
06/28 - Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
06/28 - A Plague Tale: Innocence

2 games for me this past month which is not bad because sometimes I only do one or none due to my gaming habits

June 15-Hakuoki Kyoto Winds (PC) 8/10
June 20-Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (Xbox Series X) 7/10

I am not in school this month but knowing me this upcoming month will maybe be slow due to going through GTA 4 and trying to 100%

For the month of June, I completed one game; Diablo 3 Eternal Collection (Nintendo Switch, 9/10). I enjoyed the grind of the game as I could just check out and slay demons. The story isn't the best but the gameplay is fantastic! I played as a Barbarian just to get through the story and smash things and it never got really dull for me. I am looking to play through the end game content till Season 28 is done so I will keep playing through July.