Games Beaten - January 2023

I beat only two games, but I put a tremendous amount of time into one of them so I count that as a win :-)

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn [PC] 180h 0mins (9/10) - January 20
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order [PS5] 18h 18mins (7/10) - January 26

I didn't retire any games this month.

My favourite game was FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. Jedi: Fallen Order has a lot going for it, but also against it. I'm looking forward to the improvements in the future release.

07/01 - Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Switch) - 8/10
09/01 - Limbo (Switch) - 7/10
11/01 - Steamworld Dig (Switch) - 7/10
13/01 - Resident Evil: Village - Shadows of Rose (Series X) - 6/10
13/01 - Emily is Away (PC) - 7/10
14/01 - Iron Lung (Switch) - 8/10
14/01 - Before Your Eyes (Mobile) - 8/10
14/01 - How Fish is Made (PC) - 5/10
15/01 - The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (Series X) - 7/10
20/01 - Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox 360) - 8/10
23/01 - Papers Please (PC) - 7/10
25/01 - Singularity (PC) - 7/10
31/01 - Hi-Fi Rush (Series X) - 9/10

I think saying How Fish is Made is the worst playthrough of the month is a bit harsh, as it was free and like 15 minutes long. I was definitely most disappointed with the Shadows of Rose DLC for RE: Village. It felt like a very cheap asset flip and certainly not the price.

Bastion was my only completion in January. It's a fine game, and while it's not as impressive as was expecting, I still have fun with it. Considering it was the very first game by the guys at Supergiant Games, it's very impressive.

January has mostly been a 2022 series "clean-up" with a couple of random selection games thrown in at the end to add variety.

06 - Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
08 - Banjo-Pilot
16 - Halo Wars
20 - Halo: Spartan Assault
24 - Aritana and the Harpy's Feather
30 - Threads of Destiny

The Best - It's between Halo: Spartan Assault and Aritana and the Harpy's Feather. Spartan Assault is fairly basic but really well put together, stages are short and arcadey. Aritana is a platformer, doesn't do anything particularly new but it's just very well made, extremely charming and filled with variety. It's a real shame this game seems to have flown under the radar and I'm really looking forward to playing its sequel at some point.

The Worst - Probably Banjo-Pilot. It's not actually too bad, but its limitations on being a GBA game leads to a real lack of variety. Characters are all very samey, their stats don't mean much with the excessive rubberbanding, and the tracks aren't particularly memorable. That said, I still kind of enjoyed it. It has a real relaxing quality to it so it was fun to 100%, and towards the end there was some decent challenge regarding some of the time trials.

The Rest - Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge was alright, it managed to adapt the core concepts of the 3D games to 2D decently. Again though as a GBA game it's a bit rough around the edges and some of the stage art etc. could get pretty indistinguishable.

I was underwhelmed by Halo Wars, I think it's a mediocre RTS game that manages to get a free pass by a lot of people due to its branding and how relatively well it adapted the series to consoles, but compared to other RTS games it's just lacklustre.

and finally, Threads of Destiny. Surprisingly not bad. It's obviously no-where near an all-time classic JRPG, but it just tried to be an honest attempt at something in that image, no gimmicks, no silly modern reimaginings. It's janky, full of typos and the like but it's short and managed to hit that JRPG spot well enough.

I also managed to finally 100% Shadow the Hedgehog. It has taken just slightly over a year to do it but all 326 library paths, all keys, A ranks and expert mode were completed. It actually feels rather strange not having a daily Shadow run to do. It ended up being a very enjoyable experience and I know that might seem hard to believe given that game's notoriety.

Busy month for game completions for me. Was able to finish 5 games in the end:

17th Jan - Broforce - 6h 4m 27s
23rd Jan - Persona 5 - 121h 40m 38s
24th Jan - Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC - 12h 2m 53s
27th Jan - Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution - 5h 4m 36s
27th Jan - Borderlands: Game of the Year - 53h 1m 5s

Ranking
5th - Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution - Gets the humor right but does nothing interesting with the franchise really and repeats bosses from previous DLC
4th - Borderlands: Game of the Year - Borderlands has a rather good gameplay loop but doesn't know what it wants to be. The DLC starts to find the voice of the franchise but alot of the issues in the base game follows through in the DLC
3rd - Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC - A good tribute to the half life coast line level where you driver a buggy down an old highway. Relies too much on backtracking though
2nd - Broforce - Over the top silly side scroller shoot em up. Could do with some health on your characters instead of taking one shot kills
1st - Persona 5 - A fantastic RPG which builds itself around a strong turn based system and a fun slice of life downtime

Extremely slow month. Had no where near the amount of time I've wanted to sit down and play stuff. Still got some short quirky games off my backlog.

Deliver Us The Moon - 24/1/2023 - 4hrs 30mins
Thomas Was Alone - 31/1/2023 - 2hrs

Not the start to 2023 I wanted. But progress is progress :/

I finished Hellblade (7h 13m) and Dishonored-Definitive Edition (14h). And both were way better than I expected, especially Hellblade. Ah it was wonderful.

1/6 - Hylics
1/6 - Severed Steel
1/7 - Cardinal Quest II
1/12 - Everhood
1/13 - Oxenfree
1/19 - Sable
1/23 - Splinter Cell 1
1/30 - The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall

Favorite: Oxenfree
Least favorite: Daggerfall

January 10th - Super Mario 3D All-Stars - 95 h 1 m - (100%) 8/10 - Got 120 stars/shines in all three games. Although I didn't 100% the game again as Luigi in Galaxy. Super Mario 64 took 36 h and 41 m. Super Mario Sunshine took 38 h 19 m and I beat it on July 18th, 2022. Galaxy took 20 h 1 m and I beat it on January 10th 2023.

January 20th - Live A Live - 27 h 44 m - (Main+) 7/10 - Got the true ending. Didn't do any of the optional bosses.

January 23rd - Kirby Star Allies - 10 h - (Main) 4/10 - Beat the game.

Managed to complete 3 games again. I could've also beaten Neon White but I haven't played it in a few weeks because I've been heavily invested in some multiplayer games and making more content for my channel. This may continue into next month, although I should at least be able to beat Neon White.

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

Super Mario 3D All-Stars: Great games, terrible marketing strategy

Live A Live: Fun unique story

Kirby Star Allies: Bored to death

I was going to dive into January by suffering through all 12 combat challenges in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and claiming all 36 stars on the hardest difficulty, but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad... I've "only" done the first 7 so far, it turned out way more extreme than originally anticipated so I've decided to save the last 5 for later and work on my backlog some more instead, I'm quite happy I still managed to tackle 11 new completions!

Backbone - 9h10m / 100% (3 playthroughs)
BioShock Infinite - 19h10m / 100% (2 playthroughs) - BEST
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 1 DLC - 4h35m / 100%
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 2 DLC - 4h45m / 100%
BioShock Infinite: Clash in the Clouds DLC - 9h10m / 100%
Blackwell Unbound - 5h55m / 100% (3 playthroughs)
Conarium - 6h55m / 100% (2 playthroughs)
Fran Bow - 10h50m / 100%
Heaven Dust - 9h40m / 100% (3 playthroughs)
Infliction: Extended Cut - 5h55m (2 playthroughs) - WORST
The Blackwell Legacy - 5h40m / 100% (2 playthroughs)

Backbone is a somewhat charming noir-style adventure with anthropomorphic animals, it's basically Blacksad but with 2.5D pixel art. I really liked the art-style and the overly chill tunes you'd conduct your investigation matters to, but it falls apart real fast and starts to show cracks in almost every department: the writing is dull, it's awkwardly quiet most of the time since none of the characters are voiced and the actually amazing soundtrack is extremely underutilized, the cutscenes have that distinct color palette but are just as lacking, none of the choices you make matter in the long run, there's pretty much only one simple puzzle and the story gets even worse after the 2nd act, it gets really weird... The sequel is coming out tomorrow and it doesn't appear to be a direct continuation so I don't expect to get an answer to oh so many questions the cliffhanger ending has left us with. All I can recommend here is to look up the OST, the game itself is not worth it.

BioShock Infinite is a game that got me all hyped up back in 2013 and the whole change of scenery from underwater Rapture to high-up-in-the-sky Columbia was a huge deal to me since we've already been to Rapture twice, something needed to change and something change they did..... it wasn't as ambitious as first shown at E3, but we still ended up with a very solid third installment. You do have to admit that it feels a bit deflated gameplay-wise with plasmids (called vigors in this game) being reduced to only 8 and not leaving much room for experimenting, the arsenal getting the dreadful 2-weapon limit treatment and trading health kit management for a regenerating Halo-style shield, not a huge fan of all those things but thankfully, none of that is detrimental to the flow of the gameplay loop in any way. The fantastic art direction, the goosebump-ey introduction to Columbia, the soundtrack and the voice acting are all the qualities that most definitely did the franchise justice and Elizabeth is also a great character, always helping you in the heat of the moment by tossing either health, salts or ammo without being an annoying escort mission. The story is unnecessarily twisted for the sake of it though, that mindfuck of a resolution at the end just made me think less of it and, sadly, both story DLCs continue that trend. Then there's quirks such as most of the equipment parts being useless, the nasty Depth of Field implementation that you have to disable via config file, the crappy checkpoint placement, a boss fight that's been recycled twice and the way fall damage works (you take none if you leap with the skyhook but regular jumps from high places hurt, a lot) and probably a couple more things that I just forgot to mention, I'd highly recommend starting your journey down the BioShock rabbit hole with this entry if you haven't made acquaintance with this franchise yet.

The first episode of Burial at Sea takes us back to Rapture once again, giving us the opportunity to walk around the establishment before it's been trashed by splicers which I thought was really cool, it's like a sightseeing tour similar to when you first set foot in Columbia in the base game. It doesn't appear to have a connection to the previous story at first glance, but they too pull some crazy shit at the end that is difficult to make sense of (the final fight is a neat little suprise though) so I personally enjoyed exploring Infinite-fied Rapture more than following the narrative. Some of your weapons have been reskinned and slightly redesigned in terms of functionality and damage output and the Ice plasmid too makes a return, as does the weapon wheel (yes, you actually carry all your stuff in your pocket), the new Radar Range weapon is also pretty useful and it's something different for a change. There is however an infinite (hah) loading screen bug if you backtrack through a certain area twice and the only way to avoid it is by grabbing the Shock Jockey plasmid and unlocking an elevator shortcut that takes you back to the story path without getting trapped and being forced to replay a large chunk (lost 30 minutes worth of progress, twice!). It's an okay-ish DLC, but the real highlight is the next episode.

The second episode of Burial at Sea takes some interesting turns and almost completely flips the pacing upside down by turning into Dishonored Lite, now with Liz as the main star of the show instead of Booker and gah daymn, the intro in Paris is a work of art and yet another example of how Irrational Games always nail the intro sections! This DLC is largely stealth-based and even the highest difficulty, simply titled 1998 mode, is a reference to the birth of the greatest stealth series known to mankind: Thief. It strips you of all lethal toys and encourages the sneaky approach, which may sound worse than it actually is: the areas are wide open, there's vents to help you get around safely and takedown prompts as well as a new crossbow weapon with 3 dart types and a plasmid that renders you invisible all add several new ways of dealing with enemies, I was worried they might mess up their attempt at the stealth genre but I was proven wrong. It's a bit longer than the first episode and the ending, as already mentioned, is batshit insane and somehow connects the events of Infinite to the first game, but at least it's been executed outstandingly from an artistic point of view. An enjoyable DLC all around.

Clash in the Clouds is that arena DLC most people were not so fond of and the 60 Blue Ribbon challenges were partly to blame for that, but I honestly didn't find it as awful as others have described it to me. There's 4 arenas based on locations from the base campaign with 15 waves each and the entire arsenal being at your disposal to restock after successfully completing a wave, all weapon / health / shield / salt upgrades have to be rebought / unlocked again which comes naturally as you make your way through each arena and everything is purchased with money you earn by killing enemies in most creative ways imaginable and, of course, for completing them Blue Ribbon challenges. The biggest drawback here is how you can't jump to any desired wave after beating an arena or restarting a challenge immediately after failing at it, it requires a complete restart from wave one, every time! This would have been a nightmare if these challenges were extremely specific or really tricky to perform, but after maxing out your stats and getting accustomed to each arena, I didn't have to restart as often as I thought would have to, I can definitely imagine someone struggling with them on consoles due to less accurate input though. Once you have no upgrades to spend your cash on, there's an additional museum section with unlockable goodies to blow your bank, a bunch of little extras but nothing too fancy. Ultimately, I thought this DLC was on par with the first episode of BaS, it's not amazing and not terrible either.

Blackwell Unbound is the prequel to The Blackwell Legacy and is an old-school point & click adventure centered around Lauren and her spirit guide Joey with charmingly written characters and a fantastic soundtrack that really captures the 70s vibe and effectively establishes that comfy atmosphere of the genre classics, it's also the only entry without Rosa as the main protagonist. According to dev commentary, Unbound wasn't meant to be as a big of a project as the third game titled Convergence but more of a little backstory to Legacy's plot and origins, but it is without a shadow of a doubt a great improvement over the pilot episode: the voice acting feels less awkward and more on point, the writing has gotten better which has also been discussed in the dev commentary, you can control Joey which lets you hear his opinion on things surrounding him and his involvement from the gameplay perspective is what should have been in the game from the very start, the puzzles aren't too cryptic and I love how these devs include extras such as artwork, bloopers or music that didn't make it into the game and going for a quick second playthrough with the commentary enabled can too be an insightful experience, it appears it's included in every game developed by these guys which is awesome. I recently picked up their bundle on Humble with pretty much 90% of their entire catalogue I'm excited to see more, we're off to a good start.

Conarium is what I consider to be one of the better Lovecraft-themed horror walking sims, the 3-man-team at Stormling Studios appear to have a firm understanding of how to effectively convey cosmic horror since all their projects are relatively close to how I imagine Lovecraft's novellas would translate to a video game, with this one even being directly inspired by "At the Mountains of Madness". It's really short but maintained proper tension levels from start to finish, the dark ambient soundtrack was so perfect I even bought it, the graphics are really good for a game of such small scale and the sound design in general just gave me the shivers, marvelous stuff. Unusually enough, this one lets you save whenever you want which is extremely rare in UE4 walking sims, it checkpoints frequently and no part is frustrating enough to resort to F5 spam, but I found it pretty convenient regardless. FOV has to be edited in a config file, they clearly got the wrong guy to voice the protagonist and there's a drawing "puzzle" that wants you to draw a symbol with the mouse in a specific order, which is both awkward and clunky, but aside from that it's a safe recommendation for any Lovecraft fans.

Fran Bow is yet another point & click adventure and one that has become an instant classic for me, it's so incredibly good: it was a pretty close race with Infinite for the best game this month and that's quite the achievement for this genre on its own! Absolutely fantastic artstyle, great animations, perfectly composed soundtrack to suit the dark tone and unpleasant themes, fair and varied puzzles, an ominous atmosphere and a captivating story, it's nearly flawless, even with voice acting being absent. It does suck how the screenshot key on Steam doesn't work unless you edit a file that in return disables achievements, there's a lot of great moments and scenes that I wish I could have captured, I suppose that's a task for a replay session then. Another thing that I wasn't sure if it really bothered me is how difficult it is to tell Fran's imagination apart from reality, it's more straight forward when she's taking pills to reveal grotesque imagery regular people are oblivious to, but the plot is constantly drifting off to elsewhere and is honestly more of a mental theme park rather than an easy-to-follow narrative, it's got that Alice in Wonderland deal going on for sure. Top of the shelf stuff and a 100% recommendation.

Heaven Dust is an isometric Chibi-art Resident Evil clone developed by a Chinese team of two and a suprisingly good one at that, although I still can't get used to the character models. Story is barebones as fuck, it doesn't need to be mentioned but if you're curious, there's notes all over the mansion to give you some lore, it really could be boiled down as "virus outbreak, zombies everywhere, survive". Now, this game is also shamelessly ripping sounds straight from RE2 and 3 like the outdoor ambience, the zombie groans or even the knockoff version of Nemesis you can see on the front cover and it does feel cheap, but thankfully they don't go overboard with it. The mansion layout is clever, the puzzles are well implemented with the exception of one due to poor translation, your inventory items are also mapped to 1-6 keys which is extremely useful and clearing rooms while keeping up your health and ammo in check works just as you would expect it in classic RE fashion. However, enemy variety consists of only zombies and the aforementioned Nemesis boss fight, your arsenal is just one pistol, the sprinting feels stiff, the soundtrack is too quiet and not all that memorable, the UI reminds you of a mobile game and the player hitbox is a little dodgy at moments. Despite all the issues I just listed, it still manages to understand how to RE in comparison to the most recent mainline entries and that's kinda sad. The sequel is looking promising so I'll be looking into it soon-ish.

Infliction is first-person horror inspired by the likes of P.T. done poorly, it didn't start off too bad and the creepy sound design had me on the edge at first, but then came the usual modern-horror-jumpscare-fare which is when it began to lose me, though I still thought there was something else to salvage from the narration standpoint, the unnerving themes were there and the moments where the environment changes on a whim and turns into something grotesque were also on the serviceable side of things, but... once they introduced the ghost you're supposed to avoid as you make progress, that's when it really pissed me off. In the first 20 or so minutes, I've been shown a bunch of tutorials but as far as the ghost business is concerned, there was nothing and I had to learn everything via trial & error, which was anything but fun (later I found out I missed an optional call that unlocks said tutorial, great design right there). Text documents are not stored in your inventory and are often placed in locations where you can get caught while reading, the ghost can spot you from across a hallway with their back turned, the camera you acquire is supposedly able to stun the ghost temporarily but, suprise suprise, it doesn't work, most of the time is spent in the same house rerunning the same rooms that hopefully spawn a story-relevant item so I can move the fuck on, ffs. I don't know why I even felt compelled to try out the NG+ mode, only to find out you can't even beat it due to a gamebreaking bug... At least the achievements weren't hard to obtain, but this has been raw as hell, get Visage instead of you want the closest thing to P.T., I didn't like it either but it's leagues above this piece of shit.

The Blackwell Legacy is the first game of the 5-part Blackwell point & click series and is more of an introduction chapter to get to know Rosa as the main protagonist you'll be seeing in all subsequent games except Unbound and her spirit guide Joey Mallone, the voice acting here feels more amateur-ish and the writing is hit or miss, the soundtrack is too experimental for my liking and doesn't always suit the environment, but the puzzles were interesting to figure out and the absence of pixel hunting made it less of a chore to play. As usual, commentary and bloopers are on board and provide more insight on the development of the series and what changes were made. It's short, simple and you'll have to beat it if you plan on doing the whole series, but it's totally beatable in one session.

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster! I cleared out some smaller games from various itch.io bundles while working on longer titles.

Don't Move - January 04, 2023
Take a Seat! - January 09, 2023
Parcels And Pollen - January 18, 2023
Gardenia - January 27, 2023
湯圓 [tong jyun] - January 28, 2023
Fat Bear Week - January 29, 2023

Favorite: Fat Bear Week. I streamed this to some friends on Discord and it was fun just to watch the bears bounce around! I hope the team that did this gets to build on it.

January was a slow start for me, I wanted to participate in the 2023 Challenge but opted to rather play shorter games and complete some majorly long series like Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, and Yakuza. So, I started playing the first Red Dead Redemption and I am absolutely enjoying this game. My playthrough thoughts is on my my blog, Deep Fried's Backlog Delve, check it out if you'd like (shameless plug). So, I hope to finish Red Dead Redemption in February and jump right into Red Dead Redemption 2.

i have only beaten pokemon scarlet in January.

got all live dex pokemon. exclusive violet didnt get yet. and all of the pokemon i caught by myself no trades nothing.
i liked the game a lot was really fun to play.
will play pokemon violet later this year

Beat two things in January

Dragon Age II: The Exiled Prince January 7th

Eiyuu Densetsu: Kuro no Kiseki January 18th

to beat two things in January is not bad.

01/20 - Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk - 100%
01/31 - Genital Jousting - 90%

Very slow month, really struggling to find the time to finish games. Did beat two games that I really loved though. The amount that I enjoyed playing Genital Jousting is definitely a bit embarrassing, but the campaign genuinely has a very funny and surprisingly emotional plot.

Best game I played this month has to be "Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk" though. Very short and cheap, but also one of my favorite experiences I've ever had playing a game like this. Definitely not a game for everyone, but if you've ever had a voice inside your head, it's incredibly relatable - and also funny.

This Month I completed 5 games and 2 episodic chapters. This year I'm committed to trying and finishing at least one long game (14+ hours) every month, so it’s a good start when I managed to finish three of those in January:

08-Jan-2023 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut (PC) - 32H02M
09-Jan-2023 - Life Is Strange - Episode 1: ChrysalisPC (PC) - 2H36M
14-Jan-2023 - F.E.A.R. (PC) - 11H37M
18-Jan-2023 - Sleeping Dogs (PC) - 20H57M
23-Jan-2023 - Final Fantasy (PSP) - 20H52M
24-Jan-2023 - Life Is Strange - Episode 2: Out of Time(PC) - 2H29M
26-Jan-2023 - WindosillPC (PC) - 0H37M

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a huge game on my scale, taking more than 30 hours to complete if you commit to a good amount of side missions. Still, this game did not click for me. The level design was uninspired, with every possible mechanic introduced in the first few hours. The weapons were not very futuristic, the digital cracking mini-games repetitive, and boss fights largely forgettable. The story was messy and the voice acting was average. Overall the game does nothing wrong, but it does not excel in anything either.

Life is Strange is a beautiful interactive story-telling, with a promising story. However, As a game, it is extremely weak with super easy puzzles and uninspired game mechanics. It was okay as a relaxed experience, but I'm not sure I'm sold on this genre. Both episodes were okay. We will see if it continues in the same vain.

This month felt like an "over-hyped" month. Both Deus Ex and Life is Strange are acclaimed games, and I was not impressed by either. So to continue the trend, the next game was F.E.A.R. - a game that received rave reviews and its horror themes caused many sleepless nights to numerous gamers. Well, it did not age well and felt well behind today's standards. A very linear level design, static environments and enemies that announce themselves when you get nearby - making far too much noise for a professional ambush. And the worst bit - the game is not scary either.

Therefore thank God for Sleeping Dogs. An excellent GTA-style game with Batman Esylum-inspired melee, an enjoyable story, lots of interesting side missions and great voice acting. How this flew under the radar and had limited success I have no idea. Even better, I played a physical copy which I picked up when a stationary shop was going bust and sold all its games for a pound. It turned out to be that all the physical copy does is install the Steam version, and it included a couple of DLCs as well. It was sitting on my shelves for quite a few years! This is the best game I played this month.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit Final Fantasy is the first in the main series I ever completed. I played the PSP version because I was told it was the easiest of all the remakes, and indeed it felt easy. Of course, it's an old game now, so credit to it that I didn't feel bored by its 80s gameplay style. It was a walk down memory lane which I needed for HLTB 2023 challenge, otherwise, I might have not played it.

Finally was Windosill which I got on the Itch.Io bundle for Ukraine. Not quite a puzzle game, but more of a box of curiosities with puzzle elements. It was short, and lots of fun.

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+)

Didn't match my completions last year but that's okay, played a bunch of stellar stuff this month.

01/06-Darkest Dungeon (9/10)
01/12-Halo: Combat Evolved (9/10)
01/22-Banjo-Kazooie (10/10)
01/25-Operation C (6/10)

Most Favorite: Play Banjo-Kazooie. I don't care how, everyone needs to experience this game. Still the 3D platformer/collectathon king after all these years with one of gaming's greatest soundtracks to boot. It's a mastahpiece baybee.

Least Favorite: Operation C felt like a downgrade of Contra in almost every way. While I'm sure part of it is due to the Game Boy limitations, the jumping is so much slower than literally everything else that it significantly impacts the game. Leaps and bounds better than Castlevania: The Adventure though.

Personal Recommendation: You need to try Darkest Dungeon. No other game has gotten me addicted to it quite like this game has. Learning the systems of how things work in this game has been one of the most rewarding feelings I've experienced from a video game as of late. It's much more fair than some might make it out to be. I do recommend not trying out the DLC on your first playthrough however, it creates a very different and sometimes less enjoyable experience than the base game does.

Not a lot of completions in January...

This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PlayStation 4 | PlayStation Plus)
Sudocats (PC | Steam)
Kirby's Avalanche (Super Nintendo | Nintendo Online)
Fire Emblem Heroes: Book IV (Mobile | Google Play)

My favorite was definitely This War of Mine, which is a great game. My least favorite was Kirby's Avalanche, because I think it gets way too fast/hard too quickly, but it's still a fun game.

I was outrageously busy in January, so the only game I managed to finish was Street Fighter V.

It was nice to get back into Street Fighter to ramp up my excitement for VI arriving later this year. For some reason, I've always really enjoyed the even number Street Fighters, but the odd numbered ones just didn't grab me the same way, including 5.

But 2 and 4? I played them SO MUCH.

I finished Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice (Series S) on January 3rd and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (GBA) on January 21st!

I'll be continuing my playthrough of Spiderman (PS5) and Gears of War Ultimate Edition (Series S) while working on some GBA games this February.

Didn't play too many games, but that's because I've still been playing assassins creed origins during this month which took a lot of my time.

Code Vein (PC) - Jan 20 - 3/10 - 29h 48m
Hellpoint (PC) - RETIRED - 4/10 - 2h 37m

Code vein was interesting, had a decent story, and a horrible game design to back it up. felt like boss mechanics (attacks, super attacks, punish windows, visibility) were just not designed well and they tried to bandaid that by allowing you to have a companion for everything. I have only played dark souls 1 (I'm pretty sure this is inspired by souls games) and I can say that was faaar more enjoyable so it wasn't as much a matter of getting good as there are just some really bad bosses. I was tempted t retire this one but the early bosses tended to be better than the later ones imo and I had already invested a bit of time.

Hellpoint I retired, which I don't do often, and oddly enough it wasn't even as bad as code vein. It was definitely a smaller studio that made this one, and I could feel the jankiness, but I didn't really think that hurt the game tbh. I only got far enough to see 2 of the bosses but I'll say they definitely had defined moves and punish openings, problem I had was the graphics made it pretty hard to be able to tell what attack they were telegraphing next, which makes it pretty hard to adjust your playstyle to certain attacks if you can't tell which are coming. I also felt like the lore and story behind this one were shallow at best. I only gave it a bit over two hours but I could tell it wasn't a game I was gonna have fun in. Doesn't mean it was a bad game per se, I think it actually has a lot of potential, but just felt like there are better games out there worth my time.

Demons souls remake (ps5)
Snow Bross Nick and Tom special (switch)