The Shackled Wolves - 2021 Games Completed Thread

[Karkashan]

This thread is for one very specific purpose; to keep track of all the games we complete during the year of 2021. Post the games you complete throughout the year and under the spoiler I'll do my best to have an up to date list of all the games you post in here. (up to date process will probably be once a week)

Spoiler

Spoiler: ◆ Karkashan

Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4)
Amnesia: Rebirth (PC)

Spoiler: ◆ CitizenofVerona

Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Spoiler: ◆ EvilTw1n

Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)

Spoiler: ◆ bobsilencieux

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (NS)

Spoiler: ◆ Koenig

.

Spoiler: ◆ SJMartin79

.

Spoiler: ◆ SkywardCrowbar

.

Spoiler: ◆ Odo

.

Spoiler: ◆ Juegos

.

Spoiler: ◆ Friedshoes

.

Spoiler: ◆ Mattavelle

.

Spoiler: ◆ Shoulder

.

Spoiler: ◆ Repomech

.

Spoiler: ◆ SimplyTravis

.

Spoiler: ◆ TheAmazingLSB

.

Please remember to type out your game title as Insert Game(Platform Abbreviation) (example: Mega Man 5 (NES)) Please do not italicize or bold it or anything like that, as it can bork the formatting.

Also, a game that is rereleased on a later platform (as in, Virtual Console or what have you) is counted as the platform the game was rereleased on. So Ocarina of Time on the Wii VC is counted as 'Ocarina of Time (Wii)' instead of 'Ocarina of Time (N64)'

A game that releases on both the XB1 and the XSX needs to have the "Optimized for XSX" Tag on it for it to count as XSX. (you can filter for this in your "My Games and Apps" tab) A game that releases on PS4 as well needs to have the "PS5" tag (according to my professional source they're separated in your library as well) to count as the PS5 version. These are not counted as rereleases so they don't fall under the rule above.

Spoiler: Platform Abbreviations

(NES) Nintendo Entertainment System
(SNES) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
(N64) Nintendo 64
(GCN) Nintendo Gamecube
(Wii) Nintendo Wii
(Wii U) Nintendo Wii U
(NS) Nintendo Switch
(GB) Game Boy
(GBC) Game Boy Color
(GBA) Game Boy Advance
(VB) Virtual Boy
(DS) Nintendo DS
(3DS) Nintendo 3DS
(NESCL) Nintendo Classic
(SNESCL) Super Nintendo Classic

(PS1) Sony Playstation
(PS2) Playstation 2
(PS3) Playstation 3
(PS4) Playstation 4
(PS5) Playstation 5
(PSP) Playstation Portable
(Vita) Playstation Vita

(Xbox) Microsoft Xbox
(360) Xbox 360
(XB1) Xbox 1
(XSX) Xbox Series X

(Mobile) Games on Phones
(PC) Games on PC
(C64) Commodore 64


(WS) Wonderswan
(NG) Neogeo
(NGP) Neogeo Pocket
(NNG) Nokia NGage
(3DO) 3DO
(SMS) Sega Master System
(SG) Sega Genesis
(SS) Sega Saturn
(DC) Sega Dreamcast
(GG) Sega Game Gear
(SGM) Sega Genesis Mini

What counts as a completed game? This is mostly open to personal judgement, but if you see a credits sequence more than likely I'll say you've beaten the game (fighting games being an exception due to their nature, however they can be completed if you beat a dedicated story mode and/or the arcade mode with all characters). Episodic games only count after you finish the last part of the game, although there are some exceptions to this. Certain expansions, spinoffs, or DLC's can count as their own game, but a lot of times I would prefer to stick them on as an addendum to the main game instead of their own thing (so that means if you've beaten the main game this year, let me know that you have so I can put the DLC being completed on the same entry as the main one).


An asterisk * denotes a second+ playthrough (in the year of 2020). For example, if I beat Mega Man 5 in January 2020 and March 2020, I'd get the *, but if I beat it in December 2020 and March 2021 it would just be put up normally.


-Note- I either have to know you from another site before you joined TNE or you have to have had a semi active account for six months to be included on this list. (so basically all the old TNE crew is fine. This is just a note for potential new members)


Praise Grima Every Day

 

[BobSilencieux]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (NS)

I loved this game as much as SJ did. Even after getting 100%, I played for another 30 hours getting every character to level 100 and every one of their weapons to level 30, 166 damage. For no reason.

 

[sjmartin79]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (NS)

I loved this game as much as SJ did. Even after getting 100%, I played for another 30 hours getting every character to level 100 and every one of their weapons to level 30, 166 damage. For no reason.

So glad you loved it too! The game was enthralling and felt so satisfying.
Now I'm on to Immortals Fenyx Rising.

 

[EvilTw1n]

Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)

The older I get, the better this game used to be.

I reeeeeeeeeally took my time playing ZM this playthrough, and I still beat it in 2:18. I have nothing against short games - ZM just feels like "Metroid in miniature" after playing Samus Returns. It's so...compact. It's like eating really lean barbecue. No fat, but that's where the flavor is.

But it's still barbecue, and therefore, awesome.

 

[Shoulder]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (NS)

I loved this game as much as SJ did. Even after getting 100%, I played for another 30 hours getting every character to level 100 and every one of their weapons to level 30, 166 damage. For no reason.

I got Age of Calamity for Xmas, so I'm hoping to play through it at some point this year. Good to hear those kinds of impressions, plus what Steve said with it being more like a Zelda game than a Warriors title makes me intrigued even more. My backlog grows...

 

[Karkashan]

Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4)

Cyberpunk 2077, developed by CD Projekt Red, is an...interesting beast to talk about. Even though full development didn't start til around late 2015, a teaser trailer from a few years earlier let us know they were at least in the planning and concept stages already. Which, in retrospect, might've been a mistake as it fed into a hype machine that couldn't stand the thought of delays. Delays that kept happening and happening until it finally launched last month.

Thing is, it could've probably used a couple more months in the oven cause CP2077 is like the most delicious frozen casserole you've ever eaten, but part of it was still cold after you'd taken it out.

There are glitches, there are wonky AI paths, there are T poses, and worst of all there are CTDs. (keep in mind this was all played on a PS4 Pro with an internal 3rd part SSD for an internal drive instead of the stock HDD) There are, however, like 7 (8?) different autosave slots and 20 Manual save slots so I never felt like I lost a lot of progress, it was just annoying and irritating when it happened cause it always seemed to happen at the quietest moments, not the bombastic ones.

Driving feels pretty good, but driving in traffic is a nightmare because everyone else on the road are literal idiots (so like real life I guess). Getting a motorcycle alleviates this problem by almost 90 percent due to being able to weave in and out of traffic and make sharper corners.

The VA for the voice of female V (Makoto from Persona 5, A2 from Nier Automata) freakin' killed it, I must say. I could feel every little emotion she was feeling to a point where it didn't seem like I was directing the conversations, but she was. Keanu as Johnny Silverhand was great too (when he felt unhinged he freakin' sounded like it. When he had those contemplative moments I felt it).

Side Quests are the bread and butter of this game. You never know when it's gonna be a simple 3 minute quest, or you'll start a 5 hour quest chain that feels deeper than any movie you'll watch that'll also unlock an ending choice later on in the game. I didn't 100% them though because there's just...way too many and I'd like to not get stuck on one game for too long this year (like I did in 2020).

My character focused primarily on Crafting and Quickhacking, so my instinctive nature to just go everywhere and loot everything after a fight was well rewarded.

I've lost my train of thought, like I usually do on these, so I'll wrap this up. I put 41 hours into this game (not counting deaths or CTDs) and highly enjoyed 94% of those minutes. I didn't spend money on this game, so perhaps that's coloring my more forgiving perception of this game (got it for Xmas), but even though I loved it I would not recommend people go out and buy it for another 3 months at the least. This Cyberpizza is still a bit frozen in the middle, and needs more time before it can be held up there with the greats.

 

[mattavelle1]

MH:Rise (demo) Switch

I don’t know if this counts but for me it does. Sooooooo I’ve played HH before as a secondary weapon, but I will start maining it as soon as the full Rise drops. I’m in love with it and the Switchaxe so far.

The reason I consider this one beat to me is this. I beat both the beginning monsters, and I beat all 3 intermediate monsters (meaning I beat the 2ndary monsters first then beat the Mitiz to finish the quest and solo by myself).

This game is already amazing to me I can’t wait for the full game to drop!

 

[Karkashan]

MH:Rise (demo) Switch

I don’t know if this counts but for me it does. Sooooooo I’ve played HH before as a secondary weapon, but I will start maining it as soon as the full Rise drops. I’m in love with it and the Switchaxe so far.

The reason I consider this one beat to me is this. I beat both the beginning monsters, and I beat all 3 intermediate monsters (meaning I beat the 2ndary monsters first then beat the Mitiz to finish the quest and solo by myself).

This game is already amazing to me I can’t wait for the full game to drop!

No I am not adding demos lol, although you're free to use the thread to get hyped about monhun.

 

[CitizenOfVerona]

Tales of Berseria (PS4)

This is my third Tales game in just over a year, apart of me thinks it's my favorite, apart of me thinks it's my least favorite.

Why favorite? The story and characters are top tier. At a certain point I was just hooked, gripping my controller dying to see what came next. The Tales games are known for optional "skits" that are visual novel style conversations between the party members, and these were great as always. I laughed quite a bit at this game. Even the comic relief cutesy cat character that could have been unbearable was one of my favorite characters. The story itself can be pretty dark and some scenes are messed up. The character's aren't your typical "gotta save the world with the power of friendship" gang either. Some of them work together because it's beneficial to their own selfish desires to align. Admittedly, the main character Velvet is a bit much at times with the edginess, but it was a great and memorable journey all the same. Returning to towns as the story progresses, with the townsfolk reacting to the horrible shit I've done makes the world feel alive.

Before the final showdown I did something I rarely do. At this point I was 60 hours in and I wasn't ready to see the credits. I whipped out a guide so I could do all the sidequests, see all the skits, and conclude every loose thread just to get more playtime with these characters. Granted, there is a post-game I haven't touched, usually when I see the main antagonist lose, the story end, the characters go there separate ways, I just get satisfied and don't have much desire to play more, there are some exceptions though.

Why my least favorite? These are some dull ass environments. Generic forest, generic beach, generic countryside, generic forest but the leaves are a different colour. There are next to no puzzles like in the other games, nothing exceptional to find, etc. I'm pretty sure I can grid out these levels on graph paper for D&D as well. Most of them are just corridors with a bigger square or rectangular room. Sometimes you'll have a field with multiple exits, but again, nothing exciting to look at. The only things to find are treasure chests and elite monsters. Symphonia's dungeons were great, Vesperia a step down, and this nothing exciting at all.

I'm also not a big fan of the gear system. It's alright, just tedious. Instead of going to a new area and finding/buying a better sword, or armor, or boots, you're encourage to upgrade your gear. So cool, I'll upgrade my sword to +3, and whoops, I just killed a monster and found a better sword, even with the +3. You find sooooo many repeats of the same gear that your inventory gets very clogged. This one might have a +4% earth damage attribute, and this one -5% paralysis, so nothing stacks in the menus. Can't just throw it all away because you can dismantle them, one at a time, for materials to upgrade gear, but on top of that, the more you upgrade gear the more you get in return when you dismantle. So much time in the menus just cleaning it all up, upgrading everything at least once to get precious materials. Sometimes the simple "new town, new sword" system is all you need.

So yeah, great story and characters, tedious menu-ing and dull environments. I probably would have stopped if the characters and story weren't as good as they were. This game is actually a prequel to the previous title, Zesteria, which I probably won't play, I hear it's less remarkable in most ways. Maybe one day, but I'm much more interested in the upcoming Tales of Arise.

 

[Karkashan]

This game is actually a prequel to the previous title, Zesteria, which I probably won't play, I hear it's less remarkable in most ways.

Zesteria is worth eventually playing for two reasons: it's set in the same world as Berseria so you get to see characters like Eizen's sister Edna etc and a lot of the skits are hilarious.

It also has a wacky camera and even blander environments than Berseria (says a lot that Berseria's dungeons are an improvement) and an ending plot that makes you roll your eyes at how anime it is.

 

[Karkashan]

Oh, right I almost forgot.

Amnesia: Rebirth (PC)

Fun. With a very large helping of
nononononononononononononononoohgodnonononononononononononononononononononononoohgodnonononononononononononononononononononononoohgodnonononononono

Having Tasi freak out about the dark when I was already doing that definitely made thing worse lol.

 

[Juegos]

Oh, right I almost forgot.

Amnesia: Rebirth (PC)

Fun. With a very large helping of
nononononononononononononononoohgodnonononononononononononononononononononononoohgodnonononononononononononononononononononononoohgodnonononononono

Having Tasi freak out about the dark when I was already doing that definitely made thing worse lol.

I think I played so much of Frictional Games right before Rebirth released that I was a little desensitized to their design, so it didn't scare me as much anymore. There's a chase sequence. Now comes the maze. Oh, this is that part where you are forced to go into a closed area where you already know the monster is lurking. Ah, yes, body horror. I bet the part where I'm forced to personally hurt someone innocent is coming up. And where's my old friend, horrifying implications? Ah, there he is. And so on. I love Frictional and wanted to write about all the ways that they weave various horror elements into their games, but I think I should have taken a short break before playing Rebirth, even though I did like it.

 

[CitizenOfVerona]

Dr. Mario (NS)

I was browsing the eshop, messing around with the system settings, looking at what people on my friend's list was playing, etc. Typical "I'm bored and not sure what I want to do" feeling. Saw Dr. Mario and figured I'd do a couple of rounds. Fast forward to 2 in the morning and I'm on round 15. Tonight I finished all 24 rounds, something I never thought I'd do. Lots of fun, stressful at times. Not sure if it's the controller or the game, but sometimes the button would double press on it's own, causing the pills to rotate an extra time, messing me up.

Zesteria is worth eventually playing for two reasons: it's set in the same world as Berseria so you get to see characters like Eizen's sister Edna etc and a lot of the skits are hilarious.

It also has a wacky camera and even blander environments than Berseria (says a lot that Berseria's dungeons are an improvement) and an ending plot that makes you roll your eyes at how anime it is.

Perhaps I'll give it a go one day. I do love rolling my eyes at anime.

 

[BobSilencieux]

Guacamelee 2 (NS)

I bought this game at least 18 months ago, maybe more, and for some reason never got round to playing it. I think I just wasn't very excited to play it, which makes me an idiot because I loved the first one and loved this one too! So much so that I got all the DLC and all the achievements... except one. Just gotta beat the game again on hard mode for a true100%.

 

[EvilTw1n]

Super Metroid (NS)

About 3-and-a-half hours, 60% items. Yeah, big surprise, ET beat Super again. But I wanted to compare Samus Returns to it. And tbh...SR has a lot going for it, in comparison. It's immediately easy to step into, control-wise, and the combat is just flat-out better.

OTOH, I always do a little dance with Super, where at first I try to play it with stock controls, and end up wondering "how is this game my GOAT?" Then I remap shoot/jump and it feels great, and the worries melt away when I get used to the momentum and weight of jumping.

But the combat simply isn't as fulfilling. The GBA games were snappier feeling, but just as spammy. SR, though, gave some much needed variety...to the point that this is the first time Super has ever felt like a step backwards in any department for me.

Super still wins out, of course. Better map, higher ceiling with movement mechanics, classic tunes, etc. But the crown is getting heavier, man.

 

[CitizenOfVerona]

Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (PC)
A Short Hike (NS)

Frog Detective 2 is an hour long detective game where you solve the case of a broken parade. An invisible wizard moved into town and the town wants to throw a welcome parade. The night before,, someone destroys it and it's up to you to crack the case. You talk to the townsfolk, find items they want and piece it together. That said, this is no Phoenix Wright, it's incredible basic and there's no real puzzle solving to be done.

That said, I love it to bits and I want everyone who still has a soul to play it. It's cheap and can run on a toaster (same goes for the first one). The dialogue is incredibly charming and funny. There's gonna be a third one, and my hope is that they'll bundle all three for consoles so more people can get eyes on it, regardless how low the required specs are for pc. Hell, I'd buy them again for Switch.

A Short Hike is a game about going out of town for a day to a park. Your task is to get to the summit of the mountain and all you need is around 7 golden feathers, the more feathers, the more times you can jump and the longer you can climb. How you get them is up to you. Buy them, find them, or help out your fellow park goers. There's hats to collect, a series of races to compete in, a new sport called beach stick ball, a fishing journal to fill out, and more. Someone lost their watch, someone lost there camping permit and wants to be legal again. You can dig up treasure, go treasure hunting with a few clues, find sea shells, etc. To 100% it it can take 4 hours or so, and a lot of it doesn't even help you reach the summit, but I fucking loved this game.

It's such a chill game. I played in handheld mode with headphones and it was such a cozy experience. Like the main character who tends to over worry (hey! like me) the game is about forgetting all the troubles from the city life and just going at your own pace on this island. A lot of the characters already know you by name so the game already has a sense of community. There's no combat, and if you just rush it then I can see why some wouldn't like it, but I can't recommend it enough as a "unwind" game.

I wanted to talk about these two games together for that reason. Both of these games are a good way to decompress and have a laugh along the way. Hell, A Short Hike got a bit too close to home at the end when you reach the summit.

I get in these moods sometimes, usually after playing huge games like Tales of Beseria, but sometimes I just gotta buy a bunch of indie games. That's where the interesting stuff can be found most of the time these days. If Ubisoft made A Short Hike I can guarantee you you can buy gold feathers with real money, and the game would just give you a map with all the objectives listed on it from the get go instead of exploring at your own pace. Rabble rabble modern AAA gaming rabble.

Anyways yeah, these games are lovely.

 

[Karkashan]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (NS)

Playing through my backer copy finally. As good as the underlying game is, and as many improvements they've made to the game via updates, I will probably never play this version again considering I own it on PC/PS4/Xbox.

 

[Karkashan]

Kill la Kill If (NS)

Power went off for close to two hours so I was playing something I had downloaded already on my switch. This game is fairly short but was enjoyable to go through.

 

[CitizenOfVerona]

Chrono Trigger (PC)

I played this in college and thought it was okay. I've been meaning to play it for a long time now to see if I was missing something. I do like it more now but it still isn't my favorite JRPG or SNES game. I think my main issue is similar to Secret of Mana's in how the characters don't have much to say or do after their introduction missions. The in-game explanation of why you can only have three in your party is that more than three people can't travel through time together. So since Crono is mute and you can take any other 2 characters for the most part, they often just say generic lines.

When you're forced to take a certain character, the writing really shines, I wanted to see more of that. I'd rather if every character could travel together just to see them bounce off each other. Oh well. Everything else is pretty dang good. Imaginative story, fun battle system, and possibly the most beautiful SNES game.

Though, the last two boss fights can get fucked. I hate when final bosses in RPGs just spam their most powerful moves as a cheap way to make it difficult. Fuck that.

 

[Karkashan]

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Fusion Mode can fuck right off holy shit.