Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP; Completed 1-3-22) [First Time]
Notes: Just the Rondo remake, not SotN or the original Rondo. Took a bit to get used to the controls, but it's definitely a fun game, a solid remake, and probably the best old-school-style Castlevania. I played through it primarily as Maria, simply since she's easier to use, but I might try again as Richter someday.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSP; Completed 1-14-22) [Replay]
Notes: This is the version unlockable via Dracula X Chronicles, which I wanted to play to see how different it was from the PSX original. The answer? Not much. New voice acting and dialogue, a new ending song replacing I Am the Wind, the two previously Japan-only Familiars restored, a handful of typos and misspellings fixed, and a Rondo of Blood-style child Maria as a playable character... but otherwise, it's the same as the original. Even some of the glitches still work! 200.6% completion (or rather, 200.9%, since I glitched into the room below the gate), naturally.
Shining Force 3 (Saturn) [First Time]
-Scenario 1 (Completed 2-4-22)
-Scenario 2 (Completed 2-24-22)
-Scenario 3 (Completed 3-13-22)
Notes: Man. *Man*. This game was incredible. Right up there with Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre for the best strategy RPGs I've ever played... it took me nigh on two months to complete this massive, underrated gem, and I loved it *all*. It's just a *damn* shame only the first scenario saw an English release, and Sega/Camelot seem to have no interest in bringing it to modern hardware. Still, the fan translation was top notch, and worked perfectly. Moreover, any "flaws" with the game, outside of a few really obnoxious battles in scenario 2, would just be pedantic nitpicking. If you like strategy RPGs, you *owe* it to yourself to play this game! The *whole* game! As an aside, this was the first Saturn game I ever played. Woo!
LEGO Lord of the Rings (PC; Completed 3-29-22) [First Time]
Notes: A fun, rompy collectathon, a nice palette cleanser after the previous game. Wasn't very difficult, which was to be expected, but I still had a good time with it. I only managed 99.2% completion, however, due to a glitch keeping me from getting one last item, which in turn would unlock a few other things. Sadness.
Dragon Quest 5 (DS; Completed 4-12-22) [Replay]
Notes: Replay using a hack that modifies various things, most notably making monsters significantly easier to recruit. It did have the side effect of making an already not terribly difficult game even easier... but it was still fun, and very nice not having to deal with 1/64 or even 1/256 recruitment rates. I also, after much effort, cleared that blasted postgame T'n'T board. Hooray!
Ys Origin (PC; Completed 4-29-22) [First Time]
Notes: Only finished the Yunica path; I'll do the other two in the future. A solid action RPG, though it doesn't exactly stand out in any significant ways, and it's highly linear and formulaic. It's also really weird playing an Ys game and *not* controlling Adol. Contrary to most Ys games, though, the bosses were actually quite a lot of fun.
CrossCode (PC; Completed 5-16-22) [Replay]
Notes: Picked up a (fairly early on) New Game+ save I'd sort of let sit there for a while, and also completed the DLC and other new content. My overall opinion of the game has improved significantly since my initial playthrough; there's a *lot* of depth here, and the game does a good job of providing you with options for a number of completely viable character builds. The puzzles and boss fights are also, for the most part, highlights... but despite all the positives, it still does have its flaws. Namely, some of the (fortunately optional) sidequests are absolutely horrible... and the DLC *expands* on most of the worst of them, for some god-forsaken reason. Also, I maintain that enemy attacks are simply too fast, numerous, and accurate (those physics-defying mid-air bends in enemy jumps or projectiles, hooray!) to make dodging attacks -- seemingly the way the game *wants* to be played -- viable for anyone except those with very good twitch reflexes... Nevertheless, a few quibbles (that can be overcome) do not mar what is otherwise a fantastic game that any action RPG fan should experience.
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP; Completed 6-25-22) [First Time/Replay]
Notes: This was actually a modified version of the game with numerous quality of life tweaks. Nothing that radically altered the game, but it did things like allowing you to fight or skip random battles as you please, control Guests in battle, and find all the multiplayer-exclusive items in the main game. This was also my first attempt at the PSP version, having played the PSX original many times. The new translation, while a bit flowery, is certainly better, and I definitely understood the plot a lot more. The new cutscenes and battles didn't amount to much, but did help in fleshing out a few characters that were underdeveloped in the original. All in all, a good time. Just make sure to go with the generically-named but incredibly useful "
War of the Lions Tweak" if you play this game.
SteamWorld Dig (PC; Completed 7-5-22) [First Time]
Notes: A short, simple, if a tad repetitive, little game... Yet, fun, and surprisingly relaxing. Someone suggested I try the second game, but as I hadn't played the first, I figured I'd check it out. Glad I did.
SteamWorld Dig 2 (PC; Completed 7-9-22) [First Time]
Notes: Fundamentally similar to the first game, but a hell of a lot bigger and more robust, with actual dungeon design and platforming challenges, over just "digging for resources". I 100%'d the main game, but after a single attempt at the obnoxious bonus dungeon, I decided against ramming my head against *that* mess. Fun game, though!
Breath of Fire 4 (PSX; Completed 8-22-22) [Replay]
Notes: Still has a slow-paced beginning, and lacks the "oomph" of Breath of Fire 3, but solid gameplay makes this one fun to play nevertheless. I actually managed to get every dropped item this time... even the legendary Goo King Sword! Hooray! This replay took me a while, due to periods of inactivity related to illness and general stress/depression, but I got through it in the end.
Star Ocean: The Second Story (PSX; Completed 9-17-22) [Replay]
Notes: As janky and button mashy as I remember! While the replay of BOF4 was just sort of happenstance, this one began a trend of me just wanting to replay old games due to stress from real life issues. It worked out well enough. I can't say I love it as much as I did as a kid, but SO2 is still a fun game in its own right.
Final Fantasy 9 (PSX; Completed 10-15-22) [Replay]
Notes: And another game I often replay in troubled times. It's like comfort food. Like coming home. Like... one of my favorite games of all time, and I still love it. Yes'm.
Dragon Quest 6 (DS; Completed 11-9-22) [Replay]
Notes: Continuing the replay theme, though unlike the others, I'd only played this game once, a long time ago, didn't remember a lot of it, and never finished the bonus dungeon on my previous attempt. This time... I did. While I'd put this as the weakest of the three DS DQ remakes, and its job system is really clunky, unbalanced, and breaks the game wide opened... it's still an above average RPG, and Dragon Quest is always a good experience.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS; Competed 11-26-22) [Replay]
Notes: Just felt like having a 100% save on emulator. I'll redo it for Hard Mode sometime later. I actually maxed out every soul that *can* be leveled, which I'd never done before. So hey.
Vandal Hearts (Saturn; Completed 11-29-22) [Replay/First Time]
Notes: A fan translation of the obscure Saturn port. Despite apparently being hard to emulate, Mednafen handled it near perfectly... just a few odd cases of enemies (and Vandalier Ash) having broken palettes. For the most part, it's the same game as PSX, with a few minor tweaks, such as every mage class losing a generic spell and gaining a new exclusive one, but it did feature new content... albeit, entirely as a series of postgame bonus battles, which were unfortunately very easy... but they all had new music, and were still fun enough. Beyond that... well, it's Vandal Hearts. A game I rather love both because of and in spite of its relative simplicity.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA; Completed 12-19-22) [Replay]
Notes: It's after the fact, but hey, I was gone for most of December! Anyway, watching Roahm Mythril's LP of this game made me want to replay it. So I did. Still probably the weakest of the Metroidvania-style Castlevanias, but not bad.
LEGO The Hobbit (PC; Completed 12-30;22) [First Time]
Notes: Much like Lego LotR, a nice fun little romp. Better mechanically than LotR, but not as engaging, since I'm less familiar with the lore of the Hobbit than I am LotR. Still, this time, I actually did *not* run into any glitches, and managed 100%! Yay! The Lego games are fun.