January
![Ahnuld :anhuld](http://www.thebore.com/forum/Smileys/default/arnie_zpsc096c10b.png)
look what you can do if not every game is bloated to 50 hours
Dragon Quest Swords - Imagine Skywardsword with all the bullshit cut out and much more fun enemy variety. The main series bores me to tears for some reason, but I enjoy some of these DQ spinoffs quite a bit. I really enjoy this concept of a motion controlled arcade light JRPG that has the atmosphere of the main series to back it up. Sadly this only works with the inferior original Wiimote, but they did their best to make motion controls work okay-ish. It relies too heavily on grinding towards the end, but in the end it didn't even bother me that much - battling was just that fun.
Death Stranding - The game's story turns to shit quickly, but the atmosphere is impeccable. The gameplay is good. You'll like it if you enjoy the sections inbetween bosses in Shadows of the Colossus and Resident Evil item management
![such doge :doge](http://www.thebore.com/forum/Smileys/default/doge.png)
It should've been a little harder though and offer more climbing tools, instead of making redundant shooting sections. And cut some of the backtracking.
Final Fantasy Dissidia 012 - This features decent 3D brawling with JRPG shenigans on top of it. I might go back to it if I liked the PSP more than I do. Way too overcomplicate a simple concept with nonsense terminology, confusing UI and bad tutorials though.
The Ninja Saviours Return - I didn't play Ninja Warriors prior. It's a good beat'em'up, even though some characters are blatantly less fun to use than others. The new spritework is great, like if it was top-tier work made for either PS1 or NeoGeo. Yet the settings are a little bland, most of it is indistinguishable industrial areas, with only a few exceptions. The soundtrack is more remarkable however.
Pac Pix, replay - Weird how this concept wasn't ever picked up again for mobile. Drawing Pac-Men is a decent idea, but there was still room for improvement.
Contra 4 - This was the first time I've finished the campaign in one go. I only did the missions back in the day, which were hard enough as is. As solid as this game is, the campaign is a little too long, which makes retries more tiresome than they need to be. I don't think anyone would've missed the 3D stages if they were cut.
A.I. The Somnium Files - It's like a longer case of Ace Attorney, though it eventually gets much crazier. Playing a modern Visual Novel of that style felt refreshing, as well as protagonists above the age of 16
![such doge :doge](http://www.thebore.com/forum/Smileys/default/doge.png)
Too bad the art direction makes them look like teens anyway. There's a few action comedy bits that don't fit the tone at all, but overall it has a good narrative. The true ending is shit as well as the idol sidekick - two things that weren't considered for the game at first, too bad they made bad decisions here and backpedaled.
Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse - I like how this becomes Castlevania in the final level. Overall, this has a lot of charm and variety for its release date. The pacing and the learning curve are nice. It's a little weird at first how Mickey almost controls like a Gameboy game with his slow ass jump, but it's easy to get used it. I played a little bit of World of Illusion afterwards and it doesn't seem like it can keep up, despite the game pushing 16 bit graphics quite far.
Castlevania - Ever since I caught up on Rondo of Blood I've been giving Classicvania another chance and enjoying significantly more than back in the day. This game too doesn't feel nearly as clunky as I remember. It's pretty nice actually. I enjoy how compact it is, while it already nails the important basics of later entries.
Hellblade - This might be first of these cinematic corridor games to have an innovative and actual great narrative that doesn't suffer from ludonarrative dissonance or whatever you call it. This could've been a masterpiece if the puzzles and exploration weren't so cookie-cutter. Imagine a viking Silent Hill and the best thing you come up with is Uncharted corridors
![Sad :(](http://www.thebore.com/forum/Smileys/default/sad.gif)
It actually has some neat puzzle concepts, the difficulty just stays so painfully vanilla for so long. Thankfully the gameplay eventually becomes a little more varied and deep towards the end - the horror parts are fantastic. The battles are pretty good throughout though.