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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on Yesterday at 08:27:40 PM »

The deed is done. Fatal Frame 2 Remake 100% completed.

The first and probably last time I will ever do that with a game in this series.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 11, 2026, 10:10:31 PM »

Finally, I did start up the Shantae GBC game, and I played through to Water Town. So far, I think this game absolutely sucks. Yes, it looks great for a GBC game, but so far this is a more punishing game than I expected. The game has no in-game map, areas are huge, enemy hit detection is somewhat suspect, enemies are pretty numerous, health drops are fairly rare, and items are expensive.

So I don't know where I'm going, the areas between towns never seem to end, and the entire process is going to be a battle of attrition. Great. -_-

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 11, 2026, 10:06:39 PM »

Between grinding runs of Fatal Frame 2 Remake, I've been dabbling with a few other games:

Graveyard Keeper - I'm labeling this one a PC game, as despite me playing the PS4 version I only know this game exists because my best friend got sucked into it a few years ago. The game's sequel just got announced, so in honor of that the developer made the original free on all platforms for the next few days.

I put a few hours into it and...yeah, I dunno about this one. At first glance, this looks like your standard Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley knockoff. Your character's a graveyard keeper, so you spend your time keeping the graveyard...in theory. You cut down trees, break rocks, grab materials, build infrastructure, etc. for the task of fixing the yard and disposing of bodies.

Here's the problem, though: this genre thrives upon having a gameplay loop, a set of routines you follow every day towards getting various tasks done. Graveyard Keeper has no loop. There are no crops you're tending, and the dead aren't going anywhere. You never need to sleep unless you want to recover stamina. They don't even get delivered every day like you'd expect. And there's so much **** unlocked within menus and menus WITHIN menus that it's very easy to think you made a mistake somewhere and got permanently stuck because you need a resource you have no means of making. In fact, I started the game over after a few hours for exactly that reason, only to find out later that the character progression menu you open has multiple tabs of additional unlocks you can invest into.

See why I'm calling this a PC game? Needless bullshit is exactly what I associate with PC gaming.

Even when you aren't running into problems with the interface, early on there's just nothing to DO. I would spend most of every day running around the environment just looking for SOMETHING I could interact with in order to get the process moving. This isn't like your typical farming sim where you spend those early days clearing your land so you can start planting your crops. You START with a fully-functional graveyard. You just have to FIX the broken graves IN it, which requires crafted materials.

Oh, and each main NPC is only available on certain days of the week in certain locations. It looks like the main goal of the game is to advance their respective quest chains, but to advance them you need...of course...crafted materials you have no idea how to make or what you can use to make them.

Just such a bizarre farming game. It even has farming IN it, but bizarrely it doesn't look like you ever need to water your crops?

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 11, 2026, 09:49:48 PM »

Got the final ending in Fatal Frame 2 remake and bought/fully upgraded all the charms. For the most part, this ending is identical to the last ending I saw, aside from an epilogue that's rather hopeful in tone. So much, in fact, that the title screen becomes permanently updated to be more pleasant as a result.

So, I have gripes about the unlocks in this game. When you obtain the final ending, you earn the right to buy the last 2 charms in the game, and they are powerful: the charm that gives you unlimited ammo, and the charm that makes every photo you take a Fatal Frame. This basically lets you run through the game stunlocking ghosts to death, and it's very satisfying. However, each charm is 500,000 points. Now, Nightmare gives you a ton of points for combat, not to mention bonus points for each key item you grab again that you already have. I had 2 Million points by the end of my Nightmare run, so I was fine to buy those and to buy all the remaining charms in their Level 1 form.

It cost the better part of another million points to fully upgrade those. The point economy in this game is just fucked, most epitomized in the unlockable costumes. You don't just "get" those. You have to buy them once you've met certain ending conditions.

This is a game firmly based around replay, as fully upgrading the camera takes an absolutely absurd number of prayer beads and transcendence beads. The former spawn on every difficulty, though mostly on story and up to 80 at most. They barely spawn at all on Nightmare, though 13 transcendence beads become available.

You need 420 prayer beads and 50 transcendence beads to fully upgrade the camera. Well, if you have to replay the game that much to fully upgrade the camera, at least you can do it with those unlockable costumes for variety, right?

...right?

3 Million points.

That's not for all of them. That's for one of them, and Mio and Mayu each have 3 costumes, plus a number of headgear pieces.

I remind you, my point total from my Nightmare run was 2 million points, and I needed to spend that on my "reward" for finishing the mode.

Why do the costumes cost such an absurd amount? NO player will EVER buy them. Why would they when you could buy prayer beads, transcendence beads, or charms to make your camera stronger?

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TalkBack / Re: Rhythm Heaven Groove Releasing July 2

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on April 09, 2026, 12:53:05 PM »

Is it me, or does the voice in the trailer sound like Monita from Nintendo Land?

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by broodwars on April 07, 2026, 09:34:58 PM »

I don't think I'm going to be able to fulfill the requirements of the scenario, but what the hell. Let's talk about the latest Fatal Frame 2 remake.

Playing this on PS5?

Yes.

As an aside, there are a few games I have my eye on that I started playing a few days ago just for a break from Fatal Frame (Nightmare difficulty lives up to its name):

Switch

- Astral Chain (on Chapter 9. Been playing it off and on for months)
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (about 3/4 of the way through. Beat the PS4 version ages ago, but the Switch version's been my lunch game when time permits.

N64 (via PS5 remaster)

- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (cleared the first level a few days ago)

GameCube (via Switch Online)

- Wario World (like Turok, cleared the first stage a few days ago)

GBC (via PS5 remaster)

- Shantae (haven't started this one yet, but I've been collecting the Shantae games and have played maybe 2 of them)

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on April 07, 2026, 09:34:14 PM »

I completed Gunfright via Rare Replay on Xbox One. How many more of these ZX Spectrum games are there? Looks like just two more. This was the last one chronologically and is different enough from the others. This has the usual 5 stamps and 5 snapshots like the others and is easily wrapped up in a few hours if you are using save states, rewind, or infinite lives. Not using any of those would be quite frustrating as the shoot out part of this is really tough.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on April 07, 2026, 09:26:15 PM »

My Switch game for the month (yes, I am going to be semantic about it)

I am going to try to boot up the old 3DS and sink some time into a smaller game

That is how you do 4 on 4! I am working on a Switch 2 follow up to my switch game. Also working on a 3DS game.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on April 07, 2026, 09:22:56 PM »

I don't think I'm going to be able to fulfill the requirements of the scenario, but what the hell. Let's talk about the latest Fatal Frame 2 remake.

Playing this on PS5?

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« Last post by Evan_B on April 05, 2026, 11:56:20 AM »

I’m hoping to complete a few games this month, so I’ll throw my hat in here.

While I’ve played the majority of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven as a Nintendo Switch 2 edition, I am going to try to make my Switch 2 release of the month Pragmata. I’m assuming that it will be more of a replayable, arcade-ish experience based on the demo’s time-trial nature, but we’ll see if it clocks in over 15 hours.

My Switch game for the month (yes, I am going to be semantic about it) is Haste, which I’ve already put some time into since its release on Thursday. It’s a roguelite parkour game from the folks that made Crumble, featuring an inscrutable plot and very nice character art. There’s some things I love about it and some things that irk me a bit, the former being the adrenaline rush of weaving through obstacles at high speeds and getting some silly combinations of items to extend the longevity of your run, the latter being the inscrutable ranking system and very obvious “run killer” terrain, which you need to have enough speed/energy/momentum to just glide past rather than attempting to land.

I am going to try to boot up the old 3DS and sink some time into a smaller game like Drancia Saga or Olli Olli, though I do have a few 3DS games on the backlog worth looking into, such as Ever Oasis or Kirby: Planet Robobot. I’ve already put some time in the latter so maybe that doesn’t count, and the former is a full-length JRPG…

As for my Analogue Pocket, I am going to try out some new games! Specifically, I am excited to give the recently released Dragonyhm a try- I know, a Game Boy Color release in 2025? This one has a nice, nostalgic art style that I think is really the main appeal for me, but who knows.

And finally, if some of you folks can’t get behind the Switch 2/Switch split, I will be trying to beat Black Hole Havoc on the Playdate. It’s a simple breakout-like about matching the size of your “ball” to the “block” you’re trying to clear. The art style is delightfully absurd.