Week of 23 Oct 2022
“Absolutely, nameless urchin!”
Achievements Earned In:
- Asura’s Wrath 🎮
- Disney Dreamlight Valley ☁
- Foul Play 🎮
- Metro 2033 Redux 🎮
- Scarlet Nexus ☁
This week marked the end of the extent of Asura’s Wrath, sating the raging beast. Really all I had left was the add-on content, of which there are three pieces: an additional episode (the true ending? for shame, Capcom) and two encounters with characters from… Street Fighter IV? And the game turns into a 2D fighter?! EW! No wonder why I was tipped off this was an annoying part of the completion. Each of the “Lost Episodes” start with a brawl using the aforementioned fighting game’s engine, but for some reason it’s a janky version, where Asura controls like he does in this game and Ryu/Akuma control like they’re in a well-polished fighting game. What this means is that they can combo and block and counter and get around really well while Asura handles like dookie and gets owned the entire time. This is annoying as-is, but then you have challenges you have to clear for the single achievement in each DLC, and WHO BOY are those a pain that essentially come down to dumb luck. Like, you can execute the correct sequence of button presses you need to get that flawless win, but in the middle of your combo the AI can just decide it’s had enough of that noise and use an unblockable ultimate attack on you and ruin it. You have that challenge with both episodes, along with having to defeat each fighter in under 40 seconds; this is also annoying because their long, drawn-out special move animation counts against you. It was definitely unfair and frustrating and rage-tastic, but I managed to succeed and sent this game packing. Overall, I highly recommend this one. It is such an underrated title from two gens ago that is backwards compatible, so you have no reason to not try it.
Achievements unlocked: 53 (+5) | Completed
Wait, what game am I playing?!
God dang it. I absolutely did not mean to “start” Disney Dreamlight Valley yet, though I’ve been playing it since release in the beginning of September. I wanted to “complete” the game all at once, unlocking all of its achievements in one go. See, the achievements aren’t actually tied to gathering vegetables or mining, instead actually being tied to the in-game Dreamlight Duties progression system. So, while you may have finished your grind to give 540 gifts to the various residents, you won’t actually unlock the achievement until you go into the menu and manually complete the “Bring Gifts!” Dreamlight Duty. This allows you to effectively control when you unlock achievements. My mistake is that I didn’t realize repairing Kristoff’s stall would count towards the “Repair Stalls” Duty, since the corresponding achievement specifically states it’s for unlocking “all of Goofy's Stalls” in the description. “GOOFY”. See my confusion? With two zones I haven’t even bothered unlocking yet, I definitely didn’t think I had completed the duty when I clicked on it. It’s 100% my own fault for not thinking, but whatever, what’s done is done. I’ve been playing almost daily besides, and have been going around mining, gardening, having daily discussions, fishing, and cooking while bringing along one of the residents. If I ran out of quests to do with the current crop of villagers or in the zones I had unlocked, I’d expand and unlock more and repeat the cycle. If I wanted to I could actually unlock another five longer achievements right now, but I’m determined to pop as many as I can at once later on. The game does currently have an unobtainable achievement, since there’s just legit not enough characters in the game. But that’ll be fixed down the road as more content is added. The game is in Early Access, after all. It’s a lot of fun and effectively fills the Animal Crossing shaped hole in my Xbox gaming life.
Achievements unlocked: 1 (+1) | Completion: 7%
I’ve actually got a nice little setup going.
With Asura’s wrath finally fizzled out, it was time for my next Dive game: Foul Play. When I started it back in July, I realized quickly that it’s a side-scrolling beat ‘em up that heavily emphasizes combos and score. These can always be either very annoying completions or pretty smooth ones once you get the hang of it. And, I’m happy to say this is definitely of the latter variety! And that’s always a sense of relief when you realize something is going to be much easier than anticipated. The game is fun little jaunt through a stage play, which based on the artwork I thought would lead to the main character being kidnapped and forced into performing for demons or something. But, no, it’s just an elaborate stage-play the entire time. The combat is very forgiving and allows you to combo to your heart’s delight to rack up the score. Honestly, getting a five-star score on every stage is only difficult in a single spot; otherwise, it’s a very easy ask. The one stage in question is the second boss fight, which doesn’t have many small enemies coming out to combo off of and a boss that will constantly interrupt said combos. Took some doing (and frustration), but I managed to clear it. The only other difficulty in the completion is the challenges, which are usually just having to get a certain number of combo in the stage or defeating a larger enemy last in any given scenario. This was another part of the completion where it wasn’t very difficult throughout besides a single standout: getting four Perfect Scenes in the first stage of Part 3. I just kept getting interrupted and it was giving me fits. You have about four easy waves of enemies to try for, and then they start adding larger enemies or multiple waves of enemies that make success more difficult. There’s no achievement for completing all the challenges, but clearing them unlocks Charms, which you do need to collect all of. I found the game pretty fun overall, and a pleasantly short completion which I wrapped up on Wednesday.
Achievements unlocked: 30 (+28) | Completed
You’d best stop spitting that hokum, you weak sister, or you’ll get right zotzed, ya follow?
My plan this week was to move to Metro 2033 Redux as my next “big” Dive game to work on. I jumped in on Thursday to get a quick achievement, but that was only after getting home after TommyToday took me out to get hammered on Halloween cocktails at the local “barcade”. Sadly, things took a turn on Friday and I didn’t manage to get back to it this week.
Achievements unlocked: 2 (+1) | Completion: 91%
So, that “turn” mentioned above was my spouse developing a critical case of aspiration pneumonitis and my having to rush her back to Mayo for treatment. It was only supposed to be a day or two, but her health took a nosedive and complications forced her into the ICU, meaning her stay has probably been lengthened three-fold. Gaming-wise, this meant I needed another Cloud game to play two hours removed from my Xbox and with no direct streaming options. While I could have coasted off playing Race with Ryan sparingly to keep my streak going, my spouse was under sedation and I’d be just sitting around waiting for updates and “just coasting” didn’t sit well with me. I decided to pick a longer game, something I could just play and play, something that I wouldn’t be able to sufficiently go “Valaking” in, and based on estimates it looks like a longer title that may leave the service sooner rather than later is Scarlet Nexus. I’ve had my eye on this one since it was annouced, as it’s a sleek anime-styled action game and those are usually a fun time. And, while it definitely has fun action in spades, it’s lacking in the other area these games tend to excel: the cutscenes. It’s an anime game, so there should be really well-animated scenes between all the action. Instead, there’s just still images with text and voiceovers for 90% of the time. They outright dropped the ball, stepped on it, fell on their face, and then somehow also knocked the ball down a sewer drain. It’s such a shame because then there is the rare fully animated cinematic it really looks lovely. And, while I said the combat was cool, it has that certain je ne sais quoi that some AA-level Japanese games have that makes the stages and world feel just one the empty side of lived in. I love it in games like Dead Rising 2. Not so much here. Maybe it’s because we expect more nowadays in our game worlds, but it’s not super distracting or anything. Just noticeable. Completion-wise, it looks like I’ll just have to run through the game twice: once with one character (I chose Yuito to start) and then once with the other. You can crank the difficulty down to a recently-added Very Easy level and skate through the game, so it’s really just a matter of time. No guides needed, either, since there aren’t any collectibles or anything. A nice little game I can just zone out with.
Achievements unlocked: 12 (+12) | Completion: 23%
