What Games Have You Completed? (2024 Edition!)

1. Megaman V (GB)
2. Liberation Maiden (3DS)
3. The Starship Damrey (3DS)
4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
5. Doom Eternal (PC)
6. System Shock (2023)
7. Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)
8. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
9. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (PC)
10. Princess Maker Refine (PC)
11. Metal Slug 1st Mission (Neo Geo Pocket Colour)
12. Metroid Prime Remaster (Switch)
13. Valkyria Chronicles 3 (PSP)
14. Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (PC)
15. Elite Beat Agents (DS)
16. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
17. Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! (PC)
18. Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (PC)
19. Tomb Raider 3 (PC)
20. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PC)
21. Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer

The mystery dungeon series has left quite a mark on the modern videogame industry. Chunsoft developed the series as a spin-off of dragon quest featuring the popular DQ4 shopkeeper Torneko. They had chosen to develop the game based on the rpg classic rogue which caused a lot of turmoil within the company. Owing to the dragon quest license, and the game being a lot of fun, it was a. Big success in Japan.

Chunsoft, realising they had a hit series on their hands but also not owning the Dragon Quest IP decided that they would create their own IP, creating their Shiren the Wanderer character and IP for their own use. Chunsoft would farm out the Mystery Dungeon concept to publishers and adapt them to their own IP, most famously the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, but they could now create mystery dungeon games under their own Shiren the Wanderer IP that they fully owned.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer would receive a fan translation which would end up influencing many of the indie developers of the late 00's who loved Shiren's more approachable take on the rogue genre and lead to the indie scene's love affair with rogue-likes, lites and rogue elements.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer is an updated port of the SNES original with a few new features. The game task Shiren to reach the top of Table Mountain. After 30 floors of dungeon exploring he can reach the top of the mountain and uncover the secret of the famed El Dorado.

Like any rogue game, Shiren starts each run at level 1 and must procure items and equipment from the randomly generated dungeons. Death comes quickly to those that aren't careful and will send you back to the starting village losing all you exp and items. Unlike classic rogue, some permanency is introduced as you carry out runs. Towns along the way will identify new items and feature shops, blacksmiths and storage rooms where you can safely store items between runs. Side quests appear that will introduce more permanent features, such as party members, new advances items or new features to each town. If you are having trouble you could just slowly build up some powerful equipment and storm to the games ending, although it's more fun and perfectly feasible to start from scratch.

The main quest is a lot of fun. The game has a way of creating narrative from its randomised components in a way that the best rogue likes can. What sets Shiren apart from the competition is something Chunsoft learned from their time making dragon quest. The bestiary of enemies is superb, many have abilities that can cause you to re-evaluate and strategies what you thought was a solid plan. You can't be complacent here as the enemies always pose a serious danger. Get put to sleep at the wrong moment or lose an important piece of equipment and you can kiss your comfy run goodbye.

Reaching the end of the main quest should take about 20 hours but as with all mystery dungeon games, the real game only starts in the post game. The post game opens up new dungeons to tackle. One continues the main quest to 99 floors. 2 more dungeons open up that represent an even tougher experience than the main quest. Each of these will require you to craft weapons and armour before taking them on otherwise you will have no chance. The grind sounds annoying but honestly the weapon crafting was massively addicting for me. Even with the best armour and weapons you have to be careful because of the devious traps and enemies.

Two further dungeons open that serve as an introduction to two new items that completely change how the game plays. A 'food' dungeon gives you a weapon that turns enemies into their meat. Eating said meat will turn you into that enemy and you can use their special abilities. The other introduces the trap bracelet that lets you pick up traps and use them against enemies. This is the only way to get decent experience from enemies but trap multipliers can reward you with massive experience gains.

Finally the toughest challenge of the game is 99 floor dungeon that sticks to the rules of rogue. You start from lvl 1 and all items must be identified by your own intuition. Needless to say there's a massive amounts of content and all of it is excellent.

What really stands out to me is how the game presents itself. The game has a puzzle mode that teaches you how to play that game and take advantage of its many systems. I love how you can always see the dungeon map as a transparent layer over the main play field. I think the game could have taken advantage of the twin screens of the DS by having the item menu on the bottom screen instead of a world map that doesn't give any useful information. Its a great looking game although I do have one issue here, the DS screen is lower resolution than the SNES and the view is zoomed in meaning you can identify enemies approaching from above or below as fast as in the original game. The DS version has an online component that allows players to reduce you if you die. Of course this is long defunct but you can use an offline password and there is a password generator if you need help. The soundtrack by Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama is absolutely fantastic. It uses a real earworm of a light motif throughout and gets more dark and ominous as you venture deeper into the dungeons.

Honestly I had an absolute blast with this game and got seriously addicted to it. I still haven't finished the final rogue like dungeon but it's probably something I'll return to form a few runs whenever I pick up the DS. Shiren 6 is now on the Switch (I don't see why this won't have a multiformat or at least PC release at some point) and Shiren 5 is on PC if you want to try Shiren on a modern platform. You really should.

1. Megaman V (GB)
2. Liberation Maiden (3DS)
3. The Starship Damrey (3DS)
4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
5. Doom Eternal (PC)
6. System Shock (2023)
7. Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)
8. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
9. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (PC)
10. Princess Maker Refine (PC)
11. Metal Slug 1st Mission (Neo Geo Pocket Colour)
12. Metroid Prime Remaster (Switch)
13. Valkyria Chronicles 3 (PSP)
14. Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (PC)
15. Elite Beat Agents (DS)
16. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
17. Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! (PC)
18. Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (PC)
19. Tomb Raider 3 (PC)
20. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PC)
21. Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)
22. Contra 4 (DS)
23. Metal Slug: 2nd Mission (Neo Geo Pocket Colour)
24. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PC)

Metal Slug: 2nd Mission

This is the kind of game that makes you feel sorry for the poor Neo Geo Pocket Colour. It didn't find the audience it deserved despite the high quality of the software on the system.

While I really enjoyed the first NGPC Metal Slug, 2nd Mission takes that framework and just refines it until it's near perfect. The sound effects and music are better. The animation, spritework and background art is incredible. There's about twice as many stages with more bosses and two (three if you count the unlockable one) playable characters each with their own weapons, unique stages and routes through the game.

The game is a wonderful, almost Nintendo-esque dilution of the Metal Slug arcade game into a portable handheld game. There's a huge amount of variety in stages and there's loads of replay value with hidden routes and stages to find. It's one of the all time great handheld games.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Not a whole lot to say. It's more Elden Ring. The smaller area and play time actually suits the game, it's more in line with a Dark Souls game and I never felt like the game was dragging like Elden Ring did in the back half. The quality has been kept high throughout the whole DLC. I did however find it a bit of a cake walk once I found my groove again. No boss posed much of a challenge, and a lot of the challenge came from enemies and obstacles in the field.

On the other hand there's the final boss who is a massive difficulty spike. There's ways to respec or try a different weapon to help but his second phase is just a little bit insane and definitely the toughest boss From have made yet. I can see why there is such a negativity around this boss.

1. Megaman V (GB)
2. Liberation Maiden (3DS)
3. The Starship Damrey (3DS)
4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
5. Doom Eternal (PC)
6. System Shock (2023)
7. Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)
8. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
9. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (PC)
10. Princess Maker Refine (PC)
11. Metal Slug 1st Mission (Neo Geo Pocket Colour)
12. Metroid Prime Remaster (Switch)
13. Valkyria Chronicles 3 (PSP)
14. Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (PC)
15. Elite Beat Agents (DS)
16. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
17. Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! (PC)
18. Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (PC)
19. Tomb Raider 3 (PC)
20. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PC)
21. Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)
22. Contra 4 (DS)
23. Metal Slug: 2nd Mission (Neo Geo Pocket Colour)
24. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PC)
25. Ys: Memories of Celceta (PC)

Ys: Memories of Celceta

Falcom are the king's of action RPGs, nobody does them better and Memories of Celceta further solidifies this position. However, despite this being a fantastic game in its own right, of the Ys series I've played, this is one of the weaker ones.

Memories of Celceta is a remake/reimagining of Ys 4 which has its own weird history. Demand for a fourth Ys game was huge but Falcon couldn't support the development of a new entry at the time. A they drafted a rough outline of the story and drafted two companies to make Ys 4, one for the PC Engine CD and another for the SNES. Both are excellent but also very different games. With Memories of Celceta, Falcom have made another Ys 4 that's very different from the other 2 but at least this time we have a true canon entry.

The story starts off in the most generic jrpg way with the protagonist Adol waking up in a town with no memories of the last few days. It seems he was exploring the vast forest of Celceta for those days but has no memory of them. He sets out on an adventure with a stranger named Duran to map the forests of Celceta for the new governor and discovers some dark secrets about the forests past.

Celceta takes the combat system of Ys Seven where you have three characters with different affinities and move sets that you can switch between at will. You can attack dodge and block but can also activate abilities by holding the L shoulder button and pressing one of the face buttons to activate the set attack. While this mostly works well it can lead you to accidentally entering the menu or, even worse, activating you special attack that takes a long time to build up.

Defense is also important with dodging and blocking being vital to surviving most boss encounters. The dodge window is quite small so blocking tends to be a better option in most cases. A tell timed dodge will slow the game down for a small period while a well times block will make every attack a critical hit for a short time.

Taken on its own Celceta is a damn fine action rpg that manages to be faster than the majority of action games. I just can't help compare it to the better games in the series like Oath in Felghana. The combat and bosses are just better in Oath as well as having the better story which falls a bit flat here with the stakes never really feeling that high.

Celceta isn't the best looking game. It was meant to be a PSP game before being moved to the vita. For a PSP game it would look amazing and be one of the best looking games on the system, but as a vita game it falls short and looks even. More archaic on the PC. And while technically it's no masterpiece, the world of Celceta is a colourful and vibrant one which makes up for these shortcomings. As usual, Falcom are on point with another great soundtrack.

Overall, it's a great action rpg but there's better games in the US series to start with.