FA+
Shop
What Has Grav Been Playing? (Part VIII - Holiday Edition)
10 months ago
Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! I do hope you all had a wonderful winter break and took what time you had to relax and rekindle with those you care about. Not much has happened here, but I have gotten the privilege of getting an entire week off in the wake of MFF a couple weeks back, so I've been recharging and indulging, which also includes playing a lot of games! Here's what I've played as of late, this may be a bit meatier than usual so get comfy!
Pokémon TCG Pocket
I don't normally get sucked into mobile games, but this one appealed to me a lot strictly for its card collecting and emulation of opening free booster packs every day. There is also a battle mode, but it kinda sucks and is rife with overpowered meta decks that often suck a lot of fun out of it. But other than that it's been a nice card collecting app that takes me back to my grade school days.
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG
You read that right! I wasn't interested in the game initially after all the mixed reviews (and the LP on Oneyplays I watched extensively), but in the wake of the 1.V update that came out recently, I was honestly convinced to give it a shot! The story still didn't hit home well, though the additional cutscenes and revisions do make it a lot more cohesive, but the brand new battle system I found to be surprisingly engaging, compared to the tedious traditional battle style that came before. It wasn't an amazing/peak game or anything, but it was definitely memorable and fun.
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Another unexpected game that I enjoyed a lot! It basically takes the memetic charm of the CDI Zelda games, and makes an actually fun game out of it! I don't think there was a single moment playing this game where I wasn't cracking an ever-joyous smile while playing. The gameplay is fun, and the cutscenes just ooze a goofy charm that perfectly emulates the "so bad it's good" aesthetic of the CDI titles.
Antonblast
I picked this game up recently! This may be a bit crazy to say, but it actually did not impress me all that much. I really dig the fast-paced and destructive gameplay, but I actually found the visuals a little too chaotic, especially all the screen shaking effects which disoriented me very quickly (good thing you can turn that off though). I think my expectations may also be a bit high after beating Pizza Tower a couple months back, but playing this just felt like a step down all around, and the Wario Land inspiration felt a bit too close to home, down to it re-using many different sound effects directly.
Pokémon Emerald
Now this is a classic that I came back to recently! I always loved gen 3 for its visual style and side modes, the secret bases and contests being highly fun key points. But I also wanted to revisit it to finally take on the Battle Frontier in full! I never really was able to make a dent in it back in the day, but with tools like PkHex at my disposal I was able to finally craft a fully trained team capable of getting many accolades at the various facilities. Being able to finally do all this feels like a dream, and looking back I think this might be one of my top favorite Pokémon games overall.
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge
Now this is something I never really expected myself to play, but it was ultimately able to win me over thanks to its ridiculously fun beat 'em up gameplay and amazingly well crafted sprite art. I've only started on it, but this is probably one of the most addictingly gratifying games I've played in a long time, and I'm very eager to play more of it.
And that about covers things for now. Thanks for reading, and until next time~
Pokémon TCG Pocket
I don't normally get sucked into mobile games, but this one appealed to me a lot strictly for its card collecting and emulation of opening free booster packs every day. There is also a battle mode, but it kinda sucks and is rife with overpowered meta decks that often suck a lot of fun out of it. But other than that it's been a nice card collecting app that takes me back to my grade school days.
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG
You read that right! I wasn't interested in the game initially after all the mixed reviews (and the LP on Oneyplays I watched extensively), but in the wake of the 1.V update that came out recently, I was honestly convinced to give it a shot! The story still didn't hit home well, though the additional cutscenes and revisions do make it a lot more cohesive, but the brand new battle system I found to be surprisingly engaging, compared to the tedious traditional battle style that came before. It wasn't an amazing/peak game or anything, but it was definitely memorable and fun.
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Another unexpected game that I enjoyed a lot! It basically takes the memetic charm of the CDI Zelda games, and makes an actually fun game out of it! I don't think there was a single moment playing this game where I wasn't cracking an ever-joyous smile while playing. The gameplay is fun, and the cutscenes just ooze a goofy charm that perfectly emulates the "so bad it's good" aesthetic of the CDI titles.
Antonblast
I picked this game up recently! This may be a bit crazy to say, but it actually did not impress me all that much. I really dig the fast-paced and destructive gameplay, but I actually found the visuals a little too chaotic, especially all the screen shaking effects which disoriented me very quickly (good thing you can turn that off though). I think my expectations may also be a bit high after beating Pizza Tower a couple months back, but playing this just felt like a step down all around, and the Wario Land inspiration felt a bit too close to home, down to it re-using many different sound effects directly.
Pokémon Emerald
Now this is a classic that I came back to recently! I always loved gen 3 for its visual style and side modes, the secret bases and contests being highly fun key points. But I also wanted to revisit it to finally take on the Battle Frontier in full! I never really was able to make a dent in it back in the day, but with tools like PkHex at my disposal I was able to finally craft a fully trained team capable of getting many accolades at the various facilities. Being able to finally do all this feels like a dream, and looking back I think this might be one of my top favorite Pokémon games overall.
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge
Now this is something I never really expected myself to play, but it was ultimately able to win me over thanks to its ridiculously fun beat 'em up gameplay and amazingly well crafted sprite art. I've only started on it, but this is probably one of the most addictingly gratifying games I've played in a long time, and I'm very eager to play more of it.
And that about covers things for now. Thanks for reading, and until next time~
