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**Linkman** · 11-09-2024, 02:04 PM

Not nearly as much time for games these days. I "completed" Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, yes all 1000 Korok Seeds. I'm not a huge fan for the route Zelda is going in with these open world games. Far from bad, they still lack the charm of the older games. Tears of the Kingdom seemed to be more about quantity over quality as 90% of the side stuff was pretty boring. Chained Echoes was really good and had that old SNES RPG appeal found in games like Chrono Trigger, definitely recommend it.

Linkman
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (completed it, beat it last year)
Elden Ring (completed it, beat it in 2022)
Chained Echoes
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (Expansion)
Final Fantasy IX
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (DLC)
Steamworld Dig 2
Inside

**Linko_16** · 11-09-2024, 05:29 PM

I had some major fatigue with Tears of the Kingdom myself, but for me that feeling primarily came from just, like... I already explored every inch of this world once, and now you're asking me to do it all again? It was full of even more stuff than before, but it just made me wish I had never played Breath of the Wild before playing this one. Also just, like, the giant open worlds full of tiny collectables and stumble-upons and emergent gameplay, it's not like it's bad but the appeal has started to wear off at this point and I'm ready to go back to tighter, bespoke experiences.

Also I hadn't said it since seeing you in other threads but hell ****ing yeah Linkman it's super good to see you buddy.

**Hyper** · 11-10-2024, 03:38 PM

Hyper
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC
Pokemon X (again)
Pokemon Black (again)
Pokemon White
Pokemon Sun (again)
Pokemon Ultra Sun
Pokemon Scarlet: Indigo Disk DLC

Soooo..... Lots of revisiting old Pokemon games to improve my living dex. Wanted more with my OT instead of trades, and wanted more caught in their home regions vs. later games. This list of games would be ones I started a new file on this year and also played through to the end credits, with the exception of Scarlet (caught Pecharunt in January, so I'm considering that "complete" for the DLC).

Clearly I didn't finish any newer games this year with the exception of Phantom Liberty, and I bought that one year ago today so it wasn't even started in 2024.

**JonMB** · 11-11-2024, 10:25 AM

Finally got around to finishing Chained Together with a couple friends. It's a silly game and worth playing through once in co-op. It would be boring in single-player.

JonMB
WWF SuperStars (Arcade)
Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)
WWF WrestleFest (Arcade)
Halo Infinite (Xbox Series X) (Replay)
Pizza Possum (Xbox Series X)
Dead Space Remake (PC Game Pass)
Helldivers 2 (PC)
Rotwood (PC)
Gunfire Reborn (Xbox Series X)
The Solitaire Conspiracy (PC)
Doom 1993 (Xbox Series X)
Chained Together (PC)

**Linkman** · 11-11-2024, 03:42 PM

Originally posted by Linko_16

I had some major fatigue with Tears of the Kingdom myself, but for me that feeling primarily came from just, like... I already explored every inch of this world once, and now you're asking me to do it all again? It was full of even more stuff than before, but it just made me wish I had never played Breath of the Wild before playing this one. Also just, like, the giant open worlds full of tiny collectables and stumble-upons and emergent gameplay, it's not like it's bad but the appeal has started to wear off at this point and I'm ready to go back to tighter, bespoke experiences.

Yeah, the reuse of the same map was a big part of it too. It's like, yeah you had the Depths but the whole thing was mainly a small scale scavenger hunt and not much else. I like open world games, but for Zelda, it just doesn't seem to work. The lack of traditional dungeons and atmosphere just made it feel like not a Zelda game. Unfortunately, given the popularity of BotW and TotK, I have a feeling Nintendo is probably gonna role with this formula, at least for the foreseeable future.

Originally posted by Linko_16

Also I hadn't said it since seeing you in other threads but hell ****ing yeah Linkman it's super good to see you buddy.

Good to see you too, my friend! Hopefully life is treating you good.

**Linko_16** · 11-11-2024, 06:33 PM

The addition of the Depths and the Sky Islands were okay, especially considering it seemed like they had completely different roles from the main surface land. Flying or cruising around up top could be counter-productive for me when I wanted to comb it over for the little stuff you need to look out for, and I might never have really fully engaged with the vehicle building stuff if that had been all there was. The Depths having nothing terribly important other than a few major landmarks and treasure map destinations meant I could go ham. And then the Sky Islands were tighter, smaller-scale single encounters with a shaped landscape you had to learn how to approach and get a reward from, a lot more like you'd get in a traditional Zelda game.

Still not ideal to me that, as a whole package, this made for a GIANT timesink that overstayed its welcome. Zelda has such a giant history outside of the open world thing, I sincerely hope they do not just decide that's normal Zelda now.

**Hyper** · 11-11-2024, 08:16 PM

You guys are really making it easier for me to keep delaying a return to TotK! I get so tired of the weapons breaking. Didn't seem to bother me as much in BotW.

**Linko_16** · 11-11-2024, 09:23 PM

Weapons breaking was a lot less of a problem in TotK. Since they made all weapons weaker and focus instead on augmenting them with attachments, the attachments become more important than the weapon, and they just use your ordinary inventory with unlimited space. You can also find an NPC who removes attachments from weapons/shields for a small fee, so if there was anything very important you needed to make sure did not break when the weapon breaks, you can get it back in your inventory. It's not like managing what weapons you have on hand becomes meaningless, but the pressure was really off.

**Linko_16** · 11-15-2024, 03:36 PM

I beat Demon Turf, but I'm gonna wait to add it because I want to go for 100%. Really cute game! Easy to recommend this one, especially if you just see it go on sale or something.

**Linkman** · 11-15-2024, 03:47 PM

Originally posted by Linko_16

Weapons breaking was a lot less of a problem in TotK. Since they made all weapons weaker and focus instead on augmenting them with attachments, the attachments become more important than the weapon, and they just use your ordinary inventory with unlimited space. You can also find an NPC who removes attachments from weapons/shields for a small fee, so if there was anything very important you needed to make sure did not break when the weapon breaks, you can get it back in your inventory. It's not like managing what weapons you have on hand becomes meaningless, but the pressure was really off.

The weapon fusing was really good and made it better than in BotW. Creating other things with the fusion system got stale pretty quick though. It got down to the point where you had half a dozen things in your history that covered most situations. Overall, TotK was an ambitious game, perhaps a little too ambitions at times.

**Hyper** · 11-25-2024, 07:58 PM

Finished the Shattered Space DLC for Starfield. It was a standard Bethesda experience. Probably left some side missions undiscovered. Ending sequence was fun! Ready to take another break from this game until any future DLC is announced.

**Linko_16** · 11-30-2024, 11:43 PM

I got 100% on Demon Turf! Already said my piece on the game, but I'm adding that to my list now.

I also did a full playthrough of Myst via the Masterpiece Edition. Myst is a game that was hugely foundational for me as a kid, and a LOT of the visuals, music and atmosphere remained in my memory, but I hadn't actually played it in the 90's when we no longer had that Macintosh computer in our family home. I played it on stream just to share it with a few friends of mine who had never seen Myst before at all, which was a great experience, and it also turned out there were a fair number of diehard devotees who drop in on anyone they see playing it on Twitch. Being able to relate my childhood experiences to my friends and also get insider knowledge from true fans was more than I could have asked for.

Although I've beaten it before, this was technically my first 100% run. The disc we had as kids got scratched and there was some content I literally couldn't access anymore, stuff I basically saw for the first time ever on this playthrough. It was VERY satisfying. Fully recommend you guys check it out for a true 90's classic.