Pledge 2025
Directly inspired by My Life In Gaming, whose live streams kept my ears occupied all year round, I once again indulged in the gamer mindset with 10 games I had planned on playing this year. You may in fact have seen them throughout this fukubukuro. Imagine that.
Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel
It proved you could reduce MGS mechanically down to a Game Boy game. MGS games are about spectacle for me, which is hard simulating a PS1 game on a Game Boy. I’m shocked how little I remember about it. 2 out of 5 uncelebrated Black Ops.
KINGS FIELD 2
I love it, as I’ve already said. I got lost. I missed stuff a dozen times. Playing in Japanese added the extra layer of being in a foreign land only mostly understanding what everyone said. Later in the year I played through Eternal Ring (King’s Field but worse 2/5 Eternal Rings) and some of Evergrace (A Soundtrack Of All Time.) King’s Field 2 gets 5 out of 5 Extremely Important paintings of Knights
Alundra 2
The lost Climax Entertainment game not by Climax Entertainment. I gave up because the jank and camera angle made it very difficult to play. I realized as I settled in for my two hours of nightly VIDEO GAME I did not want to return to this. Every contemporary review said the game looked bad, which is absurd. It is slightly worse Mega Man Legends, which is one of the most perfect looking games of all time. 2 out of 5 Castle In The Sky Knockoffs.
Rock Man Dash
Hey it IS Mega Man Legends. I’ve played it before, and now I’ve played it in full Japanese. I remember the game being short, I thought the overworld dungeon was bigger. You really do about 5 things then the game ends. You have to get those upgrade though. 4 out of 5 Servbots.
Axelay
Sure I saw it in the Nintendo Power Top 100. Sure I’ve loved 16bit Konami. Sure I messed with it in ZSNES. But I really sat and played Axelay for a month. It is fantastic and beautiful. I never got a hard clear, but I got close. Konami made some incredible games. 5 out of 5 Mode 7 Sky Rocks
Blaster Master Blasting Again
An ancient description on a forum said “It’s like Metroid Prime before Metroid Prime.” Sure yes, at the surface. Metroid Prime had a lot less brown rock. I had a great time with the first half of the game. Then they started cranking the difficulty knob to beyond what I could reasonably do with this control/scheme camera. Hey the same as Alundra 2! 3 out of 5 Metafights.
Estopolis 2
While I’ll talk about the game emotionally on the next page, I want to say the puzzles aren’t fiendish enough. I heard there was a 99 floor dungeon, but it doesn’t have the evil puzzles I hoped. Some of the puzzles are evil, and I loved that. Standard longer than it needed to be SFC RPG otherwise. 3 out of 5 Earthquake causing Catfish.
Grandia 3
Has some beautiful environments, the story will drain your life essence from you. Each cutscene a further attack on your brain cells and conscious mind. Zero out of Fi-ITS GRYPH.
Echo
In a reasonable world Echo deserves its own essay. I went into this Free Furry Visual Novel with 3 promises. It wouldn’t turn me gay, or into a furry, or respect the written word. I absolutely loved the character dynamics and the smoldering resentment for a dead-end small town and those that leave and those that stay. How when you return you see even more why you left, and why those that didn’t won’t. As an empathy machine I felt I learned about what it was like to be gay in rural America. I could have done without the world shattering horror events. Which while thematic, changed the dynamic of the story so much that I don’t think the social-dynamics were even a blip of concern anymore. 4 out of 5 Sexual Otter Jobs.
Wario Land 4
I’m currently one world into this. I play it on the train, when I happen to have a long train ride and I remembered to charge my Anbernic. I don’t think I like it as much as other people. The collection and momentum don’t excite my brain, because I always feel like I am making the wrong move. I love running through the stages in reverse. 3 out of 5 snot nosed bird ghost keys.
9 Hours 9 Doors 9 Persons
I had planned to play through this, In Japanese, on a DS, for the full Mu experience. I was gonna play it in December, curled up under the blankets in bed. Then I got a horrible neck injury and advised by the doctor to not look down. Maybe next year.
With that we come to next Years PLEDGE GAMES GET READY:
- The 3D Goemon game for Nintendo 64
- Umineko When They Cry
- Diablo 2
- Gallerians (PS1)
- Battle Mania Daigenjou
- The Getaway (PS2)
- Sweet Home
- Evil Twin (Dreamcast)
- Severed Steel
Hinge Problems 
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