Games of 2020

Ys VIII was excellent! While I still enjoy the quick progression and simple gameplay of the older Ys games, I'm now a fan of the longer and grander modern Ys experience too. Ys VIII looks gorgeous and sounds amazing! The story starts as a 'shipwreck on a mysterious island' situation, but becomes so much more. The rescue, survival, and crafting gameplay elements mesh incredibly well with the story and characters. If there's a finer story-driven action RPG out there, I haven't played it yet!

Just Shapes & Beats started out as kind of a chore as I worked my way through story mode. Cool game and great music, but dying on a boss right near the end many times, even on casual mode, is not fun. Once I beat story mode, I gave online a shot and loved it. It feels good to get rescued by other players and that cooperation definitely leads to more success on hard stages. As I got better, I was saving people more, which feels really good. I started to get good at a couple stages, such as Close to Me and ended up unlocking all the songs and getting all the achievements.

Celeste was beautiful and well-designed, but so hard and frustrating I turned on the cheat mode near the end just to finish it. When I realized the last chapter required extra work to reach it, I said nope, but I think I will come back to it someday.

Finally got around to playing through Terranigma. It's a nice action RPG with the timeless graphics and music enjoyed by many Super Nintendo games. It's really easy to get stuck so I regularly used a FAQ to keep it fun. Speaking of Super Nintendo, I randomly started playing Pilotwings and got really into it. I played it 'back in the day', but never beat it. Lessons 4 and 8 (extra hard version of 4) and the helicopter missions are rough so it was an absolute triumph when I finally beat the game.