Ah, Cave Story. A beloved indie game from Japan, and likely, one of the first ones to become such a big success. It's probably known first for it's brutal difficulty, then for it's music, and then probably it's story. Oh, and let's not forget that the whole this was originally a one man production from Studio Pixel. The original is available for free, but also, remastered versions are available for purchase on Steam, the Nintendo eShop, and other fine places where video games are sold.

Putting it out there, I didn't finish it. I'm at the penultimate cave - an optional one required for the best ending (Bloodstained Labyrinth / Sacred Grounds, for those wondering). The Last Cave and the subsequent caves see a big jump in difficulty that cause them to raise sodium levels to boiling points. I spent maybe 4-5 hours just trying to get through The Last Cave (not actually the last cave), and can see myself spending at least that or more for the Labyrinth.

Despite not finishing it, I feel like I've played enough, seen enough and read enough to pass a fairly educated judgement on this one. Also, I am terrible at platformers.

60 hours, I've spent on this game. 60 hours. I'd say, playing extremely well, and skipping avoidable battles, you could probably finish this one in a minimum of 40 hours? You'd have to be playing really, really well, and skip a lot of the animated supers to shave off as much time as possible.

This has been one hell of a game. Crossing games from Capcom, Bandai-Namco, and Sega is no easy task. They managed to stitch together a working story (note 'working', not 'good') that ties all the different games into one. It reads like a big, ambitious fan fiction, but serves it purpose just fine. The real draw of this game is seeing all the crazy action and interactions between characters and companies. Some pairings really just work too well and lead to some funny conversations.

The guts of the game, the combat is what really differentiates it from other SRPGs. While the overview is typical, grid based movement, the combat is active, combo-based fighting game-esque. You input simple commands to get a 'move', with up to 6 moves per battle. You also get a solo unit as an assist, as well as a support pair if you're near to another pair unit, calling back to games like MvC's assists. It has all sorts of crazy mechanics in this, such as when you can score critical hits, or ways to build up meter to pull off the powerful super skills. The combat adds a welcome element of skill to the game, but as cool and interesting as it is, it eventually, and rather quickly, becomes increasingly difficult, repetitive and tedious.

After hitting a massive wall in G-Rank Monster Hunter 4U, I decided to go through my pile of unfinished games, throw caution to the wind and just go for broke with them. First on my list was Bravely Default, which earned a spot on my Top 5 of last year.

Before leaving it to collect dust, I managed to get up to the final dungeon and boss. I fell into a hole of trying to find a party combination that would have the best synergy and have the best SP efficiency. Previously I had 3 melee attackers with Agnes as the healer. I went for 2 mages, and two melee, which worked okay, but Ringabel as a second mage, while being quick enough to set up buffs, doesn't have the magic power to really be viable for magic damage. After leveling Ringabel as a mage for what felt like far too long, I went back to my original 3:1 melee:support party. It uses less SP, dishes out damage, and with the right subclasses, can also be flexible enough to exploit almost any enemy weaknesses.

The decision to finish it is partially driven to see the ending in anticipation of Bravely Default Second which hits North America sometime in 2016.