Philosoraptor

I could see where both pronunciations come from in English. I pronounce grade and gradient as "gray-d" and "gray-d-ent." I pronounce graduation and gradual as "grah-du-a-shun" and "grah-du-al."

I think we're saying it the same. I just couldn't figure out how to write it phonetically.

Wait, it's not gray-di-us? I grew up watching a bunch of anime, so I've defaulted to attempting to pronounce Japanese words in a Japanglish approximation because I missed the boat on being able to correctly pronounce the phonemes, but I'm aware of them. I still sound white as hell, though. Here's what I say: Tie-toe Kah-gay Guy-den Gray-dee-us Since we're hitting beehives: Legend of Mana = Man-na Ys = Yee-s, like geese Suikoden = Swe-ko-den Ehrgeiz = "Air-guys" Atelier franchise = "At-ill-yay," even though in some of them the English voice actors say "at-lee-er" Disgaea = Dis-guy-uh Pokemon = Poke-aay-mon

Finished World of Final Fantasy yesterday. I by finished, I mean got the first set of credits. I wasn't sticking around for the true ending. The battle system is the best thing this game has going for it. Getting new Mirages is very Pokemon, leveling up with skill trees is very Final Fantasy, and the battle system is somewhere in-between. You can stack either two monsters on top of you in regular human form or you can ride on one large and have a small one on your head in your shrunken size to create a stack. Each monster has the abilities you'd expect, but depending on the stack, you might get access to special ones. When stacked, damage is split between the members in the stack. Stacks can also be knocked over, exposing the significantly weaker members of the stack to damage or KO. Nearly every Mirage must be caught in a unique way, whether it be inflicting damage, healing them, inflicting certain statuses on them, countering, and so on. They also cannot be in a stack to catch them, meaning you either have to find an individual enemy or knock the stack it's in over. Using the move "Libra" on an enemy will tell you exactly how to catch it. However, the story, characters, character design, character interactions, dungeons...pretty much everything else about the game wasn't to my taste. This game does have good ratings, though, so I might be in the minority on that one. It ended up taking about 37 hours to beat it, and honestly I would have quit around 25 if I wasn't reasonably close to the first set of credits and didn't feel like if I didn't beat it, I would have wasted the first half of February on this game. But hey, yaaay! Another one down.

January flew by. This month I ended up beating five games: Castlevania 64 Snowboard Kids 2 F-Zero X Granblue Fantasy Pokemon Crystal I'd say F-Zero X was easily my favorite of the N64 games. Snowboard Kids 2 is a massive improvement over the first in that it's playable and doesn't feel like you're steering a brick down a mountain. Sadly, Castlevania 64 has some levels with some serious camera issues and easily missable things that hinder progression. And no, I'm not cheating and counting Castlevania 64 as my 2D Castlevania clear for the year. I played Crystal in hopes of transferring some Pokemon to Pokemon Stadium 2, but because my clock has died in all five of the copies of Gold, Silver, or Crystal I have access to, it just ends up corrupting my save or not reading the game. Still though, I beat Red and his level 70+ team of 6 Pokemon in 32 hours with a level 66 Alakazam, a 54 Jolteon, and a 54 Alakazam. The biggest time suck has been Granblue Fantasy. I played Granblue Fantasy Versus last year, and the story and characters interested me enough to play its gacha-filled big brother. How do you beat a gacha game? Well, I'm saying beating the main story counts. It ended up being 164 chapters with each chapter having at least four parts, so that's over 600 stages. Add on to that the side missions and extra missions, and I easily sat through 900 stages with pre-stage dialogue and usually also post-stage dialogue. All told, it's taken me around 350 hours to get to this point, and there's plenty more to do. Yes I realize that's 8 hours a day all month on average. Yes I also realize I'm kind of addicted to it, but thankfully I haven't (and won't) spend any money on the game. I'm probably going to continue to play this game throughout the year, as it's a good backup gacha with great characters, good music, and interesting mechanics, but I'll probably stop putting so many hours into it. Hopefully. The art director is Hideo Minaba (of Sqaresoft/FF fame) and Nobuo Uematsu and Tsutomu Narita as the main composers, so this game gives of serious Final Fantasy vibes. The gacha currency is crystals and there's even airships (shock)! Speaking of that, the gacha system is generous in that you have a 6% chance to pull the rarest units in rate up times, which usually occur at least once a month. However, there's only two pools to pull from, and only one you really want to pull from. Since the game is almost 10 years old, there is an inordinate amount of weapons (some of which also get you characters) and summons. So much so that the 6% to pull the rarest unit suddenly becomes 0.016% for specific characters. Add to it that one 10-pull is the equivalent of $30 USD and pity (where you can select a unit from the banner) is 300 pulls, it quickly becomes apparent that the devs intended for you to play through the game and earn the currency for the gacha slowly over time, which is totally fine. It's a good FTP gacha game if you can be patient and resist the urge to pay for pulls. Progress made this month: 5/50 games beaten. $472 of $5,000 worth of games beaten 2/5 RPGs longer than 20 hours beaten 2/10 games on handheld consoles beaten (I'm counting Granblue Fantasy for this because it's a phone game, and you can't stop me)

Sorry y'all. I just finished up beating Pokemon Crystal earlier tonight and preparing a bunch of Pokemon in hopes of starting up Pokemon Stadium 2 again with some Pokemon I raised, but because my clock doesn't work in my Crystal cartridge, Pokemon Stadium 2 either corrupts my save or doesn't read my cartridge. Thankfully I played on the Retron 5, so I just copied my save back to the cart, but still. I even tried starting new games on my Gold and Silver carts, but they have the same problem. Same with my GF's carts. I tried 5 different carts to see if they'd hold a save AND be recognized by Pokemon Stadium 2, but no dice. I could delete some moves and send some of my prepared Pokemon back to a working Red or Blue, but my batteries died on those a while back. Sad, too. I beat Red and his all 70+ level team with a level 66 Alakazam, a 54 Jolteon, and a 54 Arcanine, so they were good 'mons. I had also prepared a level 5 Snorlax and a level 5 Shuckle for the baby cup. Thankfully, I tried it now instead of 15 hours from now when I had high level Pokemon for the 1-100 cup. Long story short, no Pokemon Stadium 2 playthrough for me this year.

Wait. These still exist? I haven't seen any users' charms in a good few months. Is there some kinda checkbox I missed in my account settings?

OK. Sorry y'all. Pokemon Stadium 2 isn't for me either. I'm just going to stop "reserving" games until I play them. I plan on playing Pokemon Crystal sometime this year and, if it's still available, I'll attempt it again with some transferred Pokemon. Edit: Pokemon Crystal's battery is dead, as is my copy of Gold and Silver. Boooooo. I know they die quicker because of the time mechanic, but maaaaaaaaaaaaan. On another note great job on the progress, everyone! Y'all are killing it.

OK. I'm going to start working on Pokemon Stadium 2 next. Edit: I lied. Pokemon Stadium 2 is available for someone else. Sorry y'all. I gotta play these games before "reserving" them.

F-Zero X is done on both Novice and Standard difficulty with Captain Falcon. This is the first time I've played it, so I ran through the cups on Novice first before taking on Standard. I can see how the higher difficulties could get very, very precise. I assume that and the X cup is where this game gets its reputation from. On Standard it's challenging, but not unreasonable. Also, I love this game. It's probably in my top 10 N64 games now. I'll probably come back to it to see if I can beat some tracks on harder difficulties.

Update on F-Zero X: I was able to beat the Jack and Queen cups on standard difficulty in the past few days. I know they're the easiest cups, but progress!

OK. New game. I'm going to work on F-Zero X. I'm abandoning Snowboard Kids if anyone else wants to take it on.

Nevermind. This game plays like you're guiding a brick disguised as a kid down a mountain. It's not for me. I'm going to take a mental break and maybe come back later today or tomorrow.

I can't really speak to 1 or 3, but for #2 I'd like to nominate @Reed Rothchild for finishing up his SNES rankings and @nerdynebraskan for beating over 1/4 the games in the NES Completions thread last year. Also, if I can nominate a third, shout out to @Floating Platforms for finishing the year strong and taking the #1 spot on the leaderboard in the Beat Every Game Boy Game thread last year. He beat several tough as nails games throughout the year. It's peeps like these that make this site special.

OK. I'm back. It looks like no one has claimed or beaten Snowboard Kids 1, so I'll call that one and start it up tomorrow.

Snowboard Kids 2 is done. That's probably it for me for a bit. I might start something up again next weekend, but I won't reserve any more games until then.

Beat my first Castlevania game. Too bad it was 64. I got the good ending with Reinhardt on normal difficulty. I added the image to the following spoiler just in case. Man. Not a good game. 5/10. It starts out with a solo violin piece that initially had me excited for the soundtrack, but turned out to be the only piece of music that sticks out in the entire game. Even then, it's only OK in comparison to the tunes from games past. Platforming is fine, but the fact that you have to hold A for Reinhardt to grab onto edges (when he chooses to) is crap. Hit detection leaves something to be desired, especially on basic enemies like the vampires and werewolves. However, the worst thing about this game is easily the camera. When not fixed or caught on walls, it tends to slowly try and get behind Reinhardt. This makes the more cramped levels, especially the small rooms of the Castle Center level, significantly more difficult. Enemies attack you from off screen and hit you with lots of cheap shots. Sadly, the camera reset button only works sometimes. Even worse, there are three different indistinguishably bad settings for the camera. At least most of the bosses take place in more spacious areas, making the camera less of an issue and the bosses less of a threat. Thankfully, this game is pretty short (about 10 hours on my initial playthrough), and doesn't overstay its welcome. I can handle jank for 10 hours. The score would have probably been lower if it was longer.

Castlevania 64 is done. I ended up with the good ending on Normal difficulty with Reinhardt. Not so bueno. 5/10. This is the first "Castlevania" game I've ever played, and I think it falls short of the mark set by other games in the series. I look forward to playing one of the more acclaimed 2D ones later in the year. By far, the strongest enemy in this game is the camera. Oh well. I'd like to call Snowboard Kids 2 next, if possible.

It was tons of fun! I think this thread helped my drive immensely. Thanks again for running it, @Reed Rothchild, and thanks to everyone else for making it so fun and welcoming. I'm not going to touch 200 in 2023, but I hope to hit 50. I'd love to see someone beat more games in the 2023 thread than me.

I'll probably end up playing a few N64 games next year. I'd like to at least beat Castlevania if no one has claimed it yet. Of my rather meager N64 library, I have 19 games I've never beaten. I'd like to get that number down a bit.

Aww man. Enter the Gungeon was my most played? Boooooo. It's one of the games I ended up quitting instead of beating. After not enjoying it and the Binding of Isaac, I'm more cautious when I hear the words "randomly generated" and "dungeon crawler," although I think it's the progression systems that I truly don't like (play to die and unlock stuff for better playthroughs in the future). I had a lot of fun with 2-5 on the list. Granblue Fantasy: Versus ended up being a very fun and interesting fighting game/side scrolling brawler hybrid (there's modes for both game styles). It actually got me interested in the original Granblue Fantasy, which is currently sucking up most of my time. I'm cheap. I ain't payin' for no internets or headaches. Pre-2022, I had only platinum'd one game: Horizon Zero Dawn. I'm hoping for another productive year next year, hopefully with more PS3 and PS4 games.

Dumb names: Under Night In-Birth EXE: Late[cl-r] Va-11 Hall-a: Cyberpunk Bartender Action Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World. (Yes, the period is in the title) What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman Conception II Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth Chuck Rock

Some of the last games of the year down, thanks to the Samurai Shodown Collection for the PS2; Samurai Shodown 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are beaten. Based on what little information I could find, the games in the compilation are either arcade perfect or close. This is up there with Mortal Kombat as the worst long-running fighting game franchise, IMO, at least for 1P modes. It's based around a good idea: instead of all-out attacks, you're supposed to be more tactical about it. It's trying to emulate an actual 1v1 duel. Go for a big attack and get blocked? You're wide open. In practice, the AI is either reading your attacks (in the case of SS 1-4) or easily exploitable (SS 5 and 6). Aside from 3, if you make a mistake, prepare for 1/3 your life bar to disappear, even on the easiest difficulties, because hits do so much damage. It's like half of everyone's attacks are Zangief piledrivers. In 3, everyone does too little damage, making the timer suddenly your enemy. In traditional arcade style, 1-4 have one or more broken bosses throughout an arcade playthrough. 3 is the most broken. These bosses are where it's most apparent that the AI is straight-up cheating. Speaking of breaking, who the hell thought breakable weapons in a fighting game was a good idea? Let's give cheap bosses the ability to break your weapon in a game about fighting with weapons. Awesome. 5 and 6 are better balanced, but the AI is still lacking. It seems to struggle with certain patterns and jump attacks, making long range characters like Mina easier to use than someone like Hoahmaru. In general, all six games lack polish. The earlier ones have subpar hit detection and are sluggish, but that does get better as the series progresses. The later ones could be more innovative and have more moves. 6 came out in 2005, which is way after modern fighters started being developed. However, Samurai Shodown 2019 looks to have taken that to heart. Other minor gripes: If you want a seizure, play the older titles. Every game has translation issues, from minor ones in 2 to unbelievably bad ones in 6. Each game in the compilation has different button setups, inputs, and mappings on the PS2 controller, even for the same characters. I liked 6 the most of the newer titles (5 and 6), and 2 the most of the the first four. 3 is the worst of all of them, because it's the cheapest, it has all the issues of the other older games, you don't do enough damage, and it inexplicably removed established characters like Charlotte, who was in every other game. Edit: Samurai Shodown 3 is done, as is my final goal for the year. I'm going to build a Gundam, revisit some games, and play some Granblue Fantasy for the rest of the year.

OK. I beat a lot of games last year. But to get to those lofty numbers...I've kinda played most of the quicker and easier titles on my shelf. 200+ isn't happening again. I didn't enjoy the bounties for consoles and genres as much as I thought I might last year, so I've nixed them this year. Some were fine. Others, I had to play Brutal: Paws of Fury to meet. I also realized I was ignoring longer games, harder games, and pricier games for cheap, quick, and easy ones. This year, I want to get my stamina up. I wanna perform with the best of them. So, in 2023, I'd like to: Beat 50 games. (78 of 50) Beat $5,000 worth of games (based on what I paid for them, not current value). I paid $23.43 on average for a game in my collection, so I'm hoping this spurs me beat more expensive games. If I beat the 30 games I paid the most for, I will barely meet this goal. ($5,312.55 of $5,000) Beat a 2D Castlevania, Mega Man, and Metroid game. (3 of 3) Beat 5 RPGs that are longer than 20 hours. (11 of 5) Beat 15 SHMUPs. (17 of 15) Beat 10 games on handheld consoles. (15 of 10) Beat more games than I buy. Last year I bought almost 100. To help with that: When I take a game OFF OF MY SHELF (not my current sell pile) AND SELL IT in 2023, I can take one off of the bought/added to backlog tally. Hopefully, this reduces my backlog and motivates me to sell some stuff. Bought 57 games so far. Games I beat last year will not count towards this year's totals. Progress: Castlevania 64 - $102.82 Snowboard Kids 2 - $110 F-Zero X - $34 Granblue Fantasy (RPG) - $0, approximately 600 hours Pokemon Crystal (RPG) - $225, 32 hours to get all 16 badges and beat Red. World of Final Fantasy (RPG) - $120, 38 hours to get to the first set of credits. M.U.S.H.A. - $300 Pocky & Rocky 2 - $400 Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton Reboot! - $130 Superlative Night Dreams Cotton Fantasy - $115 Game Tengoku: The Game Paradise! Cruisin Mix Special - $100 Fate Grand Order (RPG) - $0, approximately 350 hours Diablo III Eternal Collection (RPG) - $26.67, 50 hours Money Idol Exchanger - $23.50 Dodonpachi Resurrection Deluxe Edition - $29 Dead or Alive 4 - $11.50 Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 - $7 Eschatos - $92.00 Castlevania Symphony of the Night - $35 Castlevania Aria of Sorrow - $27.50 Castlevania Requiem (Rondo of Blood) - $17.50 Super Castlevania IV - $5 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - $300 Metroid Zero Mission - $0 Metroid II: Return of Samus - $63 Mega Man 6 - $70 Ever Oasis - $55 Muse Dash - $37 Mega Man 5 - $155 Pokemon Scarlet - $39.68 - 34 hours Pokemon Arceus - $34.33 - 30 hours Nekketsu Street Basket: Ganbare Dunk Heroes - $158.50 Theatryhthm Final Fantasy Curtain Call - $70 Dariusburst CS Chronicle Saviors - $100 Darius Burst - $67.03 Soreyuke! BurunyanMan Portable - $51.00 Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World - $115.61 Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti - $63 Robocco Wars - $110 Nakayoshi to Issho - $106.99 Mega Man 7 - $234 Crisis Force - $95.79 Jackal - $150 Task Force Kampas - $35 Project Starship X - $35 Shikhondo - $35 Balloon Fight - $71 Kirby's Dream Land 3 - $118 Twisted Tales of Spike McFang - $105 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - $39.68 Pokemon (NES Homebrew) - $65 Get 'em Gary - $50 Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl - $55 Witch n Wiz - $60 Star Versus - $50 Senran Kagura Bon Appetit Full Course - $50 Super Robot Taisen - $35.50 GS Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body - $96.30 Triggerheart Excelica Enhanced - $46.00 Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - $95, 28 hours to beat. Done with all challenges!!! Suika Game/Watermelon game - $0 Shinkon Gattai Godannar!! - $16.50 Rozen Maiden ~Gebetgarten~ - $6.26 Fate/Unlimited Codes - $13.30 DreamMix TV: World Fighters - $20.50 Battle Stadium D.O.N. - $4.00 The Battle of Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai! 120% - $5.95 DOA2 Hardcore - $0 Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament - $10 Melty Blood: Act Cadenza - $6.65 Melty Blood: Actress Again - $45 Shijyou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi: Gekitou! Ragnarok Hachikengou - $14.83 Mai-Otome Hime: Otome Butou Shi - $14.01 Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai IV - $11.10 XII Stag - $18.05 Idol Janshi R: Janguru Project - $5 Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits - $25 - Just over 23 hours Class of Heroes 2G: $50

@Aguluc, after some googling, I wasn't able to come up with any exact matches either. I also couldn't come up with a list of special editions this game released with. However, there's nothing here that indicates that your tin isn't real. It might have been a pre-order bonus from a specific retailer, something out of a more expensive edition of the game, or maybe even something given to specific members of the press or development team. It doesn't make financial sense to me to invest the amount of money required to make fakes of a tin like this. At the very least, you have something that's pretty uncommon and cool. Congrats! Hopefully another member has seen this and can give you more information. Welcome, btw!