Monthly Game Journal #12 - December 2023

Hello, Patrons! Thank you for your continued support of my content and myself as a creator! In this edition of the Monthly Game Journal, I'd like to spend some time sharing my thoughts about games I've played during the month of December!

Mega Man Zero 4

When continuing the Mega Man Zero series after the 3rd installment, I honestly had no idea what to expect. Zero 3 was easily the best of the ones I had played thus far, but it also felt as if it couldn't be topped, either. Zero 4 was a delight, and though I would consider it a little less polished than Zero 3, it served as an incredible finale to the sub-series. The story was incredible -- bringing humans and their feelings about the ongoing conflicts into the fray was a genius idea. Frankly, the stakes have never been higher, and the streamlining of focus to Dr. Weil and the new characters made for a more focused journey. The major additions to Zero 4 include the Zero Knuckle and the weather system. The former is a fun ability to gives Zero the powers and abilities of his enemies, akin to Axl's Copy Shot or even Kirby's Copy Abilities. I also really enjoyed using the Knuckle to push objects and enemies at great speeds. The weather system was the unsung hero though -- augmenting levels with more challenging conditions that neither went too far to ruin the experience (like Mega Man X6's Nightmare system) nor did it take away from the solid level design underneath it. Overall, Zero 4 stands as my second favorite entry in the Zero series. I look forward to revisiting it sometime in the future.

Mega Man ZX

That's right, I kept the Mega Man train chugging along this month. ZX marks a shift in world design, bringing Mega Man into the Metroidvania style of exploration and world layout. The results are a bit mixed, mainly due to the at-first confusing map system, but once you get the handle of things, the options and creativity allowed by the openness makes for a customizable experience. The story takes a more hands-off approach to the later Zero games, but still offers a lot in lore and atmosphere, which I enjoyed immensely. The main gameplay additions come with the Biometals, which essentially allow the player to transform into different characters completely. Instead of using a single move / weapon of a boss, you now ARE the boss. It means that your full move-set is augmented, but the devs manage to make this fun and exciting rather than convoluted. The base controls never change, just your abilities, and it becomes easy to exploit and play around with. ZX has a lot of depth to its boss fights, exploration, and abilities. It feels incredibly fleshed out, even if some of the backtracking and world design feels haphazard. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. 

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

After briefly playing Shovel Knight when it first released on Wii U, I didn't think much of it. It felt like a decent approach to designing a Mega Man game, in fact, but for whatever reason, it failed to make a huge impact. Well, we're 3-for-3 on this journal, because this was the month I fell in love with Shovel Knight -- both the base campaign as well as all the additional ones that were added after I had originally moved on. What can I say... if you enjoy classic 2D platformers but enjoy modern conventions, new twists on old formulas, and polished gameplay... Shovel Knight is the embodiment of all of those things. I could not get enough of each campaign -- Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight offer so much with their unique gameplay loops and sub-weapons (not to mention the brilliant level design changes in the latter two campaigns). I can easily see myself returning to this title over and over again, whether it be for more rounds of Joustus or platforming bliss.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed my thoughts about these games. Thank you for your continued support on Patreon! See you next month!