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With 150-some hours invested in AC: Valhalla and every achievement except two checked off the list (the "fish every type of fish" achievement will take nothing but time and RNG, the "find and release a firefly" achievement will need a guide of some sort) I am DANGEROUSLY CLOSE to marking an Assassin's Creed game as Perfect Dragon'd, utterly 100% all-achievements-all-tasks-complete.

This is weird, because Valhalla isn't even my favorite Assassin's Creed, or my favorite of the "Layla" trilogy. (I would put it behind Odyssey but ahead of Origins.) Indeed, when I started the game I hated it. I had no investment in the storyline, I had nothing but contempt for the changes to combat, and I found the game's insistence on being DARKER AND GRITTIER! rather irritating actually.

Over time, that leveled out a lot. The combat may have been different but it had an interesting vision that I learned to appreciate, the storyline gradually came into its own (with the understanding that if you only care about the metaplot, 95% is filler, and if you don't care about the modern-future storyline at all, you're going to resent it intruding again), and the tone settled into a kind of wobbly but affectionate Viking Battle Buddies storyline that earned its darker tone towards the finale.

Most of all, however, I grew to love how every map-marker locale was a puzzle, either a physical-movement puzzle ("how do you enter this building? also, can you navigate this cave?") or a logical puzzle ("what does this man want and how can you get it from his neighbors?"). I love booping the map markers ANYWAY, you give me something to SOLVE while I'm there instead of just a chest to open and I'm blissful.

Also, this game does more to actually progress the metaplot than any other of its trilogy, and in ... interesting ways, too. I'm really looking forward to the DLC on this one, I want to get back into this world. Those aren't out for several months though.

That's okay, this is a single-player game and I've played about all the single-player content. Now I can lazily fish for a while, find a bug to set free, and finally have Perfect Dragon'd a game in my favorite series.

Did not see that coming from where I started this thing.

[EDIT, THE NEXT DAY]



And there it is, 100%'d.
Perfect Dragon claims another.

The problem with calling up the soul of Perfect Dragon is that she does not leave easily. At some point in Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom I found myself staring at the "Map Explored" meter, rationalizing to myself that yes 96% was a very high number, but it could be higher. There could be more percents involved. I could put in a little extra effort and, well, 98% was so close to 100%, I might as well scrape up just two more...

And so I 100%'d Monster Boy. Which was a good choice, because the puzzles were very interesting (even if incredibly hard to solve in places, one of them is an absolute forehead-slapper) and by the end I really... didn't want this game to end.

You see, back in 2017 I played the remade Dragon's Trap and that was Very Good Indeed, but it was still an old game from my youth, a faithfully remade Sega Master System game. I had already finished this on the SMS, but it was fun to revisit in a glowing new guise.

In 2017 I also played Monster World IV, which was originally a Genesis game, and that was also very good but had some old school design sensibilities that I didn't quite get along with. It was still wonderful and full of personality and ended with a screen suggesting you "make a wish" for Monster World V.

I did. I wished and I hoped and I knew in my heart that of course it would never happen. Sega had moved on and it was up to the fandom to put together, uh, SOMETHING. This Monster Boy thing looked okay.

What I hadn't realized was that Monster Boy would -be- Monster World V in all but direct name, complete with so many callbacks and references and nostalgia-buttons that I didn't even quite CATCH them all, musical themes brought back to life with talented remixes, amazing 2D graphics and a map so incredibly packed with secrets it outdid several actual Metroids and Castlevanias I've played.

This was not the cute little fan tribute I imagined it to be. This was a full, robust, proper sequel to the games I loved as a kid. I was completely blindsided, and ... hell, right now, looking out into the year to come, I'm actually not sure if I'm going to find anything BETTER than this. I might've accidentally popped my game of the year right here in the first two weeks of January.

Oops?

thank you silverstar for the christmas gift

Spyro 2 has only 100% available, which is a very Video Games thing to say and I'm faintly sorry about it.

That said, it's a much less lonely game than the original, by which I mean you're constantly being hounded by NPCs who want you to do all the things for them. Get me this, do that, help we're being invaded please kill it. All in the name of collecting Orbs, which are most absolutely legally distinct from Dragon Balls.

For one thing there's 64 of them.

How would you walk?

... Nevermind.

This game introduces Elora the Faun who will never be seen or heard from again and Hunter the Cheetah, who will be a persistant pain in the ass all through the series as he boldly attempts to 'help' Spyro. The Twitch chat for my stream is already a running barrage of "HUNTER HOW ARE YOU THIS AWFUL" and I'm delighted we're all on the same page.

Unfortunately he's also really attractive. I feel like if I were dating him I'd be like "Hunter, you're so goddamn stupid." and then my tongue would be down his throat every time he spoke up. Thank god this is not that plane of reality, I don't know how I would survive.

So anyway yeah Spyro 2 is about collecting shinies and setting things on fire and I did okay at it. Perfect Dragon continues her placid kaiju stomp across this series and I'm delighted that her stride was not broken.

Next is Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon, in which you spend a curious amount of time not being a dragon. I'm looking forward to it kinda.

With this, I wrap up the first three games in the official Spyro canon by shooting an evil Sorceress with the Official Spyro Cannon. 117% percent complete, all skill points unlocked, and a slightly heartbreaking page in the back of the journal with all the cast waving goodbye and a "WE'LL MISS YOU" underneath. Insomniac clearly wanted out of this series with a desperation, they kept shoving in out-of-genre moments EVERYWHERE.

Happily, part of the reason I play this kind of platformer is for the out of genre weirdness of suddenly doing a UFO rail shooter or some crazy thing like that. So I'm down with it.

So... That's the entire trilogy Perfect Dragon'd. I realize I'm on the honor system for this, but if proof is desired I can always get screenshots via Twitch I guess? I wouldn't want to lie about it for a couple of reasons, one being how ridiculously hard some of the skill points are -- if I were going to lie, I wouldn't have DONE THEM. I would just SAY I beat the stupid auto-blocking boxing bear in two rounds, instead of actually DOING IT and stomping around the room in grr-rar fury when he blocked my last hit before the round was over.

The second reason is that yep, I paid for Actual Artwork for the first time in my 18 years of furry fandom. I had a brief crisis of self over commissioning a real artist to do art for my doofy-ass playthrough of three children's platformers, but since I'm A: Paying someone I really like money and B: Going to get a picture of a perfect dragoness out of it, I am pretty much over the crisis. That art will be posted here when it's done.

What of Perfect Dragon? Is this her retirement, is this where she falls into hibernation deep beneath the earth? Will she someday rise from the ocean to do battle once more?

I really don't feel any heavy completionist desires. I don't want to streak back through my library 100%'ing every game I've beaten to date. I still firmly subscribe to the state of mind that says "If it isn't fun to do, don't bother doing it."

Yet I can't help but feel we haven't seen the last of shimmery pink scales...

As mentioned, I've been playing Spyro and finally finished it up. 100% complete, all collectables collected, all dragons rescued, etc. I decided early on that if I were going to be playing a dragon, I would play a Perfect Dragon and do all the things.

This made me really nostalgic for the days of the collectathon hub+levels platformer. Games like "A Hat In Time", "Clive 'N Wrench", "Project Ukulele", "Legend of Lobodestroyo", etc seem to be on the brink of an indie revival of the concept... but criticially these games are all not out yet.

I had a lot of unexpected fun 100%'ing this one, it felt good to steadily overcome each challenge and work out the puzzle-logic of the solutions. I don't know if I'll 100% the other two games in this series or indeed any other game I own, but I am weird and unpredictable and we'll see how things come out later on.