Topic: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

[azeke]

Crimsonland:

I played a lot of original Crimsonland game back in 2000s, it was the only game of this type i knew and it was fun to beat each other records in survival mode with a pal.

This Crimsonland is a remake for modern consoles/Steam with added co-op and controller options.



I think that since the last i played it they added feature: when you get an upgrade you emit a wave that pushes away enemies around you.

It's making all the difference. Last year i was eternally stuck trying to no-damage certain level but this pushing upgrade helps immensely against enemies who are faster than me and will otherwise completely surround and overwhelm me.

After i completed all levels on Normal without taking damage, i only had to do several more achievements for complete the game. The most obnoxious one was the one where you had to pick up 50 blowtorches -- a weapon that you usually avoid.

The final achievement was the one where i had to beat a high score in a hidden mini-game:



It was actually pretty cool, because i never played games like these before (think 2048 or Threes).

Small Radios, Big Televisions:
A neat puzzle game with trippy visuals and electronic music. It reminded me of puzzles in Assassin's Creed II. Similarly, i couldn't play these puzzles at night because these type of music and weird sterile visuals always kinda weirded me out (in a good way). An okay time-waster overall.

[ThePerm]

Mad Max- Great game.....but Jesus Christ is that ending depressing.

[BranDonk Kong]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Amazing. Didn't 100% it, but 65+ hours to do 50 shrines, get 45 Korok seeds, unlock all of the memories...not too shabby. Such an amazing game - although the Ganon battles are a little too easy. Honestly the Divine Beast boss fights were more challenging...even a Lynel is more challenging. Having said that, the battles are still pretty awesome, and Ganon looks utterly badass. Pretty fantastic story throughout though, could have had a better ending, but I guess pretty much everyone is dead. Going to re-attempt the Trial of the Sword next, and very much looking forward to The Champions' Ballad.

[Luigi Dude]

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)

I've had this game for over 5 years now and finally got around to playing it.  This was my first SMT game and it was pretty awesome.  I love just the huge amount of options and customization it allows you to do with the demons through fusions.  It really makes the boss fights shine since many of them could be pretty cheap so I really had a good time finding ways to make the most broken teams possible to counter said cheapness of the boss, especially the final boss which holy **** was insane.

Plus the storyline was pretty good.  A nice blend of science fiction filled with angels and demons from every religion all in one with some nice choices involving human nature toward the end.  I ended up doing the Neutral Path which actually fits my own personality pretty well and was pleased with the end results of it's storyline.  I'm tempted to play New Game + now to see what the Law and Chaos endings are as well, but after spending 70 hours to beat this main game, I really need to move on to others.

I also own both Devil Survivor games for the DS and SMT IV and Soul Hackers for the 3DS so I'm actually pretty excited to eventually get to them now.  I bought all of these games because I always had an interest in the series but after finally playing it I see why it's so well loved by its fans.

[Order.RSS]

Delivered a crushing blow to the backlog today, by finishing the very last of my handheld games! And what a doozy it was too, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (for GBA).



Had this cart lying around forever and had a long trip, so I busted out the GBA to play this rather mediocre RPG. It's pretty bizarre how many portable games Harry Potter got; they made action/puzzle games for the first two films, and the fourth onwards on GBA/DS. However, the GBC got the best ones - small little sprite-based RPGs based on the first two, which included a lot more stuff from the books.
For reasons unknown to me (scheduling?), the third film only got the RPG treatment on portables, which I believe was also the last one of these.

The game itself isn't great, although it's not awful either. You traipse around Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione, attending some classes, occassionally finishing mini-games and stuff. You can battle rats, statues, suits of armour, a whole bunch of spiders, enchanted mushrooms, etc. in many of Hogwarts' hallways & grounds. There's some light environmental puzzles in this one, which helps alleviate some of the boredom that was prevalent in the previous RPG games. It's pretty neat how these Harry Potter RPGs focused on fleshing out locations you wouldn't see in the console games or movies either, like the portraits halls, staff rooms etc.

Sometimes you trip over a bit of plot and the story will continue. This where a major problem sets in though. You could hypothetically level up all 3 characters a bunch, but those who have read/seen Prisoner of Azkaban know that Ron is mostly an afterthought towards the story's end. So don't bother giving him equipment or leveling him up; it's useless.
Another problem with this story's plot is that while in the book/film it has a very nifty ending based on mysterious revelations and ingenuity of our characters, it doesn't exactly feature a bossfight like part 2 does. They've managed to create 2 end-bosses, one of which is okay (but dull since you need to heal a character constantly), whilst the last one is a total pushover.

All in all, Harry Potter 3 for GBA is a very easy (bit harder than the previous entry though) RPG that you can beat quickly if you want (5-6 hours). It's not as charming as the Chamber of Secrets on GBC with its neat spritework, and on the whole I would rank amongst the lesser Harry Potter games. The Lego adaptations on Wii are still the best ones by a country mile, and the Zelda-wannabes on GameCube are better as well.
Rating: 5/10, rather forgettable, but not outright bad.

[broodwars]

I finished Prey 2017 last night, and while I really enjoyed the game overall, the ending can go **** itself. Just imagine the worst ending any story could have, and...yep, it's that one. They really did that, because they couldn't find any other way to leave the door open for a Prey 2. Goddamnit.

[azeke]

Shadow of Colossus (PS2):


Great game. Just like with Ico i feel this game left the mark not maybe by itself but in how it inspired other games.

I mean the last Zelda game takes massive inspirations from SoTC not just in superficial parts like climbing big enemies, but even approach to open world is kinda similar: smarter horses AI, conscious effort on making surrounding environments as diverse as possible: lakes, deserts, forests, cliffs, caves, empty planes and ruins, lots of picturesque ruins. BOTW even takes some of SoTC's design minimalism in that game systems all revolve on only what characters have on themselves.

Of course main character of Shadow of Colossus only has bow and sword compared to late-game Link who has a supermarket of goods in his pockets. but that only makes it cooler.

Design of each boss encounter is very ingenious. It feels like design team wanted to make game more engaging than their previous game by presenting player things to kill but their signature slow and wonky controls and frankly atrocious combat of Ico showed that encounters with human-sized enemies will only hinder the game. So they made all enemies gigantic and made you scale them which also added platforming to the mix solving several problems at once.

It's even reflected in game itself -- smaller, faster colossi that you have to take down are more annoying because they move faster than you and game's loose controls don't allow for agility to take enemies like these head-on. But huge lumbering giants go down relatively quickly because for as slow as your character is -- these colossi are slower still.

I really enjoyed that game. So smart. Very "show don't tell". Ending is pretty cool too.

Last colossus was annoying until i looked how to do jump off a wall properly -- apparently i've been doing it wrong the entire game -- the tutorial for it was on 3rd colossus but after a while i forgot it and was trying to do like in Prince of Persia games.

Also apparently you can kill some special lizards in open world and collecting their tails does something. I collected like 4 of them on the last day and i am not going to collect them all but it's cool that you can do thing other than just riding towards the next boss. However it is worth just to stop for a little while and enjoy the scenery (again -- just like BoTW).

[Adrock]

I never finished Shadow of the Colossus because I'm an unskilled video game pleb. I tried twice, once on PS2 and then again on PS3. I would like try again some day. There's always the PS4 remake. I don't know if you have a PS4, but would you consider playing the remake?

[lolmonade]

I never finished Shadow of the Colossus because I'm an unskilled video game pleb. I tried twice, once on PS2 and then again on PS3. I would like try again some day. There's always the PS4 remake. I don't know if you have a PS4, but would you consider playing the remake?

Unless the visuals were a problem for you, the PS3 is a great way to play the game.  Biggest sin of the PS2 game was bad framerate drops/slowdown.  The PS3 version is a lot smoother in motion, and looks pretty decent for a Re-release of a PS2 game. 


That said, I'm probably the sucker who will pay for the PS4 remake because I'll be due for another playthrough, assuming they don't bork something about the way it plays.

[azeke]

No i don't have a PS4 and why would i if i can play all this year's lineup on this PS2 right here, but PS2 really struggles with SoTC and i gather playing with better resolution and framerate will be a better experience.

[lolmonade]

I spent a few weeks and finally put the nail in the coffin on Ori and the Blind Forest.  Visually, one of the most beautiful 2D platformers I've ever seen.  The game's musical theme is incredibly appropriate for the theme of the world & story, and there are some wonderful arrangements made in re-using the theme throughout the game. 


Don't go into this game expecting compelling fights with monsters.  This game is very clearly 80% about the platforming, and 20% about battling enemies, which is evident in both how uninteresting most of the enemies are, and how the majority of the abilities I obtained through the upgrade tree were revolved around life and improving movement.  Because of this, most of the monsters (which are largely amorphous blobs that shoot other blobs at you) act more as another platforming obstacle or tool to reach a spot via one of the abilities you have.


The platforming feels great when you're doing well.  When you're firing off at all cylinders, you get a pace through a corridor stringing together different abilities to move very fluidly across treacherous paths, and this all leaves you with an awesome sense of accomplishment once you get past some of these parts (Super Meat boy can be a surprisingly apt comparison to these sequences).


That said, especially at the last sequence of the game, there are parts that you clearly won't learn the correct way to approach an obstacle until you figure it out via trial-and-error.  for the most part, this wasn't too bad ,but the last sequence felt particularly frustrating after getting through a dungeon with LOTS of sequences that seemed impossibly hard that I had to hit my head against a wall figuring it out. 


Story is pretty loose string narrative of what happened.  It isn't anything particularly compelling, IMO, but it gives enough of a story incentive to keep going and see what happens as a result of your actions.


These are all pretty small quibbles.  Play this game if you haven't yet.  Totally worth it.

[taryupt]

Contra 2 NES. Yes Contra 2. Couldn't beat this game as a kid because I was always playing single player and never knew the many lives trick. But last week after watching a walk through on YT, I played it on an emulator on my PC up to the very last level and won. Overall I would say the final boss battle was not as hard as some of the mid-levels I played.
~ my blog https://kitchenlola.com ~

[Order.RSS]

Finished Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, the 2003 gba title, on virtual console.
For someone's who's played most Metroid titles and other "metroidvania" games, it always felt a bit odd to have never played a Castlevania title before.

This one is decent, run around hacking the Universal Monsters to death over-and-over. What's neat about this Castlevania is that it has level-ups and some light RPG equipping stuff, that makes retraversal a bit more tolerable. It's jarring that you never find any health drops though, and potions are rather rare so you need to buy them from a single place in the castle. There's some really difficult parts and tough bossfights, ultimately I cheated a few parts by spamming the save-state feature of the virtual console.

The story is kinda predictable though, with complimentary **** dialogue. I did however like some of the attempts at symbolism. You beat the presumed Dracula, whose real form is two embracing angelic creatures, in front of  Maria statue crying blood. Turns out YOU'RE Dracula (heavily telegraphed though, I mean they give you the power to turn into a bat) and you presumably just murdered some sort of Jesus/saviour figure.

Overall I'm glad to have played & finished a Castlevania title since it's always been one of the major series that I completely passed by. However I don't think I'll be back anytime soon, if ever. Ultimately I find the aesthetic just a little bit silly. There's neat touches such as the Legion, who you see get formed by tons of corpses , but it's never really scary. They do play it straight though, so you're left with a non-scary horror themed game which ticks lots of cliche monster boxes. It's a tense game, but only because of the difficulty at times and sparse chances to regain health.

In conclusion: rather well made, some cool visuals for GBA standards, decent music, and pretty long too at 12+ hours, but it never really succeeds at pinning down a unique atmosphere, unlike Metroid usually does. Hope this write-up doesn't sound too negative, because this is a solid 4-star game, but yeah.

EDIT: I think I was mildly surprised at the lack of traps? I expected more really, like Prince of Persia. Instead your only real obstacles are enemies, and you don't take fall damage so platforming isn't it either. Just seems like some more traps beyond the obligatory spikes would've worked well with the setting, like idk, buzzsaws or falling chandeliers?

[Luigi Dude]

Finished Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, the 2003 gba title, on virtual console.
For someone's who's played most Metroid titles and other "metroidvania" games, it always felt a bit odd to have never played a Castlevania title before.

This one is decent, run around hacking the Universal Monsters to death over-and-over. What's neat about this Castlevania is that it has level-ups and some light RPG equipping stuff, that makes retraversal a bit more tolerable. It's jarring that you never find any health drops though, and potions are rather rare so you need to buy them from a single place in the castle. There's some really difficult parts and tough bossfights, ultimately I cheated a few parts by spamming the save-state feature of the virtual console.

The story is kinda predictable though, with complimentary **** dialogue. I did however like some of the attempts at symbolism. You beat the presumed Dracula, whose real form is two embracing angelic creatures, in front of  Maria statue crying blood. Turns out YOU'RE Dracula (heavily telegraphed though, I mean they give you the power to turn into a bat) and you presumably just murdered some sort of Jesus/saviour figure.

Overall I'm glad to have played & finished a Castlevania title since it's always been one of the major series that I completely passed by. However I don't think I'll be back anytime soon, if ever. Ultimately I find the aesthetic just a little bit silly. There's neat touches such as the Legion, who you see get formed by tons of corpses , but it's never really scary. They do play it straight though, so you're left with a non-scary horror themed game which ticks lots of cliche monster boxes. It's a tense game, but only because of the difficulty at times and sparse chances to regain health.

In conclusion: rather well made, some cool visuals for GBA standards, decent music, and pretty long too at 12+ hours, but it never really succeeds at pinning down a unique atmosphere, unlike Metroid usually does. Hope this write-up doesn't sound too negative, because this is a solid 4-star game, but yeah.

EDIT: I think I was mildly surprised at the lack of traps? I expected more really, like Prince of Persia. Instead your only real obstacles are enemies, and you don't take fall damage so platforming isn't it either. Just seems like some more traps beyond the obligatory spikes would've worked well with the setting, like idk, buzzsaws or falling chandeliers?

That's because you played one of the IGA "metroidvania" Castlevania's which are lacking in platforming challenge outside of one area in Order of Ecclesia.  The 8-16 bit era games on the other hand are pure action platformers filled with literally everything you just mentioned.  This is why I'd heavily recommend playing one of the older pre-IGA games as well since they're a whole different beast then what you experience with Aria.

I'd say at least try Super Castlevania IV for the SNES which is also on the Virtual Console since it's the most newcomer friendly to the older Castlevania gameplay.  I also feel it has some of the best atmosphere in a Castlevania game which is something from your impressions sounds like you'd enjoy as well.

[MagicCow64]

I'd also add that I think Circle of the Moon is better than the IGA-made Castlevanias even if it lacks the budget of Symphony of the Night.

[Order.RSS]

Huh thanks guys, maybe I will at some point. Isn't Circle of the Moon the one you could barely see on a regular gba instead of a backlit SP?

Odd to hear though since Aria of Sorrow seemed to get pretty consistent praise, with reviews generally calling it the second-best Castlevania ever (after Symphony of the Night), and certainly as the best one of the gba titles. I remember IGN made a GBA list and it came second or something. But yeah maybe I'll try one of the non-Igarashi titles at some point to see how it compares. Not gonna get one at the moment though, I'm waging a minor battle with the backlog haha.

[Luigi Dude]

Huh thanks guys, maybe I will at some point. Isn't Circle of the Moon the one you could barely see on a regular gba instead of a backlit SP?

Odd to hear though since Aria of Sorrow seemed to get pretty consistent praise, with reviews generally calling it the second-best Castlevania ever (after Symphony of the Night), and certainly as the best one of the gba titles. I remember IGN made a GBA list and it came second or something. But yeah maybe I'll try one of the non-Igarashi titles at some point to see how it compares. Not gonna get one at the moment though, I'm waging a minor battle with the backlog haha.

The biggest problem with Circle of the Moon was it was nearly unplayable on the original GBA because of the lack of backlight making the tiny sprites combined with the dark colors in the game so hard to see hence why it didn't get the reception as something like Aria.  But once the SP and Gameboy Player attachment for the Gamecube was released the game got a whole new life and more praise followed since now everyone could actually play it and realized how great it actually was.

Of course be warned much of this praise comes from the old school, pre-Symphony of the Night part of the fanbase who loves that Circle of the Moon has the brutal difficulty of the earlier games.  This is a series that back in the NES rivaled other hard series like Ninja Gaiden in difficulty and Circle of the Moon brings that back in Metroidvania form.  Seriously, the hardest bosses you fought in Aria are the equivalent to the early bosses in Circle of the Moon, the later bosses are on a whole different level.  The only IGA Castlevania which even comes close to the difficulty of the older games is Order of Ecclesia which is why it's the most popular IGA game among the part of the fanbase.

[oohhboy]

Portrait of Ruin is pretty good and underrated even with somewhat some difficulty breaking powers. It's not a Metroidvania at at all but it's makes it up with the partner shift system allowing you to change styles on the fly. I can't remember whether the later Order of Ecclesia had some sort of system like it but that is a hard game.

Circle of the Moon is definitely pretty hard, a Metroidvania and there aren't game breakers on your first run. Playing it on a backlight system is a must but I toughed it out on the original GBA by playing under a lamp and intense staring.

[ejamer]

Just chiming in: Circle of the Moon is my favorite from the GBA entries. Part of that is probably nostalgia though, as GBA remains the only "Day 1" system I've ever purchased and Castlevania was easily the best title available at that time (although Tony Hawk and ChuChu Rocket were both excellent games in their respective genres).

[Order.RSS]

Seriously, the hardest bosses you fought in Aria are the equivalent to the early bosses in Circle of the Moon, the later bosses are on a whole different level. 

Lol yikes, I see what you mean then. The Grim Reaper figure gave me quite a bit of trouble already... I just watched the Netflix show and thought it was pretty decent, looks like that cribs from Castlevania 3 mostly right? I think I'll follow the suggestions here for my next one eventually, so either SNES IV or Circle of the Moon.

[oohhboy]

It has borrowed something from every game I have played so I don't think it is angling for any one game which would be pretty stupid constraints to put on themselves as any one game has about a dozen lines of plot at most.

It's going to be great when they come up against Death(I hope it shows up). Death in all the games it appears in is a pretty badass boss you respect.

[MagicCow64]

Yee-ah, some Circle of the Moon love. I too powered through on an OG GBA, I should give it another shot at some point if it comes to a future VC.

Like has been said, it marries the "gamefeel" of the older Castlevanias with a Metroid structure, but I also think it's designed significantly tighter with much better nook hunting than the following IGA games (though I haven't played Ecclesia). The Sorrow games feel especially perfunctory to me on that front.

[Order.RSS]

Suuuuuper late to this party, but I just took down the final boss of Panzer Dragoon Orta on the original Xbox.



It's a short game, but really delivers. Back in the day this was always the one game I was jealous never got brought to GameCube. For those who might not know of it, Panzer Dragoon plays as a rail-shooter in the vein of Star Fox or Sin & Punishment. You fly on the back of dragon (though it reminds more of a hercules beetle), blasting foes all around you.

The game is absolutely gorgeous, with its best cinematics rivaling Final Fantasy X & fantastic music. The environments are pretty varied too - ranging from snowy peaks and mountainous caverns to trippy Rez-style digital worlds. Plays really well too, the only thing that reminds you of its age is the fact that the right analog stick isn't used for looking around. You do that with the left, as well as movement.

If I could level some criticism at it, I would say that the story doesn't really get resolved, although it did make me curious about the lore of this fictional world. It's my first Panzer Dragoon experience, but I can see how they squeezed an RPG out of this.

There's a bunch more stuff I unlocked, including several extra missions and what looks like a complete version of the Sega Saturn original. Will be sure to try that sometime, once my hands have stopped cramping from the final boss haha. Would rate Panzer Dragoon Orta a very solid 8.5 or possibly even 9 out of 10.

[ClexYoshi]

Sonic Mania

"Whew! That was Cool!" ~ Sonic the hedgehog, @0:14

[oohhboy]

Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai.

It plays more like a much more refined Neopolian. The base game is more of your classical melee combat with some range support. This is almost all cannons and guns.

Once you get the cannons unless you are outnumbered using terrible units or make big mistakes you are going to win as cannons provoke the AI to enter your killing zones. Not to say there isn't some close victories when you have multiple stacks come in with just too many targets to shoot or you let the Calvary get into your lines.

As with the base game Shogun 2 slims down the number of units compared to the other in the series so they exists in tiers instead of everyone getting the same sort of unit that has a different name and a couple of points difference. I makes assessing massively easier and cuts down on red tape so you can get on with more important things. Not to say there aren't unique units to a faction but they are few and far between with some pretty meaningful differences for example the foreign power Ironclads all play differently based on the real differences at the time.

The tech tree is a fair bit more interesting as there are clear upgrades with choice although rushing cannons is the big thing you must do. Some are real game changers like Kneeling Fire which doubles your rate of fire and delivers a shocking amount of alpha damage at the cost of mobility. Although I do laugh at the idea that kneeling is some sort of massive innovation that took decades if not hundreds of years since the invention of the firearm.

They are running out of periods of history to based their gameplay on though hence them using the Warhammer license. I wouldn't mind seeing them break out of the unit block gameplay in some sort of 20th century warfare that is as easy to control as the current games without having to micro like modern warfare games elsewhere.

I haven't played much of the the pre-shougun 2 era campaign but I doubt I play more as it doesn't seem very interesting and isn't really different from the base game in a fun way.