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

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MagicCow64:
It's freezing and I've had some PTO to burn at the end of the year, so I've played through some games.

Jedi Fallen Order (PC)

This game seems to have been picked over quite a bit already, so I'll limit my remarks. In one way, it was a relief to have a relatively focused single-player game like this available from a big publisher. They seem to be an endangered species.

On the other hand, it's kind of a lousy game. I'm not yet quite deadened enough to not enjoy moving through a 3D environment like this, but lots of it is just semi-automated window dressing. The whole Dark Souls thing also feel weirdly divorced from that kind of adventure gameplay. The enemy part could have easily been replaced by a beat-em-up system in the vein of Force Unleashed and it probably would have been a better experience. The mook fighting sucks in this game, and the enemy respawning mechanic makes zero sense in context. The Sekiro-style duels against bosses are better, but there's only a handful of them in the game, three of which are the same. And my god, fighting animals blows.

Devil May Cry 5 (PC):

So, I played through the first game on PS2 when it came out at a friend's house, and remember really liking it. It felt kind of like a 3D Zelda game skewed toward combat. I hadn't played anything like it before.

Years later, I played DMC 4 on 360, and mainly remember that it seemed to have little in common with the first game, and was kinda boring.

Year later still, and 5 seems to have little to do with either 4 or the first game. Gothic castle to, like, gothic underworld or something with 4, to modern city and vans and **** in 5? Maybe I'm just forgetting.

Anyhow, it came across to me as Bayonetta for boys, right down to the biblical sin concepts manifesting as creatures, with the same tiresome campyness, but executed more insufferably. The levels feel very bare and repetitive, and switching between characters, in combination with the extensive upgrade lists and convoluted EX mechanics, made it feel chaotic and strangely futile. I suppose you're meant to replay it a bunch for better scores and have everything unlocked, but I like to run through this type of game once as an arcadey beat-em-up evolution. (Not counting Viewtiful Joe, which is the best of this genre, and the only one I perfect-scored.) In that view, I found Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 perfectly enjoyable, with involving spectacle, well implemented gameplay variety, and tight pacing. DMC 5 by contrast had loading screens between menu options, and loading screens in between asinine cutscenes.

Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch):

I was optimistic about this, despite finding that Dark Moon soured pretty badly in the last third, and overall I think it's a pretty great game. It has tons of personality and bespoke interactive elements, which mostly makes up for a fundamental gameplay system that grows somewhat stale by the end. (Oh hey, this thing spins!)

The bosses are quite fun as set-pieces (muah to the dance floor battle), and it was rewarding to go back through the floors to clean up the missing jewels with a comprehensive knowledge of the game's design language.

Certainly the best game in the series, and it's hard to envision where it goes from here. Smash Bros. trailer ghost form?

ejamer:
Beat Plants Vs Zombies (DS) and was mildly disappointed in the base game experience. There are a couple of relatively easy strategies that seem to be hugely overpowered, and the game didn't ever do much to really challenge or switch things up. Some new stuff opened up afterwards, but I'm not super excited to go back for more... maybe if there were a way to speed up the levels (which might exist, but I didn't know)?

Also finished Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition (Wii U), but only with the bad ending. Going to spend some more time exploring that game to see if I can squeeze out the better ending, since it's been an enjoyable romp. Really do love the style, and find the controls and level design are pretty tight.

(Update - Got the good ending too. It's much more satisfying.) :)

Luigi Dude:
Dark Souls Remastered (Switch)

Well what better way to end the decade then by playing one of the most talked about games of said decade. After beating it I can certainly see why it became so popular and inspired many. It was a very enjoyable game and I really liked the world design and sheer variety of enemies. But I am left somewhat puzzles by many of the descriptions many use to describe the game.

I mean the game was challenging, but no where near the meme people use to say "this is the Dark Souls of whatever." The game usually has several different paths the player can choose to go at any time, and if I was having trouble at one part of the game, I'd leave that place and go someplace else and the new place would be easier and some of the items and equipment I'd find at the new place would then help me back at where I was struggling at. Same thing with managing my equipment and waiting until I hit a tricky section to start upgrading the weapons and armor that would suite me best.

Now dont get me wrong, I still died a lot and had many rage moments throughout the game so it's quite challenging. But for the last decade I've heard so many people act like videogames had become so easy for the last 20 years and Dark Souls made them challenging again which is just complete BS after finally playing the game. Yes the game doesn't have a lower difficulty setting which become standard in a lot of games, but many games with difficulty settings have harder difficulty modes that are comparable or even harder then this game.

So yeah, I had a great time with the game itself but feel many have misrepresented what the game actually is. It's hard, but no where near this legendary level many make it out to be. The beginning felt overwhelming at times but once I got used to the controls and how the varies aspects of the gameplay worked, I had a blast from there.

ejamer:
Nice job on Dark Souls!

Finished off Trace Memory (DS) (aka: Another Code) and rather enjoyed the game.

Point-and-click puzzle/adventure games are almost always something I enjoy, and this game from Cing didn't disappoint. It's very short, but that's probably good because some of the technical aspects haven't aged particularly well. There is some stuff I could look for in a second run through - I didn't solve all the mysteries and left some key story points hanging - but I'm not sure if I'll go back or just move forward to the Wii sequel...

Maybe 2020 is a good year to finally play through Hotel Dusk and Last Window also!

azeke:

--- Quote from: MagicCow64 on December 21, 2019, 07:29:34 PM ---Devil May Cry 5 (PC):
In that view, I found Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 perfectly enjoyable, with involving spectacle, well implemented gameplay variety, and tight pacing. DMC 5 by contrast had loading screens between menu options, and loading screens in between asinine cutscenes.
--- End quote ---
You probably forgot that W101 has just as many loading screens in between chapters.

DMC5 is a brilliant game, imo and it's one of only two games of 2019 that i actually enjoyed and the only one i played past several hours (the other being Mario Maker 2).

Playing DMC5 for hundreds of hours across two platforms (Steam and Xbox) offset the disappointment from Astral Chain which i couldn't even finish...

As to my games

Luigi Mansion (3DS):

I've had 2nd game and bought a remake of the first years ago by now. Release of the 3rd game motivated me enough to actually play and finish these games.

First game is a nice adventure type game. Some decent camera tricks here and there, some very cool environments (space room was very cool).

Collectathon element with Boo hunting gets a bit old by the end.

I liked it, though maybe there was an expectation of something more substantial if you go by nostalgia-adled fans.

Luigi Mansion 2: Dark Moon (3DS):
Now this one is a real deal.

Pretty much everything is dramatically improved here: animation, scale, design.

First starting missions are paced kinda bad -- they're way too long and have you going back and forth between very few rooms for no other reason than to show you cutscene that then unlocks a door for you to progress. But after that game kinda gets into the rhythm and improves both on the pacing of each individual missions and designs of actual environments. Some of the game's best level design is in later half which is kinda of a shame. Two of the bosses that end chapters are very bad (ice sled boss and the ladder guessing game), but thankfully they're one and done affair and usually you also get 3 starts on them on first try.

Scoring all over the levels and looking for boos is actually fun this time around -- you have to look out for things that are notably missing in the environment to find boos. I was actually motivated enough to find all Boos on all levels. Didn't really felt the need to 3-star rank all levels but i definitely see how one could get into the groove of 100% everything in that game. Jewel collectibles are very fun too.

I REALLY liked it. I liked it so much -- this is the game that ruined my circle pad -- the rubber thing came off exposing cracked plastic nub behind it. I still played and enjoyed the game with just that nub.

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