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

[MagicCow64]

I'm not going to read spectrumy walls of text, so I'm just going to assume that it was acknowledging that FF7 is terrible. It broke the abstraction layer that made turn based RPGs playable, and shifted the medium toward an embarrassing and wrong-headed emphasis on pre-rendered story segments (and really, a focus on narrative in general).

[ejamer]

Eh, I still think that 7 had more ambition than it could fulfill given how new the tech was and big their vision was, while 6 was kind of the peak of what they were able to do given the system constraints.  6 also felt like a more traditional JRPG, while 7 took risks - some of which clearly did not pay off in my opinion.

I'm totally ok for us to disagree though.  And if you accuse me of looking at FF6 with rose colored glasses I'll happily agree.

However... I want to address this comment:

Oh boy. I was thinking about playing Final Fantasy VII and VIII (I haven't played either one for any significant amount of time) after the 3DS release schedule slows down later in the year, but after catching up with the newer posts in this thread some of you guys are making me reconsider.

Don't reconsider!  Give them a shot!

Love them or hate them, they are landmark games and totally worth trying.  Worst case scenario, you find they aren't your thing and gain a greater appreciation for games you like more. Best case scenario, it will hit you the right way (like it hits many others) and you'll add a new game to your list of personal favorites.


The fact that they can be divisive and draw strong emotions certainly isn't a reason to avoid them! 

[Oedo]

Oh boy. I was thinking about playing Final Fantasy VII and VIII (I haven't played either one for any significant amount of time) after the 3DS release schedule slows down later in the year, but after catching up with the newer posts in this thread some of you guys are making me reconsider.

Don't reconsider!  Give them a shot!

Love them or hate them, they are landmark games and totally worth trying.  Worst case scenario, you find they aren't your thing and gain a greater appreciation for games you like more. Best case scenario, it will hit you the right way (like it hits many others) and you'll add a new game to your list of personal favorites.


The fact that they can be divisive and draw strong emotions certainly isn't a reason to avoid them! 

I'll definitely still give them a shot at some point (I already bought Final Fantasy VII during a PSN sale a while ago), but they might get pushed further down my queue now. I would be more inclined to play them if I had a Vita I could take with me anywhere, but it's a little harder to justify sitting in front a TV with a JRPG that has a decent chance of not being as enjoyable as I'd like.

[supermario2k]

I wouldn't say it is broken, nor would I say it is perfect. I was only saying that MY enjoyment of it, was not nostlagia because i didn't play it when it was new. The rest was a **** you to just say **** you.

[MagicCow64]

Delete your account.

[Wah]

Gentleman! Final Fantasy 7 is a great game! It's true, but it's aged like old cheese.

[Evan_B]

I'll just say this- I believe Final Fantasy is a series that values narrative over gameplay. While that might be your cup of tea, it isn't really why I play JRPGs, and while VII put Final Fantasy on the map in the West and paved the way for many other series to come, I can really only appreciate it as one the first successful venture into 3D for JRPGs. There are other games that were the first successful venture into 3D for their genre and- surprise- they have also received stellar reviews. But the fact that VII is being remade with only its story being kept intact is damning evidence of what elements are the most praised about the game and the franchise, in general.

Personally, I play JRPGs for customization and engaging battle systems, which is why I try to broaden my catalog of franchises whenever I can. When a game mixes a good narrative with a solid battle system and deep customization, I'm all for it. But I've never really found a Final Fantasy title that has engaged me from any of those angles with the exception of VI, which is refined in presentation and soundtrack, had a massive cast of characters, and just the right amount of freedom. But it's really the only Final Fantasy title I've enjoyed (outside of the Crystal Chronicles games- again, combat system, customization, atmosphere), and I'm not particularly interested or thrilled by the prospect of getting back into the series again. Especially now that it seems to be stripping away the turn-based, tactical nature of previous entries for action-based combat systems.

[MagicCow64]

I'll just say this- I believe Final Fantasy is a series that values narrative over gameplay. While that might be your cup of tea, it isn't really why I play JRPGs, and while VII put Final Fantasy on the map in the West and paved the way for many other series to come, I can really only appreciate it as one the first successful venture into 3D for JRPGs. There are other games that were the first successful venture into 3D for their genre and- surprise- they have also received stellar reviews. But the fact that VII is being remade with only its story being kept intact is damning evidence of what elements are the most praised about the game and the franchise, in general.

Personally, I play JRPGs for customization and engaging battle systems, which is why I try to broaden my catalog of franchises whenever I can. When a game mixes a good narrative with a solid battle system and deep customization, I'm all for it. But I've never really found a Final Fantasy title that has engaged me from any of those angles with the exception of VI, which is refined in presentation and soundtrack, had a massive cast of characters, and just the right amount of freedom. But it's really the only Final Fantasy title I've enjoyed (outside of the Crystal Chronicles games- again, combat system, customization, atmosphere), and I'm not particularly interested or thrilled by the prospect of getting back into the series again. Especially now that it seems to be stripping away the turn-based, tactical nature of previous entries for action-based combat systems.

I can't say I'm a huge turn-based RPG fan in general given that my interest expired with the SNES, but I agree with this. I really like FF VI, because it was my first RPG, and it had a compelling presentation and a bunch of unique characters with bespoke mechanics, lots of side quests, varied scenarios, secrets, etc. The story was just stringing it together, and the cut scenes were just brief intervals of sprites hopping around. I tried V after and hated the job system and found it overall unenjoyably primitive. I tried VII and found it ugly as hell, way too heavy on narrative, clunky in every aspect, mechanically generic due to the materia system, and worst of all incredibly slow due to the 3D battles, animations, summons, slow walking through the environments, loading, whathaveyou. I gave up on the second disc. I just don't think the gameplay is tenable in 3D, it requires the flexibility of abstraction provided by the 16-bit games.

The only other JRPGs I like are Earthbound, for its mechanics and aesthetic, and Chrono Trigger, for its great character tech system and time travel structure. I have the barest memory of the stories, but I'm sure they were nothing to write home about. Oh, and the pre-3DS Mario RPG games are good too, but those are practically poster children for mechanics over narrative focus.

[Wah]

If you like RPG's that are very different and ground breaking like Earthbound, FF and Chrono Trigger try Undertale, it's a trip you won't forget!

[Mop it up]

Not on a Nintendo platform, but have finally slain a personal demon in Final Fantasy VIII (on PlayStation 1) after over a decade of slow progress and I wanna talk about it. ...

But hey, at least it's better than Final Fantasy 7.

Not sure if serious... At least FF VII is playable and doesn't do stupid things like level enemies with you, making leveling pointless and often a detriment.

The only thing I liked about FF VIII was the music. Blue Fields is still one of my fave pieces from any FF game.

Steefosaurus, don't let this stop you from continuing on and trying Final Fantasy IX! It's definitely the best FF on PSX, and one of my fave FFs in general. It doesn't get as much recognition because of its later release, even after the PS2 came out I think. No stupid gimmicks like leveling enemies, and the character personalities are done better, though the actual physical designs can be a little too goofy in a bad way. And of course, more stellar music awaits.

Does FF6 really need a remake though?

No, but that doesn't mean nothing could be made better about the game, aside from the obvious improvements in graphics and sound. As great as the SNES was during its time, the game was still limited by the hardware, and some of its ambitions could not be fully met. For example, I'm pretty sure there are more aspects they wanted to add into the second half of the game, but they did not have the time (or cartridge space) to implement them. Some of the story threads could also be better expanded upon now that there is no text limit. The character traits could be better balanced as well (for example, Cyan's skills don't make up for his poor magic in a game that's all about magic). Things like glitches have already been fixed in the GBA version and beyond though.

That said, I do not trust current Square to get it right. I wouldn't want to see the game have the kind of plastic-y look of, say, FF XIII, and they probably wouldn't keep the music faithful to the original instruments and such. There would probably be too many story cutscenes added to bog down the pace, and they would probably overplay things to be melodramatic, and turn characters like Terra and Cyan into a mountain of self-pity, removing any strength they once showed. On that note, any later FF spin-off tends to turn Terra into a pure mage, which is lame as she was such a good all-around character in the actual FF VI, dispelling the notion that a magic-user has to be weak.

In the end, it's possible to make a good remake of FF VI, but I don't expect one to be made.

[ejamer]

Not on a Nintendo platform, but have finally slain a personal demon in Final Fantasy VIII (on PlayStation 1) after over a decade of slow progress and I wanna talk about it. ...

But hey, at least it's better than Final Fantasy 7.

Not sure if serious...
...

(Was mostly kidding even though I'm not a fan of FF7. I haven't actually played FF8 enough to have a fair opinion.  Glad to see someone stick up for FF9 though; I feel like that game often gets forgotten or ignored unfairly.)

[Order.RSS]

Steefosaurus, don't let this stop you from continuing on and trying Final Fantasy IX! It's definitely the best FF on PSX, and one of my fave FFs in general. It doesn't get as much recognition because of its later release, even after the PS2 came out I think. No stupid gimmicks like leveling enemies, and the character personalities are done better, though the actual physical designs can be a little too goofy in a bad way. And of course, more stellar music awaits.

Haha yeah FF IX I've actually started once years ago & never made it far in, but certainly planning to return to it! Love the design of Vivi especially. Honestly I'd long ago figured out FF VIII was really too obtuse for its own good sadly, but it was my first major RPG so I wanted to finally finish the game that got me into the genre - against better judgement, perhaps.

Do hope that others reading along also heed this advice, the first two Final Fantasies on PSX may be a tough pill for those who love the earlier themes. But at the time it was certainly a groundbreaking switch for the franchise (and entire genre), so they're worth a look for historical significance alone...
It's rather ballsy of Squaresoft to throw so much they did for their big hit FF7 out the window when designing 8, particularly regarding the junction system, and while I don't think it worked it's still nice to see ambition.

[ejamer]

So managed to finish off New Super Luigi U (Wii U) with all star coins found up to Princess Peach's castle and all Nabbits caught. My kids have really enjoyed playing - and lately watching me play, as the levels are a bit too advanced for them - and were thrilled to save the princess.


I'm not really a fan of the physics in the New Super series, it always feels a bit too floaty compared to what I expect from a Mario game.  But in this game it's easy to overlook that because Luigi always feels kind of slippery and floaty - so the game controls very close to what I expect. Level design was mostly very good, although a couple of the star coins and hidden levels seemed kind of BS. Random butt stomping to find secrets when you have a short timer isn't good level design in my opinion - although maybe I missed some kind of tip off about where they were? Regardless, I enjoyed the game quite a bit and would recommend it. In fact, this is probably my favorite entry in the New Super series.


Not sure I care enough to do the handful of unlockable levels right now though. Will probably come back for them a bit later?

[Phil]

I beat River City: Tokyo Rumble for the 3DS the other night. It's a short game, maybe 4-5 hours, and it can become repetitive. However, the brawling, the leveling up, the different moves you can learn and unleash on foes makes the repetition not seem so bad. I liked doing some of the jobs for extra moolah and some new moves, but some of the jobs depend on luck to get, such as beating a character 3 times. You have to hope he spawns, and the odds of that are pretty rare.

As for the story, I think Kunio is hilarious, always calling his teacher "babe", who then gets severely ticked off by his lack of respect. He's more hilarious when I put it in my head-canon that Kunio was 45 years-old.

[Luigi Dude]

I'm not really a fan of the physics in the New Super series, it always feels a bit too floaty compared to what I expect from a Mario game.  But in this game it's easy to overlook that because Luigi always feels kind of slippery and floaty - so the game controls very close to what I expect. Level design was mostly very good, although a couple of the star coins and hidden levels seemed kind of BS. Random butt stomping to find secrets when you have a short timer isn't good level design in my opinion - although maybe I missed some kind of tip off about where they were? Regardless, I enjoyed the game quite a bit and would recommend it. In fact, this is probably my favorite entry in the New Super series.

Oh it's easily the best NSMB game and my 2nd favorite 2D Mario behind only Bros 3.  The fact it was meant to be a harder DLC remix of the main game allowed them to really go all out in design since they didn't need to worry about any casuals being overwelmed since Luigi U was aimed at the hard core Mario fans.  I hope Nintendo continues to do this with future 2D Mario games as well.

Not sure I care enough to do the handful of unlockable levels right now though. Will probably come back for them a bit later?

Do it, they're some of the best levels in the game.

[Soren]

BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets (SNES/Satellaview via Emulation)



Well, here's something I never thought I'd play. If you don't know what the Satellaview was here's a primer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview

This is game is an interesting curio. It was broadcast in 4 hourly installments, and you had the option to save your data so it could roll over to the next week. It was the first Zelda game to include time-sensitive actions, an actual in-game clock, the ability to rent items and voice acting. While the voice acting is not preserved in this version of the game I played, I can play it for the first time in English with subtitles.

I don't really know how I feel about this game. Most of the stuff in the game was groundbreaking at the time, but now just feels ho-hum, probably because the game isn't being played the same. The score attack element that would have united players who originally played the broadcasts back then is now rendered meaningless. The dungeons are fairly simple and all the boss fights are exactly the same as in ALttP, if not slightly easier. The only challenge comes from trying to complete all the goals set forth by the game each week. At 50 minutes, the game wants you to do a lot in a short time and I was unable to complete 100% of my goals each week. But there's no real penalty other than less time to work with. You can warp back to previously completed dungeons and if you missed a key item, an NPC at the entrance will just give you the items you missed.  This is done so that progression doesn't come to a screeching halt, but it still feels kinda meh overall.

It would be interesting to see how Nintendo could release these games now. I hope Nintendo found a way to preserve these games because right now the only way we can play these broadcasts is thanks to the people who preserved the data. And that's not the case with all the games. For now, you can play the game via emulation, and of course it exists in legal grey area limbo. But I'm glad I got the chance to play it, even if it was in an incomplete state (the voice acting is not available, so the lines were delivered via text at the bottom of the screen, which got a bit annoying since you are also constantly doing stuff and it can be fairly easy to miss any hints).

[rygar]

Alpha Sapphire

I finished my play through of the story this past weekend. My main team was Blaziken, Vileplume, Florges, Sableye, Latias, and Gyrados/Kyogre.  I really enjoyed it. It seems that XY is more popular than ORAS on NWR and elsewhere. There were things I liked better about both, and I think they complement each other well aesthetically, so I don't really have a favorite. Both game environments are beautiful, but I particularly like the urban elements of XY and the wilderness areas of ORAS.  Overall I think I like XY's selection of Pokemon better, but I like the ORAS story better, I liked Team Aqua more than Flare, and I feel that ORAS is easier to play (I like the UI more, the DexNav and PokeNav Plus tools improve player quality of life, and the wild encounter rate seems lower and more easily avoidable in general).

I wanted to get the story wrapped up before Sun & Moon released but I'll probably slow play the post game. I liked being able to customize the move sets by sending my Pokemon to X for TMs. I'll probably wait to dig into Moon's main story until the Pokebank update comes in January (although the wording of what I've seen is still ambiguous as to whether Gen VII pokemon can be imported to Gen VI). In the meantime, I hope to pick up some xmas eshop deals on Y and OR. I'd love to have clean copies to run different team combinations through.
 

[Shaymin]

Ever since Gen 4, transfer has been one way. So your Pokemon will go to Sun and Moon, but nobody's coming back.

[rygar]

Damn, I didn't zoom in enough on the graphic I was looking at. Well, I guess I'll be playing Moon sooner than I thought.

[Order.RSS]

BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets (SNES/Satellaview via Emulation)
[...]

Well, here's something I never thought I'd play. If you don't know what the Satellaview was here's a primer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview

This is game is an interesting curio. [...]

Wow there's something I've never even heard of! That's so... interesting? Thanks for sharing this, man gaming sure had weird innovations sometimes.

[Soren]

Wow there's something I've never even heard of! That's so... interesting? Thanks for sharing this, man gaming sure had weird innovations sometimes.

It's odd. I don't think they're essential games, but once you've played almost anything Zelda even the CD-i games might sound appealing. At least these Satellaview games have some Nintendo development put into them.


----
Thumper (PS4)

This game damn near broke me. I spent as much time on the last 3 stages of final level as I did on the rest of the level. I'm not a fan of the "let's change the game mechanics up just for the last boss" school of game design trickery, so the ending left me more annoyed than pleased or accomplished. It's a neat idea but it loses impact after you've stacked several other challenging parts on top of one another just before.

That being said the game does deliver some stunning set pieces and even for someone as uncoordinated as me pulling off a stage with an S Rank, specially later in the game, felt very rewarding. Overall I like what the game did to spice up rhythm games, though I'm not good enough to keep playing past the ending. I'd still say go for it if you like rhythm games. There's something you might find appealing.

[pokepal148]

I beat Ace Attorney 2: Justice for All via the Trilogy. That final case is amazing.

[Order.RSS]

Okay this ain't even a review, just gonna vent. Rayman for PS1, let's go.

So for a 1995 platformer this all looks pretty great right? Colourful, the animation is supersmooth mostly too. Soundtrack is decent, sound effects less so. However presentation only gets you so far. See all those spikes? That's Rayman for ya.

So this game definitely credits several people as "tests" (?) in the end-credits. Not sure what they tested but it sure wasn't playability. It controls alright~ish, if a bit finnicky and sluggish which would be alright, were it not for the absolutely satanic level design.
This game does absolutely everything it can to willingly screw you over! Spike traps, off-screen death drops, enemies spawning behind you, invisible spikes, spikes with a longer hitbox than their sprite makes it seem. Some vital parts of the level can only be triggered by standing on specific spots (unmarked of course).

There's regular enemies who take 3+ hits, constantly duck under your punches, there's enemies too small to even hit at all, they all respawn constantly anyway. If they hit you, get out asap cos your invincibility frames are very short - there's one beetle in particular who can go straight to hell. He'll regularly drain your three-block healthbar. And then you can start a level all over, or maybe only halfway back if there's a checkpoint (way too few of them).

But why even have a healthbar if you're just gonna make almost everything a 1-hit kill? And of course your lum count resets everytime so good luck farming 100 of them for one measly extra life. Now, maybe I just suuuuuck hard at platformers, but I just cheesed the whole game with the 99-lives code which I used FOUR TIMES. That's 396 lives, almost all of which I lost!! Oh and of course it ends on a dissapointing bossfight where you don't even fight the actual bad guy, who's already barely characterised. Oh and just to put a cherry on top of it, you can't even get to the bossfight without 100%-ing all the levels! I was at like 40% max, so yelled a big loud swear at the TV and used another cheatcode to get there.

Rayman absolutely astounds me, because it became a big franchise right? For part two they literally built two full games (Tonic Trouble as a test and then Rayman 2). That's cool and all but who in their right mind played this and thought "yeah this needs a big-budget full 3D sequel! It'll be our new mascot!"
Sure Rayman 1 is gorgeous, but that's literally it's only selling-point. Maybe it just sold stupidly well or something? Look, I like Michel Ancel's work a lot and future Rayman games were much better, but this game was absolutely screaming for an Easy Mode or something.

Rating: Rayman is the biggest proof I've ever seen how 1 aspect (difficulty) can utterly destroy almost any merit an otherwise fine~ish game has. Recommended to absolutely nobody, watch it on YouTube if you must. 2.5/10 solely for the visuals.

[ejamer]

Okay this ain't even a review, just gonna vent. Rayman for PS1, let's go. ...

Fully agree.
I remember playing through this game on GBA at launch. Want to know how to make a bad platformer even worse? Stick it on a tiny, poorly lit screen and downgrade the (originally, pretty decent) music.


That said, I'm glad the series didn't die out after that first bad entry. Rayman Origins is pretty awesome.

[Order.RSS]

Fully agree.
I remember playing through this game on GBA at launch. Want to know how to make a bad platformer even worse? Stick it on a tiny, poorly lit screen and downgrade the (originally, pretty decent) music.


That said, I'm glad the series didn't die out after that first bad entry. Rayman Origins is pretty awesome.

Yikes that sounds even worse... I think there's another handheld version which is meant to be better, maybe GBC?
And yeah I hope this didn't come off too negative, but it was probably the most frustrating experience I've ever had with a game? I've enjoyed Rayman 3 and Origins in the past and am technically 1 level into Legends already, but this really kinda soured me on the character for now. Will continue with Legends soon though to remind me how good the franchise can be when handled well.