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

[azeke]

Just out of curiosity, what would you consider other, recent racing games that tried things a bit differently? I can really only think of DiRT Rally with its time-rewind feature to compensate for the difficulty, and maybe that racing-platformer hybrid Skylanders game I guess...

To me OnRush looks like ExciteTrucks but with half of it's ideas cut and the remainder presented as the bees knees of racing games: you have ExciteTrucks' points system and combat giving points for destroying opponents in variety of ways, but there is no terrain deformation, there is no actual racing (however putting cars back into the pack IS a very neat idea), there is no constant barrage of mini-challenges along the road.

[broodwars]

Just out of curiosity, what would you consider other, recent racing games that tried things a bit differently? I can really only think of DiRT Rally with its time-rewind feature to compensate for the difficulty, and maybe that racing-platformer hybrid Skylanders game I guess...

To me OnRush looks like ExciteTrucks but with half of it's ideas cut and the remainder presented as the bees knees of racing games: you have ExciteTrucks' points system and combat giving points for destroying opponents in variety of ways, but there is no terrain deformation, there is no actual racing (however putting cars back into the pack IS a very neat idea), there is no constant barrage of mini-challenges along the road.

I can't speak for ExciteTrucks since I never played it, but I did play Excitebots and if the mini-games in the former are as intolerable and unreliable (due to the motion control) as in the latter I think I would prefer Onrush or Split/Second.

Make no mistake: Onrush is desperately lacking in match types, something that maybe would have been addressed had the game been successful, but since it wasn't...it is what it is, and I mostly like what it is. I despise "realistic" racing games, so when you have a company put out a roller coaster in racing game form, it appeals to me. It's not doing the same ol' crap racing games still regurgitate year after year.

[ejamer]

Etrian Odyssey IV (3DS) - Polished off this game tonight, or at least the normal campaign. There is plenty of post-game stuff to delve into if desired, and lots of character builds available to play with. I rarely dive into post-game content, but after finally getting my party to the point where I really enjoy their development and abilities it might be fun to keep the game in my system for another week or so before moving on.

Quick thoughts?
- After overcoming the mediocre start, this game became a really enjoyable slow burn. The longer I played the more interesting it became. By the end, it was hard to set down, always wanting to explore just a little bit further.
- Really enjoyed the class and sub-class system. Sub-classes really help give you options to balance and customize your team. It's also nice that you can reinvent your characters by reassigning their skill points without starting over. (You do drop a couple of levels... a small price to pay for building out characters you really like.)
- Story was mediocre; Etrian Odyssey Untold did a much better job in this regard and left me very excited to play Untold 2. Luckily the gameplay is rock solid and the dungeon/enemy designs well designed.


Anytime that a game leaves you excited for me, it's a good thing. All too often I'm breathing a sigh of relief when it's time to move on, instead of thinking about how enjoyable the last few hours were.

[MagicCow64]

Zero Time Dilemma:

I'm mostly out of stuff to play, so I circled back to finish the Zero Escape series. From a cursory Google search it looks like this game was fairly controversial and forum-litigated, but I'll add a few notes:

-Game is oogly. I wasn't wild about the switch from mostly pixel art to 3D models in VLR, but that game at least had a distinctive atmosphere and character designs. Not so much in ZTD.

-Puzzle design is better than VLR, which relied way too much on brain teaser crap, but it also is seriously lacking in challenge. Still, I appreciated the efforts to mix it up with stuff like the rotation hall and the alien number system, even if the escape rooms themselves didn't really make sense with the plot this time around.

-I was anticipating the plot getting as bugnuts and twisty as VLR, but instead it was mostly building up to an idiotic cheat-reveal that didn't actually affect the story much, and made the Heavy Rain twist seem reasonable. I had caught on to the idea that, unlike it seems, this game is actually in first-person like the previous two, but I thought it was going to go for some bonkers fourth-wall breaking thing that would encapsulate the previous games, but instead it's a pretty underwhelming ending to a high-concept series. Also the characters blow, including new portrayals of existing ones.

-The fragment structure is an intriguing approach and a neat idea to differentiate this from VLR, but they didn't really pull it off. It's mostly just confusing for majority of the (long) run-time. Again, to some extent this is clever because the characters are confused and displaced in time, but I rarely had any idea what the actual context was w/r/t the other groups. It gets fun in the last stretch when you start hopping around, but overall, with the simultaneous existence of the timeline tree, it feels like they didn't execute the concept all the way. Like, with a more ambitious fourth-wall breaking concept, they could have had the actual fragmentation of the episodes be part of the game's meta-puzzle, requiring manual reconstruction to open new causal paths. Instead I just got infuriatingly bottlenecked at one point because I didn't realize the opening vote round is an active switch system that you have to modify the right way to progress, even if you've already made all of the choices. Like, if the whole game had something like that going on, it could've been really cool, but instead it was just this one-off gotcha that forced me to consult a guide.

In the end, I'd have to say I think I liked the first game best as a self-contained product, even if it wasn't as fleshed out in the multi-verse mechanics as VLR. I feel like the ideal game is somewhere in-between 999 and VLR, but it shall never be. 

[ejamer]

Zero Time Dilemma:

...

In the end, I'd have to say I think I liked the first game best as a self-contained product, even if it wasn't as fleshed out in the multi-verse mechanics as VLR. I feel like the ideal game is somewhere in-between 999 and VLR, but it shall never be.

Scathing review!

I never got around to VLR, and feel bad about it because the other games were fun... but not bad enough to make the effort.  Your conclusion seems reasonable to me, based on my experience so far and what I've read.

[ejamer]

Finished off Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) last night, beating every stage with all coins and gold flags - but I didn't go back and play through as Luigi and have little interest to right now. The game is very good, but it's not "start again immediately and beat every stage another time" good.  Coming back to revisit the game and play as Luigi at some point in the future is totally feasible though... and something I might do after taking a break to play something else for a while.

There were a few moments where Mario's position when jumping wasn't clear, which lead to unexpected deaths - frustrating, but rare enough that it's not a significant issue.

No specific highlights come to mind... but that's only because the whole game is solid, frequently introducing interesting new challenges. Definitely recommended. It's a gem for portable platformers.

[Adrock]

I loved Super Mario 3D Land so much that I replayed everything. On two separate occasions I swore I would revisit a Mario game then didn’t. I never went back to complete Champion’s Road in Super Mario 3D World. I also stopped playing Super Mario Odyssey without getting all the Power Moons. I stopped at 600-700 something.

I’d probably double dip if Nintendo released an HD edition of Super Mario 3D Land on Switch.

[Luigi Dude]

As I said in the other thread, Mario 3D World is better the first time through when collecting all the medals and stamps, but 3D Land is more fun to just replay when trying to rush through the levels as fast as possible.  The shorter more compact levels hold up better on replays compared to the larger more spaced out levels of 3D World.  With 3D Land I actually had the most fun rushing through all the levels a second time as Luigi, while in 3D World it was a blast the first time but when replaying as the other characters kind of becomes a drag over time.

I would also add that I find the Castle and Airship levels in 3D Land some of the best pure platforming gameplay in a 3D Mario.  I'd probably rank 3D Land as my second favorite 3D Mario behind only Galaxy 2.  The levels might be short but I find that a good thing in this games case because they really make use of all the space in each one.

[ejamer]

I agree that the short levels are a boon; especially if you go in with a powerup, stages can be completed extremely quickly.

[BranDonk Kong]

Spider-Man - PS4
Excellent game. Is it like Arkham? Sure. But Arkham is like Spider-Man 2, without the web swinging. The story is done very well, graphics are amazing, and gameplay is slick. Boss battles are all pretty awesome too. I'm at 99%, I think I just have to level up the rest of my gadgets, which means getting Ultimate on a couple more Taskmaster challenges, and this will be my first platinum trophy game. Post-credits scenes set up the sequels nicely. Hopefully that unlocks the 28th suit too (maybe that requires getting the rest of the hidden landmarks photographed though). I somehow haven't have that one spoiled yet.

[ejamer]

Dragon Warrior Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS)

Saw a quote that was from (I believe) Square Enix indicating that they were surprised so many adults loved the game in North America, because it's essentially targeted at children in Japan. It definitely does feel like that is the target, but Rocket Slime is just so charming and delightful that I consider it an "all ages" experience.

From start to finish, the game is littered with humorous references to the Dragon Quest world, and more bad puns than you can shake a slime at. That charm covers some of the games limitations (challenge is nearly absent; upgrade systems don't work well unless you have a particular fondness for needless grinding; some of tank battles can be a bit repetitive) and the short length ensures that the game ends before you really grow tired of what it's got to offer.

Strong recommendation for people who enjoy the Dragon Quest series and want a light-hearted adventure with some familiar characters.

[broodwars]

Spider-Man - PS4
Excellent game. Is it like Arkham? Sure. But Arkham is like Spider-Man 2, without the web swinging. The story is done very well, graphics are amazing, and gameplay is slick. Boss battles are all pretty awesome too. I'm at 99%, I think I just have to level up the rest of my gadgets, which means getting Ultimate on a couple more Taskmaster challenges, and this will be my first platinum trophy game. Post-credits scenes set up the sequels nicely. Hopefully that unlocks the 28th suit too (maybe that requires getting the rest of the hidden landmarks photographed though). I somehow haven't have that one spoiled yet.

The final suit unlocks when you 100% the game, which only requires that you complete all the side content. You don't have to Gold the Taskmaster challenges.

[BranDonk Kong]

There's a hidden 28th suit that you have to unlock by taking a picture of all of the secret landmarks. It's a disappointing suit...but I kinda want that platinum trophy.

[broodwars]

There's a hidden 28th suit that you have to unlock by taking a picture of all of the secret landmarks. It's a disappointing suit...but I kinda want that platinum trophy.

You don't need the T-shirt suit for the Platinum. I don't have it, and I do have the Platinum.

[BranDonk Kong]

Hmmm. What do you need for the platinum then? I have 100% the game through only things I haven't done are those landmarks and gotten all the ultimate Taskmaster challenges (to finish all the gadget upgrades).

[broodwars]

Hmmm. What do you need for the platinum then? I have 100% the game through only things I haven't done are those landmarks and gotten all the ultimate Taskmaster challenges (to finish all the gadget upgrades).

Have your purchased all the other suits besides the hidden one? Without seeing your trophy list, I don't know what you're missing.

[BranDonk Kong]

Yeah I have all the other suits. I'll check out gamefaqs or something, thanks.

[BranDonk Kong]

It may be the "disturb a bunch of pigeons" or I may not have actually gotten spectacular on any drone challenges actually.

[Adrock]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Better late than never.

When I picked the game up again a few months ago, I considered doing the bare minimum to get to the end before deciding that would be doing a disservice to a modern masterpiece. I finished the main quest, completed all shrines, all side quests, collected all Captured Memories, found all but 29 Korok seeds, defeated most if not all mini-bosses, upgraded all armor except the Starlight Memories jewelry and the Armor of the Wild set. I got impatient because I just wanted to murder Calamity Ganon.

Breath of the Wild is brilliant. It's been a long time since I played a game that made me feel this way about interactive media. I never got into open-world games before. I lost interest first. Then, Nintendo said, "Yeah, but what if you can climb like 99% of things?" which changed everything. The game's single greatest accomplishment is that it made the overworld interesting. In other 3D Zelda games, the overworld is mostly empty and traversing it is boring. I could not fathom why the overworld was so large in Twilight Princess. There was nothing to do. It was just space that wasted a lot of time. Skyward Sword tried to fix that but didn't quite get there. Breath of the Wild cashes the check Skyward Sword wrote in 2011. Traversing the overworld is most of the game and it was never boring.

The game isn't without faults. However, with Breath of the Wild, when I'd say, "Ehh, that wasn't great," I usually gave it a pass. The game got so much of everything else right that it often felt weird to complain about something. For the sake of discussion:

1. Enemy variety was lacking. The combat was so good but never felt fully utilized since there were approximately three and a half types of enemies.
2. Not all the Shrines were great. Typhlo Ruins, for example, was especially terrible. I know some people like that part; it just didn't resonate with me. Maybe i'm a little bitter that the area didn't light up upon completing the shrine.
3. Zelda sucked. Almost everything about her sucked. Her character design was great then everything else sucked. Her personality was bland. Serious Zelda is worst Zelda. When she wasn't being melodramatic, she was just kind of there. I don't understand why she had a British accent.

The series was slowly trending in the wrong direction since Wind Waker. Each subsequent game felt a little less special than the older ones with the exception of A Link Between Worlds. It was almost as if Nintendo didn't know how to make anything else or didn't have the courage to try. That is until Breath of the Wild came along. The series feels like the gold standard for the genre again.

Most of the Zelda formula was tossed out the window. Very little of the game was artificially gated. Combat was deep. There were so many options now. Link couldn't just block everything, or wait for an opening. There was no set structure after the first four Shrines. The Great Plateau is quite possibly the best and most effective tutorial in any video game. Additionally, roads felt like part of the world rather than paths the player must follow. The game practically invites players to wander off. If an NPC is walking hella slow on his donkey or something, walk around him.

Similar to seeing distant fields to the north I couldn't visit, I liked how Hyrule felt lived in. Breath of the Wild "cheats" by previously having Calamity Ganon wipe out most of the population before the start of the game. It works though. There are, for example, ruins of settlements all over the place. That's excellent world building. For the first time, NPCs were part of the world. They were affected by what happened 100 years ago. Show, don't tell. I'd argue those environmental hints are better world building than the cutscenes. As far as narrative medium, video games often still feel like they're chasing movies. There are better ways of telling players about the world. Breath of the Wild both does that well and does not do that well.

I'll probably skip the DLC for now, and I'm not interested in Master Mode. I want to move on to a different game.

EDIT: Breath of the Wild has supplanted A Link to the Past as my favorite Zelda title and second favorite video game ever. I'm not sure I can rank it above Super Metroid yet. Since I just completed the game on Friday, I'll let it sink in first.

[ejamer]

Congrats, Adrock - it was a long time coming.  Totally agree with your assessment of the game though - it's an instant classic, and every time I go back to the game it's easy to lost myself in it all over again.

[Luigi Dude]

Mega Man 11

Well it's a Mega Man game alright.  Doesn't really reinvent the formula but it's still a good installment.  The levels are bigger then other classic Mega Man titles which I really enjoyed since they really go all the way with the idea's they introduce.  It also has one of the best set of weapons in the series where most of them are very useful and some just destroy the game when combined with the Power Gear.

The only real negative is it kind of ends in a whimper, like they just ran out of time.  There's only 2 real Wily Stages, then the 3rd is just the re-fight with the Robot Masters and the 4th is just a fight with one of the easiest Wily fights in the series that literally rehashes the first part of the Wily boss fight of MM 10.  But other then a disappointing ending, the main game is still really strong so I'd heavily recommend it to any Mega Man fans.

Of course after playing it I was thinking about where I'd rank it and realized that I'd been over 12 years since I last played MM1-8 on the Anniversary Collection on Gamecube.  I think it's time I bought Legacy Collection on Switch to replay all of them to see if my taste has changed since then.  Of course I still need to finish all the games on the X Collection as well since I was literally playing it right before MM 11 was released.

Well it looks like I'll be playing nothing but Mega Man until Smash Bros comes out.  My backlog will never be finished.

[Adrock]

Thanks, ejamer. While I thoroughly enjoyed the hours I put into the game, it may be some time before I revisit it, if ever. “Breath of the Wild” is very dense. It’s almost too daunting to start from the beginning. Maybe I just need to wait a couple years. Still, considering how prone I am to put games down for months or years, I’m probably better off making time for other games.

Axiom Verge (Switch)

Yes, I managed to complete two games in the same month. Try not to faint.

I have a pretty obscene backlog, but I don’t want to view it as a burden. Video games are supposed to be fun so they should be something I want to complete rather something I force myself to. I’ve been adjusting my attitude in regards to the games I buy. I won’t always feel compelled to complete some games (e.g. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy), and that’s okay. Lately, I’ve held off buying new games because there are games I already have and really enjoy but put down when life gets in the way.

“Axiom Verge” was one such game. The art, music, and atmosphere are all extremely well done. The controls are probably better than the Pro Controller d-pad would lead me to believe. The story is interesting though a bit difficult to follow. Still, “Axiom Verge” lacks polish. I don’t want to give everything a pass because one man developed the game, particularly since it just so happens to be where all the game’s flaws come from. It’s harder to be objective about your own work. With that in mind, some rooms are so f-ing frustrating. One room in E-Kur-Mah involves blindly jumping down into lower levels of a giant room only to be ambushed by enemies, and it kept happening in that same room. That same stupid motherfuc... That room is poorly designed.

Unfortunately, this kind of stuff keeps popping up. It really holds “Axiom Verge” back from being truly special. A lot of third party games lack the polish I’m referring to. Think about how much about Super Mario Bros. a player can learn before the first pipe in Level 1-1. That kind of attention to detail is vastly under-appreciated. “Axiom Verge” is uneven in this sense. Sometimes it gives players a new thing and forces them to use it to exit an area. Other times the game just assumes they’ll figure it out. New weapons are auto-equipped, but it isn’t as if the enemies in that room or the surrounding rooms are vulnerable to that new weapon. “Axiom Verge” very much prescribes to the shoot-things-until-they-die line of thinking. That’s fine, but it could have been so much more.

[lolmonade]

I wrapped-up Persona 5 late last night.  As someone who has dropped off of JRPGs for the last 10 years, Stellar game, love the characters in the story.  This is my first foray into the series, so the battle system felt fresh like a strange mix between Pokemon and Final Fantasy.  Hitting enemy critical weaknesses seems especially important here, where it causes a stun that allows you to hold up you enemy for cash, items, or to have them join your protag character's slate of usable personas.  Chain stunning enemies is important both to keep them accumulating damage, but also prevents them from exploiting your character's elemental weaknesses or status effects, because they all hit like a tank. 

The way it breaks out actions into school days on a calendar is a great way to give you the chance to break up dungeon crawling, and it creates a nice shift from the seriousness of where the story is going with humor and more slice of life moments.  It was a great way to draw down the tension in story and make the more drastic moments impactful.


I got stuck hard at the last boss until I chatted with a friend who told me I was 7 levels below where he was when he got to the end game.  Grinding-out levels to make up that deficit made it a much more manageable beast to defeat. 

I'll revisit in a month or so to do a new game +, as I want to see what the social links I missed look like, and to explore other parts of the game I neglected in my first playthrough.  I assume it'll be much quicker than the 120 hours that went into the first playthrough given how OP I'll be.  Absolutely would recommend, and i'll miss the cast of this game.

[azeke]

Silent Hill 3 (PS2):
The game really loves that shot with Heather looking at the camera over the shoulder:


The circle was finally closed, 15 years later.

This is the game that started my fascination with the series (and even entire console gaming thing) way back in 2003. I "procured" the game and installed it on my work PC, but never managed to actually play it past first few minutes. However, the opening music captivated me and game's songs with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's vocals haunted me ever since.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's and Akira Yamaoka's collaboration on the series is retroactively considered a start of the end for the series, mainly because of her being responsible for bad voice acting on HD Collection (among other things). However i am not playing these maligned versions of 2 and 3 and i love the songs she did, so there is no problem for me personally. And there were way more important reasons why the series kinda withered and died (the first hour of SH4: The Room spells out that the initial Team Silent spark is out by then already). I say i got me some great games and i am not gonna cry over things that could "have been" and just enjoy and celebrate for what the series was, is and will be in our memories.

SH3 feels like a very conscious retread of original Silent Hill game. It feels like a knee jerk reaction to criticism of Silent Hill 2 "feeling disconnected from first game" in that 2 has completely different and unrelated plot, completely different protagonist and a completely different tone. It was less scary too. So with 3 feels like pendulum swings back so hard, it feels like a rehash (an entire level reused from 2 doesn't help too).

Granted, 3 brings in all technical achievement of 2nd game: visuals, in-game models and lightning look great, game has proper controls (as-in not tank-like), so it's a better game than 1 on that alone. It's also way less obtuse than 1: important for progression weapons and items are not hidden away from you and you don't get a "bad" ending just because you missed some obscure thing way outside of the campaign main line (all reasons why i don't think SH1 is even a good game).

However the game adherence to a more classic type of gory horror of 1 kinda cheapens the game, which didn't happen with 2 which was more subdued and had a definite story and a message to tell.

The imagery and nightmarish horror effects are still very, very impressive. And overall it's a great game if you can handle more outright scary stuff than rather mild Silent Hill 2 by comparison.

If i rank SH as of now, i think the #1 would be either Shattered Memories or SH2 and 3 would be second.

[Adrock]

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Switch)

Not much has changed from my initial impressions in the other thread. The game is fine. It’s biggest issue is it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. “Shantae: Half-Genie Hero” is probably my least favorite game in the series though I haven’t played the original on Game Boy Color.

If I’m counting correctly, seven transformations are completely optional in that they never have to be used even once. On top of that, bat and spider are only required for 100% completion in that they are only used to collect optional items. The former is situationally useful such as crossing gaps while the latter was used three or four times. Mouse is similarly seldom used except in very specific situations. I believe it’s used for only one required item, and unfortunately, it’s probably the worst transformation in the game from a gameplay standpoint which is made worse by the Switch Pro Controller’s faulty d-pad. I’m about to open my Pro Controllers and try the tape fix. Releasing a controller like this is unacceptable, but that’s on Nintendo. The Pro Controller is great otherwise.

The graphics are very vibrant and clean (maybe too clean) though I may prefer the old sprites. The music is catchy. “Dance Through the Danger” is cheesy yet oddly endearing. The controls are a mixed bag. The harpy transformation intentionally lacks traction and requires repeated button presses to stay airborne. The lack of a map is a bit annoying in some parts. Overall, the levels are fairly straightforward so the game mostly doesn’t need it.

The gameplay sticks fairly close to “Shantae: Risky’s Revenge” and presumably the original. There are two areas in which Shantae is sliding down a ramp and must jump over pits and rolling debris. Those areas are meant to add a little variety, but they’re generally terrible. They lack the charm and inventiveness of say, Retro Studios’ “Donkey Kong Country” games. Also, it should be noted there’s magic that gives Shantae invincibility and an item that gives her unlimited magic. Granted, they’re attained pretty late. They still make the final boss a joke. They can be turned off or not used for anyone looking for more challenge. I went through the trouble of finding those things so I used them.

The presentation definitely suffered from Wayforward not meeting the last few stretch goals. An animated opening and ending would have been nice. Voice acting would have been greatly appreciated because there’s a lot of text, and the story isn’t that great. However, Cristina Vee is a good voice actress so I would have welcomed her voicing Shantae (and Risky Boots) throughout the entire game instead of a few lines here and there. I won’t dock points from “Shantae: Half-Genie Hero” for this. The game was crowdfunded. Wayforward didn’t have the money. It did what it had to in order to even make the game.

Ultimately, I had my fun with the game though I had trouble getting past it not being as good or varied as its predecessor, “Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse.” I briefly attempted a couple of the DLC modes, but I’m probably not going to play through most of them. For example, Beach Mode has Shantae in a bikini and when she’s outside, there’s a countdown to getting sunburnt which leads to automatic damage so she has to constantly grab sunscreen which is strategically placed throughout the stage. No thanks. I googled the “win screens” and anime boobs aren’t worth the trouble. I may revisit the game for “Pirate Queen’s Quest” to play as Risky Boots because I believe she actually plays differently.

I’ll probably start “Octopath Traveller” next. I don’t know how long it will take to finish. I have about six weeks before “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” so I’ll try to finish as much as I can.