Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Took me roughly 50 hours to beat it.

PROS

• Absolutely fantastic world-building and writing. From the unique NPCs with consistent names, personalities, and histories that move about Liberl to the frequently hilarious character interactions and charming personalized Treasure Chest flavor text, this game's script is clearly top-shelf and had a ton of love put into it. Best aspect of the game.
• This game's story is much more grounded than most JRPGs I play. Less "Let's kill God and save the world" and more "Mostly well-written political drama in which your characters stumble into a political conspiracy that gradually reveals itself to be an even bigger conspiracy."
• Sidequests mostly feel meaningful.
• Simple but fundamentally solid battle system.
• The lack of random battles is nice.
• Using different quartz was interesting, and reminded me of the materia system from Final Fantasy VII.
• Not a huge pro, but I liked most of the music well enough.
• Nice visual style on PSP. The 3D buildings really have a "Wow!" factor to them.
• The ending is a punch to the face. I love it.

CONS

• To say the game's story is slow would be an understatement. It's slow watching molasses grow: this, on the other hand, is almost unbearable. Tons and tons of build-up to... what, the second game? It feels like a lot of the foreshadowing could have been condensed without losing much effect on the overall story. Actually, the whole game gives me the sense of people trying to pad it out as much as possible so that all the exciting stuff can be stuffed into Second Chapter.
• The dungeons are kind of boring.
• The game is too easy. I almost never changed the equipped Quartz on my character even though the option was available to me because there was almost never any need to. This is a definitely a more narrative-centered JRPG
• I don't like the central romantic narrative or the constant insinuations from other characters about it. That's all I'll say.
• I HATE how strictly timed some of the Bracer quests are. It's crazy.
• Stealth sequence. No.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It's certainly not the masterpiece some people led me to believe it was, but it was a solid, mostly enjoyable JRPG. Hopefully it'll feel like a more complete experience once I beat the second game.

I cleared the main narrative in Mega Man Battle Network the other night. It's definitely a bit rough around the edges when compared to later games in the series, but I still really enjoyed the story and gameplay. Mind you, all my years of practice made the final boss seem a bit easy. I've spent some time since doing some of the extras in the game, but I think I'll put it down for now.

Just beat Axiom Verge on my PS Vita. Superb little Metroid-like game. The atmosphere is tense and creepy, the music is outstanding, and it has an interesting narrative that evolves nicely as you progress through the game.

I beat Fairune a few days ago and I'm nearly finished with Final Fantasy VI.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped. I finished it in less than 3 days. Me and my brother used to play this game so much as kids, but it was really hard for us back then since we rarely used jumping then sliding (a simple but essential move in pretty much every crash game).

Warped has great levels and bosses, but there many gimmick levels. I'd have preferred regular levels instead of the Jet Ski and airplane ones.
Not sure if I like Warped or 2 more. 2 had some of the greatest levels on the trilogy but the levels toward the end get kinda cheap.

The story mode for Pokemon Sun and Moon. It was pretty fun, though I do wish they had a bit less handholding at the beginning of the game and maybe upped the difficulty of the evil team encounters a bit more.

I just replayed the first Ratchet & Clank game on the PS3 trilogy collection. It's a still a fun game, and yet, the series only improved on everything it established. I'm happy to say that the lowest point of one of my personal favorite series is still great.

...A certain tower defense spin-off notwithstanding...

Just beat Shantae: Half-Genie Hero this morning. While it's my least favorite of the Shantae games (short, linear levels; too easy; little to no plot; less character banter than usual), it's still an above-average 2D platformer with an utterly gorgeous visual presentation. Seriously, this is one of the prettiest games I've ever played. Still, considering how much I enjoyed previous entries (ESPECIALLY Pirate's Curse, my favorite entry in the series), I won't pretend that I'm not at least somewhat disappointed.

Even the GBC game? That one had some annoying flaws.

@Vinny I actually love that game. Probably my second favorite one. Large, well-designed dungeons filled with puzzles. Detailed pixel art characters with incredibly smooth animations. A sprawling overworld. The game was super-impressive, considering the platform it was on. Felt more like it belonged on an SNES.

Also, I really love the unique way Shantae navigates towns, and that fun dancing minigame.

The excessive backtracking was a bit much at times, but the game addressed that issue with dances that warped Shantae between the different towns.

Biggest flaw for me was the lack of fun character interactions, but the rest of the game made up for that.

@Ralizah To be fair I haven't finished the GBC one yet, but yeah the backtracking can be annoying.

Pirate's Curse was excellent, but I haven't played Risky's Revenge yet. According to wayforward, the 3DS version was put on hold due to some issues regarding the 3D. I could get the DSiware version but I'd rather be patient.

Have you played Monster Tale for the DS?

@Vinny It's a bit rough around the edges, but the original Shantae is a really satisfying game. At least, it was for me.

I didn't know WF was looking into putting RR on the 3DS. Director's cut, I assume? That's awesome. I'll totally double dip if that happens.

I haven't played Monster Tale. What is it?

@Ralizah It's a somewhat obscure mix between a metroidvania and virtual pet game for the DS, with a nice little combo system. Your pet gains experience as it kills enemies and there's an upgrade tree path, much like some RPG's. Your pet is very important during boss fights and for solving puzzles.

The game's main flaw is that... There is a lot of backtracking. Last year it was announced there would be a 3DS remake called Monster Tale Ultimate, with an option for orchestral music, 3D and adjustments so there would be less backtracking.
They kept quiet about it until the beginning of this year when they said the development was going well, but now we're back to the silence.

@Vinny That actually sounds pretty neat. I need to look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!

Lara Croft: GO (Android). They finally ironed out that glitch that kept me from accessing the main menu with the latest update, so I was able to finish up the last few levels.

Absolutely fantastic game, and the perfect way to translate a traditional gaming series to mobile (though to be honest, I've never played a proper Tomb Raider game before).

Gameplay: Levels consist of 1-4 screen size dioramic rooms, and the goal is to solve the environmental puzzles along the way through. Everything is turn based, and there are tons of elements that are introduced along the way to keep things fresh, like traps (cracked tiles, saws, boulders, etc.), enemies (snakes, giant spiders, and monitor lizards), and interactive objects (levers, spears, movable platforms, pillars, etc.), and despite all this depth & variety, everything is easily controled with a simple swipe or tap. The main game is never too difficult, but the post game tomb, "The Cave of Fire", will test your knowledge of the game's many elements to the limit. Also, there are relics (represented by vases) hidden in the background environment for you to collect by tapping them (this doesn't count as a turn).

Graphics: It has a simple polygonal look, but it's bright, accessible, and runs smoothly on my 3 year old tablet (on high settings, according to the settings page). The game's environment is set in various ancient ruins, and at times they manage to make it seem a bit epic. There are also about a dozen costumes to unlock for Lara, unlocked by collecting all the relics in a tomb.

Sound: It has an ambient soundtrack, but it sounds nice (especially with headphones), and fits the theme.

I'd say it's definitely worth it at it's normal asking price (it's a one time pay to own game, the only in-app-purchase being an extra costume DLC), and it's an absolute steal at it's current $1 sale price.

Yoshi's Story
This one's much easier and simpler than the SNES game, but I don't think it was meant to be a sequel. The goal is eating a certain number of fruits to finish the current level and there's no baby Mario or exit goals.
I love the art style and the music is very relaxing. It's a nice little platformer and I like it for what it is.

I feel like I'm missing some...context, here...

Posted in the wrong thread. =_=

Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse (Android).

Gameplay: Despite being a remake of a 16-bit classic, this takes more inspiration from the N64/PS1 era. Channelling SM64, it features a hub castle that you can explore in a 3D space, and while only one world on the bottom floor is open at first, if you collect enough diamonds in that world (and beat it's boss), the next world opens up, granting you more access to the castle in the process. There are 5 worlds in total (plus the boss' lair), and each consists of 3 levels. The first two levels of each world are where you'll be doing most of your diamond collecting, and are mostly sidescrolling in nature (in a 2.5D environment), though there's usually at least one segment in each that plays out in a fully 3D space. The third stage is always a boss fight, and all but two take place in a 3D arena (the boss' lair does things a bit differently than the other worlds, as it's just one level, that has both a platforming segment, then the fight itself). There are also extra collectables hidden in the levels in the form of playing cards & chilli peppers, in addition to the diamonds. The only downside to the gameplay is that it's a mobile exclusive game (unless it's on Steam?). It would clearly work better with traditional controls, and it shows (while most of the game isn't too bad, and there's fun to be had, there's also a few segments that are borderline infuriating, and I can't help but think the touchscreen controls played a part).

Graphics: It actually looks very good, with almost a console quality look. Also, they definitely get points for effort since they forgo the typical water, fire, and desert world motifs in favor of more imaginative locales, such as an enchanted forest, oversized library, toyland, and more (even the different levels in a single world, or even segments in a single level, can vary noticeably in terms of aesthetic, and they work things like water segments in organically). unfortunately, I ran into some issues, such as the fact that the framerate dips with a lot on screen, and I noticed some graphical glitching occasionally (it never impacted gameplay, but a couple bosses, and a couple environments, were covered in little holes that obviously aren't supposed to be there). These may be down to my 3 year old tablet, but I wanted to bring them up. On a more positive note, the aforementioned extra collectables do some neat things aesthetically. they unlock new costumes for Mickey (accessed via a magic mirror on the second floor), concept art (cleverly decorating the castle walls in the form of paintings), and statues of the game's characters (these also dot the castle grounds, and double as character bios).

Sound: the soundtrack is naturally full of pep (it's a Disney game, after all), and the narrator adds a charm to the proceedings (and a few characters, including Mickey himself, have a few spoken lines). You definitely need headphones though, as I couldn't hear it otherwise.

Overall, there's some fun to be had here, and they put a lot of heart into it, but it also has it's fair share of notable issues that should be considered. I feel it was worth it since I only paid $1 for it, but I wouldn't recommend it at it's normal $10 asking price.

So...which thread was the right thread?