Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Took a break from Overwatch for once and booted up the Vita version of Street Fighter X Tekken. I'm really surprised to find how much care went into the character interactions and stages in this game. It literally oozes charm so far. I'm sort of sorry I gave it so much flak when before. Granted, it helped that I played through the arcade version with Elena and Dudley, who were the reasons I bought this in the first place. I did have the PS3 version at one point, but sold it for some reason...kind of regret that, since the graphics took a big hit when they put it on the portable. I mean, they tried to make up for it by adding 12 characters, and more features than I will ever use, but ho boy is it blocky...I normally don't complain about graphics, but considering I've seen the PS3 version, it was definitely off-putting at first. I also don't exactly know how to switch characters? That's sort of my fault for skipping the tutorial, I should've known it'd be important. I kept doing it by accident, so it must be some sort of combo that's easy to pull off. Too bad it eats into your super meter if you do it mid-combo, though...only got to use a super attack once the entire time. It also cost me a win-streak, although it was against the boss, so it probably would've happened, anyways...

Oh, and one more thing: The gem system still seems like hot garbage...but ignorable, I guess? I never really bother min-maxing in games, so I seem to be fine just leaving everyone on their defaults...I guess I'll find out in Endless mode whether or not it makes a difference...

And so falls Ganon... Zelda BotW completed, with all the shrines (I looked up five of them) and over 250 Korok seeds and very nearly all of the sidequests. I honestly could not be bothered to find all the engravings around the Zora kingdom! Great game, though - easily one of the best I've ever played.

For me, the highlights were probably Eventide Island and the entire Hebra region - it had the best hidden shrines (snowballs!), loads of Lynels, snowboarding and a labyrinth. Brilliant.

Now I'm free to get into Spla2oon, USFII, BMZ and Mighty Gunvolt Burst. It was really hard to play something else while I still had Zelda on the go!

Little Battlers Experience (3DS). It was decent.

I liked it because there really isn't any other robot/mecha games on 3DS, but overall it's a pretty average Action JRPG. It's not bad by any means, but with all the excellent JRPGs on the system, I find it hard to really recommend this one unless you want something with a bit more of a sci-fi flair.

@RR529 And even then, I think there are better options, like...

...holy crap, nevermind, there's hardly anything! Everything I could think of was for the DS! o_O

What the heck happened? You got 7th Dragon III and the then kiddy stuff on the level of Little Battlers...I guess SMT: Soul Hackers also counts, but with a supernatural twist? That's so weird...

Mutant Mudds. Controls are great and music is nice but otherwise it's a flawed game. Level design is boring. There a multiple instances where you have to do the exact same thing three times in a row like walk through narrow corridors back and forth while avoiding the same enemy on each corridor. Who thought repetition was a good thing in a video game? The enemy design is bland and enemy placement is sometimes unfair. There are times when you can't even see the enemy before it shoots you. There's also unnecessary backtracking due to not being able to use all the power-ups at the same time until you unlock another character and by that point it's almost pointless. Did I mention that I died multiple times, thanks to bugs? Yet, despite all this, for some reason, I completed the game and unlocked everything. I guess it has some redeeming qualities that made me want to see it through but I have no idea what those are.

@matiasu Ooh, I'm very pleased by your words. I've just recently acquired Millennium Girl, and already have EO2U and EO4 waiting on the shelf. Can't wait

...99.9% of video game creators?

I've just completed Sonic Mania. The game was great and probably the 2nd or 3rd best Sonic game I have played, top 3 being S3&K, CD, and Mania. The level designs are what I looked forward to the most knowing there would be some new levels and a lot of throwback levels such as the wonderful Hydrocity zone. Special stages were really fun and got more challenging for every chaos emerald. Boss fights got really creative in my opinion, FREAKING MEAN BEAN MACHINE WAS AWESOME, and the ending had me shook, no spoilers of course. Overall the game was a treat to play and if you have not played it for yourself then I highly recommend you do so!

Just beat Kirby: Planet Robobot today. The final boss fight (no spoilers) is SUPERB, but the villain is extremely tragic. PR is definitely one of the better Kirby games in my opinion.

@LegendOfPokemon, if everything goes right Planet Robobot should be dropping in my mailbox sometime this week. Good to hear your praise.

@RR529 Cool! I hope you enjoy your playthrough 😄

Persona 5. After 112 hours, I'm not sure what to say, except that it lived up to and exceeded all of my expectations. Easily the best Persona game in the series, and perhaps one of the best JRPGs I've played overall. I don't know. I'll need to get some distance from it first to gain perspective. But it was a wonderful experience. Fully worth owning a PS4 to play.

@Ralizah So better than Xenoblade Chronicles then?

@gcunit Well, yeah, easily, but I'd say that applies to most JRPGs I've played.

@Ralizah Everything I've read of yours recently seems to strike a chord with me, so you're my new bible of game recommendations.

I've had my eye on P5, but am in no hurry so will wait for the price to fall. I'd like to try P4Golden too, but can't be bothered to get involved with a Vita to achieve it.

@gcunit Hey, I appreciate that, although keep in mind that my tastes have been described as "eclectic."

I'll try to be more helpful, then: Xenoblade is all about completing a traditional epic JRPG plot while exploring a big, open fantasy world, whereas P5 is more of a time management-driven social simulator crossed with a dungeon crawler, like P3 and P4 both were. They're VERY different experiences.

For me, Persona 5 is compelling for a number of reasons: I loved the fact that the entire game is accompanied by an electrifying acid jazz soundtrack; I love the way menus, events, sounds, and everything else melds into a stylish flow that carries you through the hours without even realizing it; I love the heady, existentialistic themes (especially the shockingly Dostoevskian ideas explored in the final dungeon: I never thought a video game would drudge up memories I had of reading The Brothers Karamazov and its moody speculations on freedom, anxiety, and personal responsibility); I love the fact that the game manages to weave so many disparate narrative strands together.

Do you have a PS2? The original Persona 4 is also quite good. PS2 has access to a number of good Atlus games, actually: Persona 3 (and P3 FES); Persona 4; SMT: Nocturne; Digital Devil Saga 1 + 2; and both Raidou Kuzunoha games, among others.

All of these games are pretty cheap online, because Atlus USA has kept them in print.

Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS), with all code cubes collected.

Really great game. I was afraid I was moving on from the series after being underwhelmed by Dream Land 2 when I played it last year, but PR was fantastic. It's a very graphically polished game with some fantastic looking levels, in which even the most standard themes stand out thanks to the mechanized theme, and not only is the gameplay is as solid as ever, but they really make the most of a 2D platformer in a 3D world, and the Robobot itself is a fun addition.

The bosses were a real highlight though, with the final boss in particular being epic in scale, and delightfully bizarre in it's final stage. The clear Gurren Lagaan inspiration didn't go unnoticed either (though that last bit was heck on my circle pad).

Hellblade, Sonic Mania and if it counts the first episode of the new Life is Strange prequel mini series.

Half Life: Opposing Force (PC)
absolute incredible add-on for an already amazing game. played through it for the second time now and loved every second of it. Blue Shift is next

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Not entirely done with the game (still have challenges to do, and I'd like to get perfect scores on all the missions and find all the chests), but I finally beat the main campaign. Took me a little over 30 hours, which I'm pretty satisfied with. I imagine I'll have put 50 or so hours into the game by the time I 100% it.

Pros

• Gorgeous presentation. This might be one of the best looking games on the Wii U.
• Good OST. Especially that catchy midboss theme!
• The Mario and Rabbids crossover actually works out really well, and I never felt like the things were out of place.
• Love the extensive overworld navigation, puzzles, etc. between battles.
• Always enjoyed the cutscenes. They looked like they came from a Pixar movie.
• While not all of the humor worked for me, I found the Rabbids more funny than annoying, which is a win in my book.
• Decently challenging in later worlds.
• I liked the skill trees and customization in this game. Very different for a Mario-themed game.
• Character abilities and stat builds are distinct enough that most of them feel unique. Peach is a good defensive tank and meat-shield with powerful close range combat options. Luigi is a fantastic sniper, long-range damage dealer, and is able to cross long distances with ease. Rabbid Luigi is weak-ish, but has an ability that allows team members to gain health when they damage enemy units, which is invaluable. etc. etc.

Cons

• Most of my complaints with this are down to performance and polishing issues. My first issue is with the stability of the framerate. While it's okay in most parts of the game, it takes a MAJOR nosedive if multiple enemies catch on fire, and sometimes just randomly, or during certain boss fights.
• The last world is particularly unpolished, and plays host to a variety of glitches. One, in particular, forced me to restart a world to even make progress because it trapped me in a certain area.
  The game probably crashed 5 or 6 times. Needless to say, this is the only Switch game that has crashed on me thus far. Three of those crashes were on the final boss, which is particularly annoying, considering how long it is.
• While the game doesn't look bad on the tablet, it does drop to a sub-HD resolution, which is disappointing.
• I hate how limited team builds are. Instead of allowing the player to use any combination of characters they want, they're limited to Mario, one type of Rabbid, and one secondary Mario universe character.
• Finally, I hate how the character unlocks are distributed throughout the game. What's the point in unlocking a character a few fights before the final boss?

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the game, but it desperately needs a few patches to stabilize some of the more annoying crashes and stability issues.