Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

I finished The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D yesterday afternoon after logging just over 60 hours (according to my 3DS's log). This was my first time playing the game, and can I just say...Wow. What a deliciously dark, interesting, and impactful game. I can definitely see how it surpasses Ocarina of Time in the eyes of some. The plot was interesting, as were many of the characters. The NPCs actually have a pattern to their lives when compared to the residents of Hyrule in OoT. Many of the side quests (the meat of this game, it can be argued) were intriguing. The dungeons were (mostly) creative and challenging, though Snowhead almost had me falling for the power button at one point. Most of the bosses (minus Gyorg) were also quite fun. There are many memorable quotes and moments, unique series enemies, and impactful tracks to be found here. Termina was wonderful to explore, many of the masks had useful and/or interesting effects....Yeah, I could just drone on about the positives of this game. Heck, I even think that Tatl is more fleshed out and less annoying than Navi.

The only (very minor) complaints that I have about this game are the added fishing holes since there's really no point to them other than to say that you've caught everything in them. While I think the complaints about not having enough time to do stuff in this game is overblown (especially when you slow it down), they also aren't completely unwarranted.

I highly recommend Majora's Mask 3D to any Zelda fan and, heck, most gamers in general. Some (but not all) aspects of it surpass OoT in my book. It's a definite contender for my Zelda Top 5, but that list is already difficult enough to compose....

I just beat Smash Ultimate's World of Light mode. I finally got the true ending by beating both Galeem and Dharkon in a single battle! Quite unexpected that I got to play as Master Hand, as well. There were some frustrating battles and there aren't any stages to go through, but otherwise I thought it was fun.

Finished Cuphead, making it my seventh beaten game in 2019.

Structurally and narratively, this game is pretty basic. You play as Cuphead, who gets greedy in a casino and ends up losing his soul to the devil in a game of dice. He'll allow you to keep your soul, however, if you collect the souls of other cartoon people and bring them to him. This... is pretty much the extent of plot justification you'll find here, other than a few short dialogues, which is fine, because this game absolutely does not require a story of any interest. What the game is selling is a boss rush (not, fully, there are a few "run and gun" stages where you can collect coins to buy new weapons and charms, but more on that later) with tight controls, creative boss fights, and an utterly flabbergasting aesthetic. It's hard to overstate how overwhelming the game's sense of style can be: I'm afraid all I can say is that it's like a Max Fleischer cartoon has come to life and is presently doing its best to try and kill you. As with those often subversive old cartoons, there's a kinetic and often surreal animism at work that makes almost every object on-screen feel unique and possessed of a sense of agency (and malice, since these are fights). It's difficult to imagine anyone with even the slightest love for animation not falling head-over-heels for the presentation in this game. The 'old timey cartoon' style extends to the music as well, which is fantastic and reflects the styles that would have been more popularly employed in media during America's early twentieth century.

So, the design of the game itself is incredibly limited, but the few things it does it does incredibly well. It's hard to even think of an action-platformer I've played with more fun and creative boss fights than this, even putting aside the visuals. This game is positively bursting with creativity.

I mentioned run and gun stages and, while they're fine and well-designed, they're few in number and don't make much of an impression, as they're reasonably short and straight-forward affairs. This is fine, though, because, coin collecting aside, they serve their purpose as a small breather after a particularly exhausting boss encounter, which is how I used them.

The game is divided into three or so worlds, each one with an explorable overworld that has hidden coins and small quests to complete. They're nothing too deep, but they add a nice puzzle element to the game.

Speaking of a puzzle element, while the game technically lacks a post-game, you can go back in after beating the devil and complete all of the bosses on Expert difficulty, and, if you manage to beat them perfectly, earn an S-Rank. I'm not sure that there's much of anything to be gained from doing so, but mastering the game's bosses (I've only managed a few) on Expert difficult really unveils new dimensions to the gameplay. Even after you've memorized the enemy's attack patterns and learned how best to deal with it, to get the highest rating, you'll still need to choose the weapons that have a high enough DPS to kill it under 2 minutes (required to get the S-Rank) while still not exposing yourself to unnecessary risks. And, as I've found, there's an ideal combination of weapons in this regard for almost every boss. From that point on, it's down to pure practice as you enter a kind of zen state in your attempts to fully grok the enemy's movements and achieve sweet, sweet perfection. As an illustration of this, I sat down to S-Rank a few of the easiest bosses the other night, and looked a while later to find that five hours had passed and that, unbeknownst to me, it was three in the morning. This is the sort of zen madness I've been subjecting myself to, because, even though I'm not a completionist, I have so much fun playing this game that I didn't want to stop engaging with it. I've done so only in the interest of continuing to work on my backlog, and because there are a few bosses I feel I have no hope to perfectly beat on Expert difficulty. I'll probably continue returning to the game periodically to challenge the various bosses on this higher difficulty anyway, though.

I would put this up against many of the best AAA games released this gen, exclusive or otherwise. It's top-tier stuff, and absolutely indicative of what independent developers can achieve with proper funding and a solid driving vision. It's also the sort of brutally difficult and old-school-in-design game that we'd never see from a big enough developer. While it's not perfect (run and gun stages aren't incredible like the bosses; no post-game; dialogues would have been even better as animated cutscenes; a lack of in-game compensation for fully mastering the bosses; etc.), what's done right here is incredibly good, and this is the most fun I've had with a game in a number of months. 9.5/10

Fishing Star World Tour - Well, about as finished with it as I'm going to be. I've completed the "World Tour" and completed all the missions in every world, but I still have 3 of the 8 "Legendary" rank fish left to catch (one per world). They're more of a post game challenge, but with so few left I can't help but feel "incomplete" leaving them uncaught. They're just SOOO hard. I have the best rods & reels in the game, but no combination I've tried works (My line either has enough power to reel them in but not enough strength to hold them whenever they fight back, or enough strength to keep them from immediately snapping the line but not enough power to reel them in, resulting in me losing a battle of attrition).

Anyhow, it's an otherwise fine game that's a good way to unwind. In fact, during the normal course of the game the motion controls are perfectly viable & actually quite fun.

2019 completion list (newly beat in bold)

Switch:

• Fishing Star World Tour

PS4:

• Dragon Quest XI
• Senran Kagura: Estival Versus

So... this is gonna be an odd one.
Madagascar: operation penguin for GBA. I played it on a GBA SP.

Its a great 2D platformer. I genuinly enjoyed it quite a bit. I got it super cheap (6 US dollars, I think), and got it as a joke. Turns out it's also made by the same company who did the Crash N-sane trilogy. The moveset is extremly wide by the time you get to the last few levels. Completely worth every dollar 👏. Give it a shot if you can.

SEGA AGES Phantasy Star - Took me around 15 hours and I loved every minute of it.

Dead Cells - Reached the end stage for the first time and beat the ridiculously hard boss. Fortunately my energy bar was huge as a few more hits and I was a goner. I've still got loads to do in this game though and I intend to do it.

Cursed Castilla - I beat this in 10 hours over 3 days. Loved it! I never collected all the secrets though so never unlocked the true final stage and boss. It was really tough going just getting through the levels, never mind hunting for secrets so by the time I beat the 7th stage boss it felt like job done move on.

I recently picked up Gorogoa on sale and ended up beating it twice last night. The first time I only intended to play for a little bit, but I got sucked in. Then, after my wife came home from work, I wanted to show her the art style and the puzzle mechanics (she's really into art, so I thought she might appreciate it), and we ended up working through the whole game together again. It's not a long game, but it is really well done!

just beat Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and unlocked Shrek (yes, Shrek is in the game.)
back to completing on normal (I'm on the last level on there too). than likely beat Sick after Normal.

Tsuppari Oozumou via the famicom online service. It’s pretty fun. Nothing classic or spectacular, but fun.

I just finished Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Nekopara and their respective bonus stories (volume 0 and extra). I'm sure plenty of people, especially western audiences dismiss the games as anime smut, and to a small extent I would agree. But I honest to god really enjoyed these visual novels. Loads of eye candy to be true, but each character is pretty well defined and interesting for more than just their looks. I was laughing quite consistently and enjoying myself throughout the experience. I think I can enjoy it more because in large part I understand enough of the Japanese that I pick up on the Japanese jokes and puns that just don't translate well into English. Also since the male character lacks a voice actor, I read most of his lines in Emperor Palpatine's voice (Star Wars) and amused me far more than anything rightfully should.

While I really really enjoyed both of these and really hope for volume 3 to comes to Switch as well, I wouldn't really recommend them to western Switch owners. They are extremely niche titles, even here in Japan. But for those of us who fit into that niche, these are some extremely enjoyable titles. Lots of great humor, tons of great eye candy, and just enough lunacy to remind you to take nothing seriously.

#noshame I'd rather enjoy this than most mainstream western entertainment any day!

My first and only beaten game of this year is Danganronpa 2 - Goodbye Despair on steam. There were rumours it was going to appear, along with the first game - "Trigger Happy Havoc" and "V3" on Switch, and I was itching to buy them, but I ended up getting them in last year's Christmas sales along with the spin off "Ultra Despair Girls". I'd definitely recommend them if they do finally land on Switch.
They play similar to the Phoenix Wright series of games, in that you investigate a murder scene and collect evidence which you can use in the class trial that follows. The story follows a group of Japanese High School students who were accepted into a prestigious academy. Upon entering the school, they black out, and wake up trapped together with no escape. The students are then encouraged to murder each other for the chance to escape, but only after passing the class trial. If the murderer is proven guilty, then only the murderer is executed, whereas, if the murderer successfully evades justice (you are unable to prove the culprit's guilt), everyone else is executed, and the murderer walks free.
You advance through trials by presenting evidence or "truth bullets" at contradictory statements, that allow you to piece together the circumstances as to how the victim was killed. There are also several minigames to this effect, and some of them are more fun than others.
Outside of the investigations and trials, you can spend time with each character by giving gifts and learning about their backstories (earning trial buffs in the process).
I found it enoyable, but some of the minigames and post-game modes were a bit frustrating. At any rate, I've earned every achievement for the game, and I'm for all intents and purposes, finished with the game, but I'd certainly go back to it one day, if not to refresh myself on the story when I go on to V3, but to play it through in Japanese to hear how the characters all sound. The English VO was great though. My favourite characters were Teruteru and Gundham in that regard.

The next games I'm in the process of beating are Mario Tennis 64 (I've beaten the regular singles and doubles tournaments as every character now), Octopath Traveller (beaten chapter 2 for several characters) and Final Fantasy VI Advance (I can enter Kefka's tower, but I'm yet to recruit every character or perform adequate preparations.

@Aozz101x Was Shrek available on the Gamecube version? I spent more time playing Pro Skater 4 & to a lesser extent, Underground 1, so I doubt I unlocked everything possible on THUG 2. I'd been meaning to play those skater games again, actually - I was reminded of them when I was playing Mario Tennis of all games.

@edhe Have fun collecting all the trophies for V3. They really make you work for it. Spent 95+ hours just engaging with the insane amount of post-game content.

Oh, and in case you should happen to watch the Danganronpa 3 anime (the canon follow-up to DR2; V3 is an unorthodox sequel and kind of its own thing), be sure to play Ultra Despair Girls beforehand, as the anime heavily references all three previous games.

@Ralizah Regarding the anime, I might very well do that. I was planning to move onto Despair Girls next, but I do find the world very interesting.

@edhe Yup. this is my image of unlocking him.

THUG 2 was absolutely mad. I do remember being able to play as someone in a motorised wheelchair.

But why can I remember being able to play as Billy Gunn from WWF? In a rocket powered Segway? It was on a Boston level, I think.

@Aozz101x There was a game that was just called "Shrek"? No subtitle like "Shrek the Green Banaza" or something? Also man, I miss those old Tony Hawk Underground games. Great music, and they remind me of my friends, several of whom played them often as I was growing up. Right shame how that series faded away.

Be prepared for some pretty disturbing scenes in Despair Girls.

@Cynas I'm still somewhat surprised it wasn't censored at all, especially considering how many taboos it touches on.

I just Platinumed Assasin's Creed Odyssey. This is actually my first time getting a Platinum and, with a violent games of all thing. I don't play violent games... What is wrong with me? D:

Most certainly not going to make a habit of it. lol

Just finished Links Awakening DX, at times it felt like a chore and some of the puzzles are a bit obtuse but I enjoyed it overall and definitely plan on getting the Switch version on release.