Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

@MarioLover92 yea I was eyeing it. I did already get super mario advance: super mario world which i love. Still wana get all the other ones from the Mario, dkc, metroid, and yoshi universes.

@NintendoByNature I've been thinking of getting the GBA Castlevania games on the Wii U eShop, as well. I only played the old-school ones (I've played 1, 2, 4, Bloodlines, and Rondo of Blood - I wanna get the collection on the Switch), but I heard a lot of good things about the GBA games as well as Symphony of the Night.

@MarioLover92 so i got aria of sorrow for Wii u vc.. It was ok I guess. Not great enough for me to stay focused and finish it. I do however plan on going back to it though and trying to finish it. I struggle but enjoy/appreciate the metroidvania formula which the gba games utilize so be prepared for exploration. As for the castlevania collection it's so worth it. I can't recommend it enough if you like old school castlevania like i do. And sounds like you haven't played 3 yet. It's by far one of my favorite castlevania games.

@NintendoByNature Yeah, I didn't play 3. I'll definitely play it once I get the collection

The Metroidvanias tend to coast on lazier level design (unlike Metroid games, which tend to have very intricately designed environments) and the RPG mechanics water down the skill requirements a bit. They're still good fun, though.

I really liked how Order of Ecclesia felt like it combined the strengths of the two different styles of 2D Castlevania design.

Finished castlevania 1 for the first time. think I'll take the plunge and start Simon's quest. Wish me luck folks

@NintendoByNature You'll need more than that. I recommend doing lots of drugs until you're in the correct mindset to comprehend what the level designers were thinking throughout its development.

Or, you know, feel free to look things up. You practically needed a Nintendo Power magazine back then to get through it, so there's no point in wasting your time whenever you get to a brick wall...

@CanisWolfred hahaha I laughed pretty hard at this. I'm going to consult a guide for sure. I kinda wana what all the negative fuss is about. But after all, I did beat zelda 2 multiple times which was pretty hard in its own right.

Just finished Gato Roboto 96.7% complete damn I need to find that last percentage.
As per the review it was short, but good fun only took me just under 4 hours

Kid Icarus: Uprising. I will start by saying that it's definitely not my genre and it was a nice check to see if that's still the case. Air sections were fine, ground sections not so much, especially that Space Pirate chapter (not a fan of sci-fi so it combined everything I hate regarding setting and gameplay), but I digress.

I will say that it feels rather unique considering the genre due to its unusual setting and constant dose of humour. Good writing, the English voice acting was surprisingly good, one of the best 3D uses I've seen on that system. The controls... hoo boy... they do make sense and I can't really come up with any actual improvements when going with the same platform, but... I feel like it would've done better on a home console. Having a second analogue stick and some extra buttons would've saved me moments of fumbling and several weeks of physical pain way past actually playing it and I know I'm not alone with this. One drawback would be that it couldn't deploy its 3D there but anyway, they decided to go for 3DS so that's that. Another complaint would be that I would've liked having important dialogue bits like info on mooks a bit sooner and (at least more of the) boss-related dialogue in cutscenes rather than all that constant talking during gameplay which gets cut off once you defeat a boss.

All in all I'd definitely recommend checking it out to people who like comedy, don't mind shooters, aren't prone to hand/wrist pain, and don't mind having to get used to a game's control scheme first. While its gameplay wasn't for me it's still a good, good game and a refreshing experience as a whole.

I just beat SteamWorld Quest in about 18 hours. And as my first card battle game ever i must say i really enjoyed it. The story isn't anything that's going to win any awards but the game was so much fun that i couldn't put it down. I ended up putting in about 6 hours a day into it for three days straight. I highly recommend this game especially if you find it on sell.

I 100%'d Super Mario Odyssey last weekend, and boy, was it quite the adventure! I got every Power Moon, every enemy in my capture log, all the souvenirs, and every music track.

Like virtually any Mario game, I feel that it truly shines when you go beyond just the main story - while playing through for the first time, I had this feeling that the main story was a bit too short. Many of the game's kingdoms have a massive amount of Power Moons to get, which I don't mind too much personally, though I tend to get lost in what to do a few times - particularly when I gradually get more of them. I like how the game encourages creative thinking with the Hint Art that you can find sprinkled throughout the kingdoms, as well. Darker Side is a pretty good true final level, and it will give you a real challenge. Though if you find the Sphynx and answer its question correctly, just once might I add, you get a Life-Up Heart to make the going easier.

Besides the main story being short for my liking, I don't particularly care for missions that have you dress up in a specific costume, talk to this one NPC, and they just give you a Power Moon. Some missions of this nature let you go through a mini-level, but I wish that all the costume missions were like that. They're not game breakers for me, though, and those few issues aside, I had a great time with SMO. The kingdoms are creative and nice to explore, the controls are excellent, the soundtrack is wonderful, the graphics look fantastic for a Switch game, and even the boss fights are right up there with the likes of Super Mario Galaxy. Sure, it may not be perfect, but for an open-world Mario game, I think Nintendo did a swell job with it. Can't wait to see what Mario's next adventure will be like!

@MarioLover92 When I first beat the main story of SMO, I was a bit disappointed with it, but I feel like the game really shines in the post game. I had a ton of fun unlocking new kingdoms, finding new moons, etc. The best challenges all seem to come at the tail-end of the game.

Not my favorite 3D Mario, but I ended up being really happy with it.

Just finished cadence of hyrule and wow, i was completely caught off guard with how much i loved it. I was not expecting that in the slightest bit. Being a huge zelda fan i wanted to give it a shot but I wasn't expecting much. The first couple hours are grooling but after you level up quite a but, the tone of the game completely changes. There's so many things I loved about it to list. Quickly though, music, rhythm, items, sounds, the world, all of it really. Its such a great title that's worthy of the name zelda in it as opposed to " that indie game with zelda skins". If you havent already , check it out.

@Ralizah Just read your Sonic Mania write-up - good stuff. And your cons section is something I could happily copy and paste into a write-up of my thoughts with Sonic games. I just can't seem to get into any of the traditional style that I've tried, though I would say that I like the challenges option to Sonic Generations, as that encourages me to play the levels more than once, focusing on a different element of the gameplay for each run, which helps develop an appreciation for those elements that I don't tend to get on an ordinary run through a stage.

Only thing I'd differ on is the rings. It can be annoying to lose them all, but I like the risk factor, and I also like the fact you can drag yourself through a boss fight using them, because I don't tend to want a slog in my boss fights, I like to get them over with in one attempt.

Final Fantasy X HD (Switch)

Pros:

• It has the slickest turn based combat I've ever experienced in an rpg. Everything moves really smoothly/quickly, it has an easy to read guide on screen that displays turn order, and the bosses have dynamic effects that make them very exciting (as an example, there's an early boss fight at sea, and it'll often move to a different side of your ship. This doesn't effect gameplay, though many of the other boss' gimmicks do, but it adds a level of excitement you usually don't see in turn based battles).
• The sphere grid, while appearing intimidating at first, is a pretty straightforward character growth system. Most characters are effectively locked into a set path for growth at the start (letting you get accustomed to how things work), but by late game you'll have the option to break characters out of their own path, and explore other options (you'd have to go out of your way to do so, but given enough time, everyone can learn everything).
• It's equipment system is straightforward as well. Unlike other rpgs, gear doesn't inherintly affect stats. All gear has 1-4 ability slots (many have empty slots that you can customise later on), and the only effect they have on you is based on the abilities they have. While a late game shield may have really good abilities, let's say Stoneproof (immune to petrification), Zombieproof (immune to zombie status), and Waterproof (immune to water magic), it won't give you any extra physical defense than that early game shield that only has Fire Ward (diminishes the damage you take from fire magic). Of course, many equipment does have stat altering abilities (such as HP +10%, etc), but that's the only way it can effect your stats, so that makes it very easy to pick what best suits your current foe.
• While the story does have it's fair share of technobabble (what JRPG doesn't?), I found it pretty easy to follow, and it has some big twists. It didn't quite have the effect that it did when I first played it on PS2 since I knew the major twists, but it still managed to completely grip me.
• It has a great cast of characters, and they most all have their own interesting character arcs. You'll definitely be sad to part with them when it's time to move on to something else.
• It has really fantastic world building, with some unique locations, and it still looks really nice cleaned up in HD.
• It has some classic music, and I dare you not to fall in love with "Suteki da Ne".

Cons:

• Unskippable cutscenes. Not a dealbreaker, but it's annoying having to listen to the same chatty boss' spiel on your second or third attempt.
• I thought they should have given more backstory to Yu Yevon. He's just a really old, really powerful summoner who's constantly summoning Sin for no particular reason apparently. It would have been more interesting had he had been one of Zanarkand's summoners trying to get an eternal revenge on Bevelle for the destruction of his city.

Other:

• It is very linear. Now, I personally happen to think it works very well for the particular story they're trying to tell, it helps them to keep things moving at a good pace with something of interest happening almost all the time (and I think makes it a great starting point for someone wanting to get into rpgs), but I can understand that it can be a deterrent to some. It does have the ocassional side objective along the way, but it really doesn't open up until the final story location is available (and even then, most of it is superboss type challenges that might only interest the most hardcore players).

Overall, I think it stands the test of time and is up there with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 & Ys VIII as one of the best JRPGs on the system.

Wait. I haven't gotten around to any of the HD versions of the Final Fantasy games yet...but, do you mean to tell me, after all these re-releases...they never added a cutscene skip option? Unbelieveable.

No really, I couldn't believe it, I had to look it up to make sure. It's one of those QoL features you'd think would be expected by default in a re-release...

I have been infront of Victory Road in Let's Go, Eevee! for like 5 months, so I figured it was time to boot up the game and actually defeat the Elite 4 lol

Tales of Zestiria (PS4)

Pros:

• The action based combat is easy to grasp, and despite some tweaks is a familiar setup if you've played past Tales games.
• I ended up quite liking the fusion mechanic (certain characters can fuse for a huge boost in stats, but it has it's drawbacks, as you're special attack meter replenishes much more slowly while fused, and of course if you die while fused, that takes out both characters).
• I liked that it actually had largish, to scale, field areas (think XC2 or DQXI) rather than an overworld that looks like you're a giant walking around tiny continents (that more old school JRPGs, including Tales of Abyss & Vesperia used).
• Not my favorite bunch of characters in a JRPG, or even in a Tales game (personality or design wise), but I liked them enough by game's end.

Cons:

• The equipment system was a confusing mess, IMO, and I never got deeply into it.
• It felt mostly quite generic. It had a more standard medieval vibe to it's world (no fantasy/tech mix that Abyss & Vesperia had), so you just had a couple of standard castletowns & villages. Dungeons too weren't very memorable (other than the final dungeon & maybe a couple of the Elemental Trial dungeons), as they didn't seem to have any charm or distinguishing characteristics (like DQ games, Tales games usually hit all the cliches when it comes to dungeon themes, but in a charming way). There were a ton of optional dungeons on offer too, but they were all pallet swaps of the same three forest, cave, and ruin themes (particularly the ruin theme).
• The game is completely stripped of any of the minigames that Abyss or Vesperia (or other JRPGs) tend to have. No resort/casino town, no races, and not even that waitressing minigame. In fact, most of it's side content revolves around optional "Mutant Hellion" bosses. There's almost always one in every field area, always one at the end of an optional dungeon, and 90% of sidequests involve fighting one. This isn't bad in iteslf (in fact I kept up on these pretty well so I could stay levelled), but it's a tad disappointing that there's very little variety in side content, and due to how many of these bosses there are (and they're all roughly only about 10 levels higher than the rest of the enemies in the area), they're not as exciting as optional bosses tend to be.
• Not much alternate costume variety. Tales games usually have quite a bit of cool/silly costumes you can unlock (sometimes connected to the absent minigames), but here it's limited to pallet swaps and other outfits they wore at some point during the story. The cooler/sillier costumes are reserved as DLC. This isn't a terrible flaw, but a tad disappointing.

Overall it's a perfectly fine game, but just a bit of a letdown based on series entries I've played before (Abyss & Vesperia).

@CanisWolfred, it's not limited to FFXHD either. The HD release of Onimusha Warlords doesn't let you skip cutscenes either. It's not a huge deal, but it seems like such an obvious omission.