Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Got to end credits of KatanaKami if that counts as there is a HUGE post game...(really that is the game) so inching through that.

@Cynas Dragon Quest XI S is definitely on my wish list. I unfortunately missed out on the Amazon discount that ran recently (was at work) but will grab it when my current Switch backlog shrinks a little. I'm a recent adopter and went a little nuts stockpiling retail games. Sales and discounts have that effect on me.

@RR529 Thanks! Much of the main party and primary NPCs were fleshed out quite well; one mark of a decent JRPG in my book is if I actually care about the characters.

I also like an active bad guy, it does make a nice change of pace. Better than having the minions have all the fun!

@Ralizah Thanks! I have heard that XI does many things better and hope to experience it before too long.

I was probably a bit too forgiving up there on the lack of an orchestrated soundtrack in this version, but I do also like a lot of the tunes that were translated (or reused) over to this port/light remaster. I love orchestrated pieces; I'm currently working my way through Link's Awakening on the Switch and, while I like the original GB soundtrack, the re-orchestrated tracks are both amazing and nostalgic.

@Anti-Matter I quite like the Ratchet and Clank games. At some point I need to go back and play the ones I skipped. It'll happen. Someday.

I just finished Red Strings Club and I can't believe I'd say this but: 10/10.

The game is perfectly paced, the gameplay is enjoyable and keeps you engaged. The mini games even offer a challenge to get things right, and the story resulted in goosebumbs all over my body.
Anybody that is into a grabbing story that makes you overthink elements of life, play this. It's a 6-8 hour adventure that fully immerses you into the world and makes you feel like you're watching a movie with your own input.

Loved it. I applaud the creators.

Yesterday I beat Bioshock Infinite on PS4. It is as amazing as I remembered it. A true masterpiece. 100/10.

@Heavyarms55
Something unusual.
I prefer to finish Ratchet games than my Super Mario Galaxy lately.
Not because suddenly i have some interest with cartoonish shooter platformer games. 😅
But i found the difficulty level on Super Mario Galaxy sometimes put me on the fence.
I still same, me, myself.
Still like cutesy looking of Mario games.

DOOM II: Hell on Earth

Platform: PC

Completion Status: Beat the entire game more than once. As with the first game, I didn't receive 100% completion on EVERY level, but I did find a larger number of the in-game secrets this time around.

DOOM II released less than a year after id Software's legendary shareware classic, DOOM. Unlike the original, which released in a staggered format that lent it an episodic structure, DOOM II was a full commercial product from the beginning, and, reflecting this, contains one continuous campaign from beginning to end, which removes one of the early irritations of the original title.

I've just gotta say, switching to PC for DOOM II was the right move. Aiming with the mouse in classic DOOM games is just a joy, and offers so much more precision than a stick ever could.

Picking up where DOOM left off, Doomguy is now on Earth, and discovers that the planet has been overrun with demons. Humanity understandably freaks out and attempts to leave the planet via spaceship(s), but the demons are using some sort of force field to keep humanity from escaping. After Doomguy disables this field and allows humans to escape into space, he is linked the coordinates to the portal that opened to Hell - in the heart of his own hometown! Doomguy plunges into Hell again, set on ending this supernatural terror plaguing his world once and for all.

Probably the strongest area of improvement in DOOM 2 over the original is in the degree of enemy variety. In OG DOOM, there were only a small handful of enemy types to face off against, and most of these attacked you in a similar manner, leading to combat in the game having a very repetitive and predictable feel to it. DOOM II, on the other hand, infuses the game with a number of new enemy types that can pretty radically change up the flow of combat.

The first new enemy type is actually something that should look familiar to people acquainted with the original DOOM. The Hell Knights are essentially the Barons of Hell minibosses from the first game, but recolored and with half of the HP. This nerfing allows them to be incorporated into the full game as proper enemies, allowing them to be used a lot more than their stronger older brothers were in the original game.

In a similar vein, the Arachnotron enemy is basically a repurposing of one of the last bosses from the original DOOM, the Spider Mastermind. The ridiculous chaingun that made that boss so miserable to fight has been replaced with a much more manageable plasma weapon. Those plasma blasts still hurt, though, and even with a fraction of the Spider Mastermind's HP, these big guys still won't go down easily.

This handsome chap is called an Arch-Vile, and they have one of the most unique attack patterns in the series. Other enemies generally shoot projectiles at the player, but the Arch-Vile uses magic to hit the player with an undodgeable attack that does significant damage. Well, undodgeable by traditional means: you can actually negate damage from his attack if you break line-of-sight with him before he pulls off his spell. With this enemy, it actually pays to exercise some level of caution instead of blindly shooting like a moron due to the degree of damage their attacks do.

The Pain Elementals look a lot like Cacodemons, but they're significantly more irritating. These big boys don't actually attack; instead, they continuously spawn Lost Souls until you kill them. Lost Souls, for those unaware, are these annoying skulls that fly around trying to bite you. The sooner you put these guys down, the better.

The Mancubus is an obese demon with fireball launchers strapped to both arms. You'll want to kill them quickly, and they unfortunately absorb a lot of abuse.

The Revenant is... I mean... it's a skeleton with rocket launchers strapped to its shoulders. Heat seeking missiles, in fact, that can follow you around a stage, so you'll want to waste this guy quick. Don't get too close, though, because this cheeky fellow is one of the few enemies with a sub-attack: try to close the distance between him and yourself and he'll punch you right in your gob!

Last but not least, the Heavy Gunner is a new soldier type. The game has been good about not relying on these, and, like most of the other new enemies, he poses an instant threat with his chaingun-thing. Thankfully, a close blast from your shotgun will put this fellow out of his misery.

Thankfully, to balance out all of these extra nasties you'll be fighting, DOOM II introduces the hilariously powerful "super shotgun." This double-barreled wonder does absurd amounts of damage to enemies at close-to-medium range, making it the perfect weapon to mow down these denizens of hell. You can swap between the normal and "super" shotgun with the press of a key, but the only time you'll want to have the normal shotgun equipped is when you're trying to snipe smaller enemies. All of the other weapons are back as well, but the super shotgun is the only real addition to your arsenal in this entry.

If there's one thing I can definitely say is inferior to the original game, it's the level design. Granted, I wasn't a huge fan of the first game's labyrinths or its aggravating late-game stage design, but THIS is just... all over the place. Level construction can range from pretty good to horrendous, with no consistency when it comes to what you should be able to expect. While I like the concept, the game is at its absolute worst in the city levels, which are gigantic, barren maps filled with abstract geometry, enemies at a variety of annoying elevations, and obnoxiously random level progression as you scamper from building to building looking for an area that you can enter.

There are levels here that are just the worst thing ever. The Chasm, for example. This darling of a level features gigantic sections where you have to tight-rope walk your way across thin platforms, little more than a handful of pixels wide, while enemies fire at you. If you fall, the floor below is toxic and will quickly kill you. I doubt I need to elaborate on why I hate this level.

Seriously, screw this level!

With that said, the much more highly experimental nature of the level design in DOOM II allows for some interesting, if not always organic, level design that leads to some unique and almost puzzle-like experience. Two I'd like to immediately highlight are Dead Simple and Barrels o' Fun. The former places you in a ridiculously simplistic (thus the name) Deathmatch-style arena filled with high-level baddies. Despite this, there is an emergent logic to how you can go about killing the enemies here without minimal risk to the player. In the latter level, you will find yourself trapped in various locations filled with high-level enemies and dozens of explosive barrels. It's fun concepts like these that keep DOOM II feeling fresh despite inadequacies in level design elsewhere.

It's also worth mentioning that this game actually has a proper final boss. While it's not amazing as far as boss fights go, it's a massive step up over the irritatingly OP baddies you stumble across in the first game, and the enemy feels like something that would represent the culmination of your time with the game.

Despite being, in some respects, a more inconsistent experience, I definitely think DOOM II holds up better than the original game. The awesomely over-powered shotgun, bigger levels, much wider enemy variety, and single, connected campaign made this entry feel like a much more complete experience. It's a pretty terrific shooter, and I'd recommend anyone who enjoyed the original entry to give it a go.

@Tyranexx Does my eye deceive me? You hopped aboard the switch train? Welcome...prepare to lose way too many hours of your life.

@Anti-Matter I mean I would consider the games too different to directly compare. Ratchet and Clank is more of a 3rd person shooter with platforming elements. Mario has always been more of a pure platformer. They have some things in common, but I still think it would be like asking "which do you like better, salmon or potato?" Like, yeah they are both food but...

@Ryu_Niiyama Yep! I caved during the holidays for the Switch V2 + Spyro Reignited Trilogy bundle from Walmart. I stocked retail games via sales + discounts over time, with a couple of special editions thrown in. I tried to limit the amount of games, but I went a little overboard. XD I love RPGs way too much....

So yes, the Switch will chew up thousands of hours of my life. My fate is set.

I've done a lot since the last time I posted here so prepare for a long message (as I do while I'm writing this).

Kirby Super Star Ultra - I've beaten the original Super Star (or Fun Pak as it's called here) before but this was my first time playing Ultra. It took a bit to get used to Kirby's movement and other mechanics after just playing Triple Deluxe. They feel quite different. Kirby is super slippery, unless he's on a ladder in which case it's the opposite, and enemies have more health than I'm used to. I bumped into so many enemies because I thought they'd be dead from the previous attack.

But that's enough comparing. How's the game? I go with my typical answer for a Kirby game. It's Kirby. It's fun. It has variety thanks to its number of different modes but each mode is also very short. My favorite mode was probably Revenge of the King which wasn't in the original. It's pretty much just the hard mode from the original Kirby's Dream Land.

I completed the game and got the special "completed the game" message but I may go the extra mile and beat Helper to Hero with each helper. The game only requires you to beat it once but you get a medal in the menu for each helper that you've beaten the mode with. It's pretty pointless but I'm curious to see how I do with each ability. I've already done 3: hammer, wheel and fighter.

Murder by Numbers - A mix of a visual novel and nonograms (picross). The ratio between the two elements is just about perfect. You never go too long before stumbling upon a new puzzle. The story is good and the dialog is well written. I really like most of the characters. And the music is awesome. They didn't borrow just the exploration and presenting evidence from Phoenix Wright but the composer too. As for the puzzle solving. It's pretty close to Jupiter's Picross series but it's not quite there. The main problem is when you have to erase previously marked square. There's some lag there that throws me off.

I really enjoyed the game but I have one pretty big gripe with it. There's one puzzle in case 3 that you can miss if you are not careful. It appears for a limited time and it's out of the way. It appears in the bar after you leave to show a photo to your mom and you are not required to return there before it's too late. Literally nothing else changes in that room. K.C. stands there as usual and has the same dialog options but suddenly you can investigate there even though you couldn't earlier.

I replayed the case as soon as I finished it because I wanted to see the memory you can unlock by getting an S rank in a case before moving onto the next case. The problem in replaying a case is that there's no skip dialog button and you have to replay all the puzzles since the score starts from 0. Worse yet, the only button to advance dialog is A so that means you'll be tapping it as fast as you can and what you end up doing is selecting the same dialog option over and over. Luckily I'm very fast when it comes to picross so replaying puzzles wasn't a problem for me. It still took me an hour or two to replay the case though.

The game is well worth playing. And the way the game ends suggests there's a chance for a sequel which I'm all for.

Last time I posted, I talked about Kirby Triple Deluxe and Spirit of Justice. I said I'd go and complete Kirby and play the DLC in SoJ. Well I did and just wanted to mention them quickly. Kirby was fun to complete though the Smash like mode is not my favorite. And the DLC in Spirit of Justice was great. The two half hour joke scenarios were fun but I don't know if I can fully recommend them. You can just watch them on YouTube or something. As for the actual case, Turnabout Time Traveler, that was great. Much better than the DLC case in Dual Destinies. It also includes the main trio from the first game: Maya, Miles and Larry.

I've also beaten both Samurai Shodown (the new one) and Samurai Shodown! 2 (pre-order bonus). Or at the very least seen credits in both games. I don't think I got the true ending in the new game though so I don't know if it counts as beaten or not. Each character seems to have a special ending tied to them from what I've seen when browsing the movies menu. I beat both games as Shiki. I'd never played as her before since she originates from Samurai Shodown 64 (which despite its name isn't for N64). I've watched a movie in which she was one of the main characters though so I knew her on some level. Plus I like her design so I chose her in !2. The next day I played story mode in the new game and chose random which picked her again so I decided to see how similarly she plays. I beat the final boss in the new game on my first try and was surprised by how easy it was. Then I played as Basara a week later and gave up after half an hour of losing against the boss. Fun.

Next up I'll be playing Miles Edgeworth Investigations. The last localized Ace Attoney game I haven't finished yet. As I've mentioned here before, I think I was in case 3 when I stopped playing years ago so it's about halfway done already. I'll also be playing Animal Crossing but that's not a game I plan on ever beating.

Just beat AI: The Somnium Files. I think it was just the paths I happened to take, but my first playthrough till I hit a locked dead end was incredible, although definitely the most gory path. Then after that it got kind of tame and not as exciting and every path ended the game until my very last path was great again and I hit a second lock and from there the end of the game was amazing. I missed the sheer tension that was present throughout the Zero Escape games, particularly the first two, but still a great game overall.

@Xyphon22 I happened to do the less exciting route first. I didn't like the game that much at first because the tone was so different from what I expected. But I did really like Moma who was a prominent character on that route but who barely appeared in the other ones. But that made it even sweeter when he finally came back in the final stretch. He's a lovable goofball.

@Late Yeah, I was super excited after my first play because it was so good, but apparently I just happened to choose one of the best paths first because it went downhill for awhile after, but at least it picked up. I did like Moma, too. I think my biggest wish is I would have liked to see Mizuki fleshed out more. I suppose her personality was realistic given her circumstances, but she had the potential to be so much more. And some background as to why she was so incredible in that one respect that I won't spoil for those who haven't played it would have been nice.

Ori and the Blind Forest (Switch)

This game was a fun, immersive, melancholic Metroidvania. I finished it last weekend but decided to leave the write-up for a later time. Plus, I replayed the impactful ending yesterday evening as a refresher.

Positives

• Ori is one of the most beautiful platformers that I've played. In terms of visuals, it stands up there with other recent masterpieces like SteamWorld Dig 2 and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It holds up well in both docked and handheld mode, in my opinion.
• The musical score is one of the best that I've heard in recent memory. I'll certainly be seeking out some of the pieces to listen to while at work and otherwise.
• This game is excellent at telling a story with little text. It primarily conveys its tale through the actions of characters, the music, and environmental cues. It's a touching, if melancholic, tale.
• Exploration in this game is beneficial and rewarding. The player can discover extra power-ups and shortcuts in this way.
• Combat is pretty simple and intuitive. Ori doesn't technically fight; it's all done by your partner and guide Sein.
• The skill trees are useful and fun to mess around with. If the player is persistent in their exploration and with dispatching enemies, they can fill in every single one.
• While challenging, the game rarely felt unfair. I admittedly played on the Easy difficulty as I didn't want to deal with the extra stress of managing a limited number of lives. You will die. A lot.
• There's some light puzzle solving in some cases, usually with environmental obstacles and hazards. Many areas of the game are well-crafted indeed.

Neutral

• The controls are pretty fluid for the most part and are (mostly) intuitive. The only minor issue I had was the added amount of buttons used as you picked up more upgrades for Ori. This makes sense, but there were a few times where I sent Ori to her death by activating the wrong combination of actions.

Negatives/Nitpicks

• The game takes a while to load the selected save, even in docked mode. Thankfully this doesn't happen after each death. It isn't a dealbreaker, but the load time is significant.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a wonderful, beautifully crafted Metroidvania title that is definitely worth your time. It's challenging, but not unfairly so. Moon Studios deserves a pat on the back for their hard work. Microsoft deserves a salute for allowing the title to even make the Switch. I hope that Ori and the Will of the Wisps also comes over with time. If not, I may be forced to get the game on PC.

I recently completed Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (Switch), an HD remaster of a Wii era title.

Ready to go on adventure!

Gameplay:

• A marble maze/obstacle style platformer, most levels see you tilting the stage around with the right analogue stick in order to guide a monkey (within a ball) to the end goal, avoiding obstacles & collecting bananas while trying not to fall off, all under a strict time limit. While simply getting through a level is one thing (and even this can become a challenge starting in the second half), real masochists can try to beat their high scores by shaving seconds off their best times & trying to collect all the bananas in a level (bundles of them are often just off the beaten path on perilous detours), the latter of which I wouldn't even dream of doing outside of the first few worlds.
  
  An example of the kind of level you'll have to tightrope your way through in the post game.
• There are two other types of levels, bonus levels (of which one exists in all 10 worlds, about halfway through), and boss levels (one of which caps off each of the 8 main game worlds). Bonus levels aren't all that much different from regular types, and see you trying to collect all bananas within them before time runs out or you fall off (there's no end goal other than collecting all the bananas, and you move on to the next level no matter whether or not you succeed).
• Next up are the boss levels which see you fighting bosses most often in arena style showdowns. Your goal in these is to avoid their attacks as to not be knocked off the platform (make sure you don't fall off on your own as well!), until you get the chance to hit their telegraphed weak point. These can be really tough for a variety of reasons, such as the fact that they often eschew the "3 hit rule" most other 3D platformer bosses live or die by (instead usually taking 4-6 hits to beat, usually changing their tactics either halfway through or after each hit they take), combined with the fact one good hit is all it can take to knock you out (and make you start over), and the fact that the game isn't really designed around such fights at all. You don't have any control over the camera, and while this isn't much of an issue in the rest of the game where you're mostly moving forward all the time (the camera is set to turn towards whatever direction you're moving), it can be an issue with these arena style fights (though a couple regular levels in the first world have a similar setup, seemingly as a bit of a tutorial to help you get to grips with them). One exception is the 4th world boss, which takes on the form of the level itself (you just need to survive a gauntlet and reach it's weak point on it's head) and gameplay wise fits the rest of the game much better. Needless to say, these are very hit & miss in terms of their difficulty.
  
  
  A couple of cutscene images of the thematically appropriate 4th world boss (while they appear mostly barren here, there are obstacles on each of it's segments you must clear/avoid during gameplay itself to reach it's head).
• Outside of the main game there are 10 minigames to try out. The only ones I tried out are "Monkey Target", which sees you trying to glide as far as you can and land in the middle of a bull's eye, and one that was a scrolling shmup. They are decent enough, and although you may get more out of them if you have others to play with, you won't last more than 2 or 3 rounds by yourself.
• There are six different monkeys to play as (they each have different stats for speed, weight, etc.), as well as Sonic the Hedgehog, who is new for this release and is unlocked after clearing the 8 main worlds (bananas are replaced with rings when playing as him), though he can't be used in the minigames.
• The biggest change compared to the Wii release (other than the addition of Sonic & the HD resolution), is the fact that it now controls with an analogue stick rather than motion controls (I haven't played the original, but from what I've heard this makes this the better playing version, although much easier than other entries because levels were designed with the looser motion controls in mind, though I personally still found it to be one of the toughest platformers I've played on Switch, and gave up about halfway through the second post game world). Other than that the two post game worlds now simply unlock consecutively after clearing the world before them (in the Wii version they were unlocked after the seemingly impossible task of clearing all the main worlds without using a continue), and it lacks 40 extra minigames the Wii version had (probably were designed around Wii waggle and couldn't be translated well or meaningfully without them).

Audio/Visual:

• It has many different world themes, from jungles, ghost ships, outer space, and more, and it's mix of a bright & colorful pallet, and catchy arcade style tunes, means that you can't get too upset with it, even if your on your 40th or 50th attempt to clear a level.
  
  
  
  Various shots of levels, I even included a Sonic shot.
• The theme song (I think BANANA~NA Love) is upbeat & irresistibly catchy (more than once I lingered on the title screen to give it a listen).
• Being a remaster of a Wii game, it's not a surprise to say I noticed no performance issues whatsoever. It's a great port.

Story:

• These sorts of games usually don't have much story, and that's the same here. It starts out with a pirate gorilla stealing a bundle of golden bananas, and while you take one back with each boss you defeat (with the aforementioned ape being the final one), there isn't any sort of theming tying them together, with few of them being monkeys/apes (half, if a yeti counts), and even less being pirates. It's really not an issue, though, though strong theming always makes these things better.

Conclusion:

• This was a pretty fun, albeit tough experience. It may be easier compared to the rest of the series (as many claim, though I can't confirm), but taken on it's own it can still be a stiff challenge, and one of the toughest I've had on Switch. And even though it has it's rough edges (such as the bosses), a bucketload of charm keeps it from feeling too irritating.
  
  The end to an exciting journey.

I finally finished Breath of the Wild last week. I've had it since launch, but since my tradition with Zelda games is to make sure I do everything, it took quite a while to actually get to the finish line this time around given the amount of content in BotW. Upgrading all the armor was very tedious due to the number of Star Fragments needed, so that kinda put me off and made me stop playing for a while. But I gradually started farming 3 fragments per day, and eventually I chipped my way down.

Overall I loved this game (no surprise there)! Felt very emotional at the end. Not really because of the story or anything, but just knowing that after investing so much time into this world (310+ hours) there is nothing left to do, it's kind of sad saying goodbye. I'll probably have to start Link's Awakening soon, haha!

I also beat the adventure mode of Smash Ultimate, but full disclosure, I just set the difficulty to very easy and plowed through it. Even then it still took forever. I guess I'm just not a huge fan of the adventure mode aspects of Smash, even in the other games. I'm really dreading the idea of trying to get all of the spirits. Are there and cheap/easy ways to just grind all of them out? I'm not above abusing some cheesy strategy, haha!

Finally for a smaller game, I beat Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise with my wife. She's not really a gamer, but she enjoys those types of games, so it was fun working through the puzzles together with her. For like a buck or two on sale, I was pretty happy with how that game turned out.

Recently finished Cuphead & Luigi's Mansion 3. Cuphead was great, looked, and sounded great to beginning to end. Challenging but beating a boss that's been kicking your teeth in for the past 10 minutes is hugely satisfying! Would recommend if you have the patience for these type of games.

I am going to put this on the table right off the bat. Luigi's Mansion 3 is one of the best looking Switch games out there. It looks so incredible that it just oozes charm and personality in every room. The developers put a lot of love into this game, and I applaud them for it. But, like I every game out there it has flaws the controls are very clunky at times, especially when you have to aim to shoot the plunger manually, which is awful, everything else is fine. Also, the game is relatively straightforward. I didn't expect Dark Souls level difficulty, but I expected some challenges, rarely died (except on a dumb water boss). Another thing, money is virtually useless in this game, there is no reason to collect any of it except to buy items to help you find hidden objects. That's it; the game is great just has flaws.

The first Ratchet and Clank game. It was kinda fun and frustrating at the same time.

My main issue with this one is how far away checkpoints can be from each other. Sometimes there's long sections where there are lots and lots of enemies and if you die (sometimes close to the next checkpoint, aaaaaa), you have to kill them all over again.

In this one, you can't upgrade weapons by killing enemies, so in some sections it's less time (and ammo) consuming to rush and try to avoid them all until you reach the next checkpoint. Since what you get from enemies are bolts, which can be found pretty much everywhere.

I finished up New Super Lucky's Tale last night. I mostly 100%ed it. I got all of the collectibles in the levels, but since I almost always did it first try I didn't collect enough coins to buy all of the costumes, but I have no intention of going back just to do that. Difficulty picked up slightly on the final boss and the platforming levels of the bonus world, so an overall really good game.