Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

@RR529 Nice reviews. I've been considering A Short Hike since the NL review (though from other impressions I've read, the 10/10 might've been a bit much). Gato Roboto has been an on and off consideration; I like Metroid/Metroidvanias, and cats, but I'm also trying to be very picky about what games I do pick up lol. How much time did you sink into it? If it's on the shorter side, I might give it a shot at some point.

@Tyranexx, I will say that A Short Hike's controls were pretty flawless outside of the speedboat (which is completely optional). The only other issue is the camera reorienting itself while gliding around at high places occasionally, but this isn't an issue for the short distances you're required to glide on the way up (and again it's a super chill game, as there's no way to fail). It is super short though, really more about the experience.

As for Gato Roboto, it took me just a bit over 4 hours (the exact time can actually be seen in my last screenshot of it, though I guess that wouldn't take into account the boss fights occasional other segment I had to replay. Probably still under 5 hours all together.)

@RR529 I think the fact that A Short Hike is a pretty chill experience, coupled with replayability, is what draws me to the game. And it also reads like both experiences are fairly short, which I'm completely fine with. Not that I dislike longer games, but some can be major timesinks. I try to be a bit picky about which of those sort of games I do grab. XD

While I'd love to see your screenshots, I can't; they show up as Untitled on both my phone and my laptop. I use Firefox on both though, so I wonder if I'd have more luck with Chrome?

Thanks for the feedback!

Coffee Talk

It's a visual novel. But unlike most vns which are usually adapted from manga or anime, this story is wholly original. The game uses a sprite-based art style rather than stilled images. Which allows characters to more effectively emote, making discussions more interesting beyond being just walls and walls of flavour-text. And that smooth low-fi soundtrack feels just right.

8/10 - Clocking in under five hours, this game and its cast of characters encourages repeat playthroughs.

River City Girls

I had a love-hate experience with this one. The game nails the Kunio-kun vibe. It looks great, sounds great, and it plays well. Unfortunately, combat feels disjointed. There's no consistency with chaining normal attacks into special attacks; sometimes they link together, sometimes they don't. Dojo arts like "human weapon" are more annoying than they are useful. Enemies have i-frames while standing up from the ground? (WTF?!) And boss fights such as with Hibari are aggravating rather than entertaining.

7/10 - A lot done right, but too much done wrong. River City: Tokyo Rumble did things better.

I completed little inferno, spelunky
Had a lot of fun.

Recently completed Steamworld Quest.
Really fun game, I can only recommend it to people.
The story is simple yet direct. The cast is loveable and their fighting styles are unique.
I also really enjoyed getting the perfect combo of cards. If you're a fan of thinking and not only bashing a few buttons to win a game, you might wanna take a look at Steamworld Quest

Ys VIII on Switch and what a joyful and thrilling RPG it was.

I tried Falcom’s Trails Of Cold Steel earlier this year and it was good but really really slow. On paper it was more my thing being turn based and a structure reminiscent of Persona and F3EH.

Ys was the complete opposite with wonderful fast paced combat and the story taking a bit of a back seat.

I didn’t get the true ending which I’m sore about as I only missed a couple of missions. These side quests you wanted to do rather than being a slog. But I’ve cheated and watched it on YouTube.

Unlocking the map exploring the island was so addictive I’m nervous that Ys IX won’t hold up. But if it’s half as good it’ll be worth my time regardless.

Also the soundtrack is fantastic, I’ve downloaded it.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

I'll be honest; I had never heard of this game until NintendoLife held a "Best Nintendo DS Games" poll last year. I tracked down a new physical copy on Amazon (paid a bit of a premium, but only a little more than a full MSRP 3DS game) and finally got around to playing it. This game...is an underrated gem. Seriously. There is much, MUCH more to it than just a point & click puzzle mystery.

Positives

• The premise is an interesting one: You, Sissel, wake up as an amnesiac ghost. You spot a body and believe you recently died. Another spirit possessing a desk lamp ("Ray") tells you about the powers that some ghosts have ("ghost tricks") and that you only have one night to use your powers in order to find out what happened to you before you disappear forever. No pressure.
• The story here, at first look, seems to be a somewhat generic mystery setup. However, as the player gets deeper into the game, so many random events and happenings...aren't so random. The plot is woven well and keeps the player guessing. There's so much mystery, drama, sorrow, some twists, and a few silly moments. I guessed some of these twists, but others definitely came out of left field. A lot of the content is serious and definitely earns the game its T rating.
• The vast majority of the characters are fleshed out well; a lot of care went into fashioning their likes, dislikes, personalities, and quirks. Very few of the characters in the game seem generic. Bailey especially needs his own rhythm game.
  The game's controls and puzzle mechanics are explained well and gradually added onto as the game progresses. Sissel can move between objects and, in some cases, make them perform certain actions while possessing them. He can even jump to a recently deceased corpse (barring his own) and rewind to four minutes before their deaths in order to change the situation and save them from a terrible fate. Both touch screen and button mechanics (I primarily used the latter) are included.
• For a DS game, the character animations are fluid and seamless. The hand-drawn character portraits are bright and detailed as well.

• Much of this game's soundtrack is excellent. It's catchy, fits the corresponding scenes/moments/characters well, and has that distinct Capcom feel to a lot of it. Seriously, I've been listening to the OST at work on and off. Some of my favorites are: Cabanela's theme, Chained Past, Awakening, and Trauma.
• Some of the sound bits and cues remind me a little of the Ace Attorney series; I haven't played any of the games outside of the two 3DS demos for Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice (as of this writing), but it's obvious that Shu Takumi had a hand in it.
• I legitly feel sorry for Yomiel. What he did to young Lynne was inexcusable , but the events that pushed him to that point were sad and could have easily been avoided. And then to live the sad "existence" he dealt with afterward....No wonder his mind went down a dark road. That bit where he walks past all the main characters and explaining how the past decade had been for him...that was deep. "I 'existed' in this world. No question about that...but nobody noticed my presence. What good were my "powers"? They didn't help anybody. Not even the passage of time could heal my pain. In fact, it only made it worse."
• The ending....Holy cow. That was one of the best endings that I've experienced in a DS game. Everything was wrapped up nicely (for the most part), and that bit with "Ray"....That was on-target in the feelings department. Honestly, what that poor spirit went through was deep and dark. It's sad to learn how things could have been, in a previous timeline. Also, that twist during the very end....While I suspected it, that was still golden. XD

Neutral

• While many of the puzzle solutions were clever and provided many "Aha!" moments, a few required some leaps in thinking and logic, particularly later in the game. There were a couple of chapters I only got through via trial/error.

Nitpicks (No negatives)

• There are a couple deus ex machinas, but that's about to be expected with this game's theming. XD We can't keep everything too realistic now.
• The game can be a bit wordy at times. This usually wasn't an issue unless it was late and I just wanted to end the chapter and sleep, but I also didn't want to miss anything.

I believe Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective flew under many radars, including mine, by releasing so close to the 3DS's launch and by being something completely new (I was also in college at the time, so I would've prioritized franchises I was familiar with then anyway). This isn't "just another point & click" title. I can easily recommend it to those who like a decent, emotional, engaging story, a decent soundtrack, solving mysteries, and solving puzzles. There is very little to NOT like about this game. It will keep you guessing from beginning to end. It is easily worth its 10-15 hour run time.

Seriously, to anyone who has even a passing interest in this game, find some way to play it. DS copies aren't too hard to find, and I believe it's also available on iOS.

I finished Super Mario 64 via 3D All-Stars. I got every Power Star in the game.

Still a very good game overall and there's no denying that it left a huge impact on players, though it's kind of showing its time. The sense of discovery while going around Peach's castle is still awesome, and I think the majority of the worlds range from good to great. (Jolly Roger Bay, Big Boo's Haunt, Snowman's Land, and Wet-Dry World are a few of my favorite worlds.) A few of them drag on a bit too long though, particularly when it's nearing the end...especially Rainbow Ride. I really like the sky and rainbow aesthetic, but it's my least favorite world in the game. Riding those flying carpets is quite the waiting game if I do say so myself.

The tasks for getting the many stars are generally varied, which I definitely like. I also dig that the worlds/stars can be tackled/collected in any order the player pleases. The 100-coin stars are a bit of a mixed bag though. On one hand, it's a good opportunity to explore the worlds a bit further. Each world has well over 100 coins too, so just getting 100 is good enough, which is nice of them. But on the other, if losing a life, guess what happens? Yep, the coins have to be collected again. Not a particularly fun experience, but I guess it could've been worse.

The controls are pretty good, if a bit jank at points. (Example: if you wanna turn around, Mario will do a U-turn unless you're standing still. That can throw me off.) The camera/cannon controls seem to be inverted though. I haven't played the N64 original or the Wii VC version for quite some time, so I might be wrong about that. I did get used to it after a while, so it wasn't all bad. Speaking of the camera, the Mario Cam (which is toggled by pressing R) is actually really useful for narrow bridges. Back then I seldom used it if at all, but nowadays I found myself using it at those spots - that way I won't fall off.

As for the Bowser fights...let's just say I'm not a fan of them. Here, you gotta grab Bowser by the tail, spin him around like crazy, then throw him. Simple, right? Here's the catch: you gotta fling him towards one of those spike bombs - throwing him off the arena won't do any good. It's a real crapshoot, whether you deal damage or not. And in the final Bowser fight, you gotta throw him toward a whopping 3 bombs! Because that sure is fun, right??? I will admit that Mario throwing Bowser like that looks awesome, but doing this fight itself is anything but. Probably the weakest part of the game for me.

So yeah. There were definitely some rough spots, but it was a nice nostalgia trip for me otherwise. Graphics are pretty good (for Nintendo 64 standards, of course) and the soundtrack is great stuff (major shoutouts to the theme for Jolly Roger Bay and Dire, Dire Docks - such a super chill theme). Not my favorite 3D Mario game, but it did a lot right and it set the standard for 3D platformers to come.

I finished the Future Connected epilogue of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Overall it was decent - it's more Xenoblade, after all, and totally worth playing - but it isn't as great as the main game. I won't be doing a full write-up this time as I covered the main game in full a little while back. I'll only be highlighting my likes and dislikes.

Likes: Exploring the Bionis Shoulder is, like with other areas in the game, quite fun and rewarding. Some of the introduced and returning characters are interesting, as are the quests (though many of them are also fetch quests). Both Kino and Nene are neat additions and have some entertaining exchanges between them, being siblings. I like Quiet Moments - the replacements for Heart-To-Hearts - and actually prefer them. It was nice to see Teelan make a return; I recalled his quest line from the main game and thought it neat that they at least touched on his research. Best of all was Tyrea's return and her and Melia resolving some of their differences and getting a bit of closure; I feel like some of this could have been handled a bit better, but it was still nice to see further character development for them both. (But WHY wasn't she made a party member? Missed opportunity IMO.)

Meh: Overall, the combat was decent and was just an extension of the system found in the main game. But I can't say I like that they took out chain attacks and replaced them with the Ponspectors; it was fun to find, complete quests for, and recruit them, but I disliked that their group attack mechanics replaced another that was nowhere near broken. I wish this had been optional. While I liked Kino and Nene, they're basically cute Nopon version of Sharla and Reyn, respectively. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but they just can't replace those two characters IMO.

Dislikes: I feel like the inclusion of the Fogbeasts and their effects on the former world of the Bionis/Mechonis was an interesting step forward and wanted to know more. Unfortunately, after the epilogue's conclusion, much more isn't really discussed about these things or where they originated from. I suppose there's still some series potential there? I also felt that they REALLY fumbled Gael'gar badly. He had potential, but in the end he was just a one-dimensional villain (whose face, actions, and demeanor SCREAM it when you first meet him) who commits suicide for no other reason than...he's crazy? Mentally unstable?

It obviously goes without saying that fans of the main game, particularly fans of Melia, should play through Future Connected. It has many fine points, but it isn't quite up to the pedigree of the original. However, there are flashback scenes during the earlier parts of the epilogue, so it's highly recommended to play through the main game before tackling this cool sidepiece.

I finished Days Gone well; I finished it on Thursday. I just wanted to gather my thoughts on Days Gone and going to throw this out there. Days Gone is terrible; it's your run of the mill cookie-cutter garbage sold for $60. I'm going to explain why, so strap in.

Days Gone does not look good at all. In the beginning, yeah, maybe. But, after some time, you notice, most of the trees barely have any textures on them and the enemies. Some of the main characters are the only things that actually look decent(if their textures can load in on time.) It doesn't run well either; it runs below 20 FPS at times(entering one of the camps it drops to 10) worse in the later areas. It's fine when you're fighting a horde(which I expected to run terribly funny enough). To top off the technical problems this wonderful game has. It's glitchy. Enemies stuck on walls, textures not loading in cutscenes, bugs in the main missions(which is frustrating, I might add), AI is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Gameplay. I'll keep this brief. It's generic anything you have seen in any third-person game, you'll see in this. But, the problem is Days Gone tries too hard to mush these third-person mechanics in one dirty pile while not improving or bringing anything new to the already used up formula. It clashes with the result being outdated clunkiness, which is frustrating(not for the people who like this formula).

The writing and game length. I'll start with the writing. Oh boy, it's awful(generic), simply awful. Days Gone has so much pointless dialogue, cutscenes(you can't walk 10 feet without triggering a cutscene), and missions. I mean by pointless dialogue that this game throws you so much for no reason whatsoever, and it never goes anywhere. This problem plagues the mission (I'll explain right after this). This game wants to be a book(explaining every little thing, telling the player everything about the said character) but fails miserably at it. Now for the missions, oh boy! If you thought the writing was too much, get ready for the pointless missions. This game loves throwing you to the wild for everything or anything that involves one character(or any character for that matter). For example, get this knife or get this dog or my favorite, get a stupid radio. I can understand every game has padding, But when the main missions you think will further the story go nowhere is where I will have a problem. Here's an example, you find a massive horde, show one of the camp leaders about it, and tell him your idea. He agrees(now we're getting somewhere), and you find dynamite and all the tools to pull this off except one. But guess what? Some unneeded conflict happened a character that has acted very shadily betrays you(what a shocker), and you can't do what you weren't meant to do. Do you finish what the game forced you to do(in 8 missions) later? No, do the side characters finish the job? No, you get nothing. And that's the problem; you get nothing from these storylines. No satisfying end; you get a spit on the face and the game telling you "to keep it moving."

I was going to talk about the game length in my last paragraph. But I'll do it here. Days Gone is 40+ hours of just nonsense. That wraps it up. To finish this off, cause I hate this game so much, it made me hate gaming for a while(not joking). I would not recommend this to anybody, except for third-person fans (but there are better games out there believe me). I'm glad I finished this game; I'm glad I don't have to touch it anymore. Days Gone is a pointless jack of all trades master of none that was sold for sixty dollars. You want to play a game like this? Play The Evil Within 2, that game is magnificent. Days Gone can't hold a candle to The Evil Within 2 or any other third-person game. Bend Studios should be ashamed of themselves for releasing this hot pile of trash. Rant over, sorry.

Finally beat Ever Oasis. It's a fun game. Not the most difficult, but I usually don't really like town building and things like that but it works well by being simplified and not really the focus (there were some booths that were always out of stock, but they never got mad or left. How nice of them). I definitely recommend it.

I'd had Gone Home sitting on my SD card for a couple of months. Never played it before or knew anything about it other than it was one of those longstanding indie darlings.

I actually booted it up confusing it for To The Moon, which is a game I started on Steam years ago but didn't get very far and was meaning to have another crack.

Anyway, Gone Home... I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone unless they'd read about it first and liked the idea of it.

I started playing it and quickly got the impression that this was going to be some sort of horror experience, but it was much tamer than that. For a little while I was picking up everything, turning it over to look for hidden clues etc. and I'd read all the little snippets I came across, but after a while I realised none of it was interesting me, particularly the stuff about the Dad's career, and as the house just got bigger and bigger I couldn't be arsed with maintaining that level of investigativeness.

Fortunately the experience was over pretty quickly and I didn't need to worry about backtracking for clues I'd missed etc. Kinda bizarre that such a short, fairly empty game has garnered so much critical praise over the years. I thought the audio clips that are triggered as you explore were well performed, and I enjoyed the kind-of Easter egg things for Nintendo fans, but there's really no reason for me to ever play this again and I archived it immediately once the credits rolled.

I have finally beat Ghosts n' Goblins on the NES, Ghouls n' Ghosts on the Sega Genesis and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts on the SNES. It was really a hard time for me ... I know these games from my childhood (born in 1985) but I have never played them. That makes me remember beating Battletoads on the NES.

I have beat God of War 4. Truly the best game on PS4.

Finally beat mario 64 via the collection. Over 20 years but I finally did it!

Asdivine Hearts

After previously playing through Antiquia Lost this game was a bit of a downer. Asdivine Hearts is the older Kemco game and it shows. The story, music, progression, combat system are all...fine. But at least Antiquia Lost had a slot machine quality to the gear drops, I was outrageously over powered at the end of that game. Here I was borderline bored to tears.

5/10 - A thoroughly middle-of-the-road jrpg experience. Kemco has done better.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Wii U) - Despite the age of this game, this was my first pass with it; I had fairly regular access to the first DKC back in the day, but not the other two in the original Rare trilogy. Overall I enjoyed this one and liked a lot of the new changes. This one was definitely more difficult; I think this may be due to it relying on trial and error more, that or Rare just assumed everyone had played the first game and upped the ante. XD It also did some things differently to decent effect, but those vertical platforming stages...ugh. Collision detection was improved, but it still isn't perfect.

I do find it ironic that Donkey Kong himself only shows up for about a minute in this game. Diddy is as fun to control as ever, and Dixie complements him in a lot of ways. Still, it would've been nice to have access to a more muscle-bound playable character.

Most of the game's OST is very much worth listening to. These are some of David Wise's better pieces. Although a comment I read somewhere seemed to summarize things well: the better the soundtrack for a level, the harder it usually is. XD Also, many of the bars in the Haunted Hall stage sound a lot like Night On Bald Mountain.

This game is highly recommended for platforming fans and fans of a certain ape, though it is indeed difficult. Many of the new ideas and changes here pay off, and there's plenty of replayability between all the collectibles and secrets. I also know there's a "true" ending that I didn't bother with as I didn't want to grind out all the coins needed for it.

@Tyranexx I still have yet to finish DKC2. I've beaten the first game and Returns (as well as DK64), but not the other DKC games. The fact that it came out on NSO is kind of encouraging me to finally finish the game, lol. But yep, as I said earlier...DKC2 ain't a cakewalk.

@MarioLover92 Lol It definitely wasn't! I believed you, but I didn't expect the difficulty to ramp up as quickly as it did. I was originally determined to only use restore points between levels, but that went out the window sometime in the third world.

The only Donkey Kong Country games I haven't played at this point are DKC 3 and Donkey Kong 64.

Raiden V. It's great to see a new game in this classic SHMUP series.
The problem is, there's a lot of non-stop dialogue that you can't turn off, with questionable voice acting and borderline engrish. There was a point where I just stopped paying attention to it and focused on actually playing the game. lol.