Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected (Switch).

An all new adventure bundled with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. While you can jump straight into it, for narrative reasons it's recommended you play through the main game first (I'll try writing this as spoiler free as possible).

Gameplay:

• Like XC2's Torna expansion, Future Connected is a shorter adventure (I'd guess 10 - 15 hours, which is even shorter than Torna's 30 - 40 runtime) that features a completely new area, plus a returning area from the main game. The new area in question is the Bionis' Shoulder, which was a nearly complete area developed for the original game but cut due to thematic redundancy with a few of the game's earlier locales such as Colony 9 & Bionis' Leg (in short, it's a grasslands area). Gussie it up a bit and you've got yourself a brand new area for a story expansion. For spoiler purposes I won't reveal the returning location, though I will say it's one of the game's smaller locales, and you really don't spend a whole lot of time with it here.
• Returning party members include Shulk & Melia, and they're joined by two new Nopon characters in Nene & Kino (two children of Riki, the main game's Nopon party member). Basic combat is the same as the main game, with Nene & Kino even taking the abilities/roles of Reyn (tank) & Sharla (healer) respectively (sorry Melia, I'm putting you on the side lines again, lol). Fitting that it takes place shortly after the events of the main game, you don't start out at level 1, but instead level 60 (with all your arts already at level 4 or 5). Of course the area's enemies are levelled accordingly.
• There are 4 big changes to combat.
  1. There is no more future vision mechanic in place to counter killer blows, with nothing to replace it. This means you really don't have a need for most of the special Monado arts, though I did find a use for a couple. I never particularly found this to be a problem however, so enemy special attacks must have been relatively nerfed to sort of balance it out.
  2. Across your journey you'll run across a group of Nopon adventurers known as "Ponspectors" who'll join up with your party. There are 12 in total and mention this here as they ever presently follow your party of 3 while out adventuring & in combat (like active Blades do in XC2). During battle they'll randomly heal or buff party members & attack & debuff enemies (4 carry blue flags and have restorative effects, 4 more have red flags and attack enemies, and 4 others have yellow flags & debuff enemies). This is all AI controlled & involves no input from the player.
     
     I hope you're not tired of Nopon.
  3. The Chain Attack mechanic has been removed (where you expend your whole talent gauge to chain an art from each party member into a combo). It is replaced with a mechanic where you instead call upon all Ponspectors to strike in unison. Performed under the same conditions as a Chain Attack, you'll have the option to have them heal all party members & provide a litany of buffs, do massive damage to an enemy, or automatically Daze & debuff the enemy. The effectiveness of the strike depends on the total number of Ponspectors you've joined with as well as a little 3 prompt QTE (I think it's the same one used when performing certain arts in XC2). You'll occasionally get an "Extra Chance", which lets you immediately choose another strike (though you can't pick the one you've already used again).
  4. Another new aspect is the presence of "Fog Beasts". These are regular monsters who have fallen under the influence of the "Fog King" (the big bad of the expansion who is brought up in the first hour, so not really a spoiler). They have a black aura around them & when engaged send out a shockwave that attracts the attention of all nearby monsters (& levels them up). They sound annoying, but in practice I never had any particular issue with them (all other enemies return to their regular level if the Fog Beast is killed beforehand).
     
     There's something not quite right with these guys.
• Adventuring is largely the same as it is in the main game (you gain EXP from discovering new locations & landmarks, the latter act as warp points, harvest points are random blue dots everywhere, etc), though there are a few nagging issues. First off, given that they've had to cram an entire adventure into this one location, it's entirely possible to take a few steps off the beaten path (particularly early on) and wind up in a space with enemies too strong for you (& I don't mean the occasional random super strong enemy you're supposed to tip toe around you'll get in the main game, just a space with enemies generally too strong for you early on). Secondly, the landscape can be quite "layered" in spots, and yet the map is depicted as one "floor". This means you'll probably run into the issue where you'll go to a quest marker only to look around and see it's on a plane above or below you (a problem with XC2 occasionally, but not one I had with XC:DE proper). Granted, these are small problems in the grand scheme of things (death is just as un-punishing as ever, and you'll know the entire area by the back of your hand before too long), but they are there.
• Otherwise the game is streamlined in many aspects.
  1. The Skill Tree & all Affinity related systems (including all the charts) have been completely wiped. The "Heart-To-Heart" conversations scattered around the map (previously locked off by affinity requirements) have been replaced with "Quiet Moments". These are fully voice acted interactions between party members that are only ever locked off by story progression. Honestly this is a big load off your back as you don't have to worry about some obscure affinity requirement locking off a side quest or some such.
  2. While they can drop better weapons, enemies no longer drop armor (and the armor you obtain from quests is largely cosmetic). Better armor is exclusively obtained by buying it from one of the two shops in the game.
  3. There is no more Gem crafting system. An upgrade to your Ether Deposit mining gear near the start of the game means you harvest ready to go equipment Gems from Ether Deposits instead of crystals (enemies no longer drop crystals either). At some point you can do a side quest that improves the quality of Gems you mine as well (you start out mining level II & III Gems, and get level IV Gems afterwards) You still get a few Gems from side quests or treasure chests too, though.
• 3 - 4 NPC side quests usually open up after every other story event, and while (almost) none of them reward EXP, they all reward large amounts of money (which is important, since you can only buy better armor as previously stated). Each Ponspector also requires you to complete a side quest before they join you, and while (almost) none of them reward money, they all reward large amounts of EXP. You run across the first Ponspector as part of a scripted event, and after that he'll give you the locations of a few others. Ideally after you get more to join they'll reveal the location of a couple others, so on so forth, but it's important to note they all load in after you meet the first one, so it's entirely possible to get them out of order (I got a few this way), though be aware one may give you a quest you're not ready for if you're not "supposed" to meet them yet. Unlike the main game none of the quests get locked off due to story progression, and unless I somehow completely missed it during my entire playthrough of the main game, another new aspect is that it'll tell you what level they recommend you be at to take them on.
  
  Ready for duty!

Story/Characters:

• A year after the main game ends, Shulk & Melia are taking a trip to [insert returning location here] to see how things are going, when a big laser fires upon their ship & they crash land on the Bionis' Shoulder. Joined up by Nene & Kino (children of the previous game's Riki) who had stowed away on board, they soon meet up with refugees from [insert returning location here] who were driven out by a foe they've dubbed the "Fog King", an etheral being who seems immune to all physical & ether (magic) attacks, which phase through it. To make matters worse is that racial tension has caused the military class to leave the civilian camp unguarded, meaning Shulk & Co. have their work cut out for them.
• Despite the serious nature of the narrative, the game is a lot like XC2 in that it seemingly always balances out the more sombre moments with something a bit more light hearted, and that's largely where Nene & Kino join in. Yes, they're Nopon with all the speach & personality quirks that come with that, but they're also actual children, so the whole schtick comes off as much more genuine from them & they never fail to bring a smile. Despite the short run time of Future Connected, I probably care more about them than some party members from the main game.
  
  A surprisingly heartfelt duo.
• By and large this is Melia's story though (kinda ironic considering I sidelined her, lol), as she was the party member with the most baggage left over at the end of the main game, and it provides a nice conclusion for her (and some expanded roles for characters around her narrative).
• However, a lot (read: practically all) of the phenomena surrounding the sudden appearance of the Fog King is left unanswered, and I can't help but think that in that regard, this is as much prologue for where they want to take the series next as it is epilogue for where it's been. Unfortunately, unless some eagle eyed fan has noticed something that flew over me, there was nothing here that seemed to tie things back into XC2 (which I assumed there might be). Whatever the case, while the main game had a satisfying end & I shouldn't be itching for more after playing this cart for nearly 140 hours, that's exactly where Future Connected left me, wanting more.

Graphics/Audio:

• While you'll largely be spending your time in one location, I think they did a pretty good job of bringing the Bionis' Shoulder to life, and there's just enough diversity to keep it feeling fresh (though in terms of native monsters, it kinda feels like they jammed a bit of everything in there, feeling a bit more of an ecological mishmash than the locations in the main game).
  
  
  
  
• While you can't carry over any equipment from the main game (for practical gameplay purposes), you can still use the appearance of armor you collected in the main game for cosmetic reasons (once you clear it you can set the appearance of Shulk's weapon too).
• When you first load into an area (after warping or some such) or when things get really, really busy, I noticed the occasional dropped frame, which I imagine had to do with your little Ponspector army flailing their little flags about everywhere. It's not something that bothered me, but I figured I should mention it for transparency.

Conclusion:

• It's brief enough that it's probably not worth buying XC:DE just for this, but if you've never played the original game (or are looking to re-experience it) this is definitely a nice bonus that sweetens the deal.
  
  A dessert worth digging into.

I beat Dark Souls Remastered, and it was brilliant. I have a habit of avoiding games based on their reputation, and Dark Souls was one of those games. I didn't want to deal with the frustration of constantly getting whooped by bosses and the Soulsborne games have fostered the "git gud" mentality that I frankly think is a bit silly. I resented Dark Souls and it's popularity.

Then I played it.

It was a rough start because, not knowing where to go, I ventured into just about every difficult area you have access to in the beginning. Skeletons in the graveyard? Dead. Ghosts in a spooky underground city? Dead. Finally I tiptoed my way through the Undead Burg and was making actual progress. And my first dozen hours were like that. I would hardly call it fun.

Then something started to take place. I'm not sure what moment it occured, if there was a singular moment at all. I picked up on the nuances of gameplay and, with newfound confidence, became more eager to see the world of Lordran. I was reminded of two other game series' - Etrian Odyssey and Resident Evil. Etrian because it had a similar focus on making your way through a challenging dungeon, finding treasure and shortcuts, and fighting Bosses that require some thought and planning. And Resident Evil for the pacing - the tension and reprieve. The bonfires called to me like typewriters.

And, ayup, I'm into it. I've been enjoying a healthy amount of dark fantasy lately (recommended reading - Gene Wolf's 'The Book of the New Sun' series) and Dark Souls is very engaging dark fantasy. It feels like I'm unearthing something. It has lore and symbolism I wanted to understand.

The gameplay's okay too, I guess.

I never "gitted gud". I bulked up with heavy armor with high poise and a heavy shield so I could tank most of the damage. This worked quite well for me. I had a chance to learn some of the enemie's moves, and was able to manage my stamina better. I'm lousy at dodge rolling and parrying. In spite of this, the last half of the game I don't think there was a single boss that I had to fight more than three times to beat. What killed me more often were the environments you traverse through. In my experience, that's where most of the challenge in Dark Souls came from.

I guess I'm a bit bewildered at Dark Souls undeniable legacy, but it is a very satisfying single player experience for the right person.

Favorite Bosses - Artorious, Sif, Nito
Hardest Bosses - Iron Golem, Asylum Demon, and (not a boss, but killed me more than anything else in the game) Havel the Rock.

If you read all of this, thanks. I don't like making long posts and I apologize if the text is unruly.

@Losermagnet Souls is legit just one of those series that basically encourages you to adapt to its systems aggressively but it's so damn rewarding when you actually start mastering how the mechanics work

When you boil it down in terms of boss strategies, Souls bosses aren't even that hard but they make you feel so much weaker when you are on the losing end that it urges you to pick yourself back up and try again

I played the remaster on PC and unironically I think the Switch version is vastly superior if anything due to the textures basically being completely unaltered from the 2011 version. The new textures take away so much of the ambience and unsettling nature of the environments in the original game due to everything being made brighter and contrast being turned all the way up

The only thing the Switch version has going against it is that the audio sounds compressed as all hell

@TheFrenchiestFry I played on the PS4 and, not knowing how it compares to other versions, the contrast was ridiculous. Bright areas too bright, and dark areas WAY too dark.

And thats pretty spot on with the bosses. Usually they'd destroy me the first attempt, after which I'd try to adapt. If I felt completely outclassed I'd just go someplace else.

Also, one thing I never even tried to get use to was attacking with the shoulder buttons. I remapped the controls so square was attack and R1 was item usage. I was deeply disappointed that Dark Souls II (which I started shortly after finishing DS) doesn't have the same remapping options. I can do it with the console, but it's inconvenient.

Just finished AM2R and altough enjoyable I don't think is as good of a remake as Samus returns. It is a fairly short game (about 5h for me with 55% itens) and the boss fights are not challeging at all as you have too many missiles from the get to and the big ones are very easily cheeseable.

@Losermagnet Admittedly I have gotten used to the melee attacks being mapped to R1 or just the shoulder buttons in general given I'm playing the remaster after already having played the other Soulsborne games, but it is a pretty weird control scheme altogether. It's slightly mitigated by the fact there isn't really anything too complex to get around when playing the game since combat usually boils down to "attack, use a spell, occassionally imbue a spell with a weapon for properties that deal more damage against particular bosses, occassional Estus Flask"

The one thing that kind of screws everything up in terms of the controls is that no matter which version you're playing the menu controls always have it that the bottom face button is for confirming and the right face button is for cancelling. It makes sense on PS4 and Xbox One since X and A are the bottom face buttons on their respective controllers, but on Switch this means the B button is the confirm button and the A button is for cancelling, and it just messed with my muscle memory when I tried out the Switch beta before eventually getting the game on PC

Finished Trover Saves the Universe. Took about 10 hours to complete. Although, I think ign said they finished it in 5 hours. It's entertaining, not perfect, but I liked it.

I'm assuming everyone knows this game is like a Rick & Morty episode - it's written & voiced by the same creators.

I beat Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2 consecutively last weekend. Puyo Puyo finally "clicked" for me while playing PPT2, and so I went back to get 3 stars in the few remaining Adventure stages that I was unable to get top points in (all Puyo stages). I also unlocked the remaining voice packs.

I then proceeded to get 4 stars in all PPT2 stages, though I still need to play a bit more to unlock the remaining player icons.

I beat Breath of the Wild a few weeks ago after casually wandering into the Sanctum. I had only conquered two beasts at this time, and I died on my first attempt against Ganon, but I did fine on my second attempt. I have since conquered the other two beats, and I only have around 17 more shrines to find/complete.

I beat the beginner and medium levels of the Master Sword trials in the DLC, and I hope to complete the expert levels this weekend.

I don't think I will ever bother trying to find all 900 Korok seeds, but I would like to have enough to max out my inventory (and I am still a long way from that happening as I have found less than 200).

Finished Ys VIII today, was really refreshing to play a JRPG that was paced well. So many these days have a 10 hour story that the developers try to stretch to 100+ hours.

Can't recommend it enough.

Played through Banjo kazooie and Banjo tooie recently and now I'm trying Yooka laylee for the first time! It's good but something isn't quite as good about it. Can't seem to put my finger on it though.

I beat Cosmic Star Heroine this afternoon. The battle system took a bit to get used to, but once you figure out what to do, it really is a nice change of pace from the usual attack/magic/defend system in the classic RPGs that this otherwise emulates. It's fairly easy (except the final boss was tough, and there are very difficult optional battles that I tried once and gave up on), but I believe there was one harder difficulty level than what I played on. If you are a fan of those older JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, definitely give this one a go.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I finished this gem of a game this past weekend. This is, without a doubt, one of the most polished games I've ever played! In the spirit of the original The Legend of Zelda that it hearkens back to, the game nails the "Go anywhere, do anything" aspect very well. There's so much to do: materials to gather, food to cook, puzzles to solve, Shrines to get through, monsters to fight, bosses to beat up,, sections of the map to unlock, Koroks to find, side quests to cater to....Name it, and the game likely has it. Compared to many recent Zelda titles, there isn't much of a plot, but what is there is intriguing and very well done IMO. Many of the characters were enjoyable and well-written, and Princess Zelda....They did a really good job portraying her personality, struggles, interests, Et Al. It made me long to see the Hyrule that she and Link originally knew, but I suppose Age of Calamity will fulfill that role somewhat.

I do have a couple of (very) minor complaints:
1. I'm not a fan of breakable weapons and equipment. I didn't care for these when they were introduced in Skyward Sword. There are enough items scattered around that this isn't a huge deal, but it's still somewhat annoying when something useful breaks when you're in the middle of whaling on something that'll take awhile to die.
2. While I like the concept of Shrines, many are almost too short. They tried to remedy this somewhat with the Divine Beasts, but that definitely wasn't the same. I'd like to see at least a few full-size dungeons show up in BotW 2.

This game is seriously hard NOT to recommend to anyone. As a Zelda fan, this game definitely sits in my top five. Is it my top Zelda game? That's to be decided. XD It's already such a tight contest between previous series entries.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (Wii U VC)
The third and final game in the original Rare DKC trilogy. It was my first time playing this one. Quite an enjoyable platformer, one that still has quite a bit of that Rare charm, a decent soundtrack, an explorable overworld, and plenty of secrets. On it's own, it's an excellent game! When compared to its older siblings...it falls a bit short. Kiddy feels like a somewhat unnecessary addition, and the game doesn't feel like it adds much to the table and plays things a bit safe. Also, as much as I like Ellie, switching her in for Rambi is almost a crime lol.

The game is certainly worthy of the DKC moniker and is, at the end of the day, home to tight, polished platforming. However, for me, the first game wins over it via nostalgia and the second by its speed, superior soundtrack, and challenge.

@Tyranexx Excellent review! How did you find the Champions Ballad? I did beat the Trial of the Sword, but I was curious as I wanted to know about the second half of the DLC extra dungeon. I have the DLC, but haven't tried to complete the second half because I died in a few one-hit trials. I did beat those trails, but am unsure if I should continue.

@daisygurl The final boss of Splatoon 2's single player campaign is kind of awesome. I replayed it for fun multiple times. And in Octo expansion, after you get out of the subway, the last 1/3 of the game gets awesome.

Yesterday I finished Resident Evil VII. What a great game that was! Modern but with so many throwbacks to the original formula! Loved it and can't wait for Village!

@Diddy64 Thanks! I forgot to mention this, but I actually don't have the DLC yet. I'll definitely be picking it up in a few months when I wish to dig back into the game and other titles aren't eating up my entertainment budget. As much as I love BotW, after 135+ hours I'm ready for a break lol. I didn't 100% it, but I did complete all 120 Shrines and have found 350 Korok seeds so far.

I beat cyber shadow last night. It was ok. I wouldn't say I highly recommend it but I do think people who love old school action platforming will enjoy it. It was definitely on the harder side so be warned.

@Tyranexx It's alright 😊 I did the same thing in BotW. I know one can get game fatigue from (mostly) long games.

@NintendoByNature Duly noted. I was on the fence, but from what I've read Cyber Shadow pushes a little past my zone of "challenging" into "controller-throwing hard" lol.

@Diddy64 Zelda fan that I am, even I need a break from the longer titles sometimes! ^_^ Granted, BotW definitely pushed the length envelope way more than the other games. I usually 100% most Zelda games.

@Tyranexx let me tell you, it gets you to that point. Thankfully, I've outgrown my controller whipping days 😉. Alot of skill, luck, and quick twitching goes into this game. My hands were sweating by the time I saw the credits. One of of the tougher games I've beaten since bloodstained rotn, bloodstained cotm2, and cuphead.. zelda 2 was a cake walk compared this

ok maybe I'm exaggerating just a tad