Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

I actually finally beat Dark Souls the other day, after giving up at the Gaping Dragon years ago. Felt like a real accomplishment, those From Software games can be sadistically cruel.

I beat Disc Room on Steam yesterday (also available on Switch) - a game where you dodge saw blades, people have described it as akin to bullet hells.
I found it quite difficult - especially the last boss (before the "hard mode" begins), although this may be because I chose to use a keyboard to play it.
In hindsight, maybe not a good idea, because after a session two nights back, my little finger was a bit stiff with my right hand working the arrow keys. I'd be worried about doing lasting damage if I tried to beat the hard mode, so if I ever get into it again, I'll use a gamepad.

I was determined to beat the boss, and I appreciated being able to jump straight back in to an make another attempt, but on the other hand, being so determined to beat it makes it hard to stop - I finished the game with 2130 deaths (254 to the main boss, although it said I "encountered" that particular disc 1798 times, and in its 3 phases, it launches smaller discs which have their own kill/encounter counts).

A lot of my success in the game was likely down to RNG - the saw blades spawn and move unpredictably, and some runs on the last boss were easier than others. Nevertheless, it was probably the most difficult game I've played in a long while, and I'm glad I managed to beat it. For Backloggery purposes.

I beat Sekiro yesterday, and it really makes me remember what i want from great boss fights. Just continuosly getting better while not even getting any significant new skills(at least i barely used those against bosses) throughout the game just feels great and satisfying as you really learn those moves and indulge yourself in the greatness of parrying and evading stuff. The story and overall gameplay for normal enemies was also pretty good, albeit a little more frustrating to me with having to just walk and defeat the lesser enemies again and again to get to a mini boss...
But game was really great! and it is all the more satisfying since i never finished a from Software game before.

Played through LEGO Builder's Journey (Steam) over the past couple days.

Gave off some real Captain Toad vibes with the little diorama like levels, and while the puzzle solutions could be a bit obtuse at times it was full of creativity & they changed up the puzzle types just often enough that it never got stale.

Absolutely gorgeous little game too, and was exactly the kind of colorful palette cleanser I needed after playing Metroid Dread, Fatal Frame V, & SMTV back to back to back.

Recently I beat Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 and yesterday I bought its DLC Revelations. SO I am playing through that and then I will collect all collectables in the game

Does Mario 64 DS count?

I am playing through the Metroid Prime Trilogy again and I just beat Metroid Prime on Veteran Mode yesterday. I still absolutely love the game, but I think its problems are actually magnified when playing on a higher difficulty. Enemies and bosses have much more health and take longer to kill, but I never felt like it was much of a challenge. I felt like I was basically doing the same fight I did on Normal Mode, but it just took twice as long.

The bosses, in particular, felt a lot worse due to most of them lacking multiple phases. I think the Omega Pirate fight is especially bad in this mode since it never changes up its attacks and has a ton of health. That fight took a super long time without it actually feeling difficult. The Metroid Prime fight is also pretty painful since it takes an eternity to get through as well, again not feeling very difficult. This was never a problem I had when playing on Normal Mode. As I go through Prime 2 and 3, I will definitely make sure to play them on Normal Mode.

It also made the Phazon Mines feel a lot worse than on Normal Mode. That area throws so many enemies at you without a save point, and that difficulty spike is insanely huge. I actually rather enjoyed this area in Normal Mode, since you could get through enemies rather quickly, but on Veteran Mode, it just takes forever.

I still love the game, but I personally recommend to everyone to just play it on Normal Mode. Save yourself some time.

I also just beat DKC Returns on the Wii for the gazillionth time. It's as strong of a platformer as I remember playing years ago. It's surprisingly challenging at times, and the level design is insanely creative, especially the further on in the game you get. The World 7 Factory world is my personal favorite. I also think the soundtrack is phenomenal, there are so many bangers.

I beat the final boss and I completely forgot about the part where DK punches the moon into the volcano. Got a good laugh out of that. Anyways, it's still a great game that only got better by its sequel, Tropical Freeze.

Finished Omno back on Thursday, a nice 3D puzzle Platformer, shame it wasn't longer, I backed it on Kickstarter as it looked gorgeous and was.

Now playing Manifold Gardens, a very mind confusing game, as per my Avatar you can fall forever if you jump off the edge, but you dont die, so you can access other parts of the level.

Finished my first play through of Mayhem Brawler the other night. I have to say I was impressed with the game overall. It's quite a good beat em up that I am sure flew under many people's radar. It's easy to see why with games like River City Girls and Streets of Rage 4 reading around the same time.

Mayhem Brawler is a very well polished beat em up that just felt good. The controls were responsive the artwork was beautiful and there are branching paths to increase the replayibility. The one negative thing I have to say is the levels seemed short. Three screens of enemies and your fighting the boss already, and there is only seven levels.

The asking price is $19.99 which given the length of the game feels a bit high I personally think a $14.99 asking price would have been better.

Overall if you are a fan of beat 'em ups than you would enjoy this, especially if your looking for something new. It's just slightly below SoR4 in my book but a solid game nevertheless

Last night I finished Resident Evil 8. It's your basic run-of-the-mill horror game. I expected better for a series that has done better in past entries. Enemies are boring. I can't believe there were three variations of the same enemy throughout this game. Resident Evil 4, a GameCube game, had more than this. There was no immersion, no atmosphere, some parts were ruined by piss poor voice acting(those villagers talking in English irked me). I could go on and on. But the main thing that disappointed me was the upgrade system.

Resident Evil 8 watered-down upgrade system. What I mean by that there's no final upgrade that makes any gun stand out from the rest. For example, in Resident Evil 4, you keep putting money into your starter handgun or any weapon and upgrading it to the max, and you will unlock the final upgrade. In this example, you will have five times the chance to pull off a headshot. You do that for any other gun, and you will get something different, and you won't need to abandon your weapons just for the sake of power, unlike this game. You keep any of your old guns; you're going to struggle. Resident Evil 5 had this as well. But there were a lot more guns there. They all had their pros and cons, which you can mix and figure out which gun works for you. It was great. But Resident Evil 8 has like 11 guns in its base game. You're going to save up for the guns that are available at the end. Cause like why bother with the old? You won't do nearly the amount of damage you're supposed to be doing.

I can't see how it was considered GOTY material but to each their own. Eight was a massive improvement to 7. But you didn't need to do much to be better than it. I kept playing this, and I wanted to play Evil Within two again. That game did everything RE8 tried to do, but better. I won't remember anything about Resident Evil 8 except for the Duke and Chris's amazing boulder-crushing arms. The man is pushing 50, I think, and he looks phenomenal.

Just beat MP2 Echoes for the first time. I really enjoyed the game, but unfortunately, I do have to agree that it is the weakest entry in the series.

I think the biggest problem that mostly everybody talks about is the difficulty. I played the Trilogy version on normal mode, so the bosses and enemies weren't extremely difficult like I know they were in the base game. Rather, the game is extremely difficult from an exploration and progression standpoint. It's nearly impossible at times to know where you need to go next, which was never a problem I had in the first game. In MP, I would get an item and immediately be like, "Okay, I know where I need to use this in order to progress." That's good and rewarding. In MP2, however, I would get an item, I would be like, "Okay, I know a few places where I can use this," then travel around the entire map, eventually find something to use it on, do a complex and well-made puzzle for 5 minutes only to realize that I did all that for a missile expansion, and it didn't help me progress in any way. I would then proceed to run around the map for half an hour, get more lost than I already was, and eventually just resort to using a guide.

The thing is, the game is super fun when you know you're progressing and figuring out how to get to areas. But when the solution for getting somewhere is getting an item in one part of the map, then going all the way back to another part, then using it in an area that you most likely had forgotten about at that point, that just doesn't feel very rewarding.

I'll give an example: I got the spider ball from the Sanctuary Fortress. I then proceeded to run around the entirety of the Sanctuary Fortress completely confused as to where I was supposed to use my new power-up in order to proceed. After about 20 minutes, I get a hint popup, and at this point, I'm still thinking that my solution is in the Sanctuary Fortress somewhere. So I click on the hint, and it directs me all the way back to the BOTTOM OF THE TORVUS BOG. To an area that has a spider ball magnet that I had completely forgotten about at this point of the game. If I hadn't used the hint system, I never would have progressed through that area without a guide. To me, that's just bad game design. It didn't feel rewarding and just left me going "Really?" when it happened.

On other fronts, I think the general world design, music, and bosses are weaker than the other two games. Not to say that any of these areas were bad, per se, but they just don't live up to the other two.

I still really enjoyed this game, and I recommend it to fans of Metroid or the Metroidvania genre. But if you get stuck, I implore you to just use a guide. Chances are, your solution is in an area that you glanced at 2 hours ago.

8/10

I just beat Pokémon Legends Arceus

Just beat Luigis Mansion 3 and I thought it was a good solid game after some initial doubts. The levels and ghosts have just enough differences to stop it being repetitive and some of the gems are real head scratchers.

Double Dragon IV

Blasted through it in under an hour. I think the aggregate score of 5/10 is a bit harsh but at the same time...I understand. The game on the surface plays like an oldschool NES sequel, terrible platforming sequences and everything. However, under the hood the game plays better than any of the classic entries in the series.

Wakeup uppercuts, wakeup knees, and windmill dragon kicks have never been easier to execute.

Personally I would rate IV much higher than Double Dragon III, but not as good as I or II.

I just beat Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, thereby concluding my full playthrough of the trilogy. I really enjoyed the game, but it is quite different from the other 2 Prime games.

First, the cons:

There's no strategy to which beam you use, which means combat is basically boiled down to shooting, missiles, or Hypermode. I really enjoyed the combat decisions you could make in Prime 1 and especially 2.

The game is also extremely linear. There's hardly any room to go off the beaten path except for towards the very end of the game. I think the problem lies with how many times you're told exactly where to go. The game basically also guides you in getting there too, since whenever you hit a dead-end, the Aurora unit comes up and says, "Looks like what you need to get past is on this specific planet." That doesn't feel very rewarding, since you're basically just running through areas without really planning your path forward. And when the game finally does open up at the end when you need to get all of the energy capsules, that almost felt a little jarring to me since I was used to being guided throughout the entire game.

Now for the pros:

The bosses in this game are absolutely fantastic. The first encounter with Ridley is super cool and really packs in the cinematic boss moments that I think the first two games were missing. Gendrayda is another really good one, and I really enjoyed the ending cinematic especially.

The controls introduced in this game are phenomenal. They're so smooth and easy to use, and it's a huge improvement over the way the Gamecube games are controlled. This is a really good use of motion controls without feeling like a gimmick.

The worlds might be linear, but their designs are extremely memorable and look great. Everybody talks about Skytown for a reason. This is probably one of the best-looking games on the Wii.

So with all that, this game was a lot of fun. It can feel a little oversimplified at times, and I wish it wouldn't have been so linear, but that only slightly hinders my enjoyment of it. 8/10

So with that, the Metroid Prime Trilogy is completed. I had a ton of fun with these games, and I will definitely play through them again eventually. My scores officially stand as: Metroid Prime - 10/10, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes - 8/10, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption - 8/10. Here's a "quick" consensus:

Metroid Prime is the strongest game with the strongest weaknesses as well. I think that the Phazon Mines is a drag, I don't like that you get locked in rooms with enemies, and I wish the world was more interconnected so getting to Phendrana Drifts didn't take so much time. But with that out of the way, Metroid Prime is one of the best games I've ever played. The world is put together in a fantastic way, and every area looks unique and is fun to play through (aside from the Phazon Mines). I also believe that this is the best-looking 20-year-old game. Technically it's not 20 yet but it will be this year. The graphics hold up exceptionally well, and some areas like Tallon Overworld and Phendrana Drifts are still beautiful today. And the soundtrack, oh man, this soundtrack is an absolute stroke of genius. Metroid Prime is a game that everyone should at least try.

On the other hand, Metroid Prime 2 is the weakest game with some of the strongest elements in the series. I think the Light Aether/ Dark Aether mechanic wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been. Many of the puzzles using it boil down to: See something in Light Aether that you can't reach, go through a portal to Dark Aether, do the thing you couldn't do in Light Aether, then go back to Light Aether. There are also a couple of times when the backtracking is absolutely painful, like when you need to go get the Power Bomb. However, in terms of pure exploration, I think Prime 2 is the strongest. The worlds are laid out in a really intuitive manner, and progressing - for the most part - feels really rewarding. The atmosphere is also really strong in this game. Torvuus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress are two of my new favorite Metroid tracks, and overall the worlds just look very distinct.

Metroid Prime 3 kind of lies in between these two. It doesn't really have any noticeable weaknesses, but its strong points don't necessarily stand out either. I think the game is too linear and handholding, but that's just a personal preference. I also miss the strategy of choosing different beams for different combat situations. However, I think this game has the strongest boss fights in this side-series. The controls are really well done, the world designs are fantastic and memorable, and the soundtrack - once again - is a banger.

All in all, the Metroid Prime Trilogy is an extremely solid set of games. All of the games have weaknesses worth discussing, but the strengths always outweigh these weaknesses in every one of the entries. I highly recommend that everybody try out at least Metroid Prime 1 at some point in their life, as it is a fantastic experience.

Now, the wait for Metroid Prime 4 REALLY begins...

Recently beat Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. I enjoyed it quite a lot but it is one of those games where towards the end of the story I was kind of thinking, 'come on, any minute now'. Just flirted with overstaying its welcome but I really enjoyed it overall.

Just played Heaven Dust for @NintendoByNature .... Beat the whole game in less than 4 hours but it's pretty good if you like the idea I seem to have the sequel on Steam as well but that'll be some other time

I beat Blaster Master Zero 2 and...I dunno. It's rare where I'm more negative than the consensus about a game, especially a 2d platformer, but despite their best efforts, I found it hard to enjoy this one more than the first (which I also think was slightly overhyped).

Part of me wants to say its how both game modes control, and maybe its not as good as it should be (or would be if they were only making one type of game), but that just makes it a Blaster Master game, so nothing's changed at all. Part of me also questions replacing a large map in a Metroidvania with separate planets (a big problem I had with the latter 2 DS Castlevanias), but that's not such a big deal. So I think I'd just prefer either a more robust top down shooter (that can take advantage of all the unique abilities they put in the game) or a 2d platformer where you control...not a tank. And a bunch of little issues piled up on top of that to prevent it from being as enjoyable as it should be. Which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to it now that it was free from feeling obligated to be a quasi-remake of the original.

That doesn't mean I didn't like it, mind you. But I love so many 2d platformers, and there's so many great ones on Switch alone I've not gotten to, so its one of those cases where its sometimes hard to look at a good game as good enough. That being said, the music was really good, a couple of the songs are still stuck in my head. And I did love much of what they did in the finale of the game, with some really cool creative gameplay ideas and a neat way to integrate side content into getting the true ending. So it at least ended on a high note (even if it was way too easy to beat the final boss without much effort).