Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

It was fun until the grinding got too boring for me. Man, it's a challenging game that really requires the right strategy, because the game literally restricts you from over-leveling to make the game easier. I guess that's the appeal of SMT games, their difficulty level, but I've never been a fan of challenging games, nor was it the reason I keep playing these games (I play them for the story, the universe, and the interesting demon myths).

The story's pretty good though, but it plays out the way a survival game/story usually would, so the story doesn't feel as unique as Strange Journey or even SMT IV. The characters are charming enough to keep me playing, with Atsuro being a solid Atsubro, and Yuzu being realistically whiny for a teen stuck in a survival situation.

More than anything though, it just reminds me how much Digimon has ripped off from SMT in its monster-taming mechanics. Really didn't help that Devil Survivor literally has "demon taming" in the game, as in Digimon Tamers where they tame digital creatures, kinda like what the demons are like in Devil Survivor AND Soul Hackers. Kinda makes me feel weird as someone who grew up with Digimon to know how derivative Digimon is.

I've taken a break from Devil Survivor though after getting tired of fighting the Four Divas on Day 7, especially when I got distracted by Jurassic World: Evolution 2: Premium Edition. I finally bit the bullet and bought the game despite my hesitance about the tedious Chaos Theory mode. The challenges aren't as bad as I thought, especially once I used WeMod cheats on it. Plus, I just download a save game file to unlock everything for sandbox mode without going through the tedium of playing through Chaos Theory anyway, so it works out fine. I was a big dinosaur nerd as a kid and played my share of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for hundreds of hours, so I'm glad to be able to just enjoy creating dinosaurs again in sandbox mode without the stress. I like the sense of control over these creatures and how I get to play god and taking care of them but also having the power to turn them against one another... lol And yes, I'm not blind to the irony here, how the movies literally criticized such a thing, how they pretty much said "We never had control! That's the illusion!" But what can I say? The games pretty much encourage you to have control over these chaotic situations, especially when the game developers have designed the sandbox where you can literally turn off challenges like fuel/power levels or even the annoying storms that keep wrecking your well-built exhibits.

It's still a very flawed game though by all standards of sandbox creature simulations like Planet Zoo. The creature animation gets very repetitive after a while, with many dinosaurs literally exhibiting the same movements. The developers didn't even fully utilize the aspect of gene-splicing animals. Think of how much more fun it would be if we could splice together a T-Rex DNA with a shark and get a T-Rex with a shark fin. Man, that would've been awesome. If Dr. Wu gets to splice together some Indominus Frankenstein who can camouflage, why can't we do something just as awesome? Like a velociraptor that sprays blood from its eyes like the short-horned lizard? They play it so safe with the game's mechanics, doing the bare minimum of innovative gameplay that it almost feels like a cheap movie franchise game that cashed in on the franchise name. Don't get me started on the annoyingly limited size of the sandbox maps, which the maps from Operation Genesis put to shame obviously (you could literally scroll for about 10 seconds from one end of OG's maps to the other end; that's how big they were).

There are some nice features that I like though, like the "invisible fences" that make your exhibits look more natural. I also like that some of the actors/actresses from the movies have voiced their characters in the game too, particularly Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Goldblum. Most of the other characters have obviously different performers though, including a very awkward Chris Pratt impression where he imitates the more goofy and jokey version of Chris' roles (as opposed to the more gruff and serious Owen we got from the films). There were some nice character moments that expanded on the characters' relationships from the films in the game's Campaign Mode, which is kinda nice (especially the Alan Grant and Ellie Settler moments).

Overall, it's a flawed game, but it can also be a relaxing one with its sandbox mode, just letting me create a wide variety of dinosaurs (I've only created about 60-70% of all species so far) and observe them in peace. It can even be kinda therapeutic, even the raptors when they snap a goat's neck.

@Maxenmus I appreciate the comprehensive response. I struggle to articulate in this way so I always feel bad when mine are shorter!

I love SMT but you can burn out so that sounds like a good change of pace. Especially how you are making such progress so fast!

I love Overclocked but I’m still only on Day 4, I like to play it on and off in between other games and that’s not usually my approach. The day 3 boss was bad enough, I’ve heard day 7 is really hard.

That's fine. lol I'm too verbose because I have a hard time being concise with my words, so it's not that I'm being comprehensive, and more like "me not so good with the English."

For what it's worth, I got back to playing it again... sort of. I played a little bit again just now, trying to fuse together stronger demons, but the fusing in this game is so challenging because resummoning demons you've fused from the compendium is super-expensive, costing up to 20k macca. It was much easier in Nocturne and SMT IV because earning macca in those games were far easier without going through entire battle sequences. Plus, because demon fusion requires chain-fusing from multiple demons before you get the final product, I have a hard time keeping track of what fused into what, so I couldn't just buy every single demon from the auction. lol

The later days were definitely more challenging because of the enemy bosses, but I feel like they're less tedious because they don't involve the annoying minigame of "ensure civilians survive" or "let Mari take the last killing shot on Kudlak," just annoying little objectives like that that made me reload my save so many times. I heard that using demons with Switch and Devil Speed would help a lot, which is true to some extent, but you end up having not the most optimal team. You can be fast or strong, but being both requires you to resummon the stronger demons you've replaced with those having the two aforementioned racial skills. It's just a lot of hoops to jump through, and it's frustrating.

@Maxenmus the difficulty does put me off too sometimes. But I’m glad to hear there are fewer gimmicks which are what I struggle with too. So far I’ve been able to get away with focusing on my parties cracked skills and just having the best demons available to complement them at the time. And although the game discourages grinding, I’m ensuring I’m a couple of levels above the enemies I’m facing by redoing the free battles a couple of times each.

Sounds like that will only get me so far!

I just beat Kena Bridge of Spirits on the PS5 and my god it was a beautiful game. The atmosphere was fantastic, the Rot creatures were adorable and every boss fight felt fresh.
The best thing about the game has to be the soundtrack though. It gives me Majora's Mask vibes and rightfully so with the whole theme being around well, spirits and their masks.
If you have some time give it a listen!

Weakwood throne.
Man that game was tedious and confusing.

Finally after 3 weeks of playing just this game on my Switch I HAVE BEATEN Dark Souls!!!

It is my first souls game beaten ever and NOW I see why so many people love them!

I am hooked and I already purchased the Dark Souls Trilogy for the PS4 and also have Bloodborne GotY waiting!!!

So many deaths and fails but I loved it!!!

Just see my health left and you can see how much I suck!

Demon Slayer

Based on the anime. The campaign takes you through the story until the end of the Mugen Train, which all told takes roughly ten hours to get through. The game plays well, looks really good, and has a fair bit of content to unlock beyond the story mode. This was a great experience after putting down Made in Abyss, which...MiA was a disappointment.

Completed Splatoon 3 story mode a couple days ago. The final boss is kind of amazing. I loved it, anyway.

Just beat A Short Hike for the first time. That game is so great it's kind of crazy, one of the few Indie games I'd give a 10/10

I just beat The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures. I have been deep in the Ace Attorney series lately, having just beforehand completed the Phoenix Wright trilogy. So here is what I think of the game and how it holds up to the original trilogy.

Story: Definitely the most important aspect of the Ace Attorney games is the story. Overall, I feel like Adventures has a very solid story. I think that each case was very well-written and was able to tell a complex mystery without getting overcomplicated and confusing. That was certainly a problem I felt with PWAA; some of the cases, while well-written, were either too complicated or had moments of lacking clarity as to what needed to be done next. Adventures pretty much completely resolves (pun unintended) these issues and it leads to great story pacing as a result. The majority of stories themselves, though, didn’t quite resonate as much for me as the cases from the PWAA trilogy. I’m not sure why this is, exactly, since as I mentioned, the stories in Adventures are well-written, well-paced, and easy to follow. It isn’t a huge issue, and I don’t think this is something that others have noticed, but it’s just something I happened to feel.

Characters: Adventures’ cast is fantastic overall. Ryunosuke is a pretty basic protagonist overall, but that’s nothing all-too-new. However, the supporting cast is absolutely phenomenal and was really the driving force for a lot of the game for me. Susato is a great sidekick; she’s helpful, funny, and helps carry the story along very well. Gina Lestrade and Iris Wilson are both funny characters with pretty sad backstories, and it was great to learn more about them as the game continued. Baron von Zieks is a very mysterious villain, and at this point, I’m still not quite sure what his whole deal is, but I think it’s explained in Resolve. My favorite character by a mile, though, is Herlock Sholmes. Not only is he straight-up hilarious, but I actually think he’s a lot more helpful than a lot of people give him credit for, and he brings a super fun new mechanic to the table in the form of deductions. Once again, I didn’t feel quite as attached to these characters as I did in the first trilogy, but I’m also not sure if this is something that others have felt.

Gameplay: The additions to the gameplay are really fun. My favorite addition is the deduction mechanic I mentioned earlier. It can tend to drag on a little long in some areas, but it’s still really satisfying to help Sholmes with the conclusions he draws. Another great addition is the way you examine the evidence. This mechanic was sort of introduced in Rise From the Ashes, but it takes a very prominent role in every trial now. The last one that I can remember is the way that you can now cross-examine multiple people at a time, as well as hold a summation examination of the jury. These are all great additions that I think really add to this game feeling a lot more immersive and intense, while still keeping the relatively light-hearted and unrealistic feel of Ace Attorney.

Music: The PWAA trilogy had an absolute banger of a soundtrack, and this game is no different. This game holds some fantastic character and trial themes, including Herlock Sholmes’, Susato Mikotoba’s (Serenade is my favorite), Kazuma Asogi’s, and the cross-examination theme. I am incredibly partial to PWAA’s chiptune songs, and overall I think that trilogy holds a better score, but I can’t deny the fact that live recordings fit Ace Attorney really well.

Conclusion: The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is another remarkable installment in one of my favorite series of all time. While the story and characters don’t quite live up to the greatness of the first trilogy, I still had a blast playing through it. The stories are complex and entertaining, the characters are really fun and memorable, the gameplay is a vast improvement, and the music is as jamming as always. I highly recommend that everybody play this game, but I would recommend most to play the PWAA trilogy first, as it may be a little hard to go back to the inferior gameplay and confusing puzzles for some.

8/10 Great

I finished Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu just now. 🙂
It was okay game, I wasn't really fan of Pokemon games but at least I could finish this game. I started to play this game in 1 January 2019 and finished the storyline today 25 September 2022. It took almost 4 years to finish the game as I rarely touch my Pokemon games as I have said I wasn't really a fan of Pokemon games so my hype with the games was pretty low and took longer times to finish one game.
I gave the score 6.5 / 10.
Why 6.5 ?
Because it was pretty boring but at least playable.

My personal opinion, Pokemon games are "mediocre" if I compared with other monster taming breeding games like Yokai Watch or Monster Rancher. I don't understand why peoples like the 1 vs 1 battle from Pokemon games that for me it looked pretty boring with Hit n Slap style battle (I hit, you hit, repeat and rinse) comparing with other monster taming games that you can have 3 vs 3 battle with more strategic battle system.
Even Nexomon Extinction with 2D style graphic have better MP using like standard RPG games instead of using PP like Pokemon games that basically Final Fantasy 1 / 3 NES style magic using that limited by amount of number of MP capacity depend on its level.
Well, I know I'm different since I have different life experiences and gaming experiences that shaped how do I play the games.

Today I finished Dark Chronicle for the PlayStation 2. Another game that will give me warm memories, whenever I think about it. The gameplay is nice enough, but it takes some patience from time to time to keep going. The real strengh is the atmosphere and the music. It is simply peaceful and lovely, even in the dungeons. I can not really say which game I like better, this or Dark Cloud.

@Anti-Matter

I hope Yokai Watch for the Switch will be released in the west.

Sorry for the late reply but, really? I played it to completion the other day and I really didn’t like it. what was it about the game that you liked?

I recently reached the end credits in Stretchmo/Fullblox by completing Mallo's Playtime Plaza. I've also finished Poppy's Sculpture Square. I still have quite a few puzzles to go in Corin's Fortress of Fun and Papa Blox's NES Expo. The whole bundle is worth it if one enjoys the previous Pushmo/Pullblox titles and also wants the cheapest way to buy them all (Saving roughly $4). Quite a few fun puzzles, and some can be difficult (ESPECIALLY in NES Expo, the hardest pack of 50).

While I haven't delved much into the Stretchmo Studio mode yet, it allows the player to create puzzles and share them via QR code by using tools and hazards unlocked in other areas of the game.

@GoombaKing64 I'm sorry to hear that! The side characters personalities were very engaging and fun to me, plus gathering all the gold and silver feathers is really a fun challenge. I enjoyed the graphical style, and once you have about 10 golden feathers and a silver feather or two the gameplay/controls are super fun. It was a very cheap game too so I thought, for being a small game I was mostly using as a short break, it was really outstanding.

Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin is CONQUERED!!!

I had so much fun AND frustration with this one! I died many times more than in Dark Souls 1 but it was worth it in the end!

It feels good!!!

Today it was the jump and run Donald Duck Quack Attack for the PlayStation 2. I expected this game to be the same as the PC version but those games are really different. I prefer the PC version. It feels happier. The difficulty in the PlayStation 2 version is surprisingly hard. The game is good enough for a simple playthrough.

@Tyranexx will like this, I finished Wario Land 2 last night! It's a pretty good game that I missed out on during its original GBC run. I do like how every level has their own objective, and that there aren't any lives to run out of - instead, it all depends on how much coins you can hold on to by not taking as much damage. I can't say I'm super into that treasure minigame, however - I kinda prefer how the first Wario Land did the treasures, where once you find them, they're yours right away. I suppose that would've made things too easy in WL2, though. But overall, I did like it. I'll move on to Wario Land 3 next, since I got that alongside WL2. Recently, I did hear WL3's the weakest one, but hey, I may as well give it a shot and see what I think.

Great Ace Attorney 2.