Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

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.

So I completed Splatoon 3’s story mode and beat the extra level a couple weeks ago. I have since then played about 30 hours of turf wars, anarchy battes, and salmon runs. Here are my thoughts on aspects of the game overall:

Gameplay: Splatoon 3’s gameplay on the surface seems just like 2’s but slightly better, which is a fair judgement to make if you’re a more casual player. But to me, the amount of smaller changes 3 makes ends up feeling drastically different and better than 2. For me, nearly the best addition is the Squid Roll. I use it like crazy in both combat and when I’m just messing around. It’s so fun to use and I think it’s a great addition to your moveset. The squid surge is also useful in certain situations, but I haven’t used it nearly as much. But HOLY COW, being able to throw eggs in Salmon Run is a godsend. I don’t know how I lived in 2 not being able to throw them. It is a remarkable addition. Some of the anarchy battles have been improved as well, especially rainmaker and clam blitz with the addition of checkpoints and lower clam requirements, respectively. Oh yeah, also Tableturf! It’s a ton of fun but I’m waiting for the online mode to really get into it.

Story: Splatoon 3 definitely has the best campaign of the three games thus far. It takes a lot of notes from Octo Expansion, which is still my favorite singleplayer mode overall. But I really like the new overworld, it feels a lot more connected and cohesive than even Octo’s was. It was a blast to find all of the hidden stuff as well. The level designs weren’t quite as imaginative or original as I would have hoped for, though. The levels were all fun, especially the speedrunning or special platforming challenges. But levels still lack a sense of cohesion that’s present in the overworld. You’re still going from abstract floating island to abstract floating island. It fits the weird world of Splatoon well, but I definitely would have welcomed a shake-up. Boss fights were also alright, nothing too crazy though. The Sunshine reference was awesome but that was about it. Also, the lore is absolutely WILD. It is super interesting and I think it’s worth it to 100% the game just to unlock all of the lore.

Graphics: Splatoon has never looked this inky and goopy and glossy and splatoon-y. The visual upgrade here from 2 is really noticeable in both the graphics and UI. Everything looks cleaner and yet still follows the “Chaos” rules of the game. Things like lighting and water are improved greatly as well.

Music: Ding ding ding ding ding diing ding dingding dididiiing. Yeah, the music is awesome as always. The story mode contains nothing but absolute bangers, and the battle music is as adrenaline pumping as always. I feel like they took the weirdness to a new level, which I am all for.

So overall, Splatoon 3 is absolutely the best entry in the series yet. It does lack that new Salmon Run-level big feature, which would have been nice. However, the amount of smaller changes adding up to a much better game overall practically makes up for that loss. So many of the rough - and even slightly bumpy - edges from both 1 and 2 are gone. Everything feels more connected, more polished, more flashy, and more balanced. It’s the most fun I have had with Splatoon yet, and I am super excited what’s coming next for this game, and the series as a whole in the future. 10/10

@MarioLover92 Congrats on finishing Wario Land II! It's quite a charming title IMO. It isn't a perfect game, but I always liked that there are no lives - you lose coins instead - and the different forms are fun to deal with. It's essentially one big puzzle game where you can beat up the enemies along the way! Also, there's more than one ending.

I've always preferred the platformers over the WarioWare titles, though I like both series.

@Tyranexx Thanks! I did notice that WL2 has more to do after finishing the last level. I did like the many different forms, and how you can use them to your advantage. I played a fair amount of WL3, though I think I got stuck in it. I'll try to see what I can do, and if I still can't get anywhere, I'll probably head back to WL2 so I can check out more of that game. I do like both series as well, though similarly to you, I have a bit of a platformer bias. lol

@StarPoint It's perhaps the most iterative Nintendo sequel we've ever gotten. Not necessarily reinventing the wheel, but rather taking what had been innovated in 2 and improving/expanding upon it in more ways than I could've ever hoped.

If there's another thing I'd like to mention in regards to 3 especially, it'd be the character designs. The new customisation options for Inklings and Octolings (including getting with the times and removing gender locking thank GOD) are great don't get me wrong, but I don't think I've ever loved the supporting cast of a general Splatoon hub this much in my time with the series. The shopkeepers are all incredibly unique (giving us creatures like a nautilus and coconut crab for the very first time), bringing in an in-universe band member as an actual character in the games (Harmony is so goddamn precious), the fish manning the recon being both very nice and cute while also being a f****** SPY, Murch going from annoying to incredibly cool, Agent 3-sorry, Captain 3 being one of my absolute favourite Nintendo characters for telling a story in clothing of all things and of course: Deep Cut all being incredibly endearing, amazing musicians and Team Rocket-esque villains in Story Mode.

This is the greatest new roster ever in a Splatoon game and you will never change my mind on that fact.

@Fizza Oh yeah I forgot about the characters as well! I agree, they are all awesome and are super unique. And like you said, lots of characters have really interesting backstories which leads to a good amount of world building as well.

Just completed luigis mansion 1 on 3ds. It was a decent game that I'd say is probably the weakest out of the 3 installments. Still an overall good game, I just like the other 2 more, with 3 being the best.

I finally reached the end credits of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 yesterday evening. Wow....What a ride. What an adventure. What an incredible 130+ hours where I never became bored, where I wanted to see what was around the next bend, what character development I could unearth next through the main plot, Hero quests, or regular side quests, great music (though not quite to the scale of previous Xenoblade titles overall), classes, unique monsters, characters....There's very little for me to criticize about this game. The plot is full of twists and turns, with an amazing (if bittersweet) ending. The freaky thing? It could apply to the real world easily in some aspects. The combat is the best it's ever been in the series and has certainly evolved from previous titles.

There's really very little for me to criticize. Money admittedly doesn't have much use after some time, but that's very minor. Too, being too overleveled can make classes a pain to grind outside of certain areas.

Quite frankly, this is the best ARPG I've played since XC:DE back in 2020. This game easily stands toe to toe with XC1 in my book; I can't easily rank one above the other. Considering I've put in ~130 hours, I've decided to hold off on most of the post-game content for now until most of the DLC is available.

@MarioLover92 The forms can be to your advantage...or to your disadvantage in some cases lol. That's why I view some of the Wario Land titles as a sort of puzzle game. Wario Land 3 is more nonlinear and wasn't as fun as II IMO, though there's still plenty to like about it...unless you're a completionist. XD Tip: Try to take advantage of the day/night system due to how it can change some levels.

I 100% agree, though to be fair my only experience with LM1 is the 3DS port. I can safely say the series has improved with each iteration.

@Tyranexx agree with your thoughts on XC3. More and more I'd say it might be the best and perhaps a top 10 game of all time for me. Initially I wasn't crazy about the combat but eventually fell in love with it. The only gripe was not have some sort of QTE in chain attacks.

As for LM series, agreed. Each game built upon the previous. They're all great, but 3 is just perfect.

@NintendoByNature I may be biased since I just came off of playing the game, but I think XC3 is currently my favorite in many aspects. Though XC1 takes the cake in the music department. Before this game, XCX probably had my favorite quests and world building, but I can safely say XC3 edges that title out too. I originally wasn't crazy about combat until it opened up more with chain attacks and other mechanics.

Luigi's Mansion 3 is indeed nearly perfect...until the next title vacuums along.

Splatoon 3's Story Mode.

I finally beat Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve. I had heard the hype for this game and for the most part it delivered. The interesting thing is that even the first half was better, and there's not a lot new in there. I was honestly disappointed they kept so much of the music the same, I think that's a first for the series. It really presents the game as less "GAA2" and more "GAA Season 2". But it just had slightly better writing I guess (definitely funnier) and more importantly, way better pacing. One of the big problems the last few AA games I've played have had is that they've been two slow at points. ESPECIALLY GAA1, it feels like half that game is just slowly getting to a status quo, and the decision to break the formula of how the cases are paced I don't think worked out. This game goes back to what works in that regard.

But, to some extent like Spirit of Justice, the more you go through the 2nd half the more it started to really reveal why it was worth getting hyped about. And a lot of it is just doing the first game but better (the Sherlock section in case 3 is like the coolest visual treat of the series). And then the game really starts to lean into the plot twists and it just doesn't stop. I'm actually amazed at how long it kept pulling effective plot twists (that mattered to the whole story), like it should've really burned me out, even for an AA game. I've jokingly wondered if AA5 and 6 were made partially to apologize for issues people had with the previous game (those issues being tone, and a lack of Apollo, respectively). This feels like a way better version of certain bigger story elements of AA6 that I was kinda mixed on.

I would say I had more fun with AA5, but GAA2 is probably the best of the 3DS era of games.

Hype The Time Quest for the PlayStation 2 was a good game until around the third jewel. Sadly the game has too many bugs and freezes for being such a short game. I had to redo a boss fight because of a glitch and I had to watch the end scenes and credits on Youtube because after I beat the endboss and a little scene, the screen went black and nothing happened anymore. I tried a few times but the results were the same.

The atmosphere and music is really good though. And the game made me feel like I should try to be more virtuous and noble. Some of the characters are likeable and I felt a little bit sad when it was time to say goodbye. The really good german voiceover helped a lot.

Edit: Yeeeees! I beat the NES Turtles 1 that is included in the Cowabunga collection. The game feels unfair. A lot to be honest. But now that I played it for the last days it is really almost fair and stuff that seems unbeatable becomes almost easy. That narrow hallway with Laser shooting guys is very possible with the right equipment, especially the bumerang. Do not forget to stop when the enemy approaches, when the hallway becomes extremely narrow. The guys shooting with lasers will stop before you and fly back, avoid the lasers and shoot stuff at them. Just an hour ago I felt like giving up because I finally reached Shredder, he jumped at me and killed me with one hit. I am sure it was more than one third of my health. Thankfully I found a very easy way to defeat him, provided you have some items to throw at him. Shredder appears on the middle platform. You can stand on the right platform and throw stuff at him. He will fall to the left and jump back up to the middle platform. Repeat until he is defeated. I can not believe how unnecessarily hard games for young kids are sometimes. But it was also fun at times and beating it feels great.

@Tyranexx Yeah I can definitely see how they'd have puzzle elements, given how these games work. All righty I'll keep that in mind, I haven't noticed any differences yet, but perhaps I'll see them in due time. I played more of WL3, and got a bit further in it. The golf minigame gets pretty frustrating for me, but other than that it's decent. I went back to WL2 for a bit too, so I can see the other levels. I went back to the first level, but I couldn't find any secret exits, unfortunately.

Vampire's Kiss on the Switch's Castlevania Advance Collection. LOTS of savescumming with the final boss's first stage.
Wolfstone 3D in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. First time I've ever finished an iteration of Wolfenstein 3D. Got me to hunker down and set to the grind with the OG. Just started episode 4 in it.

Turtles II. I managed to beat Krang but Shredder was so hard I did not even feel like trying again, so I used the time rewind option to beat him. Seriously the ingame tips for this game are cheats not tips, which says a lot. The rest of the game is fun enough to play. I am curious how much better the real arcade version is. It is time for Turtles III.

I finally beat Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Black Eagles route. Here's what I thought of the game:

I love strategy games like Advance Wars and the like, so this game is right up my alley, at least on the combat side of things. The combat feels very open-ended, which I love. You can train any character to fill any sort of position. If you want a fully Reason, Bow, or Lance-based team, you can. My roster class right now is pretty balanced, but I do have one Light Mage and two Darks. But anyway, back to combat. I really like the rewind feature. I think it's a great way of tying the story into a gameplay mechanic, and it's one that I've used a lot since I have made a lot of bad decisions during combat. One complaint I have with the combat overall though is that, even though I make a lot of mistakes, it feels REALLY easy. I chose normal mode since I felt like it would pose some challenge without being too hard, but I only lost like 3 battles overall, out of playing like 40 hours of this game. I felt pretty much unbeatable throughout my entire playthrough. I’m planning on playing the game again on NG+, so I will definitely pick Hard mode for that playthrough.

Throughout most of the route I went, the story kind of just existed. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to it. I had an overall grasp of what was happening but I wasn’t super invested. Chalk it up to me not having the capacity or patience to remember every name in the world and how characters are related to each other. However, I will say, the route that I went had me feeling some emotions for about the last 5 hours or so. I went with the route where you help Edelgard and Hubie with the whole thing. It was pretty sad that I basically had to kill everyone that didn’t stand with me. I thought it was pretty good anti-war commentary, at least that’s how I interpreted it. Ultimately, what you’re doing in this route is for the greater good, but it’s just a shame that the only way forward is through the people that you’ve come to know. The characters are great, though. You have a lot of really fun interactions with them through support events and just talking to them in the monastery.

Speaking of said monastery, I mostly enjoyed my time with it. I think it acts as a great sort of "hub world" for you to really do as you please. You can boost your whole class's motivation by eating with them, or you can be selfish and level up your own stats by training with other teachers. There's also stuff like fishing, side quests, and planting to keep you busy too. I do have a problem with the side quests though. I feel like every quest that isn't a battle quest is just a fetch quest, where you either need to find something or bring something to someone else. And the real stinger is that when you're trying to find something specific, there's a big flashing light on the minimap showing you exactly where it is. Not the most in-depth quest mechanic. I wish that side of things could have had a little more work done.

I'll end this off with the presentation side of things. I really enjoy most of the music. This is my first FE game so I'm not really sure how the rest of the series holds up music-wise, but I can say for sure that this game has a pretty solid soundtrack. Some songs do get repetitive after a while, especially the ones that loop in the monastery. But that's a small gripe. Unfortunately, the graphics and performance do not fare as well as the music does. I love this game, but boy-oh-boy is it ugly. Nearly everything is a different shade of brown or gray except for the character models. Some of the models seriously look like they’re out of a PS2 game, and I am not even exaggerating. Just look at the marketplace. The framerate also loves to drop frequently, both in battles and in the monastery. It's really confusing to me how they shipped the game looking like this and didn’t patch it later to make it run better at least. I also found the voice acting to be hit-or-miss. I played part of the game with the Japanese VA and another part with the English VA, and I preferred the JP version much more. A lot of the English VA just feels very unenthusiastic and cheesy, especially from Edelgard. I think some of that also has to do with the writing, too, though. Everybody talks extremely formally, which makes sense given the setting, but it also makes character interactions feel a lot less natural. So if I do another run, I will likely play with the JP voice acting again.

Overall, I did love the game. I thought the battle mechanics, class training, and overall narrative were very impressive. I mean, of course I loved the game, I played it for like 50 hours. That speaks for itself. But the game also does have a lot of problems with repetition, difficulty balancing, and visuals. Most of these issues can be overlooked, but they are still problems that I definitely felt throughout my playthrough. However, I will say that this game has certainly gotten me more interested in the Fire Emblem series as a whole. I am looking forward to playing Engage when it comes out since that game looks like it might fix some of the problems I had with this one.

8/10 Great