Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

I beat the main story of Grapple Dog a week ago and it is by far one of the best 2D platformers that I have played in a long time. The way that it constantly finds new ways to use your grappling hook as well as the extremely satisfying feat of chaining together multiple grapples to blast through levels made it an extremely enjoyable experience that I highly advise checking out.

@Magician Did you play Sifu on the Switch? I've heard lots of great praise for this game, now including you, and it sounds like something I'd love, but I wonder if the Switch version is worth it. NL's review makes it sound decent, but not really the kind of "miracle port" we so crave, so I'm kind of torn on it

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (...finally) and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Now almost done with Zelda Skyward Sword (this last one took me less than I expected).

I finished live a live a while ago and I really did not like it AT ALL. I really wanted more time with the characters and every time I thought there was going to be something more it just ends without any warning.

I also finally beat enter the gungeon on Xbox with all achievements! Now onto exit the gungeon

@GreenTea

Yes, I played through the Switch version. It's rough. There's some severe stuttering when transitioning from area to area, as assists are loading in. But once the area has loaded the gameplay is...mostly fine. There are a couple spots where the framerate tanks, but that's usually when there are half a dozen enemies.

It's an above-average Switch port, but if you can play it elsewhere, you should.

@Magician Okay, thanks! I'm not that bothered by long loading screens personally, so maybe I'll try it out in the near future, though it's more likely I'll wait to play it elsewhere, especially if it's on the shorter end.

Finished Miles Morales and it was awesome! Christmas New York a fun playground

Can't wait for Spider-Man 2!

Healer’s Quest: I love the concept but the humor was grating.

Say No more: I honestly enjoyed this one. The presentation and narrative were cute yet it spoke to an overworked desk jockey like myself.

Super Mario 3D Land is good fun. I really tried but I can not simply play through a game anymore. It does not feel right to me. I missed some requirements for five stars I think, like dying less than five times. It was too late, when I read about that requirement. It feels good to play the 3DS after so long and I really missed the 3D effect.

Finished up Star Ocean: the Divine Force (PS5) today.

It's not GOTY material or anything, but it's nice JRPG comfort food.

Notable Pros:

• I felt the sort of Star Trek-ish world building gave it a unique feel in comparison to it's contemporaries.
• flying around with "D.U.M.A." made exploration & combat really fun.
• The board game mini-game, E'sowa, is actually really fun (the pieces are based on characters from past games too, so there's a bit of that kinda fan service for established series fans too), and it's worth it to play as the pieces you earn double as accessories you can equip to your party members, some of which have really useful effects.
• Very unrepentantly Japanese/embraces the sillier elements of the genre. It's too bad this'll likely go under the radar as it kinda runs counter to those who fear Japanese games are being westernized too much (for example, on the topic of "fan service", Elana & Marielle have the most active "jiggle physics" I've seen in a big-ish JRPG since certain Blades in XC2).

Notable Cons:

• It's apparently not optimized very well. TBH I played it on "fidelity mode" so it was probably capped at 30 FPS or some such in order to push the graphics and I didn't have many issues, however there were times it obviously fell below that (luckily they were usually cut scenes for some reason, so it really had no impact on gameplay). Apparently "performance mode" is worse, as while it targets 60 FPS, it has a harder time hitting it consistently than it does hitting 30 FPS in "fidelity mode". Of course last gen versions apparently perform even worse & the PC release isn't well optimized either.
• I can't help but feel it's lowish budget limited it's scope. It still feels like a complete game (took me between 30-40 hours to complete & I didn't do all side quests), but without getting into spoilers, it feels like there could have been more to later game areas compared to the environment(s) you're in for the first half of the game.
• Any time someone leaves the party all their equipment is removed and re-added to your inventory. This would normally a good thing (so you don't lose anything good), but the game has a bad habit (particularly in the early hours) of officially removing characters from your party for really small amounts of time (like for 5 or 10 minute periods), so you constantly have to refit them out. It becomes less prevalent as the game goes on though.

I completed the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time. I played the first two games when they originally came out, enjoyed them, but skipped the third (can't remember why). Fwiw my current playthrough was the Legendary Edition.

ME2 gets a lot of praise, and while it may be the most consistent game of the three, the real treat for me was ME3 using the consequences of your choices to resolve stories and character arcs. It creates this emmergent storytelling that's tailored to the player. For example: I romanced Liara in the ME1 and Jack in ME2; when ME3 rolled around I tried to have both relationships (at first by accident, but then on purpose. I was renegade, sue me). Liara confronted me saying something like "I know you've gone back to Jack..." and for the remainder of the game she always came off very cold to me. Then, at the end of the game right before the final assault on Earth, Liara shared a memory with me. It's a truely beautiful moment and i felt like Liara was saying she forgave me. She wasn't necessarily, and i'm mostly certain she'll have that line of dialogue with any Shepard at that point. But in that Shepard's story she was and it was touching..

I may write up more on the individual games later if i find the time, but suffice it to say Bioware really did manage something special.

So in the past few months I replayed the Resistance trilogy on PS3 with the second game coming out as my favourite of the three.

I recently finished Crysis remastered which had some cool moments but was a technical disaster. 4 crashes per session really did suck a lot of enjoyment out of it and the gunplay has not aged well. I still plan on playing the other 2 Crysis games which I also bought recently.

I also finished Doki Doki Literature club and replayed Resident Evil 4 and I'm currently playing Blasphemous and Pokemon Scarlet. I'm jumping in and out of Lego Star Wars Skywalker saga on PS4 trying to get 100% completion which is a monumental task in itself.

I went back and got the Good ending in Resident Evil Revelations 2. It is a good game with nice atmosphere. For me it is SO much better than Revelations 1.

Luigi's Mansion 2 for the 3DS. I like it. The controls are surprisingly good. It can feel a little repetitive, but that was because I decided to go for 100%, which I managed for the main campaign. The difficulty is pleasantly easy. It is incredible how much they improved in Luigi's Mansion 3.

Maybe I try again to simply play through the games.

@Jhena Would you recommend LM3 if someone(me) found LM2 underwhelming? What are the gameplay improvements in LM3?

Finished River City Girls as a part of NSO Game Trials!

As someone who only really played Ransom for about half an hour max, I absolutely adored this one. The spritework is absolutely masterful and full of both brilliant expressions, fluid movement and so much more, linking moves together (especially with the upgrades you can buy down the line) feels so satisfying to perform and having the dab unironically be a fantastic combo finisher is both hilarious and feels so bloody crunchy when it connects, the difficulty is in just the right spot where it's brutally challenging but usually feels fair (DAMN YOU HIBARIIIIIIIIIII), the references to Double Dragon (especially as someone who's recently been struggling through it on NSO) were such a nice surprise to see (ABOBO BABY WOOOOO) and the MUSIC, OH MY GOD THE MUSIC. Every single track, from the synth area themes to the chiptune boss themes to the vocal tracks is absolutely crisp and one of my favourite soundtracks I've heard in the past year alongside The Great Ace Attorney and Splatoon 3 (seriously, give it a listen: it's jaw-dropping how good it is).

I wouldn't say it's all perfect though. Back-tracking to get to shops is immensely annoying even with the bus-stops, you can't actually see what you're buying in said shops until you've already bought it, the start is pretty sluggish and the ending feels quite....abrupt? Not necessarily bad (in fact it's very funny), it just feels quite sudden is all.

Overall though, I've absolutely loved my time in River City Girls and it firmly sits alongside Streets of Rage 2 as a favourite of the genre. Cannot wait to grab 2 in due time (and maybe even Zero if I'm feeling up for it)!

Just finished Monster Hunter Stories 2 last night here are my thoughts:

Amazing game and basically a step up in almost every way from the first
I loved all of the QoL features introduced that made gameplay more seamless
Like being able to collect items while moving, catavan from anywhere and by FAR the biggest improvement gameplay wise was the Gene system. The fact that they let you pick where you put your genes automatically made it so you cut most of the bs from the other game.
While the story was a bit generic and straightforward it was still entertaining voice acting with actual languages and not gibberish enhanced the emotions I feel. Although there were some moment where Navirou was annoying but thats honestly it in terms of characters being annoying, Kyle basically being a repeat of Chevals character arc but imo executed a bit better.
And no Debli also gives this game huge points.
I prefer this story over the first because it was a bit less goofy and took itself more serious while also giving you a good balance of comedy in between.
The villains where also cooler being enemy riders AND hunters which made it more interesting instead of the goofy scientist from last game.
Gameplay was mostly the same but with more refinements i feel, tho I wish combos came back tho and the balancing with weapons could've been better, like how theres no reason to use gunlance for example.

The performance issues were also a bit disappointing but thankfully it was only major in Rutoh and the rest were few and far between, tho slightly noticeable, the game is still gorgeous regardless.
Flying also felt a TON smoother and less clunky.
A slight problem I have with the story is that it felts like a sequel and reimaging of the franchise at the same time with the constant callbacks to the first but at the same time some retcons like Avinia's character arc.
It feels like you can mostly play this game by itself but at the same some scenes will hit harder only if you played the first game. But it's still a well told classic shounen like story that delivers a satisfying journey and conclusion.

Oh yeah I also miss that you can't change monster elements anymore
Don't see any reason why they removed them.
Also sidetrack the OST is a banger, there were so many good tunes whether it just be from the overworld or in tense moments like in boss fights, ESPECIALLY the final boss.

Overall this game was great and glad I gave this series another chance.
It's still the best pokemon game on the Switch.
I rate it a 9/10
And if any of you are curious it took me 80 hours to beat.
Can't wait for either DLC or for it's inevitable sequel since this sold well.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
I completed the main story for the first time yesterday. I'd maybe completed about 1/3 of the game on PC over the years. Still a great game after all these years, but the port is embarrassingly bad at times, and the cartridge is even worse. I relented early last week as the price wasn't going down by much and I really wanted to play Vice City again. I might go for 100% completion, but I doubt I will be as committed with the other games. I've since moved on to GTAIII.

@Taceus
To be honest if you did not like Luigi's Mansion 2's gameplay, I could not really recommend you Luigi's Mansion 3, even though I think it is a big improvement. The gameplay itself is not even that much different if I remember correctly. Everything simply feels more fluid and there are new gadgets. What I like is that 3 moves away from the mission structure of 2 and instead of five areals has the big hotel with many themes. I can take my time in 3 because there is no time limit to get a three star rank, which is a big improvement for me. But the biggest part why I heavily prefer 3 is the atmosphere and no one would contribute this to the gameplay I guess.

If you have NSO the online part of Luigi's Mansion 3 could be interesting for you. With a good team it is surprisingly fun to hunt together.

@Jhena I appreciate the explanation, thank you. I suspected LM3 might not appeal to me and you confirmed it.
Oh well, plenty more games in the library.