Afterwards, I went back to get Bravely Default’s true ending, and oh my gosh, it wasn’t nearly as stressful as last time since I didn’t feel so rushed to finish it and took my time instead. Let it be said, this game is a nightmare to try and finish quickly, at least on the first play. It also helped they started giving me new cutscenes, some of which were very good. Lol
Personally, I think the false ending did some things better than the true ending, so I would say it’s still worth doing, specifically before the true one. I ended up getting the false ending right before they really started to reveal the big plot twist, so even though I had my suspicions, the reveal was a lot more dramatic and unreal to me, and it was one of the most memorable moments in the game, haha.
Regardless, it was a good game, had good characters, good music, and a good FFV-esque job system, and plenty of QoL improvements in its pseudo-retro system (although I still don’t understand why you have to scan each enemy individually and why it doesn’t carry over between battles?). I also want to praise its voice acting. I mean, I’m not picky; I’ve played a lot of JRPG’s and I hardly ever find the anime-ish voices bad or annoying. But I thought the voice directing was particularly good here, like it had more inflection? (Mephilia and Qada come to mind) And boy, do some of them yell. Especially Agnes, she could shriek like a Japanese VA. lol
Bravely Default's true ending was insanely disappointing to me tbh. I actually felt way more invested in the false ending: the scene where the entire cast is cheering Agnès on to destroy the crystal while Airy is slowly having a breakdown is actually amazing, it's super memorable and I actually got emotional watching it. And what a twist! Having the crystal-awakening minigame be used as a way to make the player destroy it was so clever. In comparison, in the true ending, the entire cast just feels really dumb, blindly following Airy even though they're clearly aware that Agnès is being delusional with her trust. Also, hot take alert, I don't like the final boss music that much, maybe because it was so hyped up to me, but it has one cool moment of mixing the character themes and that's it, I wish the entire track was like that.
The game has so many great aspects but the pacing feels like it wasn't designed by a human being. I really wish they merged the endings together: Have the ending be, after three cycles, the player can destroy a crystal, Airy has a meltdown, and she's the actual villain, not just a pawn. That would have been way more memorable and impactful in my opinion, like at the end of the day, Uroboros who? He really comes out of nowhere. Oh and replace the sidequests with the later cycles' ones, and stop the repeating dialogue I am begging you.😂 .
I actually 100%ed the game last year and I had fun but that pacing ruins the game for me. It took me 130 hours and I feel like 50 of these could have been cut.
At least I heard Bravely Second fixed the pacing, so I'll play it in a few months. I decided to wait a year before jumping into the sequel and I'm really looking forward to it!
Beat Dragon Quest XI after 75 hours, fantastic RPG and highly recommended. Went a bit OTT on the final boss, I was lv99 and over geared so it didn't pose too much of a challenge by that point. I can also honestly say that every member of the party is likeable and well voiced, normally it's easy to pick your team and be done with it but there were reasons to use each party member.
@Tounushi There are trials that you can do which are challenging, I never did go back and do the final one, that's supposed to be difficult.
I believe there is a super boss, but you have to finish all of the 'Tickington' quests. These play like the old school NES/Famicom Dragon Quest games,I didn't finish them as they were a bit too sluggish for my liking.
Beat Metroid Fusion for the very first time last Saturday. WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
If you've known me and my presence here on NLife for the past while, you'll probably be well aware of how lukewarm I've been on the 2D Metroid games I've played (specifically the original and Super). Whilst the start of them would be very enjoyable, they'd always start to feel really unwieldy to control (especially in Super's case where it felt like just moving could be a hassle). This combined with having no idea on where to go and dying leading to a ton of repetition of the same scenarios put me off the series for the longest while. However, I had always said that I would give ONE specific game a go regardless of my thoughts on the rest of them: Metroid Fusion. As an onlooker, the idea of being constantly hunted by a being powerful enough to murder you in a single hit fascinated me and, between me loving the Fusion Suit and being juuuust interested enough despite my previous experiences, I tried it the day after it came out on NSO.
So let me be the first to tell you that this game is an absolute masterpiece.
So....where to begin. I may as well start off with Fusion's strongest aspect: it's atmosphere. So many moments in Fusion feel hand-crafted to instill the most amount of dread in you as is humanly possible: the eerie silence in the starting area, the feeling of shock and panic when Sector 3 begins melting down out of nowhere, seeing Nightmare's silhouette flying in the background of ARC, the elevator losing power midway through riding it and OH GOD THE SA-X. Those footsteps....the bit where they use an entire Power Bomb to get past a wall....the parts where you have to encounter them....they scare me.
The setting of the BSL Station also makes for a thoroughly unnerving adventure: whereas in previous games you saw tons of natural landmarks such as plants and rocks, every location in Fusion is surrounded by metal and machinery. From the SR388 callback of SRX to the chilling (in more ways than one) of ARC, everywhere you go is trying to emulate an environment without actually being said environment; a clever tie-in to the theme of parasites that permeates throughout Fusion's narrative.
And on the topic, good lord the STORY. I wasn't expecting it to be anything particularly note-worthy after the admittedly extremely cool intro as it seemed to take a backseat throughout most of the game. AND THEN YOU GET TO THE METROID FACILITY AND GOOD F***** LORD EVERYTHING JUST GETS COMPLETELY CRANKED TO THE MAX. The conversation between Samus and AI-dam afterwards especially is genuinely one of the most powerful pieces of dialogue I've ever witnessed in a game like oh my GOD 😭
All of this praise and I haven't even touched on the gameplay which, in my opinion, is leaps and bounds more fun and refined than any of the previous games. Samus feels fantastic to control, feeling incredibly snappy compared to Super and additions like the ledge grab make everything flow so much smoother (particularly during the SA-X chase sequences). All the weapon upgrades also feel incredibly substantial to pick up: from piercing beams to screen-wide nukes, you feel utterly unstoppable come the end of the game and especially in the final boss fight against the SA-X/Omega Metroid? It never felt better to finally get the jump on something that had haunted me throughout the entire adventure.
I wouldn't call Fusion perfect: later bosses like Nightmare and Neo-Ridley are absurdly difficult compared to most others in the game, there's some annoying crypticness in areas like AQA and, despite the linear structure working fantastic for the most part, you do get interrupted a bit too often at points by AI-dam (particularly around the midway point). However, it did what I thought was impossible and not only made me love a 2D Metroid game, but love it so much to point where I want to play every single one released afterwards now as a result. An easy recommendation to anyone with a means to play GBA games, 9/10, I still can't believe I love a 2D Metroid.
@Fizza Dude, I'm so happy you loved Fusion! You nailed the point of atmosphere on its head, this is easily one of the creepiest and most atmospheric games in the series, right up there with Prime 2 for me personally. The one thing that holds this game back from being on the top of my Metroid games list is just how linear it really is compared to other entries. That's just sort of a side effect of having a much more story-focused Metroid game, though. And as you said, the story here is amazing, even if it can interrupt the pacing of gameplay from time to time.
If you loved Fusion, I really think you'll love Zero Mission and Dread as well. Zero Mission practically ports over Samus' controls from Fusion and puts them in a remastered world of the first-ever Metroid, and it's amazing. And what is there to say about Dread that really hasn't been said already? Easily one of the best Metroid games out there, and I could see an argument for it to be the best 2D game in the series. I really hope Zero Mission comes to the service soon, as more people definitely need to experience that as well.
"Science compels us to explode the sun!"
Currently playing:
Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition (Switch)
Balatro (PC)
Afterwards, I went back to get Bravely Default’s true ending, and oh my gosh, it wasn’t nearly as stressful as last time since I didn’t feel so rushed to finish it and took my time instead. Let it be said, this game is a nightmare to try and finish quickly, at least on the first play. It also helped they started giving me new cutscenes, some of which were very good. Lol
Personally, I think the false ending did some things better than the true ending, so I would say it’s still worth doing, specifically before the true one. I ended up getting the false ending right before they really started to reveal the big plot twist, so even though I had my suspicions, the reveal was a lot more dramatic and unreal to me, and it was one of the most memorable moments in the game, haha.
Regardless, it was a good game, had good characters, good music, and a good FFV-esque job system, and plenty of QoL improvements in its pseudo-retro system (although I still don’t understand why you have to scan each enemy individually and why it doesn’t carry over between battles?). I also want to praise its voice acting. I mean, I’m not picky; I’ve played a lot of JRPG’s and I hardly ever find the anime-ish voices bad or annoying. But I thought the voice directing was particularly good here, like it had more inflection? (Mephilia and Qada come to mind) And boy, do some of them yell. Especially Agnes, she could shriek like a Japanese VA. lol
Bravely Default's true ending was insanely disappointing to me tbh. I actually felt way more invested in the false ending: the scene where the entire cast is cheering Agnès on to destroy the crystal while Airy is slowly having a breakdown is actually amazing, it's super memorable and I actually got emotional watching it. And what a twist! Having the crystal-awakening minigame be used as a way to make the player destroy it was so clever. In comparison, in the true ending, the entire cast just feels really dumb, blindly following Airy even though they're clearly aware that Agnès is being delusional with her trust. Also, hot take alert, I don't like the final boss music that much, maybe because it was so hyped up to me, but it has one cool moment of mixing the character themes and that's it, I wish the entire track was like that.
The game has so many great aspects but the pacing feels like it wasn't designed by a human being. I really wish they merged the endings together: Have the ending be, after three cycles, the player can destroy a crystal, Airy has a meltdown, and she's the actual villain, not just a pawn. That would have been way more memorable and impactful in my opinion, like at the end of the day, Uroboros who? He really comes out of nowhere. Oh and replace the sidequests with the later cycles' ones, and stop the repeating dialogue I am begging you.😂 .
I actually 100%ed the game last year and I had fun but that pacing ruins the game for me. It took me 130 hours and I feel like 50 of these could have been cut.
At least I heard Bravely Second fixed the pacing, so I'll play it in a few months. I decided to wait a year before jumping into the sequel and I'm really looking forward to it!
I agree, the sequence where you destroy the crystal is the true climax of the game and easily the best part of both endings. I was so stressed out at the time with all the repetitive looping that I just said forget it, I’m going to finally attempt to go past when Airy tells me to stop and see what happens, I don’t care if I get a game over or a bad ending! I legit felt bad when Airy was pleading for me to stop and I considered it several times, but then the rest of the party spoke up like “is this right? But we trust Agnes, so we’ll agree with her actions,” and I felt like I can’t stop now!! I had so many emotions during that entire sequence, and I think that speaks for how well done it was.
The true ending is kind of lackluster in comparison. The sequence where you’re fighting Oroboros is cool, if not a little long winded, with how they include more of the parallel universes and actually make the AU versions of your party members helpful and present, instead of being mysteriously absent throughout your trek through their world. lol It was also pretty cool how they made you rely on summoning your friends/spot pass allies’ characters during the battle, although I always found the summoning animation, where they hold Agnes’ pendant, to be really cool. XD Other than those two points, though, it was pretty okay, and the battle theme would have been a lot cooler if it was just the party themes, although the rest of the track’s grown on me after playing it several times in Curtain Call. Lol But the ending really would have worked just as well, if not better, to have Airy as the final boss, and they really should have cut down on the cycles and the repetitive dialogue and cutscenes.
LOL the pacing really doesn’t feel organically designed! I’m still trying to figure out how it lasted through to the final product. XD
Good work on 100%ing the game! I don’t know if I could ever do that. I forced myself to do nearly all the side quests during all the cycles, then gave up once they introduced those super hard, mixed up teams. Which is a little too bad, since I thought that exchange between Jackal and Einheria was hilarious. XD
Did you grab the Bravely Second demo yet? You’ve probably heard this already, but it has some exclusive story in it. I just got my copy of the game the other day and I’m going to be really tempted to start it once I finish my current games. lol I hope you enjoy the game!
And sorry my response is so late; I’m only on during Sunday right now.
Mortal Kombat on the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection. In all the years of playing this one, I finally figured out how to defeat Goro, beat Shang Tsung, and beat this game. I also beat it a second time in the GOG release, which is the DOS port, albeit I had free play turned on for that run.
I also beat Mortal Kombat 3, again the DOS port from GOG. Though I beat this one before, I think on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 on GameCube.
Star Wars Dark Forces, I bought this one during a Star Wars day sale on GOG years ago, and decided to play it recently, and beat the game. Feels good to finally complete this one.
The resident Trolls superfan! Saw Trolls Band Together via early access and absolutely loved it!
The last one I beat was Metroid Prime Remastered. I can't see myself not "beating" Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, though, and I should finish it off in the next few days.
Finally finished up Hi-Fi RUSH on PC, and man, this game was such a nice surprise. It had absolutely no marketing ahead of time, was developed by a very talented studio and producer, and came out fantastic. The idea of combining a rhythm game with a third-person action platformer is incredibly creative, and I'm surprised that this concept hasn't really been executed before. Along with that, a lot of the levels are very fun and unique, the story is pretty interesting, and the music is all around pretty catchy. I think my only issue with the game is that some of the levels tend to be a bit too long for my taste; some of them took up to 45 minutes for me. I sort of wish they could have done more levels that were shorter, instead of fewer, longer levels. Other than that, though, this game was a blast. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Anyways... onto the beginning of my write-up for Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice because oh boy... do I have a lot to say about that game. Mostly good things, mind you.
As for Hi-Fi Rush, though, I'll give it a well-deserved 9/10.
Crisis Core Reunion. Incredible how they managed to make one of the best FF Characters with Zack from the nothing burger he was in the original game. The ending left me a blubbering mess
Just recently reached 101% for the second or third time in Donkey Kong Country. That is always a good time. A few weeks back before that I beat Kuru Kuru Kururin, and Super Metroid. Those were both fun as well. Oh, and I also beat Minish Cap as well. So much fun was had on all of those games.
Gamertag: DeePullThree
Switch Friend Code: SW-2321-5988-1019
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Apologies for the long post in advance. I just finished Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice and am now playing through the DLC case. Overall, I was extremely impressed by this game. I thought it was a fantastic culmination of everything that Capcom and the Ace Attorney team have learned since Takumi left the mainline series. But, I have a ton of things to talk about, both good and bad, so here we go.
Story: Overall, I think this game tells a fantastic isolated story. It successfully builds a believable, completely new world, filled with its own ridiculous issues and corrupted leaders. It gives us in-depth, original characters such as Rayfa and Dhurke that do great towards giving the world a sense of believability that this series is well-known for, despite its ultimate over-the-top nature. And it even expands on the personalities of fully established characters, like Maya, Phoenix, and especially Apollo. Holy cow, does his character go through some stuff in this game. And the cases themselves are all fantastically written. Pretty much every single one has a great twist that really surprises you. I just want to talk about a couple of them, but since they’re pretty major spoilers, I’ll be marking them. Please, do not read this part if you’ve never played the game before. First off, the true nature of Tah’rust’s death was absolutely shocking. For a series that consistently deals with straight-up murders for the most part, the twist in this case caught me completely off-guard. I thought it was incredibly creative and made perfect sense, and yet, I didn’t see it coming at all. Really great stuff. And then we get to what I believe to be one of the greatest twists in the series, and that’s Dhurke. I won’t specifically write his twist as I would hate to spoil it for someone, but my goodness, what an absolute bombshell that was. It was handled expertly as well, giving us little hints of foreshadowing throughout the case without being too conspicuous. And Apollo’s reaction to the twist is nothing short of phenomenal. It feels completely deserved considering his relationship with Dhurke and Sahdmahi. The one case that truly confused me for its inclusion, however, was Athena’s. It felt very shoed-in, like the writers just felt obligated to give Athena her own case. And throughout the entire episode, I was really wondering what part of the story it was going to play overall. And then… it just ends and doesn’t get mentioned again. That was pretty disappointing, because I definitely wanted to see more of Athena and Blackquill, especially after how fantastic both of them were in Dual Destinies. The case itself is great and highly entertaining, but I just really wish it would have felt more connected to the rest of the game overall. Now, onto some of the stuff that I think was less than great. The final big bad in this game was a little boring to me. Right when they revealed their “true form”, I was like, yeah this person did it. And I was hoping it would turn out that they actually didn’t do it. But then it turns out that it was them anyway. That was a little underwhelming, even though the final case overall is great. This game does fall into the same issues that the other two games in the second trilogy fall into, and that’s the lack of one real cohesive story, or theme. The first trilogy is a masterpiece in my book because, as a whole, it’s truly able to tell one slow, cohesive story and deliver consistent themes throughout its entire runtime. And while the second trilogy certainly has great themes and character moments, it’s something that really wasn’t able to be recreated completely. And it’s shame to think about that because this second trilogy had some truly stellar writing. DD and SoJ in particular had incredible isolated stories which led to some all-time great moments in the series. But, I really wish they could have recreated that same level of cohesion that the first trilogy and the GAA games had. This isn’t in fault of SoJ in particular; it’s a culmination of Takumi leaving, likely some decisions on Capcom’s part, and the writers probably being unsure where to take the story from where AJ:AA left off. I really do hope if AA7 ever gets made that the writers really strive to create a narrative that really feels connected and complete overall. The way the second trilogy does it is still great, and ends up having better stories than 99% of other games out there, but it just feels like an overall downgrade from what came before it.
Characters: Alright, that was a lot of complaining. Let’s talk about something that isn’t nearly as conflicting… the characters! Spirit of Justice easily has the strongest cast of characters in the second trilogy. Apollo finally gets some much-deserved development and is now one of my favorite characters in the series. Phoenix has some really cool moments that I was not expecting from him. Especially having to face him in court briefly, like what?!? Dhurke is a really strong character that has some really cool interactions with some other characters. Sahdmahi is also a pretty great prosecutor overall. He follows the standard trope of initially being mean to you, but eventually, we see some of his backstory and how certain other characters are related to him. He’s definitely not one of the all-time greats, but I’d say he deserves to be talked about on the same level as Franziska or Klavier, at the very least. I do really wish that Blackquill and Athena would have gotten more screen time, though. Outside of their own brief chapter, they really don’t do much in this game. Especially after Blackquill stole the show in DD, it’s disappointing to see him take such a backseat in this game. Ultimately, though, this game has some fantastic characters, both new and returning.
Music: It’s Ace Attorney. It’s Noriyuki Iwadare. It’s a phenomenal soundtrack. The blend of modern electronic music and ethnic acoustic music is extremely creative and makes a fantastic contrast. Pretty much every returning character has a remixed theme, and all of them are amazing. They feel much more high-adrenaline, have more creative instrument choices, and overall fit the tone of the game greatly. Honestly, I would be fine with Iwadare composing the Ace Attorney games to the end of time, because he has been killing it since Trials and Tribulations. Maybe a collaboration between him and Kitagawa? That would be incredible.
Conclusion: I don’t think I’ve ever had quite as much to say about an Ace Attorney game as I have with Spirit of Justice. This game easily has some of the highest highs in the entire series, and I cannot find that many lows with it. And yet, I can’t help but feel that this game didn’t quite live up to its full potential. Its lack of cohesion in the storytelling is probably its biggest fault overall, and I truly hope that a potential AA7 really gives the series the refresh it needs, like what TGAA did. Ultimately, though, I still had a ton of fun with this game. The quality is through the roof, the divination seances are a fun new courtroom mechanic, and at the end of the day, if it’s an Ace Attorney game, I’m going to have fun with it. And I think I should judge this game for what it is, rather than what it isn’t. It’s an awesome game, everyone should play it, yadda yadda Ace Attorney is one of the greatest game series out there.
9/10
"Science compels us to explode the sun!"
Currently playing:
Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition (Switch)
Balatro (PC)
I beat Metroid Prime: Remastered the other day. Felt nice to once again accomplish that. 11 hours and 49 minutes. Only had to load from a save point once, so there's that. Noticing all the differences was a fun way to play it, like how they've remade Samus' face and how the helmet dematerializes this time rather than have her take it off and hold it with her free hand.
I did miss an aqua drone scan... I'll catch it on the hard mode run.
And I played it in classic mode for the muscle memory, though the ABYX buttons are different enough to mess with that.
After the hard mode run, then it's waiting for MP2:E:R
Just finished Resident Evil 4 Remake. The original one was a masterpiece and this one is masterpiece as well.
I played it on a PS4 Pro. Yes, the graphics are downgraded compared to the PS5/PC but it was so enjoyable to play on performance settings. I had no issues at all! No slowdowns or crashes! No updates either, played it only from the disc installation!
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/random-doom-fan-has-a-novel-way-to-display-a-destroyed-switch-cartridge
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/07/random-fan-transforms-their-nintendo-64-into-a-starcraft-battlefield
My Sculptures
@Zuljaras I only saw RE4RE as someone else was playing, and I kinda didn't like the character remodelling, Ashley looks like she's 40 and speaks that way. The crosshair instead of laser sights and indication on when you can melee an enemy is a werid choice, too. Maybe it's just me being a hopeless purist, though.
Bring me the sesame, miso, citrus and pepper flavored fish cakes
@ComfyAko I actually prefer the new Ashley as the other one seemed like a brat to me But the original was made in another time maybe that is why she was sexualized a little more back then.
As for the combat the new one is better for me as I am not locked in one place while aiming, but the enemies are more aggressive to counter that. And the laser sights were ok for the old one.
I was worried after what they did to RE3R (atrocious), but I am impressed
The best part is that the original can be played even on the latest consoles, unlike the original RE2 and RE3.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/random-doom-fan-has-a-novel-way-to-display-a-destroyed-switch-cartridge
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/07/random-fan-transforms-their-nintendo-64-into-a-starcraft-battlefield
My Sculptures
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