Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Super Mario Bros. Wonder - I finally reached the credits a few days ago after 100%ing all the levels (outside of the Special World levels) beforehand. I'm now working through the Special World and only have a couple levels left. This game...wow. It's the freshest 2D Mario in well over a decade IMO, standing on par with my other 2D faves Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. Fun, tight level design, cool new power-ups, colorful, pleasing locales (I hope the Flower Kingdom returns!), some fun badges to experiment with, plenty of characters to choose from (even if many are just palette swaps), standees are surprisingly fun to use, and the music is pretty fun too! Special shout-outs to the musical levels and what's perhaps one of my favorite main series Mario boss fights to date. Seriously, this game is just brimming with creativity. I played as Princess Daisy pretty much the whole time.

It's crazy how much I also enjoyed playing online! I'm normally a single player person outside the occasional online romp with friends or through local co-op. It's ridiculously fun to help other players out when you're going through the same levels, either by reviving them or by smartly placing a standee to 1. revive other players (if they touch it in advance) or 2. help indicate a secret or way to progress. My favorite involved quite a gauntlet between my Daisy and someone else's Mario in one of the special levels (Fluff-Puff Peaks Special - Climb to the Beat....If you know, you know). I think we were both at it a good hour.

This game is very easy to recommend for just about everyone, unless someone absolutely hates platformers. It can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. I very rarely go for 100% completion in games these days, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder has convinced me to try!

Rune Factory 3 for the Switch. I didn’t play the original despite owning it for a long time but I found the game very fun. I also finished it in like a week and that usually doesn’t happen 😅

I just beat Persona 5 Tactica. For the most part, i really loved this game. I thought the gameplay loop was addicting as most games in this genre usually are for me.

However, you are constantly bogged down with conversations that can sometime take up 60% of your gameplay sessions.

I get this is a persona spin-off, but more often than not, I'm sitting there reading text rather than playing on the maps. It left me skipping most of the dialogue throughout the 2nd half of the game. The first half of the story was great, I just got tired of waiting to jump into battle.

And since I felt as though the game was dragging on, the last 3 battles I just played on safe mode since I was ready for it to be Over. The rest of the game was played on normal which felt just right in terms of difficulty.

But, the last kingdom had you revisiting bosses that were sometimes a slog to get through. With that said, I was simply winded and just wanted the game to be done with.

I really liked it overall, and its still a recommendation for anyone who likes the genre. Just note there's a truck load of dialogue that can be tiresome..

I reached the end credits of Ys: The Oath In Felghana (PC/Steam) yesterday. A VERY fun ARPG, at least when it comes to gameplay. Fun and fast-paced combat with some decent abilities and items, much like Ys Origin (which came a year or two later IIRC), though the latter is understandably slightly more refined. Visually the game's overworld hasn't aged the best, but the illustrated portraits and scenes are almost peak Ys. Amazing music as usual from Falcom, and some very compelling characters. The plot is serviceable, but nothing that wasn't predictable until the last few hours, then the twists started happening. This game is known as a difficult Ys game, so unless one wants a hard challenge, I recommend starting with lower difficulties first (I played on Easy but probably would've been fine on Normal; I probably did a bit too much grinding before the final boss).

An easy recommendation for fans of challenging action RPGs and those who like chasing some crazy Steam achievements. This one is more for action fans than those wanting a deep story, though the plot does have a couple heartfelt moments if you know where to look. When it comes to Napishtim engine games however, I'd say Ys Origin takes the cake on everything.

Super Mario RPG. Nice little time.

Beat 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim over the weekend. Excellent game and likely the best thing I've played this year. I might even go back and try to S-Rank all the battles before I start something new.

I know I'm late to the party, but I just finished the endgame for Tears of the Kingdom. That was amazing. Loved every bit of it. Now to find the rest of the shrines and lightroots, and wrap up the side quests (finding all the Korok seeds is insanity). What a great little game that is.

On switch, Ittle Dew. I definitely didn't like this game as much as the second game. The second game felt like a real zelda clone, while the first just felt like a mini section of a zelda game that wasn't as fleshed out.

Gotham Knights on PC, in lieu of picking up the Arkham Trilogy on Switch this month.

Yet another case of a poorly received AAA title that I really enjoyed. It doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but I loved the world-building and the gameplay, while repetitive, was great fun. A solid 7/10.

Starting out 2024 pretty well.

Cosmo Dreamer
A vertical shmup with a pastel color palette and some nice music. Eights stages, about eight minutes a stage. Your typical two-fire options; less damage yet move fast or more damage yet move slowly. Shot type loadouts are highly customizable. There's just a lot to like here.

8/10

Decided to kick off a new year of gaming by both starting AND beating Mega Man 7!

more like Mega Man 7 outta 10 amirite

If there's one word you could use to describe Mega Man 7, it would absolutely be vanilla. That isn't to say it's a bad game mind you; it's got an utterly phenomenal visual style which, alongside 11, is easily my favourite look for the classic iteration of the Blue Bomber, the added emphasis on secret-finding is done very well (with nothing being too hard to find for the most part and the rewards you get off of them being VERY worth it in the long run) and there's some great stages in here, with special mention towards both Freeze Man (for pulling off the impossible and being an actually super fun ice level) and Shade Man (for having easily the best vibe in the entire game between the enemies, aesthetic and god-tier music, both in terms of the base theme AND the amazing Ghosts n Goblins easter egg).

And yet, for all it does well, 7 also has a bunch of stuff that bring it down for me. Where some stages like the ones I listed above can be very enjoyable, there's just as many that completely sour the overall experience for me, chief among being the tire-filled hell of Turbo Man and frustrating repetitiveness of Junk Man. There's also a couple smaller issues like certain hidden items like the Rush Armor (something that can be missed) feeling damn near required in order to finish the Wily Stages and an overall much lower degree of challenge when the game isn't throwing unfair BS at you (by Mega Man standards anyway). AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE FINAL WILY FIGHT OOOOOOOOOH THAT DUDE CAN GO BURN IN HELL FOR ALL I CARE.

All in all, Mega Man 7 is probably the most 'yep, that's a Mega Man game alright' entry in the series for me; it does a couple things well, a couple things poor and that's about it really. A decent time overall, though one that falls a bit too short in certain areas to be anything more than 'pretty good'. The pixel art is still ace though.

@Wolfleaf It's super cute. If you aren't experienced in bullet hell shmups, it's a decent beginner game I think, but don't be afraid to play on easy if you are having trouble.

I did this a while ago but I beat Earthbound on NSO!!
10/10 game it was super fun and I only got stuck in a couple of parts but I just searched it up and kept on trucking! (why did I say that)
I 100% recommend it is a great time and the music is banger as well.

@NintendoByNature How long did it take you to beat and how much did you complete? (100% 70%, etc)
I want to get this game but foolishly bought Sonic Superstars instead 🤦🏻‍♂️ so I will get it in a couple of months.

Beat Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance ... again This time in the Advance Collection and on a Playstation! It feels good every time. Castlevania never gets old for me.

The most recent game I beat was Elden Ring. Started playing Sackboy's Big Adventure after that, but with some Christmas money I received, I was able to purchase Lies of P and I am back on the souls train again. Almost finished with that game as well though.

@GalaxicGlobe only a handful of hours if you're referencing ittle dew. I can't say I recommend it. If you haven't played the 2nd either, I'd skip the first and go right to the 2nd which is a rock solid and fun time.

@NintendoByNature No i was talking about Mario RPG lol

@GalaxicGlobe ah! Sorry about that. Looks like I beat both recently. Super Mario rpg was phenomenal. It didn't overstay its welcome either. Sonic was a fun game, but I'd vote on mario rpg 10 times out of 10.

@NintendoByNature Aw man I now wish I did not get Superstars lol
Oh well, I'll get RPG one day.