Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

My time at Sandrock. The my time series is somewhat frustrating as the concept behind the games are solid but whew they are glitch fests. But I do hope the team tries again and hopefully they will build a game that is solid from a technical perspective.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
A fantastic game that seems to have passed many by- 88 on metacritic, but only 2 NintendoLife user ratings (including my own)!

Crisis Core Reunion. I had a lot of fun but I prefer 7.

Yoshi's Island.

Atelier Ryza 3, which brings the trilogy of my introduction to the Atelier series to an end. I spent a lot of time in this one, finishing just about all of the side quests.

Moving onto Sophie 2 now.

Wanted: Dead

One of those "so bad it's good" games...just that I'm not actually convinced that it's bad?

It's basically Ninja Gaiden meets third-person shooter meets...Yakuza? Ultra violent with a quirky cast of characters and some bizarre dialogue and narrative choices. If you're curious what I mean, give it a quick search on Youtube. This is the loading animation — that should probably tell you enough.

I actually really enjoyed it for what it was. Short game — some report it as 5 hours but it took me closer to 11 because I died a lot — but I like that it didn't outstay it's welcome, and you can get it for as cheap as £3 on Steam currently. Gameplay is decent, but what really stood out was the quirky world it built.

I can definitely see this becoming a cult classic.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons
Been on a beat em’ up kick recently, and this was one of the few physical games on sale for Prime Day, so I went and bought it. Reviews said the game was mid, so I went in with low expectations.

This genuinely is a great game. The combat feels kind of slow to start out with, but once you get used to the controls, the flow state you reach is really satisfying. The rouge-lite angle honestly matches up really well with the genre, as the level options gives the game some replay value and dying imitates the feeling of losing your continues and going “welp, guess I gotta start again,” in classic beat-em-ups. You don’t really struggle for too long anyway since all the unlockable characters are broken in their own little ways, including bosses that are just as broken as when you fight them. Crowd controls are very satisfying to pull off, the game feels tailor-made for co-op, the music is generally solid, the visuals may be generic but contain a lot of variety alongside the stage gimmicks, and there are so many references to the originals that I don’t get but appreciate nonetheless.
If I had some criticisms, some of the stage hazards can get really annoying (I always fight Lady Okada first) and the final level feels a little flat. Other than that, it’s a great game, and one I may hop in for more runs somewhere down the road.

Dadish 3D — a cute retro-3D variant of the goofy radish precision platforming series. Only 50 levels but some were decently long and there was a nice variety of levels, including some 'race towards the camera' levels which were pretty crazy because you barely had a chance to see the things you have to platform on. Not hard but some of the levels definitely took a few tries to beat and there are no checkpoints. I enjoyed my time with the game, especially for the sale price. Not sure how long it took me because I am in the dreaded 'first played 10 days ago' time period — 2 or 3 hours maybe? I'm trying to decide whether to rate it a 6/10 or 7/10.

I rolled credits on Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed yesterday afternoon, then proceeded to play a little more just to finish up some of the side content I didn't get to before being thrust into the ending sequences. I didn't fully 100% the DLC expansion, but I came pretty close. Which is a testament to how much I enjoyed myself lol. Amazing gameplay, great plot, awesome music as expected from this franchise by this point, and an Affinity System that has me wanting to do almost ALL THE THINGS.

My full impressions can be found in the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 thread over in the Switch forum. Definitely recommended, but Future Redeemed is meant to be played after all the other games in the series (except Xenoblade Chronicles X).

Just finished Here comes Nikko. One of the most adorable games I've ever played. A platformer collectathon where you are a 'professional friend' working for frogs doesn't sound serious, but it's also the type of game where you cry at the end. The platforming is the most absurd bouncy physics I've ever played but it was a joy. Fewer than 10 hours even if you 100% it, but it's not the type of game to rush through and I paced it out over a few weeks. If it wasn't for the awful UI and occasional jank I would want to give the game 9/10 but I'll settle for 8/10

Fishing Paradiso

Difficult to draw comparison to this. It's a fishing game with rpg progression. Feels better to play than Legendary Fishing or Fishing Star World Tour. Aside from needing to focus on the "throw" stat more than other stats late in game, the progression is nice. I rolled the credits after five hours but there is more game here to experience after that.

Nice, chill vibes. Just a good time.

8/10

Pokemon Diamond

In my mind I've completed this countless times, but on reflection I think this might only be the third time I've completed vanilla Sinnoh.

It's Pokemon, of course it's a fun time — and overall Gen 4 probably ties with Gen 3 for my favourite generation. The core gameplay of the series was pretty much solidified at this point, meaning that these games are generally easy to go back to. That said: (i) the Pokemon selection is really underwhelming, not just in number but in variety; there's basically no reason to play this over Platinum with the expanded Pokedex; and (ii) I feel Sinnoh as a region didn't innovate nearly as much as Johto and Hoenn prior. You can really see the series start to become formulaic at this point.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

Kind of disappointing, I won't lie. Given how regularly this tops Castlevania game rankings, I was expecting something special. But it doesn't really do much that other Castlevania games before and after haven't done better. It has none of SotN's atmosphere. Order of Ecclesia featured an improved take on the TSS and also had a much more satisfying difficulty curve. Rondo is still tops for music and density of game design (unlockable characters, multiple unlockable stages, etc.). Bloodlines had more interesting level design.

I hate the generic anime aesthetic of this compared to other Castlevania games at the time (love me some anime, but Castlevania is meant to feel gothic). Having to switch out souls constantly to navigate environmental challenges was a pain (reminded me of the worst parts of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's water dungeon, lol). And the setting was weird. We're inside an eclipse? What does that even mean?

It's a perfectly functional Igavania otherwise, but as Castlevanias go, it's very mid-tier. Not bad, but also not particularly good.

@Ralizah wow, already? I haven’t touched AoS in a while. Full disclosure, I’m more of a classicvania fan, but I have some fondness for the NDS era titles. I suppose this one Isn’t worth revisiting based on your commentary, however. Thx 4 the review.

Responded on Push Square since you're more active there.

Just finished Blasphemous 2.
Wow, erm, not sure what I can get away with. The Art style and characters are crazier than the first.
I think the Bosses are a bit more toned back.
There are a lot of collectables which I never even knew about until i googled it.
Some side quests are not explained at all.
Choice of the three weapons at the start doesn't really impact it as you collect the other two later.
Overall I did like it, but the final Boss was not that hard compared to the previous one.
On to Paper Mario - The Thousand Year Door

I had to double check you weren't talking about Dawn of Sorrow when you said this, since that's the complaint I remember of that game specifically and why it is supposedly worse than Aria.

I just beat "Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin." It's a genuinely great game and the original trailer for it really undersold what the game actually is like. The combat is incredibly solid and the story gets really really good at the later half. It also helps to flesh out the original Final Fantasy game and serves to give a backstory to Garland, along with actually giving an explanation to what Chaos is.

My only gripe was that the PC port was not optimized at all. It frequently stuttered- even on my higher end machine. I know this is common with Square Enix's PC ports, but it sucks that this is one of the few games I've genuinely had issues with from them. The game would've been so much better if it ran smooth- and probably would've looked so much better if I could have run it at maximum settings. Apparently a lot of the issue has to do with the character models having a ton of triangles in them.

All in all though, I genuinely enjoyed the game. Gotta decide what else from the backlog I should play next.

I rolled credits on Pushmo World a few days ago. A pretty fun puzzle game that plays much like the original Pushmo on 3DS, but with a couple new tools and plenty of new puzzles to dig into. Pushmo Park is the main progression mode for what little story there is - it's mostly a vehicle to move things along - where you have to rescue kids who become stuck in some Pushmo after Papa Blox's dog, Brutus, pushes all the reset switches. There's also a training area, an area ran by Colin to work on Mysterious Pushmo with certain gimmicks (timed blocks, blocks of the same color that all move at the same time, etc.), and a studio where the player can create their own Pushmo using tools unlocked as they progress in the game. Stamps can be collected, but 100%ing these is impossible now that Miiverse is closed.

All in all, this is a decent game for puzzle lovers and fans who enjoyed other games in the series.

Oh yes, I platinumed Astro Bot! I love this game, one of the best platformers. It is so full of love and so fun to play. Incredible how many animations they made. I was constantly smiling and giggling. The PlayStation 5 controller is just perfect for Astro Bot. I would never have thought, how much vibrations and sound from a controller, can improve the experience.

Like Astros Playroom, Astro Bot reminded me, that I love Sony games too. Playing it does not only feel like a celebration, this game also celebrates Sony's history.

I think it is time for me to stop being negative about modern games, especially those, which I have not even played. After playing so many retro games and then Astro Bot, showed me how alive they actually are.

Alright time to finish The Thousand Year Door before Zelda releases!