Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Over the short break I took, I beat Final Fantasy 2. That was one of the worst Final Fantasy games I've ever played. The story was decent and the ideas they had were great, but it all falls apart with the execution.

The battle system is the biggest issue of the game. There's no proper leveling and no job system at all. Instead you build a custom class, which is cool on paper but not handled well at all. You level every spell, every weapon, and every stat individually depending on the moves you make during combat. That alone is fine- but the issue rises in the fact that enemies have EXP caps. The more enemies you fight of a specific rank, the less EXP you get from them. All until you have to start fighting your own party in order to level things up.

The map/dungeon design is God awful. Tons of trap rooms that lead no-where, and dungeons that have nonsensical layouts. The trap rooms and layouts both are issues further compounded by the fact that you're going from dungeon to dungeon with no breaks in-between. All of the towns are front-loaded in this game, and there's no optional content. Most of the game is spent going from dungeon to dungeon with random encounters every step of the way. When you do go to a town, you have to run all the way back to the rebel base.

Playing this game, I realize that this is pretty much the prototype for what Final Fantasy XVI would do years later (barring the action combat). The focus on dungeons or levels, and the return to a hub area after all of the dungeons. The only difference being that XVI doesn't have a fully fleshed out world map whilst II does.

As for the story? It's a bit more complex compared to the original Final Fantasy, but it isn't anything to write home about. The villain only appears once or so before the end of the game with his presence being felt through the majority of it. I don't really have a problem with it, but it ends up feeling a bit lackluster when the villain himself isn't really given an origin. I get why the story is a bit more basic though, given that this game was in development for the NES. Just wish the game got a Strangers of Paradise treatment, where it expanded upon the Emperor, either giving him a backstory or showcasing his journey through hell as he goes to kill Satan in order to become the Emperor of Hell.

Over-all, I'd say it isn't the absolute worst Final Fantasy game I've played (Final Fantasy Explorers is the owner of that title), but it's no-where near the best. I don't think I want to play it again, and personally I never will. Luckily I get to cross it off my backlog and wash my hands with it. Sadly though, I still have to play Final Fantasy Explorers one day.

I finished playing World of Goo 2 and it was an interesting experience.

Basically at first it comes across as...a samey sequel for World of Goo. But without pointer controls, boo! I switched to handheld quickly because of that, I'm sorry, gyro is still not a replacement for pointer controls. It's the best disappointing game since Metroid Prime 2. That being, its still awesome but it over relied on remixes of the same music from the first game, it just seemed like another version of the same game. But then something interesting happens as the narrative goes on.

World of Goo is a deconstruction of samey sequels. Or some fancy words like that. The original game was already mocking corporations but this game is extremely cynical of them, of doing the same thing while (seemingly dishonestly) saying they're environmentally friendly now, having them try to reach endless growth no matter the cost, leading to a a forgotten world of...world of goo. By its end its also really harsh but funny about how World of Goo is an IP that can be endlessly brought back for no good reason until it no longer even resembles what it was. It would be a bit much if it wasn't also reliably funny, as per usual. The writing's still pretty clever and sharp, while still being silly.

It also completely buries how much of a recurring but overhyped fad VR is at one point, which is very funny to me specifically.

It's very much continuing their games' trend of being thoughtful yet mostly funny and while it is a bit too samey for a sequel to my favorite puzzle game of all time, THE original must own indie game on a Nintendo platform...its still more World of Goo. Even if touch controls aren't perfect, I'd still rather play World of Goo 2 than most original IP, because World of Goo is just that high quality a puzzle game. If I hadn't already spent this Switch gen on too many long games already, I'd have put a lot more time into it to try to get something remotely close to a 100% run.

Yippie! The Legend Of Zelda Echoes Of Wisdom is 100% finished. And again a game that I love. It really does blend together the old and new style in a good way.

@kkslider5552000 World of Goo has only ever felt right to me when being played with a mouse and keyboard. The Wii pointer controls felt horrible at the time, so I have no hope for the implementation of gyro, lol.

Yeah, it looks very samey. For a sequel to such an old game, it sure feels like there's not a ton of new here.

Will definitely be picking it up someday when the EGS bribe money runs out and they release it on Steam.

Oh if you didn't like the Wii controls, I can't even imagine what'd you think of the gyro.

Also I hadn't considered it would be on EGS, but since the original was one of the games I got free on Epic (since I only got Epic to get free games lol), I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I thought that level of pseudo-exclusivity would be on its way out by this point.

Just beat Echoes of Wisdom. Over-all I'd say that it wasn't really all that impressive. Not a horrible 2D Zelda game, but not a great one either.. lying somewhere directly in the middle. When I first played it I thought it was great, mainly because there hadn't been a 2D Zelda in years. I thought it was going to live up to the first impressions- but it really didn't.

The story is pretty iffy with it feeling like it's completely inconsistent quality-wise. Something that's pretty standard for Zelda games now I guess, seeing how Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild handle their stories. I guess the one thing I can credit the game for though is having a narrative that actually takes place in the current day- even if it's effectively empty. The Faron region had the best dungeon story in my opinion, mostly because of how stupid it was compared to the others.

Speaking on dungeons- the dungeons in this game are pretty weak. Sure, they are a sort of return to form for the series given that they follow a similar structure to the Zelda dungeons of old.. however they're not really the best designed. Most of them are just straight lines with you only going through each room once. They have unique ideas and puzzles, but it feels incredibly simple compared to the other Zelda games- and thus not as satisfying. The bosses range from being pretty decent to being pretty awful as well, with only a couple reaching to the heights of bosses of old. Even then the combat system makes them feel tiring.

The combat system isn't awful, but I genuinely hope the next game in the series goes back to Link's moveset. Summoning enemies was fun when the game first started, but it started to feel like a chore as the game went on. To the point where once I upgraded the sword meter, I pretty much exclusively started using the sword of might in most of the enemy encounters and boss fights. It just felt faster than going through a pop-up menu, summoning the echo I want to summon, and then trying to get that echo to target the enemy.

the Still World was pretty much the same as the combat. Interesting at first, but the more you do it- the more of a hassle it becomes. It's the same repetitive goal in the same repetitive landscapes. It's effectively a small platforming room mixed with the silent realm, and after the first 4 that you're meant to do, it just got to the point where I dreaded doing them.

In fact, by late game I pretty much was dreading to have to finish it. Not because I was not wanting it to end, but because it kept giving me this weird sinking feeling. Like nothing I was doing was satisfying or fulfilling. It was a feeling that I've felt before with Super Mario Odyssey. A feeling of having to do repetitive content that meant nothing in the end. No variation, no good rewards. Just fodder for the sake of padding out the game. Collecting the Ore, collecting the smoothie ingredients, doing the stamps to get ingredients and not much else. It's just a lot of fluff that amounts to nothing. There's about 3-4 cool sidequests in the entire game, and the rest of it is stuff that I recommend you shouldn't touch given it amounts to literally nothing in the end.

Echoes of Wisdom fails to live up to the heights of the other Top-Down entries. So much so that I felt like I just wanted to quit playing and had to power through to the ending. Due to this, I'd say I would rate this around a 5.5/10.

@VoidofLight I'd agree with pretty much everything you wrote, but maybe I'd give it a 6-7/10... by virtue that it looks great and is utterly charming.

But for me it was devoid of substance, and promising new ideas weren't executed particularly well.

@CJD87 While the graphics were pretty charming, I pretty much started to feel like there wasn't as much of a strong visual identity to it. Mainly because the game had a lot of designs brought over from Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild. Down to even Zelda's character model being her Ocarina design, and the prism she's trapped in at the start of the game being an ocarina of time thing. Just wish they did a bit more to make this game stand out- even with the same style of Link's Awakening.

@VoidofLight I'm interested to see how people talk about Echoes in months/years to come... and doubt it will be as well revered/remembered as other entries in the series. Definitely not a GOTY contender IMO,, at least not for me personally.

@kkslider5552000 I feel like the EGS payouts are still pretty tempting for a lot of companies. Especially smaller developers. Although Tim Sweeney is probably gonna back off a bit going forward, considering he's publicly called them a bit of a waste of money, and everyone who takes an Epic deal seems to regret it and go crawling back to Steam eventually.

@VoidofLight @CJD87 Oof. I feel like there was a ton of potential here, but barely a honeymoon phase in general.

Well, guess I'm glad I'm not wasting money on it.

Depends what you like. For every person seriously disappointed in EoW there seems to be someone saying it is their personal GotY. We kind of knew it would be a controversial game since it removed traditional Zelda combat. Personally I find it unbelievably charming and enjoy the gameplay far more than I enjoyed BotW. I'm not finished with EoW yet but .. I never did finish BotW 😆

@Ralizah Ehh I'd say it's worth getting just to see how much you like it. I know people who seriously love the game, but I just really didn't enjoy it as much as I wish I did. Went in pretty open-minded as well for the new gameplay format. To me it just feels like Echoes of Wisdom is more akin to Tears of the Kingdom in the issues that it has.

The main gameplay system is cool on paper but in execution it falls flat. The game sorta punishes the player for coming up with creative solutions during combat, and prioritizes you to just spam your strongest echo at everything. Just like how Tears of the Kingdom's whole angle is you getting creative with devices but then the game punishing you for doing so, given that the resource management and grind make it to where you're moreso just looking for efficiency.

@VoidofLight @FishyS Don't get me wrong: I'll probably play it someday. But I have a ton of games to play as is, so only top-tier stuff get the day 1, $60 purchase treatment right now. Zeldas usually are. Even something as controversial as TotK still did a ton of things incredibly right, and people responded to that (before the discourse became much more negative months later, lol). But the response I've noticed to this almost everywhere tells me it's not a 'rush out and buy it' sorta game.

@Ralizah Ahh yeah, that's fair. Definitely a game worth waiting on, sad as I am to say due to loving top-down Zelda. Hoping the next game will end up being a bit better in terms of the execution.

@Ralizah Genuinely you're not missing out at all IMO.

I'm certainly not slamming on those who are enjoying Echoes, and for sure there is actually a lot 'to like about it', but I don't think it does enough to stand out on its own - especially within the swamp of 2024 releases (and even moreso if you're a cross-platform gamer).

I was hoping for something like Metroid Dread.... a beloved franchise 'returning' to traditional roots, but with gameplay enhancements to ensure it felt fresh. But the whole 'echoes' playstyle felt like a gimmick for me, and one that outstayed its welcome. Presentation was/is wonderful though, and Echoes is definitely stylistically charming... albeit lacking substance for me.

@CJD87 I'm just wondering why Zelda games keep using gimmicks now. I get they have it in their heads that they want to do sandbox games, but I feel like Zelda was a series at its best with tight level design and clear-cut puzzles. I wish they'd reinvent the series again and try to go in a direction that plays at the team's strengths. Maybe try to do something more linear but in a different way or approach from how they've done it in the past.

World of Warcraft: The War Within. Finally beat the campaign with my Zandalarian Paladin and I will say I really enjoyed it. The zones were beautiful, my favorite being Hallowfall and the story had a good flow to it. There was one part in it where I felt the story did hit a slog but I think that was more due to the mechanics of that particular quest line it was a sneaky stealth part where you couldnt get caught and quite frankly I am not a big fan of that type of game play in any game.

I will mention now that I havent played WoW since Mist of Pandaria but the storyline kept me enthralled from start to finish. I have read that alot of people were upset that it didnt matter if you played Horde or Alliance due the factions working together, so it pretty much the storyline is the same.

The main villain I enjoyed alot too and is probably my favorite since the Lich King. Shes the kind that you love to hate.

Overall an enjoyable game which if you enjoy the world of Warcraft you will enjoy it. Its one of the best piece of fantasy storytelling I have seen in awhile. I was quite pleased with it and looking foreward to the next chapter in this trilogy.

@CJD87 If I was Switch only, I'd definitely be grabbing it. There just isn't a ton on the platform this year to get excited about (understandably, given it's probably EOL as of now), and it does look intriguing enough.

Also, maybe it'll actually run well on the new hardware when I eventually get it. I rarely play games more than once, so I like to have the best experience possible.

@VoidofLight Aonuma has been pretty explicit about feeling very bored with traditional Zelda gameplay, I think. And, in general, people have responded extremely well to the changes in recent games.

I'd be disappointed if 3D Zelda went back to the OoT format. I just think I'd prefer something like Elden Ring for the next game: sandbox, but the dungeons are a much bigger focus than in BotW/TotK.

@Ralizah I mean I don’t want to go back to the original formula. I just think they need to reinvent themselves again and play up to the strengths of some of the older games whilst keeping the few things that worked in the new. Maybe reduce the world size and make a more linear story in a world that’s open and seamless instead of a fully free sandbox that you can do anything in any order at any time. Maybe let the dungeons be in any order, but do something like Link Between Worlds, where the story still ends up being strong.

@VoidofLight ALBW is still my favorite 2D Zelda. Pure fun from beginning to end, and a little bit of non-linearity so I didn't feel like I was being railroaded.

Realistically, the next Zelda will HAVE to reduce the scope of the world from TotK. You had two gigantic maps and then a sky world, and a system that allowed you to craft just about anything. How do you top that?