Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Beat Ninja Gaiden Black, for the third time I think? This game is absolutely brutal, but much like the souls games, it always feels incredibly rewarding to actually succeed. Now on to NG2, which is, (a little), more forgiving.

Not technically a game, but I beat a fun traditional Super Mario Maker 2 super world recently: LT6-LN9-5PG (someone on this website made it). 40 somewhat long levels so it was basically a short game.

I also beat Heart of the Woods , a sweet modern fairy tale visual novel. Very few choices and ironically not much art but the art that is there is lovely and the story is great. Also a lot of excellent voice acting. Overall 8/10 from me. One weird thing is that it is rated M for mature but I have no idea why — there is a tiny bit of horror/violence but not really very much and there is some discussion of relationships but if it were a tv show it definitely would have been rated T for teens at most.

Today I beat Castlevania 64 for the first time.

The game really gets too much hate, and I understand it to some extent.

The bad:

• Some of the platforming is absolute crap. I mean so damn clunky and outright terrible!
• There is a time limit to finish the game otherwise you get a bad ending. This is for me the worst thing about the game. Nothing is telling you that if you do not get to the Castle Keep in 16 in-game days OR use more than 4 Sun/Moon cards you are locked in for the bad ending. AND on top of that you can't see how many days have passed ...

The good:

• The game has really nice atmosphere.
• Skeletons on Motorcycles in 1852!!!

I am so glad to put one more Castlevania in my list of completed CV games. It feels good!!!

@NeonPizza And RE2 VR is just a mod, can you imagine if Capcom put the time and effort in building it into the game?! Realistic reloading, reworking the damage system so it fits the VR environment ... it would be even more terrifying!

After playing Half-Life Alyx I can see the difference between a mod and a native VR game.

@Zuljaras Nice! I remember renting Castlevania 64 back in the day, but I never got very far as I lacked a memory pak and therefore couldn't save. I've always wanted to revisit it. It did have a great spooky atmosphere as you say, which goes a long way for me when it comes to horror games.

@OldManHermit Too bad it never got ported or remade but maybe it is next on the list. After all they remade Haunted Castle

@NeonPizza When I finish RE2 VR I am jumping on 7 and Village mods

@NeonPizza I got a laptop 2 years ago as I do not want a standalone PC because I do not invest in PC gaming that much. It is with 4060 but still perfectly fine to play Alyx and the RE Engine games in VR.

I beat two games recently.

One of them is Marvel Super Heroes. Glad I could beat the 2nd game on the MvC collection I played. Beating a game like this is...nothing, its the most bare minimum of a single player practically. But as someone whose barely played non-Smash fighting games the past 20 years, glad I could do this at least. These games are really cool and fun, and I love every aesthetic element of them, don't have a ton else to say. I beat it with Spiderman.

The other was Sayonara Wild Hearts. I really like it but I actually don't know to what extent. It's a fairly unique, odd game. All I can say about it is that is that it was a cool combination of music and gameplay in a way that feels intentionally over the top and video gamey in a unique way. The stages were incredible, in that it feels like a risk to my eyesight. You cannot blink playing this game, essentially, and that made for an especially compelling experience but I feel I'll have to go back to it to fully decide on how much I like it. Because of that, I only played it in short bursts. Certainly feels like one that...deserves being one of the more notable indie games, I'll say that much.

I recently beat oot for the first time, it definitely deserves all the praise it gets, absolutely amazing game.

I beat Outer Wilds today, the base game. Still processing it, and certainly not going spoil anything here... but what an experience. I love this game so much. Very excited to jump into the DLC soon.

Castlevania III Dracula's Curse beaten! I took the Alucard road. And this is the hardest game I have ever beaten

It feels really good!!!

4 Castlevanias in a row!

@Zuljaras
Congratulations! One of these days, you will convince me to play a Castlevania game. They seem fun and challenging.

@Jhena The best thing about the Castlevania games is that you can go from hardcore unforgiving games like the ClassicVanias to the more relaxed games - MetroidVanias.

@Zuljaras
I would like to try both, even though I am not a very skilled gamer.

Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted
Vertical shmup developed by Toaplan. Arguably the best shmup released by the publisher. But for my taste, the game is brutally difficult. Before you even begin your first run I recommend you adjust the credits to infinite. You might need them, lol.

But this Saturn Tribute Boosted port is very well done. Buttery smooth.

8/10

Maid of the Dead
It took me exactly eight hours to blast through the campaign. MotD is a twin stick survival shmup. The metal music is good (if a bit repeativitive) and the little bits of fanservice are appreciated. Stages one through four are a bit of a snoozer, but once you get to stage five the difficulty increases. My recommendation is that you dump your resources into the dress, increasing your health, defense, and movement speed. And dump everything else into the first accessory you unlock, the hairpin. Which increases the amount of points you get from hearts and the strength of your boons.

8/10

Sonic Origins, so thats Sonic 1 2 3 & Sonic CD

at last, i have finished zelda’s grand 2d adventure. and although i was unsure about it at first, it was so worth it.
i got this day one, with the feature of echoes being very appealing (and of course, who is gonna resist a NEW ZELDA? 🙄) but i kind of trudged through it for the first few hours, and i got distracted by other things! so i just came back to it, and wow. the echo and bind system and the puzzles are so amazing and clever, the bosses are some of the most fun ones ive encountered (especially echo zelda and the final boss), and just the whole world to explore. theres still so many side quests and areas to occupy me for ages. yes, its nowhere near the all time greatness of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but for what it is, i loved it. the story, even though very simple, was lovely and the deep moments such as TRI SAYING THANK YOU AT THE END WAS SO GOOD 😕😕😕😕 only negatives i have about EOW is the frame rate, which got pretty choppy a lot. the graphics are really pretty at times tho 😸 i do find it insane that they made this in only two years. anyways, if youre a zelda fan, or even just a fan of nice chill puzzles, pick this up! 😛 8/10!

Star Wars: the Force Unleashed (Steam) - Always wanted to play this back in the day, so I picked it up in a Steam sell a couple years ago, and have finally gotten around to it.

• Ultimately it was nice playing a pure action game that (while it did have a simple level up/upgrade system) was neither bogged down by a bunch of skill trees/RPG systems, uber difficult (though it has harder difficulties for those who want that), or bloated out into a 50+ hour slog. Just a lean, mean, fun time zipping & jumping around largely linear levels cutting down everything in your path & using absolutely busted force powers to ragdoll Stormtroopers across levels, bring down Tie Fighters, & even brutalize the biggest names in the franchise in humiliating ways that no one will probably be allowed to do again, lol.
  
  
  
• It definitely has it's fair share of rough edges (beyond just graphically), such as the fact there's so much to interact with that your powers will sometimes target the wrong thing, it's from the era where any large enemy (& boss) must be finished off with a QTE, and an outdated checkpoint system (there are mid level checkpoints you can retry from if you die, but they are only "soft saves" and you must retry the whole level from the beginning if you shut the game off before completing it. Only hard saves are in between levels), but again it's not a frustratingly difficult game in most cases (at least on it's "normal" equivalent setting) so these weren't deal breakers.
  
  
• The 3 DLC levels (which are included by default in the Steam version) are definitely the game's best though. These are "what if" scenarios that place you in some of the franchise's most memorable locations facing off against famous faces, and they seem to have a much better balance of combat & environmental puzzles solving to break things up (the main game levels are probably a 90%-10% split favoring combat, while the split is probably more 70%-30% in the DLC levels).
  
  
  

Final Fantasy VIII
Still a masterpiece. This was probably my third or fourth playthrough. The last part is really challenging but it makes it feel more real, like you are really fighting the fight of your life. The ending is so good, I felt like crying during the end scenes. Love the atmosphere and music.

@RR529 I really enjoyed The Force Unleashed when I played it back on the Wii years ago. Funny enough it's one of the few games I prefer on the Wii due to the controls. Nothing feels as great as going around as Vader and force choking enemies using the Wiimote or pulling down the Star Destroyer as Starkiller with a Wiimote. I have tried to play the game again on the Xbox with normal controls but I just can't get into it I gota use the Wiimote

On another note, I thought the story was as good as if not better then a few of the movies and really loved the twist at the end. It sucked that when Disney took over they made it non cannon. If I ever get my Wii working this will probably be a game I resist without a doubt.