Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

@Hapless
I got the PlayStation 5 version for trophy hunting and to get a smoother experience, but the game should be awesome on Switch too.

Mega Man (the og). Oh boy, was this a trip down bad memory lane. This game has aged worse than most other Mega Man games, and is definitely no cake walk. I had some fun, but that was mainly just from murderlizing most of the bosses. This game is also pretty short, even for a Mega Man game (though in this case, that’s actually a good thing). There are six robot masters to defeat and four fortress levels to tackle (the third one is basically a straight path to the boss, so that barely even counts). I started with Cut Man (the non king-fu type), and I breezed through his stage, died a couple of times due to the fact that I had to remember his pattern, and then reduced him to little orbs. I then… ate his souls or something and got his weapon. I then went for Elec Man, since he’s weak to Cut Man’s weapon (most Mega Man games have you absorbing powers from defeated foes, which other specific bosses are weak against). I got a game over, and decided to just go for Guts Man, since he’s pretty easy. This wasn’t my first time playing the game, so the stage (which has annoying sections where you have to jump from moving platforms that drop at certain points, requiring you to figure when to jump) was a breeze. I quickly put Guts Man out of his misery, and made my way Bomb Man’s stage, since he’s another easy boss even without the weapon he’s weak against (the flame shot). I have nothing interesting to say about the stage or boss, except for the fact that the stage has Bullet Williams in it. I went back to Elec Man’s stage, and with Guts Man’s arm I was able to get the special power (which initially appears to be optional, but is actually mandatory for getting through the first fortress level). I then made it to the boss, and if it weren’t the fact that I had Cut Man’s blade (his weakness) this would have been a huge pain. This guy is quick and powerful, but by using his weakness I was able to shred him to bits. With Elec Man’s thunder bolts added to my arsenal, I made my way to Ice Man’s level-AGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I hate this guy’s stage! The controls are so slippery, and the invisible block patterns are so annoying. It’s manageable, but the worst part is easily the section where you have to ride on those hovering bots that shoot bullets from the sides. This wouldn’t have been a problem if it weren’t for the fact that the game is pretty buggy, and this getting hit by one of these bullets often made me fall right through a hover bot and into the pit. Wonderful. I died several times, but eventually, I was able to get through the stage, make it to Mr. Ice Man himself, and absolutely decimate him (I didn’t take any damage, even with just the buster). Fire Man was the last robot master remaining, and his stage was pretty easy. You just dodge the raining fireballs, avoid the rising fire bars, and you’re good. The boss himself also isn’t too bad, as long as you have Ice Man’s weapon. After that, it was time for the fortress levels. This is where the game unleashes it’s true power. The first level was a huge pain, largely thanks to those giant machines that deal huge amounts of damage. I got several game overs before finally making it to the Yellow Devil with no extra lives remaining and only half of my health bar. I know that orange (why is he called yellow?) putty’s pattern as well as Yoshi and Larry the Cucumber know how to avoid the IRS, and I was doing great at first. I took a few hits, but I was able to whittle his life bar down to two pieces. We were each only one hit away from our ends, and he had just formed himself. His eye appeared, and I jumped, fired… and he suddenly figured out how to shoot straight. I lost it and nearly screamed at the console, but I regained my composure and simply continued from the start of the level. I died several more times, but eventually I defeated that orange (he’s looks more orangish to me) Tic Tac blob
(I only used my buster, and I didn’t use the pause trick). The second stage was just as bad. The level itself wasn’t as annoying, but the enempy placement was cruel. It also has a couple of rematches against Cut Man and Elec Man, but I managed to subdue both of them without much trouble. The boss was a copy Mega Man, and it was a massive pest. I died several time to it, but I eventually blew it to smithereens with Fire Man’s weapon. The third stage was literally just a straight path to the boss, and it was some weird slew of robots encased in bubbles that required you to avoid them and shoot their bubbles to defeat them. It was tricky at first, but with some smart use of the buster and Guts Arm I was able to beat them after a few tries. Finally, it was onto the last level. This one was kind of annoying, as it had a bunch of enemies on the wall waiting to snipe you, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I had to refight the rest of the robot masters, but that wasn’t much of a problem. After that, it was Wily time. I died once because I didn’t have much health left, but on the next try, I was able to beat him by using his weaknesses (Fire Man’s weapon for his first form, and Cut Man’s weapon for his second). And so, the adventure was over. Overall, while this isn’t anywhere near the top of my personal ranking of the Mega Man games I’ve beaten, I think I prefer this to the second game. Sure, that has the better robot master bosses and levels, and it has better music, and the crappiest moments aren’t as bad compared to the crappiest moments of the first game. But, that game does overall feel more unfair to me, especially after replaying both and thus knowing about the garbage that these games throw at players. But I think the main reason I prefer this to 2 is because it’s shorter. Sure, it’s technically worse overall, but the suffering doesn’t last as long compared to the sequel. But that’s just my opinion. And it doesn’t really matter, because X7’s still much better at the end of the day. That’s all I need to clarify. Thank you for your patience if you chose to read this.

Monster Hunter Wilds
I'm 80+ hours deep, feeling like I've experienced everything the game is in its current form. To me, Wilds is a good blend of World and Rise. I couldn't imagine traversing these biomes without the auto-pathing of the seikret. But with the always-online aspect of Wilds I feel like I'm in the middle of a hunt...non-stop. All gas, no breaks.

Even with all of its flaws, Wilds is my favorite entry in the series.

10/10 - Eager for the first title update. Bring on Mizutsune.

I finally beat Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 on the PS5 and got the platinum for it, approximately 10 minutes ago. Phenomenal game. Now I can put my main focus on Suikoden until Xenoblade Chronicles X releases.

Mameda Bakeru (Nintendo Switch)
Enjoyed it alot and finished it 100%. This is like a classic Japanese game from the good old times. It is full of love for Japanese quirkiness, which I like alot.

I just completed Bakeru today as well! Awesome game, and feels like a true passion project. It's like a trip through Japan, and really channels the older Goemon games. They made multiple references to planning to make more games of this IP, and I for one would buy the next one on launch day. Very much recommended.

I've also been playing the Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection, and just finished Duel Monsters II. It's pretty much just an iteration of the first one, and is barely a game. It's little more than just grinding to watch numbers go up, and then pray to pull your strongest cards. It does have somewhat of an addictive quality, but yeah... It's not one of the great ones.

I'm still working on the K-O-N-G letters and temple levels for DKCR, but in the meantime I completed my first (and likely my only) win in Side Order. I enjoyed my time with it, but I don't have the drive or desire to go through with each palette and get all of the keys for the lockers. As an expansion, it was very well done. I hope there is a mode like this in Splatoon 4. Back to DKCR.

i did it guys! i beat paper mario the thousand year door! and just wow, i was skeptical going into it cause it was paper mario, but it really had some moments that just…hit. Peach and TEC had some really great moments, i was tearing up when TEC sacrificed himself for her. Vivians story is also really, really well done and im so glad they included that. And i loved how the game was so funny, even adding in some risque jokes which i was kinda surprised (cause yknow, mario). The battle system was cleverly thought out, really took some thinking and planning ahead. Some of my fav fights included the three shadows, cortez, macho grubba, and of course, The Shadow Queen. what an epic fight at the end, pretty intense! 😸 i loved the excess express chapter the most, talking to all the characters and finding out the mysteries was sooo enjoyable. the artsyle is amazing too. AND FLURRIE!!!! so yeah i like this game just a littttttlee bit 😍😍😍😍 thirty five hours well spent!

I finally got around to beating Travis Strikes Back after sitting on it for so long. I'm a big fan of the first two games, but this one was always a weird little one. Not too big on the gameplay style, the game is carried hard by the writing, which I did enjoy. I do like the little teaser for NMHIII(which I'm currently enjoying atm)

OK, I just finished Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun. And that technically means I've finished every Battle Network game... since I've finished 5 and 6 nearly two decades ago on the GBA. I'll still play them on the Legacy Collection however.

I'll have to agree with many other fans of the Battle Network series... 4 isn't exactly my favorite one. The story is pretty weak compared to the other games since it's heavy on tournament arcs, and some parts of the game were genuinely awful. It wasn't all bad though. At its core, it's still a Battle Network game through and through, some of the music is actually really good, and I like the addition of the Double Souls you can get. Out of all the ones I got, my favorites to use were Roll Soul and Thunder Soul. Too bad I didn't get all of them in a single playthrough though... the game requires that you'd finish it multiple times to get all the Double Souls and other stuff, and I can't be bothered to do it, not gonna lie. And there's all those typos in the dialogue too. I did notice some typos in the other games too, but this one was especially noteworthy for them. I did get some good laughs from them at least, haha.

There's some other things I noticed too. The internet area design, while not nearly as bad as in the first game, feels needlessly spacious. And it might be just me, but I felt like the encounter rate was bumped up a bit.

I did have some fun with this game, but yeah, I'd say it's my least favorite one in the series next to BN1. I'm glad I finished it though, and I do remember liking the last two games quite a bit.

I just beat Suikoden 1 for the first time. It’s an absolute classic JRPG, and has become one of my all time favorites. I’m now in a pickle - I want to start Suikoden 2, but I know I won’t have the game beaten by the time Xenoblade Chronicles X releases, so I’m debating whether I go ahead and play it or play a game that’s much smaller in scope.

Bzzzt pretty fun little time. I didn't do the bonus content, only the main stages. Its essentially a short stage precision 52 stages long. It's tough as nails at time but completely fair and you respawn almost instantly. Highly recommended for the 5 spot I paid.

Finally closed out Banjo-Kazooie. As a fan of palatforming, this felt like a game I just needed to have under my belt, but something about collectathons have never really clicked for me. I finally was able to get hooked into the game on this playthrough, and I understand now that it’s a classic for a reason, although there are some things that are relics of its time.
Pros:
-The charm of this game is incredible. This is Rare on the top of their game, with fun and expressive characters, excellent music, and a world I just want to live in
-The main collectibles, the Jiggys, are generally placed in places that take a bit of looking but aren’t impossible to find
-The moveset and camera feel leagues better than Mario 64
-Click-Clock Wood is one of my favorite levels in gaming now
-Gruntilda
Cons:
-The note collections are so dumb. The game initially presents collecting them as sort of a side attraction to the Jiggys, but in order to collect them all, you need to go to pretty much every significant room in the game
-Egg-shooting and flying physics are somewhat jank, and water physics can at times be unbearable if you’re trying to do anything precise
-Grunty’s Lair is a great concept and absolutely adds to the charm of the game, but can feel kind of unintuitive to traverse
-Too many water levels from both a gameplay and visual perspective

I had a lot of fun with the game, but the note system (and the quiz sequence) made it so that I had to make liberal use of save states. Maybe someday I’ll try to track down the Xbox version as I’ve heard that saves your notes. Great game with some archaic elements, but still leagues better than Yooka-Laylee.
8/10 (the Xbox version is probably a 9)

I finally caved with the current Astro Bot bundle deal and bought a PS5. Just finished Astro's Playroom, the pack-in game/tech demo that comes with every PS5. Really fun little game that showcases the DualSense controller's features - the adaptive triggers take a bit of getting used to though. I thought it had a bit of a Mario Galaxy vibe to it, which is a good thing. Can't wait to get started on the full Astro Bot game once I've finished up a couple of other games first, as I've heard nothing but good things about it.

@dmcc0
Hope you have a great time with your PlayStation 5 and with Astro Bot! Team Asobi released a few free updates, so you will definitely get your money's worth out of it.

@Jhena Yeah, I've almost pulled the trigger on a PS5 a couple of times now - when they were clearing the original stock to make way for the 'slim', and a bundle deal last year which went out of stock before I could grab it. I often wondered 'why?' when people said they owned all 3 consoles, but now I'm one of those people! Although it likely means I won't get a Switch 2 any time soon...until I see the direct in April and pre-order one straight away 😅

@dmcc0
It will be hard to resist the Switch 2. I will not even try to resist. But I think for the most part nothing will change. The PlayStation 5 will stay my third party console and the Switch 2 will stay the console for the exclusives.

@Jhena To be honest, even before buying the PS5 I had no intention of getting a Switch 2 at launch unless my current V1 Switch dies between now and release. However, I recently repaired a faulty V2 Switch that I bought cheap on eBay with the intention to re-sell, but it's in similar condition to my V1, so I might keep that and sell the V1.

@dmcc0
Nice, congratulations for repairing it! I can understand that you do not plan to get a Switch 2 at launch, especially since we have so many games to play, new and old.

@Jhena I hardly ever buy games at release anymore and mostly wait for sales as there are usually some pretty great discounts if you are prepared to wait. I'm in a lucky position that my son also has a Switch and he usually buys the big 1st party games at release, so I can always borrow his copy of those games when he's done.

Anyway, back on-topic. Next up will be either Minish Cap on NSO, or Ikenfell - I paused both to play Astro, and I've only played about an hour of each, but will probably go with Ikenfell as I started that first.