Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

I finished Islets and had a good time with it, it doesn't beat Crypt Custodian for me but it was still very enjoyable and I am looking forward to Well Dweller

Just recently beat Zelda Tears of the Kingdom about an hour ago, clocking in at 110 hours or more. Solid 10/10 game overall. Obviously, because of how big the game is, I didn't like everything in it (cough, some sidequests not having the best placement of sidequest markers, cough), but I liked the majority of what I experienced it. I got nowhere close to 100 completion, and didn't even beat as many shrines as I did in my playthrough of Botw back in 2024, since I mostly just wanted to get Totk out of the way.

Anyway, I have my next game lined up: Dragon Quest XI S Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition. I've held off on it for three years, since Pokémon Violet, ACNH, and the two openworld Zeldas kept me busy for ages. It's only going to go on hold again for who knows how long once I start playing Pokémon Legends Z-A 🤣.

I beat the Future Connections side story thing in Xenoblade: Definitive Edition.

Quality game but tbh, to my surprise, below Torna. Which does confirm to me that the biggest problem with Torna was that I was done with Xenoblade 2 and thus even a great DLC could only be so enjoyable. Whereas this one followed a better and (somehow) much shorter game, which genuinely did help. (also outside of one kid character, 1 > 2 for voice performances is still true for their side stories)

@ShieldHero oh my god good job for beating it! incredibleeee game. shouldve won goty (im not looking for fights 😔) man youve been BUSY with content-packed games, good luck on dragon age! z-a is the best pokemon ive played on switch, its story was surprisingly decent and it didnt get tiring for me. definitely a big one though!

@OctolingKing13,

I was just a tad bit disappointed myself when Totk lost to Baldur's Gate 3 at the Game Awards 2023, but I'm not obsessed with playing games that have the most rewards, since a lot of the time, the ones with the most awards are the ones I'm not interested in.

On a side note... you've played Z-A 🤯?! That game isn't even out until October 16, 2025, which is another two months from now. Do you have a time machine or something?! (I'm joking about the time machine, btw) 🤣

@ShieldHero STOP I WAS THINKING OF ARCEUS YOU CAN TELL I HAVENT HAD COFFEE TODAY. and we dont talk about my time machine. 😹

@OctolingKing13, reminds me about the fact that I also want to play Arceus, maybe a few years from now. My forwardlog (list of games I don't own yet but want to play in the future) is insane 🤣.

Just beat Metroid Zero Mission (NSO). This one was really good! Reminded me a lot of my days of Super Metroid. Very atmospheric and just straight up fun to play. The epilogue part of running around without your power suit was interesting. Didn't blow up my skirt but something different and cool to see where the Metroid Dread style idea(s) got some life. Fusion did some of that too if I remember.

Extra bonus for me personally on completing Zero Mission is that it was the last game from my post back in January this year on "2025 Gaming Resolutions List". I originally posted I was hoping at minimum to complete in 2025:

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD
Ace Combat 7
Red Dead Redemption
Sonic X Shadow Generations
Metroid Zero Mission

I did it! Still have a big backlog of choices to pick from but I wanted to at least get those crossed off. I still have much to go in DK Bananza but I'm hoping to get another side game going.

Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation 1)
I just love it. It is very comforting and I enjoy being in this world. The last boss was hard and the ending beautiful. Thank you to everyone, who made this game possible.

Finished Paper Mario for the fourth time a few weeks ago. Amazing game!

Super Mario Bros Lost Levels

I've been playing long games lately like trying to near-100% Bananza and Hello Kitty Island Adventure, so it was relaxing to replay a short game.

Lost Levels is funny because it's absolutely evil if you go in blind but if you know where all the trolls are and are used to the physics it's pretty chill but still with a bit of challenge.

Ridge Racer: Type 4 (PlayStation 1)
Finished the normal campaign today. It was a little bit challenging. Pretty cool racing game, with nice dialogues. I might return to finish the rest of the campaigns.

Power Stone (Dreamcast)
Beat it today. Thankfully the game is generous and lets me try again, if I fail. A really enjoyable brawler with good vibes. Might finish the game with the rest of the cast someday.

Even though I enjoyed playing old games, I feel like going back to playing new games again. I do not feel cynical about the future of gaming anymore. I think I will start by listening to every song in Donkey Kong Bananza. Maybe this will change my opinion about the vibes. Afterwards I might go back to Mario Kart World, because I want to at least get 100% completion, before I can feel like I am really done with the game. Or I will simply get Fantasy Life i, and grind away.

@Jhena, nice to see you're feeling better 😄! What I've listened to of the DK Bananza soundtrack is great. Also, I've heard good things about Fantasy Life i, it's one of the games I want to get eventually.

Um I guess I beat Wario Land 3. I was expecting to 100% it, and I still might but I just got to the final boss and suddenly beat it and it was over after months of on and off playing it. Huh. That was sudden.

I guess I liked the game but I like its ambition significantly more than large chunks of playing it. If I played it as a kid it would've been a favorite of mine for sure, but nowadays it is like "frustration: the video game" or maybe baby's first Getting Over It. It's a weird game whose core concept I'm not sure is as fun as it thinks it is. But the ambition of it really does impress me, but in terms of ambitious Wario Land sequels I definitely prefer 2. 2 was similar but it didn't feel like an entire game based around "you screwed up once, do those last 30 seconds again" endlessly, which I much prefer.

I will say though I do prefer it to 4, because it has more than an hour and a half of game in it, probably even if you never screwed up a single time.

@ShieldHero
Thanks! I will try my best to look at the bright side of gaming again. I love the 3DS Fantasy Life game and the new one seems to be even better.

Finished the easy and normal grand prix mode of Ridge Racer: Type 4 today. I won every race. It is really cool how the dialogue changes, if you win or lose a race. The stories so far were really cool and even emotional. I think I should at least try to finish the rest of the grand prix.

Also, please forgive me everyone, I really tried but I am simply not digging the vibes of the new Nintendo games, especially Bananza. Tried to listen to the music of Bananza, but nope, this is not for me. I was in a good mode, while I was retro gaming, but playing Switch 2 gave me bad vibes again.

Oh well, I will just wait until a new game will be released with good vibes.

@Jhena im sorry you werent a big fan of bananza 🙁 hopefully youll like kirby air riders or metroid prime 4. i have a feeling next year is when we start seeing all the 10/10s

@OctolingKing13
Thank you for your sympathy. Kirby Air Riders should be to my liking. Hopefully the direct will convince me.

Finished two games recently:

The first one was Bomb Rush Cyberfunk! this game is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE and i love it. been obsessed with jet set radio recently but i don’t have a dreamcast (or xbox for playing jsr future) so this was my best bet. The movement in this game feels so good and the vibrant world is just beautiful.

The other game i recently beat is Celeste! been putting it off long enough and decided to finally play it, and i do not regret it! it is truly THE best 2D platformer released recently (well, i like pizza tower more, but if we’re talking about pure platforming…)

Also the story suprised me, really really really good, hits you right in the feels.

two absolute bangers!

Finished the last two grands prix of Ridge Racer: Type 4. It was challenging, but thankfully the game allowed me to save from time to time. I want to finish the time trials in Mario Kart World now.