Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

I completed the main game in Snowrunner (on Series X) a while back and remember it taking over my life at the time - jumping in "for an hour or so" and then realising I'd actually been playing for several hours and it was 3am😅 I haven't bought any of the DLC yet as I'm trying not to spend any cash on games until I clear a bit of the backlog, but every time it goes on sale I'm really tempted - I got a notification this morning that the full year 1-4 DLC bundle is on sale too. Probably safer to do a season or year at a time though when I eventually do buy the DLC.

Did a playthrough of River City Ransom.on the NSO last night. Just wanted to play something to relax after work. Still a fun game and and an all around classic. Playing it reminded me though that I need to pick up a few of the games in the series on Switch.

@RR529 Glad to hear you enjoyed Tales of Symphonia - this was my favourite game as a teenager. Totally agree with your side quest point - this was a pain back on Gamecube and is even more egregious now in 2026. How would you rank it compared with others in the series?

@Buizel, Thanks for reading!

I'd definitely put it above Zestiria & Berseria, but (& I know it's sacrilege) I'd say I liked Arise more. Judging it against Abyss & Vesperia probably isn't fair since those were the first two I played (meaning they have a nostalgia bias & it's been a long time since I've actually played them), but if I had to I'd rank them higher as well (could easily change if I replayed them though).

I rolled credits in Super Mario Galaxy 2. A fantastic game through and through, and one I'm happy to revisit. The levels are creative and great fun, and I also really like the new power-ups... especially the Cloud Flower. The music is amazing, as well. It's noticeably more challenging than its predecessor, too. I love a good Mario game, and overall, I think SMG2 absolutely delivered. Though I'm not done yet, there's still the Special World to go through, as well as getting the Green Stars. Hopefully I can do the Grandmaster Galaxy as well... which I know is mega-tough.

@RR529 I couldn’t get into Arise tbh, the tone and combat just felt very un-Tales-like to me. Then again my experience is mostly with Symphonia and dabbling in the other entries of that era. I consistently see Abyss and Vesperia in conversation for the best game in the series so not surprised you like them more - I really enjoyed Vesperia though I think Symphonia will always be my favourite.

@Buizel As someone who played only one other Tales game before Arise (Berseria), I have to say that Arise is just.. not a good game. At least in my opinion anyways. They got rid of the co-op battles and changed the combat system. The game also was really generic feeling both in the world and story- and came across as a budget Xeno game rather than a Tales game.

I finished Balloon Kid for the Game Boy (it came out recently on Nintendo Classics). It's basically Balloon Fight, but with actual levels to go through. I wanted to like this game... but while it did start off pretty all right, unfortunately I didn't like the game that much. I'd say my main problem were the controls/physics... it takes pretty long to get going when I have my balloons, and I really don't like how I'd bounce all over the place when I hit a wall. The controls were especially a problem during boss fights and the later levels. I really didn't like those... I had to use restore points for them.

It does have a charming atmosphere, and I thought the music was decent. But because of those problems I mentioned, I think the game is just not very good. It's a shame too, because I really wanted to like it.

Just finished Balloon Kid on Nintendo Classics, although I had the game on 3DS, never did finish it. Still feel it's a fun little game, like I did when I played it on 3DS. Yeah the physics can make Alice bounce around quite a bit. Similar to @D-Star92, I had to use suspend points, and rewind especially on the later levels. On 3DS never made it as far as the first few levels. Also, I do like Alice and her world, Pencilvania has literal pencil buildings.

Nintendo could have had a lot of potential with Alice. Imagine this, a game where she follows a rabbit into a land of wonder.

If you think the atmosphere is charming, wait until you find out, it got ported to Famicom in Japan as a Hello Kitty game. They reused the game's world in a Hello Kitty game, and the original wasn't in Japan until Game Boy Color.

I like unusual games like this and enjoy reading up on them and their history.

@Sunsy While that game was a bit of a disappointment to me, I am happy you enjoyed it. Believe me, I wish I did too. I do like how the game's world looks as well. Yep, I did see that they made it into a Hello Kitty game, and it does look cute for sure. I did see a Good Vibes Gaming video about it actually.

I "beat" Octopath Traveler 0, and I'm mixed on it. The game left a pretty sour taste in my mouth because I couldn't actually beat the final boss due to how insanely difficult it was in comparison to the bosses that came right before it. It was built for players to have to min-max their parties and use specific party members to stop the boss from dealing damage (to a point where you literally have to skip a phase and break the boss in the first turn). I ended up watching the ending on YouTube, and the True Ending as well because of this.

Frankly put, beyond this gripe I have with how insane that difficulty curve is with the Final Boss- I feel mixed with this game as a whole. It isn't a necessarily terrible entry in Octopath by any means, but it definitely has its issues. Especially with the game being around 95 hours to beat if you want to do all the side-content.

I'd say the game is entirely too long. Especially for the format of the game and the combat system it has. I get that this is a remnant of the fact that it's primarily the mobile game "remade" to have new bits and pieces here and there. It's meant to keep the main story of the original perfectly in-tact, aside from the beginning and the ending.. and I guess it does a decent job at that. Outside of that though- it feels like it falls apart when every dungeon becomes the same amount of branching paths, and the random encounter rate keeps turning battles into a constant and consistent annoyance. It isn't helped by how drawn out the story feels- with it having some of the lowest lows in the series combined with some of the highest highs. Master of Power and Bestower of Power both are really low lows, while something like Bestower of All, Master of Fame, and Bestower of Fame are actually really well written to an extent.

As a whole, I just feel like this game is one I wouldn't really recommend to others. It's nice that it exists and it preserves the storyline of a game that was previously stuck on mobile (with a few retcons), but I definitely feel like it being a Mobile game and how much time you'd have to invest into it isn't worth the outcome at the end. Especially when the story is pretty generic and the twists later on in are easy to tell from a mile away.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Pirates of the Disturbance

Basically just a few hours long visual novel game based on an anime that I watched last year and liked. Not the most amazing game ever, but far from the worst either, especially since I got to enjoy another story (even if it's non-canon) with the same lovable characters. There were several more routes to play, but I just wanted to do one playthrough for now. Perhaps I'll play it more in the near future. Also, it's all compete on the cartridge, since the game has no updates 😀. I didn't really have any issues with it, so I give it a 10/10 score. I definitely want to purchase my own physical cartridge of the game at some point in the future. Back to Dragon Quest XI now, at last!

@D-Star92 I actually had that video on last night while I was cooking dinner. I think Jon is a Balloon Fight fan, lol. It was a good video about the game and the Hello Kitty version.

I just beat (Animal Crossing New Horizons). It was my first Animal Crossing game and I really liked it. I'd give it a 9 out of 10. I ended up putting just over 95 hours into it. Like I said I really liked it and would recommend playing it.

@Sunsy I just rewatched that video actually... come to think of it, I think I would like the Hello Kitty version more. My mom loves Hello Kitty, and I could certainly benefit from the larger screen resolution. I also didn't know you could drop out of your balloons and grab them again either. Maybe I'll like the game more if I do that...? That might make boss fights a lot easier.

@D-Star92 Well then, I have it on 3DS and I didn't even know I could grab the balloons again. I beat the bosses by standing on the two side platforms, jumping on them, then using the physics to bounce back onto the platform, lol.

Now that you mention it, NES/Famicom didn't have the screen crunch Balloon Kid has.

Just finished Assassin's Creed Origins Ubisoft really nailed this one! Ptolemaic Egypt is an amazing setting. Also visiting places like the Sphynx and inside of the Pyramid of Khufu in the game and comparing them to the real life experience is special! Also Bayek is one of the best protagonists the franchise ever had!

This time I got all of my equipment upgraded to the max, got all synch points and all of the map locations. Also got all 25 papyrus riddles!

I think I will start Odyssey next. I have played it before and also really liked it but I kind of rushed it to the end. This time I want to visit all of the islands!

Steel Assault. it was alright. Pretty disapointing though coming off of Pepper Grinder.

@Sunsy Yeah, I learned that after rewatching Jon's video. I did that too, though I did have a difficult time with its physics. One of the bosses had me hang out on the leftmost platform, jumping on it when it's close to Alice, and then going back to said platform.

Not related to Balloon Kid, but I'm hoping to finish Hollow Knight this year. The Switch 2 upgrade pack made me want to dust it off, lol. I started a new game since I got stuck in my first file, and I didn't want to spend my time wandering aimlessly, haha.