Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

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The last two games I beat were The Last Story [Wii] and Soleil (Crusader of Centy) [Megadrive].

The Last Story, being one of the big three Wii games everyone in the West (and particularly North America, where it seemed increasingly unlikely) was clamouring for, lived up to my expectations, although I did have to start a new save file after coming back to it.
The battle system - the game's main feature was initially tricky, but by the time I got to the last bosses, I was utilising most of the battle systems, although it has been said elsewhere that the bosses all have a very specific way to beat them, not allowing you to beat them in a wide variety of ways. I imagine I'd have been exclusively using the crouch-slash move otherwise. Moreso, during battle, your allies would usually repeat a phrase telling you how you should take out the boss, so nothing really stumped me, apart from the final boss, which was such a damage sponge, I could only resort to level grinding to boost my damage a bit.

I liked most of the characters - Lowell being a particular favourite (good voice actor, love the accent). Syrenne's character trait (laddette, obsessed with 'booze'), coupled with her accent kind of grated on me, but she had her moments in the story. I suppose Lowell could be accused of the same thing - a one-track character obsessed with one thing - 'girrels' (girls, in Scottish), but he softens up at the end too.

Throughout the game, there were lots of diversions and sidequests to beat, which is always a plus for me in these sorts of games - I managed to get through all missions (including the post game ones), by the time I had finished with the game, but the real fun starts in the New Game+, where you can restart the game with all your money (something I was able to max out quite easily anyway, through selling iron, etc.), all of your weapons and armour. Furthermore, the bosses are beefed up, and you are rewarded special materials which allow you to upgrade certain weapons and pieces of armour past their hard limit of Lvl. 9 to, supposedly, level 99. I've yet to beat it a second time, although I'll get round to it someday for posterity.

Soleil for the Megadrive - freshly beaten as of this morning, although I had to fight several faulty gamepads in the process (one had a non-working B button, one had a non-working C button, and one (the current one) would occasionally stop letting me go up - I actually threw it in the bin, and was going to leave it there, but I decided against it, and it worked the next time I plugged it in, although it would still occasionally fail) before I could.

First impressions - obvious Link to the Past wannabe - albeit made 2 years later, and nowhere near as pretty or well presented. I even called my character Link. One of the main differences is that you enlist the help of various animals (monsters) which give you abilities like faster movement (which, in turn allows you to jump larger gaps), flaming swords (when thrown) and a decoy to draw enemy attention away from you.

The story starts out very formulaic - you are a 14 year old boy who has come of age, and is heading off to the castle to receive a sword from the king. Your next task, is to earn three medals (the latter two requiring the ability to jump, and to run-jump, respectively) from a nearby fighting school in order to receive a "holy sword". However, in the process, you are cursed, losing the ability to talk to humans (but gaining the ability to speak to animals and certain sentient flowers), and you are now tasked with reversing the spell. Sometimes, figuring out what you had to do was a bit difficult because the NPCs could be a bit cryptic at times, and you had to speak to certain people to trigger certain events. I did have to consult a FAQ at times, I have to admit.

Eventually you regain your ability to speak to humans, but another problem has presented itself, and you go on to solve that, with the help of your animal friends.
Throughout the game, there was a clear coexistence narrative, with my character at one point seeing things from a monster's perspective, and that set it apart from any other game of its era that I've played. At times, I really felt sorry for the monsters, which in any other game would just be fodder for the sword.

To top it all off, there were some nice set pieces throughout the game with some funny dialogue in some instances - one example being where I was required to transport a fox, a bird and a flower across a metaphorical river without any of them eating each other. On beating it, the three remark how they are happy to finally be able to leave the room, having been trapped in there for the sole purpose of being a test of your wits.
It continued to surprise me to the end with these little touches, and in the end, while I can say for certain, that it isn't as pretty as the Legend of Zelda, it's its own game, it takes itself much less seriously, and it's well worth playing.

EDIT - Throughout a lot of the game, you were unable to understand human language - I found it quite funny how there would be moments where you'd go into houses, and people would be talking amongst themselves, but you'd have no idea what was going on - for example, at one point you enter a house, and a hero is talking with the occupants, raises his sword, and leaves. No idea what he was saying.
Similarly, on the first visit to this tower, you are able to take an express lift up, but on the second visit, some guards are blocking the way, and you have to take a detour. As far as I know, there is no way of finding out what they are supposed to be saying, but it's a nice touch.

Also, I just read the back of the box, and it claims there are "...over 80 hours of absorbing game play...". This is patently false.