Completed Games 2023

[PsychoSoldier]

The concept is pretty simple. Keep a list of games you've completed this year, and if you feel so inclined, give your thoughts on it.

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

I still technically need to make trades t complete my Pokedex, but I finished all of the story and the post-game stuff for Pokemon Violet. I honestly don't have the patience or the motivation to do EV training, so I probably won't participate in the raids. That said, I had a blast with this game. I kept finding every chance to play, even if it was just for 10 minutes. The game kind of had hills and valleys, where I was enamored for like the first 10-20 hours, then I saw through the matrix after getting all Miraidon upgrades, then I fell in love with exploring again.

Overall, I think this game has the same problem Final Fantasy XV does: the open world is a great concept with less cool stuff filling it out. For XV, it was the lack of actual towns. Here, I wish there were more sidequests and random locations that gave more incentive for exploring. I was also annoyed that the Team Star boss monsters were essentially the same after being so impressed with the first one. I think you should be able to ride Pokemon other than the legendary. I also wish the wild Pokemon actually like...did stuff. That said, it was still so joyous to be flying around and seeing some Pokemon I had never seen in the distance and rushing to go grab it. Or getting excited whenever I come across one of my classic faves and feeling the deep need to catch it. A lot to improve upon, but I think they have a winning formula here.



As for A Link to the Past, this was actually my first time completing it. Or really playing it at all when it comes down to it. I played it in retrospect during the PS1 era, and I never stick with it past the first dungeon. But even all these years later, it holds up and was impressive. Love the aesthetic of everything, and it's truly a graphical accomplishment on many fronts. The dungeons were really creative with some tough(at times frustrating) bosses, though a decent deal of them were manageable with some fairies in bottles. I also love how natural it felt discovering things and solving problems on the overworld, with the fortune teller hints helping fill the gaps when I was otherwise a bit lost. I definitely see why people love this game, and it's definitely one of my favorite Zelda experiences.

 

[CWE]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition (for the 42nd time).

 

[PsychoSoldier]

You are god's gift to this planet

I need to pick that up so I can finish 100%ing the first one and actually move on to the other 2.

I played the original on 360 ages ago and loved it, but didn't want to move on until I got all the achievements. And since I didn't own a 360, that didn't end up happening.

 

[VoidKitten]

Okay for 2023 hmmm.

1. Dragon Quest 7 (this may have been ass end of last year)
2. Dragon Quest 8
3. Finished half a play through of Plague Tales Requiem for plat

Currently working on Forspoken and then will tackle BotW most likely.

 

[Badger]

The concept is pretty simple. Keep a list of games you've completed this year, and if you feel so inclined, give your thoughts on it.

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

I still technically need to make trades t complete my Pokedex, but I finished all of the story and the post-game stuff for Pokemon Violet. I honestly don't have the patience or the motivation to do EV training, so I probably won't participate in the raids. That said, I had a blast with this game. I kept finding every chance to play, even if it was just for 10 minutes. The game kind of had hills and valleys, where I was enamored for like the first 10-20 hours, then I saw through the matrix after getting all Miraidon upgrades, then I fell in love with exploring again.

Overall, I think this game has the same problem Final Fantasy XV does: the open world is a great concept with less cool stuff filling it out. For XV, it was the lack of actual towns. Here, I wish there were more sidequests and random locations that gave more incentive for exploring. I was also annoyed that the Team Star boss monsters were essentially the same after being so impressed with the first one. I think you should be able to ride Pokemon other than the legendary. I also wish the wild Pokemon actually like...did stuff. That said, it was still so joyous to be flying around and seeing some Pokemon I had never seen in the distance and rushing to go grab it. Or getting excited whenever I come across one of my classic faves and feeling the deep need to catch it. A lot to improve upon, but I think they have a winning formula here.



As for A Link to the Past, this was actually my first time completing it. Or really playing it at all when it comes down to it. I played it in retrospect during the PS1 era, and I never stick with it past the first dungeon. But even all these years later, it holds up and was impressive. Love the aesthetic of everything, and it's truly a graphical accomplishment on many fronts. The dungeons were really creative with some tough(at times frustrating) bosses, though a decent deal of them were manageable with some fairies in bottles. I also love how natural it felt discovering things and solving problems on the overworld, with the fortune teller hints helping fill the gaps when I was otherwise a bit lost. I definitely see why people love this game, and it's definitely one of my favorite Zelda experiences.

We talked about it in the Rajah Video game list thread but yeah great game. The worm is a pain when you get knocked down and also didn’t like Mothula plus the Ice Palace,Turtle Rock and Gabon’s Tower dungeons were particularl hard yet found those end bosses I found quite simple.

I am currently almost done with Cuphead/DLC on expert mode (one boss left to get it’s the chef) and then will be moving onto Persona 3 which is finally available for PS4.

FFVII Rebirth (if it’s out by winter) will of course get a PS5 and do then.

 

[Dreyski]

Just completed RDR 2. Well, the story, at least. Up to 90% total completion.

 

[llettuce]

Okay for 2023 hmmm.

1. Dragon Quest 7 (this may have been ass end of last year)
2. Dragon Quest 8
3. Finished half a play through of Plague Tales Requiem for plat

Currently working on Forspoken and then will tackle BotW most likely.

9's da best one

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)

This is only the second time I beat this game, way back when it first came out. I've been playing through the Reignited Trilogy with my boyfriend because he used to love these games and doesn't like playing a lot of high-intensity video games. Still a fun romp. Year of the Dragon next.

 

[Dreyski]

Slime Rancher (PS4) - What started out as a fun diversion for my daughter turned into a poignant tale of love unfulfilled. Casey’s last couple of emails really got me in the feels, especially when contrasted with Hobson’s final messages (and the post game one - secret vaults I’ve got to find now?).

 

[morrison]

finished dead space last week or the week before. really great game, great story. will almost certainly end up playing dead space 2 before long. at some point i started exclusively using the plasma cutter and pulse rifle, which just felt the best, with some flamethrower for quick crowd control on the little critters that swarm you. the sound design was probably the best part and what contributed to the atmosphere and setting the most. from the growling and scraping of metal by necromorphs in the vents, to far off screams of other crew members and especially the constant unitologist whispering isaac hears making his way around the ship. fucking unnerving.

 

[llettuce]

I'm stating it to the world so I actually do it, stole my dads xbox, gonna finish oogies revenge

 

[VoidKitten]

I'm stating it to the world so I actually do it, stole my dads xbox, gonna finish oogies revenge

I can't wait to quote this in like four years when its still not completed.

 

[llettuce]

I can't wait to quote this in like four years when its still not completed.

I mean I've had the game since like 2010 and have never finished it so it would be on track

 

[PsychoSoldier]

Funnily enough, I was just watching a video analyzing DMC style action games and they mentioned this game.

Weird synchronicity.

 

[Lora]

vampire survivors 100% yet again. working on completing the forest with some friends before we move on to sons of the forest. beat valheim with friends which was new doing the mistlands shit. elden ring for the umpteenth time. destiny 2 beat the campaign on legendary with friends in prep for the new xpac dropping this week. beat brutal legend again with friends. picked up risk of rain 2 and bean playing that a bunch. waiting impatiently for botw 2 to come out and diablo 4 to come out to absolutely destroy those games. new d3 season has been pretty litty since it started friday. i like gideo vames.

 

[Claws]

must be nice to have friends

 

[VoidKitten]

Adding Hogwarts Legacy to this list. I completed the entire game (all quests) and will work on platinum once I knock some other games out.

I would give it a 10/10. The entire game; from ambiance to spells to combat, were done well. It felt like you were in Hogwarts and was quite fun to cast the spells.

Way more shit to do than I had ever expected from this game and it was glorious.

 

[Lora]

must be nice to have friends

i dont have friends.

 

[morrison]

Adding Hogwarts Legacy to this list. I completed the entire game (all quests) and will work on platinum once I knock some other games out.

I would give it a 10/10. The entire game; from ambiance to spells to combat, were done well. It felt like you were in Hogwarts and was quite fun to cast the spells.

Way more shit to do than I had ever expected from this game and it was glorious.

I'm about 41 hours in right now. just did the dragon fighting ring quest. maxed out the challenges for the merlin trials to open up all the gear space, even though i habitually optimize based on stats and sell off everything else and haven't actually had an inventory problem for probably the last 20 hours of the game. that's how stupidly distracting shit can get. side quests and missions are entertaining enough that i end up doing all them before advancing the main story. shit like a family heirloom being stolen and the villager blaming it on his black sheep sister, but by the end of the quest i've got the irondale pilferer living in one of my vivariums.

really did not expect it to be as good as it is or to find myself this invested.

 

[Lora]

i beat lightfall xpac for destiny 2 on legendary solo gg ez wew

 

[Lora]

(it just released today. well, yesterday now but today as in havent slept yet.)

 

[VoidKitten]

I'm about 41 hours in right now. just did the dragon fighting ring quest. maxed out the challenges for the merlin trials to open up all the gear space, even though i habitually optimize based on stats and sell off everything else and haven't actually had an inventory problem for probably the last 20 hours of the game. that's how stupidly distracting shit can get. side quests and missions are entertaining enough that i end up doing all them before advancing the main story. shit like a family heirloom being stolen and the villager blaming it on his black sheep sister, but by the end of the quest i've got the irondale pilferer living in one of my vivariums.

really did not expect it to be as good as it is or to find myself this invested.

I did all side quests and the first two upgrades of merlin and ancient magic. Some of the exploration stuff (not more than 2 challenges completed for most) took me about 40 hours (including all the beasties).

I still have all the rest (camps, about 50 revelio pages, etc)

There is so much more to do for the platinum which ill be working on soon.

 

[llettuce]

Might as well call it for now, essentially finished oogies revenge. The final battle is a required rhythm game which I am struggling with, but I beat the actual fight (like 4 fucking times, because you have to redo the whole thing everytime you lose the rhythm game portion). Congrats 10 year old lettuce, you never thought you would get here.

 

[VoidKitten]

Might as well call it for now, essentially finished oogies revenge. The final battle is a required rhythm game which I am struggling with, but I beat the actual fight (like 4 fucking times, because you have to redo the whole thing everytime you lose the rhythm game portion). Congrats 10 year old lettuce, you never thought you would get here.

But you didn't beat the game.

 

[Dreyski]

100%ed Alba - A Wildlife Adventure in about four hours today - another game I bought mainly for Dreyski jr.
It's essentially Pokemon snap but a bit more wholesome, and as it's a kids' game all the trophies are story related and unmissable, which means no platinum, no reward for doing all the extra bits (and unless there's an unbuilt birdbox out there I'm confident I've done all this game had to offer) and no reason for me to replay this in the future.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)

I FINALLY DID IT! I 100%'d the whole game. Beat all the side stories, beat all the main stories, and went to the Gate of Finis and whooped Galdera's ass. Not after he fucked me up two times prior.

I loved this game so damn much. It has just about everything I would ever ask for in a JRPG. Multiple characters, can start as any of them, they're not necessarily mandatory, and all the secret optional stuff to find. Optional dungeons and bosses, hidden equipment, engaging stories and characters, a real difficulty curve that is only easy if you learn how to break the game - which is kind of the reward. By the time I was strong enough to beat the first Chapter 4, the rest of the final bosses were relatively easy (Simeon sucked, though), but that also gave me more incentive to swap up my team a bit. I also loved the job system. It's a bit annoying not being able to double up with the secret jobs, and I would love if you could add one command from the other jobs(ala FFV), but it forces you to think more carefully about your setup, and keeps the 8 characters more unique. Only Alfyn can concoct, and while that was annoying to me because I really wanted Tressa to be my Alfyn, it made me develop them into their own personalities that could even work in conjunction with each other.

I started with Therion because I love thieves and wanted to be able to steal and open up all the chests from the get-go. If I ever do a replay, I feel I'd struggle to pick a different character, but it would probably be Ophilia, because she's a monster. My primary party was basically Therion, Olberic, Ophilia, and Alfyn, though I also liked swapping Olberic with H'aanit and liked the cut of Tressa's jib. Part of me wishes I gave more attention to Primrose early, but after a bit of grinding, she was pretty essential in the final boss.

An ultimately minor, but should-be-addressed complaint is the formulaic structure of the stories and the fact that the stories aren't really interwoven. There are small connections that have huge implications in the final boss story, but the lack of important interactions between the characters hindered the immersion for me a bit. The Travel Banter and especially the Tavern Banter was a novel way to include, but the lack of voice-acting and actual scenes makes it feel more tacked on than profound, which is a shame since most of these characters have interesting backstories and personalities that deserve more of a highlight. Some of the dialogue during the banters only confirms this.

The formulaic feel can also be said for the dungeons, which very few felt notable or significant from the others. The ones in the forest or inside a building were always the most engaging, but the myriad caves all blurred together. And the shape of them all gives little but "find the boss fight and get the loot, maybe a cutscene." I think something like that could be at least masked by putting some of the dungeons in your way. There is no actual dungeon you have to go through to reach a town or settlement, and I think having some areas like that - where the area has a transient, but significant plot connection - would help in making the chapter-locked dungeons feel less repetitive. I don't know if this specific idea has been implemented, but from what I've heard, the sequel does a lot to fix the formulaic feel and the lack of real party interaction.

The last complaint I have is the final dungeon, which I guess I'll put in spoilers just in case. I also ramble a lot here about my specific strategy, so you know, if ya wanna skip:

Spoiler

I'm glad you don't have to deal with random battles, but the boss gauntlet sucks. The final boss has two phases, and if you're trying to go in relatively blind, it's an ordeal to go through the boss gauntlet every single time just to test out different party setups on the final boss that might not work and have to try again. My first go through, I thought I was in good shape. Primary party at Level 74+, the stragglers in the 50-60 range(except poor Primrose at like 41 or maybe even high 30s). I got stomped by The Omniscent Eye. And I failed to beat Galdera on the second try. And each time the idea of carving out a chunk of time to try it again to maybe have a good party setup against Galdera was just annoying. The gauntlet bosses aren't even hard, they were just tedious. Being able to save before Galdera would have been really nice.

That said, the positive effect of this is it really forced me to min/max more than I ever have before. After the first try, I finished all the sidequests, grinded the stragglers a bit while farming items, and had everyone at 71+ with Primrose at 68. I spent some time researching skills and equipment and trying to make the optimal party to correct where I fucked up with Omniscent Eye. I setup Olberic as a Warmaster, and had Alfyn as Merchant and Tressa as Thief, while Primrose played cleric. The party was made to boost Olberic with BP and stat effects and spam Winnehild's Battlecry to kill the souls quickly and deal massive damage to the Eye. It worked like a charm. I got through it with nary a scratch and beat it with relative ease. I felt great, and with looking at the second form's HP, I thought my Therion/Runelord, Cyrus/Starseer, H'aanit/Warrior, Ophilia/Sorceror would be a bang-up team. Good healing, two of my most powerful and leveled people in Therion and Ophilia, and versatile ways to dish out breaks and damage between all four. But once I beat the three puppets covering the main body, Galdera started unleashing powerful attacks that were chopping my HP in half with one strike. Multi-strikes were even worse, Encore and Divine Aura be damned. To be fair, there was one crucial moment where my party was beat up and not setup to unleash hell, and as Ophilia, I could have used a spell that would break Galdera, or try to heal my party and survive the two turns he had before I had another turn. I thought breaking Galdera would be too greedy, and part of this was because I wanted to rely on Ophilia for damage as much as healing and didn't want to waste a break opportunity having to heal. I chose to heal and proceeded to kill me in those two turns.

Determined to not have to do this again, I went deeper. Now, I was actually looking at damage calculations. I was realizing how important all the multipliers were, and that using a same strategy as my Olberic party could be more optimal. Rather than trying to have a party that could equally support and damage for the second fight, I would ultimately focus on finding another ultimate attack comparable to Winnehild's Battlecry to boost and spam for the win. I tried to think of some strategies that would involve just bringing Olberic over to the second party and replacing his damage output, and honestly I probably could have swapped the two and it would have worked fine, but I was concerned that switching out Olberic would kill the successful dynamic I had for the Eye, plus Winnehild's works well for getting easier breaks, and I thought that was more vital.

But Therion was my first character to break the 9999 damage cap with Aeber's Reckoning, and sure enough, I found a way to boost his damage all the way to 85k with that move if I got all multipliers in there(including BP Eater). And though the fight was still harrowing, the strategy(plus taking the opportunity to break Galdera whenever it was there) paid off. I swapped Tressa and H'aanit to have Armor Corrosive and Donate BP in the second party, and had Ophilia focus on support except when she could break or didn't need to support, and while I couldn't fully maximize Therion's damage output due to not having a strength boost, I was still hitting for 68,000, and I got through it with relative ease in comparison to the first try.

So yes, the final dungeon is annoying, but I kind of liked that it forced me to really take my setups more seriously. I know there are ways I could have cheesed even more damage, but it involved strategies I didn't want to take the risk on or do the research to figure out how to safeguard them. I do think it's a big ask for people who don't want to get into math and hyper analyzing your setup, and I'm sure some would be upset that the one unifying element of the stories is locked into a boss like that, but then again, those who are looking for the optional dungeons are probably willing to put in that work anyway.

Fantastic game. I can't wait to buy the second one. It only took me 4 years to beat it, but it happened.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)

Beat these in the last couple weeks. I started dabbling with Metroid II when the Gameboy games were released for Switch Online, and since I had some days where the TV was being used, I started digging deeper into that. First time actually playing it, and it's a really fun adventure. The "gameboy-ness" fades after you get into it a bit more. A little less exploration than normal, but introducing a lot of series staples(including the Spider Ball which I always thought was a Prime innovation) and just making a generally enjoyable adventure with better control and not as punishing health respawning and such makes this a really fun playthrough. Could see myself wanting to speedrun it at some point.

And finally beat Oddworld for the first time ever. 100% completion, very minimal walkthrough help(some of the early ones are tricky and I used it as a double check to see how many mudokons were in each area). I definitely still love this game, even if the controls aren't the best. I get the feeling emulating on the PS3 meant the where was an input delay that probably made it worse, but having started Abe's Exoddus, I can tell they actively made it control a bit tighter. Also, the save/checkpoint system is brutal, especially with some of the challenges/puzzles you're expected to gruel your way through. But for me personally, the satisfaction of getting it done right always overrode any frustration in my attempts. Overall, I think puzzle and level design is fantastic, and it's no surprise to me that this game has stood in ny conscious for so long even if I never beat it as a child. Also, the ending is hella satisfying. Another moment where all the annoying struggling that came before felt justified. Most people would probably recommend New 'n Tasty, but I think if you can get over aging, the original PS1 release is still an amazing game that tried something different than what a lot of the competition was doing.

Abe's Exoddus has already been started and it's basically improved everything that needed to be improved, the quicksave function in particular is crucial.

 

[llettuce]

Beat the story to naruto clash of ninja on gamecube, it was short as hell

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)
7. God of War (2018) (PS4)

Finally 100%'d this and got the platinum trophy. I was originally gonna try and take on the Valkyries on Give Me God of War mode, but I opted not to for the sake of time and sanity. Glad I did because Sigrun, the final Valkyrie, fucked my day so many times. Then I just had to polish off the second set of Muspelheim trials and find a missing jotnar shrine, and now I can finally move on.

It was an awesome game. Really carried the spirit of the original, and though Niflheim felt pretty tedious and annoying, most of the other challenges were enjoyable, and felt like an accomplishment when you finished. Beating Sigrun was such a cathartic moment.

Probably gonna focus on FF7 Remaster and whatever other small things that sound fun when not playing Spyro/Oddworld. Then I'm either gonna move on to Ragnarok or Tears of the Kingdom.

 

[morrison]

beat hogwarts legacy awhile back. i forget the final tally for the hours put in, but definitely over 50. it really does hit a point where the main story quests just kinda suddenly lead ya to the final battle, like the floor dropping out from under ya. i did all the side content i had wanted to do by that point, so knocked out a bit of the unique post game stuff and that was that. very enjoyable experience, and quite ridiculous as the introductory game of what is likely a brand new series, especially given the dev's resume up to this point. if they can improve and iterate well for the sequel, i'll be excited to pick it up.

started spooky fisherman life sim game, dredge, when that released. awesome art style, intriguing story and fun enough when it comes to gameplay. ended up putting that down for a couple weeks cause...

resident evil 4 remake. first resident evil game i've actually played. the first two resident evil games were staples of sleepovers during my childhood, and i'm sure i attempted to play them in some way, but for the most part they were spectator experiences for me. i am, as they say, a bit of a puss, so horror games were never really my jam, thus the franchise was never really on my radar, past a certain age, in any meaningful way. once livestreaming picked up, i've come to really love the games in the same way i digested them as a kid; as spectator experiences. so i was pretty familiar with most of the mainline entries through 4 and then the resurgence with the release of 7, the remakes of 2 and 3 and village. village, in particular, holds a nice spot with me, cause that opening and the whole castle dimitrescu section are absolutely fantastic and a blast to watch people playing through for the first time.

still never got a huge urge to actually play any of them, though, until last summer i ended up buying the re2 remake. still haven't played it, but the seed was planted. then this january i dove into dead space, never having played the originals, and like i said earlier in this thread, fucking loved it. once the hype started to build for the release of re4r, i was in a proper spot to be grabbed, and watching people play the chainsaw demo put me over the top. beat the game on standard a couple days ago with around 23 hours and some change played. thoroughly loved the game as i was going through it, but what i wasn't expecting was the twinge of sadness i felt in the days after. i'm not someone who replays shit very often or does new game plus or unlocked difficulties, so not having that playthrough to boot up and sink time into sucked. so yeah, needless to say, amazing remake, amazing game, i'm probably going to end up jumping into the re2 remake before long.

back to playing through dredge now, though.

 

[morrison]

annnnnnnnnnd just finished dredge. great little lovecraftian tale. few annoying bits with some of the mechanics of enemies, but given the game has no combat and revolves entirely around navigating, fishing/dredging and selling, i can't complain too much; they needed to inject some difficulty into the formula somehow. steam has it clocked at 17.2 hours, but i can't trust steam playtimes cause i'll often leave a game on pause to go cook dinner or some junk. shave off an hour or two, and that's a nice, quick playthrough, and that's with doing all of the optional side quests, too.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

You love to see someone churnin' through that list

 

[morrison]

so ended up doing the leon playthrough of the resident evil 2 remake. really enjoyable way to see leon's growth playout, with this acting like a prequel since i played re4r first. i will say, i probably like watching the survival horror focused resident evil's moreso than playing them, but it was still a really fun playthrough. re4r obvs had some more quality of life stuff baked in, plus it being more of an action game means the gameplay is just different enough that going backwards in the timeline is a bit more tedious. it can't be said enough how much the parry and melee additions in re4r really just help combat to continually flow and be engaging.

i love the atmosphere and aesthetic of resident evil 2, though, and the two storylines are so classic. i'll end up playing claire's bit in time.

 

[morrison]

just finished up metroid prime. really love the game, but there was a handful of bullshit annoyances during the last couple of hours. that gauntlet of rooms without a save point when you first go into the phazon mines is a bit brutal, but considering it's the last big, proper biome you go through, it's understandable. i lost about an hour of progress to the fuckin electrical grid maze puzzle where you get the power bomb cause i was just low as fuck on health and got pinged around two times. that hurt. if lore scanning persisted through deaths and of you could skip cutscenes it would have been a lot more tolerable having to redo. i think this mostly comes down to 2002 game design. they likely could have implemented them for this remaster, but i also get why they didn't.

i also started to notice issues when it came to the responsiveness of the controls. a dozen or more times of my jump input not registering so i end up falling to the bottom of a platforming section. i was using the 8bitdo ultimate wireless controller, fully charged, so im not quite sure whether it was my gamepad or the game.

meta ridley almost made me lose my fucking mind. four times i got him down to the final chunk of health but couldn't finish the job. i started off doing the super missile method. in his last phase i just had a bitch of a time hittin him in the mouth to get him to expose his chest and i burned through all my fucking missiles and then would end up dying cause of his charge attack over time. a couple times i got him down to one last shot, and i'd hit in in the mouth, he'd rear up and expose his chest, but would go back down before i could fire the super missile, which would hit his mouth, and he'd go back to exposing his chest. i was going fucking nuts. seriously thought it might be some glitch or bug so googled it and read a post on the gamefaqs forum with most people saying they just used the plasma beam the whole time to kill him. did that the next try and beat him. for fucks sake.

then the fissure metroids in the crater while trying to platform. fucking dumb tedium.

the map system is also kinda really shit for trying to navigate from biome to biome.

overall, though, its pretty fucking amazing. retro translated the metroid formula to 3d perfectly and the majority of my time was incredibly enjoyable.

 

[llettuce]

Finally beat scarlet (not any post game stuff and my pokedex is not done yet, but the credits rolled) I actually really liked the end bit! I was not expecting certain twists and pokemon games haven't been good at that for quite a bit.

1. Naruto Clash of Ninja
2. Pokemon Scarlet

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)
7. God of War (2018) (PS4)
8. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
9. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)

Crash Bandicoot is another game I started playing with my partner. We just went through and beat it as is. I think I'll slowly work on getting all the gems, but surviving some of those stages by getting all the boxes and not dying sounds like torture, so happy to count this as completion.

Just finished Spider-Man yesterday. 100% the main game and got the platinum trophy. Really fun game that feels like a natural evolution of Spider-Man 2 way back in the 2000s. Webslinging was superb, and I had a lot of fun finding different ways to travel by trying to reach the benchmarks. I liked the greater crime varieties, and the combat was pretty fluid. The story was really well done, perfect blending comic book canon with an altered history where not ALL major events have happened yet. I liked the unique turns they took, and unlike the previous games, they did a great job of making you feel like Peter Parker as well as Spider-Man. I think the boss battles could have been a bit harder and/or more dynamic, because as is they were just glorified versions of the usual beat-em-up brawls with grunts, but there were still some cool moments. The MJ missions were mostly annoying until the very last one, though. Could have done without.

Story Spoilers

Spoiler

I teared up pretty hard when Aunt May died. Was not expecting that, and to frame it as Peter's choice to save her or save many was just heart-wrenching. Also the reveal that Norman is using a symbiote to try and heal Harry was a wild twist that had me hollering at the screen. Definitely has me hyped for the sequel.

At some point I'll play the DLC and go for the Remastered specific trophies, but not sure I'll ever get around to a New Game+. At this point I'm ready to give Miles Morales a spin and get hyped for Spider-Man 2.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)
7. God of War (2018) (PS4)
8. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
9. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)
10. Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) (PS1)

Finally played through and beat this bad boy after all these years. I always spent more time with Warped, but I've played the first two worlds tons of times and never got farther. I loved this game. It polishes everything that worked with the first game, and fixes everything that didn't. The improved movement and jump options add a lot more depth and flexibility, and thank god for both the ability to save whenever and game over not erasing your progress. It makes trying to go for 100% or playing levels over and over less stressful. Level design was great, enjoy the variety and challenge. How to get gems could be a bit more obvious or better telegraphed(I had to look up a couple), but completing each task was incredibly satisfying. Great game, holds up in my opinion even without the remakes. I'm excited for Warped. Though we'll probably go back to finishing Year of the Dragon first.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)
7. God of War (2018) (PS4)
8. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
9. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)
10. Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) (PS1)
11. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)

Finally finished it. Did all the sidequests and got all but one of the achievements I can reasonably get without grinding(which this game is not designed for) or playing New Game+, and while I mostly enjoyed the game, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play it again. Overall, it's a really good game that's held back from being great because of some design issues. I think other than scope, it tends to feel like FF7R ran so FF16 could jog brisquely.

Spoiler

Biggest flaw for me, as I already mentioned, is the lack of a true party dynamic. It just feels like the structure is right there and they don't bite on it. While I like getting different characters to join your adventures, they feel useless in battle and just there for dressing. And as much as I enjoy the Torgal mechanics, I feel it never expands, and the fact he gets a power up later that gives him special moves that you have no control over(and that to my knowledge I've never ever seen?) is dull. This is made worse by combat getting a bit repetitive by the latter half.

And yeah, the gear is disappointing. I like working for the final weapon, but I never had any incentive to experiment with accessories. Definitely feels like the crafting mechanic is useless in the vanilla game which makes the equipment feel a little more useless by proxy. I think a lot of this would be relieved by having a party that you maintain and gear up, where you'd have more characters to play around with and actually have a use for all the gear you can upgrade, since half the time you have two or three weapons/armor to craft at a single moment and there's no incentive to craft the lower quality ones. Especially since resources are easy to come by.

While I generally enjoyed doing all the end-game quests and the closing out NPC storylines, it feels like there aren't a lot of tangible rewards for doing so. With no customizable magic and the gear being a bit useless, maybe something like some quest/hunt-specific special attacks would have been cool, but as is the best you get is the final weapon quest lines. Which is enjoyable. But it would be nice to have more tangible incentive to actually explore such a gorgeous world.

Also, the soundtrack is mostly incredible. Which is why it's a shame the game does an awful job of showcasing it outside of cutscenes and boss battles. A lot of the field and town music is wonderful, which is why it's infinitely annoying that during any conversations, the game turns the music volume down. There are some tracks you don't get to fully enjoy because of this, since otherwise you're just blazing through an area and barely get to hear 30 seconds of it unless you decide to linger purposefully. This is probably a nitpick, but being that the music is usually one of the best parts of a Final Fantasy, not being able to soak a lot of it in naturally is a shame.

There's also the issue of a lot of the less important NPCs looking the same(the men have like 2 stock faces that are barely changed from each other), and a bit more variety in quests could have been nice(maybe a mini-game or two), but the latter part is definitely a nitpick.

All that said, I still really enjoyed this game. Presentation and storywise it's pretty much a 10 out of 10. Well, ok, the story might not be a 10/10 but I was into it the whole way. It helps that the characters were really lovable with some excellent voice acting. The best and pretty enjoyable rewards from the sidequests was getting more characterization and intimate moments with the side characters. The graphics, lazy NPC modeling aside, are nothing short of stunning. Like the environments just had me pausing at times to just look at it all and appreciate it. The water in the Velkroy is pure beauty. And my god, the cutscenes. Yes, there's maybe too many or at least are broken up in an annoying way for some portions, but they were almost always a treat. Especially the ones involving Eikons. Some of the set pieces during boss fights just had my jaw agape as I took it all in.

And I already said it, but I loved the soundtrack. It has some "epic movie/video game" tropes that made some moments less memorable where a notable melody or rhythm could have served well. And like I said, the general mixing and implementation of the soundtrack makes it so some of the more memorable tracks don't get to shine. But this doesn't stop some of the best pieces from truly shining, especially during cutscenes and battles. I loved the re-imaginings of the FF Theme and the Prologue, making them feel more integral to the themes rather than just traditional pieces that need to be fit in somewhere. Masayoshi Soken does amazing work and when Square let him shine, he's fucking blinding. Overall, while I don't think he's topped Nobuo Uematsu as far as pure memorability, I think if Soken is the main composer going forward, then the series is in good hands.

And then the combat. Well, like I said, it gets a bit repetitive and I think if they weren't gonna commit to a couple more RPG elements than they should have leaned a bit harder into the action. But for the first half of the game, the combo system is really fun and refreshing. And while I never felt I needed to get Eikon abilities outside Phoenix/Ifrit and Garuda, once I started unlocking the super powerful moves and played around with the techniques a bit, I found myself getting a setup that was really fun to play and also hella engaging to rack up damage and stagger. I feel you take what's here, add more versatility to Torgal and give some semblance of control and management of party members, and you have an excellent ARPG combat system. As is, if you put the effort in, you can have a lot of fun with this system, but again, you're not really incentivized to do so. Particularly with the enemies being such damage sponges.

The boss battles could be better in some senses, as the big ones half the time feel more like glorified cutscenes since death is kind of meaningless and rare. But considering the shortcomings of the battle system, I found myself enjoying the change of pace for these battles. Though fights as Ifrit that weren't purely focused on set piece like moments felt less freeing than most fighting as Clive.

This is already way bigger than I planned for it to be, but I also want to give a special shout to the hunts. Not all of them were amazing, but they added some incentive to explore, and some of the S Rank hunts were the most thrilling and memorable fights of the whole thing(looking at you, Svarog).

So, yeah. There are a lot of flaws. Especially with FF7R staring it right in the face doing mostly everything 16 did but better. And I see myself wanting to replay XV before this one to be honest. But as a brand new story and experience in an engrossing world that constantly drew me in, this was still a really good Final Fantasy.

8/10

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)
7. God of War (2018) (PS4)
8. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
9. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)
10. Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) (PS1)
11. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Switch)

And I finally polished off the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. This one has a ton more content, and I think the various styles of gameplay were a great change to the formula. The final boss is less satisfying than Ripto though. All 100%.

Now I just need to polish off Crash Warped, which is at like 89% but the golden relics are a fucking pain.

 

[VoidKitten]

The Spyro trilogy were my favorite platinums to get on PS5.

I am actually replaying FFXV now. Its so much fun.

 

[Dreyski]

Finally got the Platinum on Jedi Fallen Order. Needed online maps to do it though, becuase finding all chests, echos and stimpacks is nearly impossible without them. Might go back to Yakuza 6 next, though it's going to be a helluva grind to reach natural 300 on all stats

 

[VoidKitten]

I basically have my platinum on FF15 now. I am just missing fishing and cooking to 10, which is easily grindable but I want to play something else. Was able to beat Omega weapon and Admantoise (even though the former wasn't needed for Plat. I just wanted to).

Debating what to play next. Considering FF16, but likely will get my plat on KH2 now (finished KH1 last year).

 

[VoidKitten]

Finally got the Platinum on Jedi Fallen Order. Needed online maps to do it though, becuase finding all chests, echos and stimpacks is nearly impossible without them. Might go back to Yakuza 6 next, though it's going to be a helluva grind to reach natural 300 on all stats

This was such a fun Platinum to get. I used maps for the same exact thing, mostly to get the pain in the ass ones I missed and couldn't find. But the secret map icons were fucking great. I liked the way they did that where it was an unlockable, versus Horizon: ZD having them pop up automatically and stay there.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

1. Pokemon Violet (Switch)
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (Switch)
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch)
5. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GameBoy)
6. Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssee (PS1)
7. God of War (2018) (PS4)
8. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
9. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)
10. Crash Bandicoot 2 (100%) (PS1)
11. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
12. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Switch)
13. Jet Set Radio (PS3)

This has been a long time coming. Always loved this game, but never completed it all the way. I'd usually get to the point where the Golden Rhinos got involved, get frustrated with the increase in enemies combined with the awkward controls and would eventually just get bored/throw in the towel. Same thing sort of happened last time I started the game about a year or two ago, but I picked it back up to night to polish it off. Didn't really bother with getting every Graffiti Soul, but maybe I'll come back and do that piece by piece over time. Still a great game, even if the movement could be more responsive. The entire aesthetic of the game is just too cool that it's worth getting through any of the awkward bits.

7.8/10

 

[Badger]

I got Final Fantasy III on the PS4, never played the original as it’s pretty hard to find.

I did all of Cuphead and the Last Course on regular and Expert except Chef on Expert. Really fun yet frustrating game but yeah had to uninstall so would have to go get and go through the whole game and bosses again just to get back to Chef on Expert but nah won’t be doing that lol. Took me long enough.

Getting PS5 when FFVII Rebirth. Hopefully can get a discount as friend just started a new job in GAME (UK video game shop). The trailers look fucking good btw. FF16 might do after that.

 

[morrison]

I got Final Fantasy III on the PS4, never played the original as it’s pretty hard to find.

I did all of Cuphead and the Last Course on regular and Expert except Chef on Expert. Really fun yet frustrating game but yeah had to uninstall so would have to go get and go through the whole game and bosses again just to get back to Chef on Expert but nah won’t be doing that lol. Took me long enough.

Getting PS5 when FFVII Rebirth. Hopefully can get a discount as friend just started a new job in GAME (UK video game shop). The trailers look fucking good btw. FF16 might do after that.

i get the feeling going to ff16 after rebirth might not be the idea. given the info out about rebirth, i think a lot of ff16's limitations and design choices are gonna stick out like a sore thumb if played after.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

i get the feeling going to ff16 after rebirth might not be the idea. given the info out about rebirth, i think a lot of ff16's limitations and design choices are gonna stick out like a sore thumb if played after.

I 120% agree with this. Unless Rebirth somehow ends up being a complete flop, I wouldn't bother.