Your 2015 Gaming Diary

[gaggle64]

How did you find Remember Me?

 

Whenever I renew my PS+ I have it waiting in my downloads on PS3.

 

I liked it quite a bit. There's not a lot of variety in the enemies & combat and the story is a bit messy but it competently tackles some super ambitious concepts with some neat gameplay ideas. It's the sort of thing I wish someone would make a sequel and try to improve on those ideas. Really looking forward to playing their new episodic story game on PS4 now.

[Ganepark32]

I'd agree with @gaggle64 there on Remember Me. Picked it up when it was released and while it's certainly a bit clunky and could definitely do with some refinement, it's a decent enough game with an interesting premise, a good art style and soundtrack, and the memory remix segments are brilliant. It's a shame that the combat is as clunky as it is as the whole idea of putting together your own combos with varying degrees of attack power, health regen, etc. was a nice one that could be better implemented. And the memory remixes could've come along a bit more than once at the start and then 3 at the end (if I've remembered that correctly).

 

Would certainly welcome a second game, perhaps taking a similar approach to what Eidos Montreal are doing with the new Deus Ex. Set it in the aftermath of the game and looking at the consequences of the technology and have Nilin be on the run for being a memory hunter, or something like that. Dontnod have said they have ideas of how they'd do the game so who knows, hopefully they'll be given a chance to make a sequel but with all the trouble they had getting that released, as well as Life Is Strange, due to the female protagonist I'll temper any anticipation.

 

Anyways, I managed to finish up White Night earlier today. Hadn't touched it for a while but decided to sit down and plug some time into it but got rather carried away and so after a couple of hours, I was finished.

 

I rather enjoyed it, I must say. It's definitely an homage to the likes of Alone in the Dark in how it plays, but I enjoyed it like that and the tension of using matches as your main light source but only being able to defeat ghosts with electric light. Puzzles where interesting, if a little obtuse at times. Think the only real sticking point for the game gameplay wise was the insta-kills that the ghosts can get you with and the drawn out "death screen". That could've been handled better. The ending also annoyed my but mainly because it seemed to be going along at a nice pace and then at the end of Chapter 5, out of 6 where the 6th is less than 5 minutes long, it realises it needs to close the story and throws out a Vanilla Sky-esque absurd ending (not a dream but in a similar vain) that kind of ruins what was a rather intriguing set up and story up to that point.

 

That being said, I still enjoyed it and loved the art style and the soundtrack and how it helped build a really good tense atmosphere.

 

Still think the pricing was wrong on the game but luckily I was saved by GAME, of all places, having download codes for it on the PS4 that made it cheaper to get than just downloading from the PS Store. No doubt it'll probably be on PS+ in a couple of months so it'll be interesting to hear what people think of it if it is.

[nekunando]

My Super Smash Bros cravings have somewhat continued throughout April where, after unlocking all characters in the N64, 3DS and Wii U versions, I finally went back to Melee to do the same.. and that's now done

 

I also cleared a few of the events and may actually go back to try to overcome a few more in the weeks ahead. It's been good, and I probably like the 'Classic' mode more than the latest versions of the game, but I may have to be controversial here by saying that Melee is possibly the one that I like the feel of least I haven't been back to Brawl, though, as I already have a full roster.. so who knows

 

I also decided to do a quick 150cc Grand Prix on Mario Kart: Double Dash yesterday. It's definitely not easy to jump back into as it feels drastically different to more recent games in the series, but it definitely makes me appreciate Mario Kart 8 even more and how awesome it actually is

 

While I was at work today, though, I had a bit of a desire for Kirby's Epic Yarn

 

 

I cleared it a few years ago my my save file was sitting at 69% so I've went back and added a little to that and may even aim for 100%. It's such a charming game

[Glen-i]

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A few days ago, I finished Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.

 

Now there's already a pretty great review on this site. It was from the point of view of someone who never played the original on the Wii.

 

I, however, have played the original, so I will be focusing on how it compares to the Wii version.

 

FAIR WARNING: I am going to be casually talking about spoilers in this game. This includes screenshots I posted on Miiverse. Even if it's not relevant.

 

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Warned ya...

 

Right, so the first thing to address is the visuals.

 

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Obviously, it looks better on the Wii. That's a given. But this game still looks great on a small screen. It's a good showcase for the New Nintendo 3DS.

 

Now obviously, the 3D effect is new. And for the menus and text that appears on the HUD, it looks great! It really pops out.

But for everything else...

It's so incredibly weak. I was hoping for the scenery to really shine in this regard, but was left disappointed. I didn't keep it on for this game.

 

One thing that had to be cut was the Japanese voice option and normally, I would be in the mindframe that less options is a bad thing.

But Xenoblade Chronicles is a special case...

 

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This post got reported on Miiverse because it's apparently filled with spoilers, despite every character I show/mention appearing in the ELECTRONIC MANUAL

Never change, Miiverse.

 

The British voice actors give such a charming performance that I think forcing people to play with them can only be a good thing.

Xenoblade Chronicles X will NOT have that charm, I guarantee it.

 

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No amount of subtitles can put across how awesome Reyn's voice actor is.

 

One thing I don't like is the controls, the game was clearly made for the Wiimote + Nunchuk setup and it really shows here.

Not being able to move and select arts is a decided disadvantage. But the majority of players used the Classic Controller for the original like morons, so I'm in the minority there.

 

I do have to wonder why the touch screen wasn't used to select Arts, seems like it would have solved that problem nicely.

In fact it's not even used in the menus. Missed opportunity.

 

On the plus side, they did address a small issue with auto-attacks that I welcome.

Thanks to @Dcubed for pointing that out to me.

So I guess that makes up for it. It's still perfectly playable.

 

And lastly, I should talk about the collection room.

 

It's basically a model viewer and a music player.

You unlock them using tokens you can get with Play coins, the Shulk amiibo or through Streetpass.

 

It's pretty barebones, but the soundtrack is worth it alone.

Shame that I'm the only person in London who has the game registered for Streetpass.

Oh, people have the game here, I've seen them in Streetpass Mii Plaza but they refuse to use Streetpass for it.

 

So to summarise for those who haven't finished the game...

 

• Doesn't look as good as the Wii version, but still looks really good!
  
• 3D effect is great for menus but lame for everything else.
  
• Controls use the Classic Controller setup, which is not what the game was intended to be played with.
  
• Touch screen is underutilised.
  
• Fixes a slight glitch the original game had.
  
• Collection room is barebones but worth it for the fantastic soundtrack.
  

 

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Yep, this got reported for spoilers as well.

Yes, every one here is in the manual.

 

And with that...

Lufia: The Legend Returns - GBC

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - WiiU (Not 100%)

Demon's Crest - SNES (Not 100%)

The World Ends With You - DS

Gunman Clive - 3DS

Gunman Clive 2 - 3DS

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - 3DS

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - 3DS

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - 3DS

Banjo-Tooie - N64

Metroid Zero Mission - GBA (Not 100%)

Child of Light - Wii U (Single Character challenge)

Super Smash Bros - 3DS (Everything, baby!)

Super Mario World - SNES

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - 3DS (Credits seen)

Super Mario 64 - N64 (120 stars)

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D - 3DS

 

[nekunando]

I've put another few hours into Kirby's Epic Yarn to take me up to 83%

 

I don't seem to remember much of the levels at all since my initial playthrough several years ago but I feel like it was a case of ploughing through it in order to cross it off my list. I'm appreciating it so much more now and I'm actually enjoying the fact that you can't die in the game, with the focus more on keeping hold of your precious beads

 

I currently see no reason why I shouldn't be reaching 100% in the next week or so but, whatever the case, I'm having loads of fun with it

 

I'm even more excited for Yoshi's Woolly World now

[Dcubed]

I've put another few hours into Kirby's Epic Yarn to take me up to 83%

 

I don't seem to remember much of the levels at all since my initial playthrough several years ago but I feel like it was a case of ploughing through it in order to cross it off my list. I'm appreciating it so much more now and I'm actually enjoying the fact that you can't die in the game, with the focus more on keeping hold of your precious beads

 

I currently see no reason why I shouldn't be reaching 100% in the next week or so but, whatever the case, I'm having loads of fun with it

 

I'm even more excited for Yoshi's Woolly World now

 

Yeah, Epic Yarn is a really underrated little gem. So much better than Wario Land: The Shake Dimension was! (Really quite shocking how much of an improvement it was for me; bit like the jump from Super Mario Ball to Metroid Prime Pinball!). Really creative and interesting level design, coupled with some really unique and interesting mechanics (and some clever Wiimote usage too) and some well designed 2 player action too!

 

What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that the difficulty in that game comes not from beating it, but from earning the medals (keeping hold of those beads is pretty damn tough in the later levels!)

 

You get out of it what you put into it

[dazzybee]

Just finished Space Harrier. What a horrible little game. Had a productive April actually, will post my thoughts on the games over the weekend! May is kirby and splatoon time, but rewlly hoping to move over to sony for some tomb raider and alien!

[Jimbob]

Time to add Rayman: Origins to the list of completed games. Overall, it was a great game. I loved it, great platforming elements. And loads of secrets to find on each level. Level designs were very good, especially the last stages.

 

I think i can safely move back into Legends now, did hear a few Origin levels crop up in there.

[nekunando]

Yeah, Epic Yarn is a really underrated little gem. So much better than Wario Land: The Shake Dimension was..

 

I've absolutely fallen in love with it this week

 

I'd be interested in returning to Wario Land: The Shake Dimension at some point in order to try to hunt down the treasure but I always got the impression from it that I'd never had that desire. Hopefully it'll somehow grab me like Epic Yarn has

[Fierce_LiNk]

I have finally done it...I have reached the end of Bloodborne.

 

I've put in 51 hours into the game and have defeated the final boss. I'm pretty sure that I missed at least one area and at least one boss and I haven't done the Chalice Dungeons yet, so there's plenty of replay value.

 

Well...this was a rollercoaster. I loathed it when I first played it. I found the combat very clunky and sloppy, I found it overly difficult for the sake of it and I just didn't enjoy it. However, after about 3 or 4 hours of dying and being THIS close to trading it in, I took a break and went back to it that very evening with the mindset that I wasn't going to let this game beat me.

 

My God, was it worth it?! I ended up loving the game and became addicted to it. Once you take down that first boss, the game just suddenly clicks and you start to ease your way into it. Even towards the end of the game, I was still dying a fair bit but eventually I made it through and persevered. Very old school in its approach and definitely requires patience, but the rewards are great.

 

Overall, it's probably one of the best games I've played on the PS4 and it's one experience that I'll remember fondly of. I'm glad that I stuck with it and...I'm quite tired now after that ordeal! Think I need something fairly "light" to play next. Possibly Valiant Hearts.

 

 

Games of 2015

 

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Finished and Platinumed

Transistor - Finished

The Walking Dead Season One - Finished and Platinumed

inFAMOUS Second Son - good ending completed

Watchdogs - started in 2014, finally finished main story

The Walking Dead Season Two - Finished

The Order 1886 - Finished

BLOODBORNE - Finished

[Fierce_LiNk]

Another game to add to the list. This time, it's Never Alone: Kisima Inŋitchuŋa. I played this in co-op yesterday with @Eenuh and it was over in around 3 hours or so, so we managed to complete it in one playthrough.

 

I loved it, notably the style of the game and the cultural insight videos that came with it. It's very well crafted and it's almost a new breed of game, like a documentary in a gaming format. I LOVED how the cultural insights tied in with the story of the game and the events, particularly their explanation for the Northern Lights.

 

Overall, I'm happy that I played it. A great game to have on PS+, because I'm not sure I would have ever thought of buying it for myself.

 

Games of 2015

 

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Finished and Platinumed

Transistor - Finished

The Walking Dead Season One - Finished and Platinumed

inFAMOUS Second Son - good ending completed

Watchdogs - started in 2014, finally finished main story

The Walking Dead Season Two - Finished

The Order 1886 - Finished

BLOODBORNE - Finished

Never Alone - Finished

[Jimbob]

In preparation for Arkham Knight, i finished up Arkham Origins: Blackgate earlier. Not bad, it's quite interesting how an Arkham game could be played in 2.5D, but it works quite well.

[Glen-i]

Oh boy...

 

A couple of days ago, I finally finished Final Fantasy 8 for the first time.

Some of you may recall me saying that since the GBA versions of Final Fantasy 1 and 2, I've been playing each one, in order, for the first time.

 

Final Fantasy 8 is definitely a dividing game. Some people (like @Hero\-of\-Time) absolutely adore this game, while others (Like @Dcubed) think it's an unforgiveable pile of trash.

 

But they don't matter now, what's important is what I, a person who has never played this game, thought of it.

 

 

Bloody hell, this game looks great for it's time! After playing through Lego Final Fantasy (7) the jump in quality is insane. Even in-game, it looks miles better. I can't fault the game for it's visuals.

 

Also, DAT MUSIC! Theatrhythm already taught me that 8's music is sublime, but it really is fantastic for almost every single bit of the game. More on that "almost" later.

 

The game starts off in Balamb Garden, which is some kind of school for training students how to fight. Our main character is Squall, one of the students.

 

In fact, let's talk about Squall for a bit.

 

 

Squall may just be one of the most unlikable main characters I've seen in a Final Fantasy game yet. The guy starts off a git, doesn't get much better and then ends up a git who likes a girl.

 

I mean, at least Cloud learned that he was being an unbearable sod, but he made strides to change a bit. Squall just throws up a "Whatever!" to the whole character development thing.

 

Also, his gunblade is stupid.

 

What? What is this!? Where do the bullets come from? There's no barrel!

WHY!?

 

Anyway, walking around Balamb Garden, I learned something.

Pre-rendered backgrounds and confusing layouts make traversing areas excruciating!

 

Here's a prime example from way later in the game.

 

Oh, of course! I use the key on the door that cannot be seen!

I always forget to try there!

 

FF7 had an option that puts arrows on all the doors and areas where you can move to a new area, but there's no such thing here. This led to quite a lot of moments where I flat out couldn't see where to go next.

 

Balamb Garden does have a nifty little sign which lets you warp to places, except whenever I actually wanted to use it later on, I just couldn't for some story driven reason.

So I found myself having to remember where things were.

 

And that can be difficult...

 

Anyway, turns out Squall is about to do his exams, and for his pre-exam, he has to go to a scary cave and fight a beast that came straight from hell.

Don't worry though, his teacher is going to help.

 

Wait, that's your teacher?

Bloody hell, seriously? Isn't she, like, 18?

Oh, and she fights with a whip, you say?

 

OK, apart from the obvious fact that whoever designed Quistis was very frustrated for reasons I won't go into, Quistis is probably one of my favourite characters in FF8.

Unlike Squall, she's very likable and actually develops during the game, developing a crush for him, but later accepting it with grace when he goes for someone else.

It's nothing groundbreaking, but she was genuinely enjoyable. Especially her Limit Break...

 

 

First boss was nothing special really. At the end, he joined me as a GF (Guardian Force apparently, but I just called them my GirlFriends)

 

Which leads me into junctioning.

 

You see, levelling up in this game is almost completely pointless, enemies scale along with you.

So in order to keep ahead of the game, you need to attach magic to your stats.

So, for example, attaching Fire to your strength makes it go up.

It's a very neat concept, different spells affect different stats differently and you can even use certain magic to protect yourself against elemental attacks and status effects. You can even use it to inflict status effects on enemies just by attacking. (Sleep was a particularly broken one that I abused a lot)

 

There's no MP in this game, instead you collect magic of up to 100 for each spell. The more you have of these, the more stats go up when you junction them.

 

It's a great system... with one major flaw...

 

GETTING MAGIC IS ONE OF THE MOST AGONISING ORDEALS IN THE HISTORY OF GAMING!

 

I will not mince my words, drawing magic is painful.

You see, you can't just buy magic, you have to draw it from enemies. What this entails is standing there using "Draw" to acquire spells from enemies, you get anything from 1 to 9 at a time depending on your stats.

And you will want to get 100, otherwise you won't be able to cope later on.

So while you're there, hammering Draw, the enemies are wailing on you. This can be a problem during bosses, making them last an hour at times.

Especially when this can happen...

 

OH BRILLIANT! Thanks for wasting my bloody time!

 

It's a shame, really. This battle system shows promise, but it's let down by drawing.

That said, it turns out you can use items to make magic. But I only found this out by accident on Disc 3. The game made no effort to let me know this.

 

Anyway, after Ifrit, I met Zell...

 

 

This guy's pretty pointless. I still don't quite get why he's here. He adds almost nothing to the story.

Still, at least he's not as pointless as...

 

Selphie

 

Selphie exists purely to like trains and drive an airship for no reason.

I can think of no other point to her.

So it's only fitting that she can beat the strongest boss in the game in one hit.

 

That works on every boss, even the final one, it's beyond broken.

That does bring me nicely to another flaw though.

 

Summoning GF's takes so long, it's not worth it.

Did you see how long that Eden animation was!? It was ridiculous, and you can't skip them! The player there wasn't using it to cause damage, he was using it to waste time while he tried to get Selphie's "The End".

 

That says a lot, I used a GF once and then decided to never use them again. I'm so glad I did.

 

Anyway, blah blah blah, unimportant stuff happens. And then you meet Rinoa.

 

She might have sight problems...

 

Rinoa's introduction feels so forced, but she ended up being my favourite character here.

She has a bubbly personality, but unlike Selphie, she's not a complete waste of space and actually has an impact on the story.

 

The last main character is Irvine, who's job it is to reveal that all of them (Except Rinoa) grew up in the same orphanage which they all conveniently forgot about.

No, seriously, that's it.

 

Actually let's talk about the orphanage plot twist now.

Basically it turns out that the 5 main characters grew up in the same orphanage. Everyone except Irvine forgot about it because of GF's apparently. (BTW, that's never explained)

 

This twist is stupid and pointless and actually sums up most of the problems with the story in FF8. It's lazy and doesn't really go anywhere outside Squall and Rinoa.

 

I'll be here all day if I go through the entire story. So I'm gonna point out a scene I did like.

 

No lie, this is the best scene in the game.

 

It's just a shame that it's ruined about 5 minutes later when this happens.

 

Oh, they just happened to find a perfectly working airship while drifting in space?

How terribly convenient!

 

Talk about forced. This game kept making me think "This is really well done" only to do something later on that makes me think "This is really, well, dumb"

 

The story is quite frankly, idiotic. Simple as.

 

So lets get to the last disc already.

 

The final dungeon has a little bit of a twist to it.

Upon entering, almost all of your abilities get sealed, including using magic, drawing, abilities, even the ability to save your game.

You can get them back by finding and beating the many bosses in the castle.

One ability for each boss.

Of course, you can choose to go to the final boss at any time you want.

This is quite inspired, and I genuinely enjoyed this dungeon.

 

...which leads me to my biggest gripe with the game, even more so than drawing.

 

The final boss is nothing but a big middle finger to everything the player has learnt during the course of the game.

 

It's not hard, per se. There are many quick easy strategies to completely decimate her.

My problem is that the boss is cheap.

 

No matter how much you may have junctioned your stats, she likes to spam a move that reduces everyones health to 1. FF6's final boss had the same trick, but only did it once at the start.

Getting hit with that over and over is just plain unfair.

On top of that, she periodically steals a spell off of you, whether it's junctioned or not, so you might just lose your strength junction just because the game felt like it. And there's no way to get it back.

 

But what actually made me angry, made me physically angry at this game was this...

 

What you see here is a character getting "Absorbed into time"

 

What does that mean? Well, you see, if a character gets knocked out, and you're not quick enough in reviving them (And I'm talking quick) they're gone, PERMANENTLY! Like, Fire Emblem permanent.

 

I got my first proper game over because I got unlucky and two of my characters got knocked out at the same time, I didn't have enough time to revive them both, and lost Rinoa, it wasn't long until Squall followed suit.

Leaving me with a Quistis who had had all her healing spells nicked because "LOL, random selection" getting hit by spells that could do 5000 damage.

 

All that effort drawing spells, making my characters absolute powerhouses was effectively spat on because of cheap tricks to hike difficulty. I didn't lose because I wasn't good enough, I lost because I got unlucky. And unless we're playing Mario Party or Mario Kart, that really shouldn't happen.

 

It's offensive, to be frank.

 

So after using a cheap strategy (Spamming Limit Breaks over and over, not very fun), I beat her and got treated to one brain melt of an ending.

 

Specifically, 7:58 to 9:52

 

This is a really cool sequence with some really disturbing "Blink and you'll miss it" images.

Naturally it's made for many theories and one in particular that I think works well is that Squall's been dead since Disc 2, and it was all some sort of fever dream with the ending being some sort of life flashback right before he finally dies.

 

If that was true, the game would make a hell of a lot more sense, because it's damn stupid as it is.

But that would also mean that the writers of this were extremely clever. And DCubed said to me that "That would be giving them far too much credit", which I'm inclined to agree with.

 

So with all that, what do I think of the game? Do I agree with Hero-Of-Time that it's a masterpiece? Or do I go with DCubed's opinion that it's a worthless pile of crap?

 

Well...

 

Ok, maybe not that second part...

 

The game has fantastic points going for it, the visuals are impressive, transitions from in-game to FMV are very well executed, the music is glorious (Except Eyes on Me, that song blows!) and it has some inspired ideas going for it.

But at the same time, it makes some enormous cock-ups, mostly pointless characters, the stupid drawing system, the absolutely baffling layouts of places and the downright insulting final boss all make it irritating at times.

 

I don't regret playing it, but I wouldn't want to go through it again.

 

So quite frankly. The game is OK, nothing more, nothing less.

 

 

Oh, BTW. I also finished Tengami on WiiU. It's neat, got some nice visuals and music, but it's a bit short.

 

And with that...

Lufia: The Legend Returns - GBC

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - WiiU (Not 100%)

Demon's Crest - SNES (Not 100%)

The World Ends With You - DS

Gunman Clive - 3DS

Gunman Clive 2 - 3DS

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - 3DS

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - 3DS

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - 3DS

Banjo-Tooie - N64

Metroid Zero Mission - GBA (Not 100%)

Child of Light - Wii U (Single Character challenge)

Super Smash Bros - 3DS (Everything, baby!)

Super Mario World - SNES

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - 3DS (Credits seen)

Super Mario 64 - N64 (120 stars)

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D - 3DS

Final Fantasy 8 - PS1

Tengami - WiiU

 

[Sheikah]

God damn Glen-i, you are so cynical . I stick by the point where I said you're probably no longer at that point where you take games for what they are, instead over-analysing everything. I very much doubt me and Hero were picking at story holes every second as we played.

 

I mean, going into how unrealistic the gunblade is and saying how pointless Selphie is just too mean. Just enjoy it! Don't be that comic book guy.

 

Regarding getting magic and boosting your stats, it's easy the least tedious in the series! You can break down items into magic, and cards into items (and then magic). 10 tents gives ya 100 curagas right? That takes no more than seconds to accumulate 100 curagas (thousands of HP). Then the isle of heaven/hell with enc-none on = stocked up on magic pretty darn quick.

 

Also Ultimecia doing that absorbing technique was damn epic. I felt utterly gutted when it happened but it made me realise how powerful the boss was. I thought it was a really cool touch! No different to 'eject' in FFX though. They still lived; they were in the ending!

Edited May 5, 2015 by Sheikah

[Glen-i]

God damn Glen-i, you are so cynical . I stick by the point where I said you're probably no longer at that point where you take games for what they are, instead over-analysing everything. I very much doubt me and Hero were picking at story holes every second as we played.

 

I mean, going into how unrealistic the gunblade is and saying how pointless Selphie is just too mean. Just enjoy it! Don't be that comic book guy.

 

Regarding getting magic and boosting your stats, it's easy the least tedious in the series! You can break down items into magic, and cards into items (and then magic). 10 tents gives ya 100 curagas right? That takes no more than seconds to accumulate 100 curagas (thousands of HP). Then the isle of heaven/hell with enc-none on = stocked up on magic pretty darn quick.

 

Also Ultimecia doing that absorbing technique was damn epic. I felt utterly gutted when it happened but it made me realise how powerful the boss was. I thought it was a really cool touch! No different to 'eject' in FFX though. They still lived; they were in the ending!

 

Did I not say that it was OK?

I did enjoy it, it was fun especially after I figured out the magic refining. (Game never explains that) But I'm not going to ignore it's flaws.

And you're picking and choosing bits of my arguments.

What about the pre-rendered backgrounds not conveying where you can go?

What about the sheer unlikeable nature of Squall?

And excuse me, but in a story-driven game, I think I have every right to point out glaringly massive plot holes and convenient Deus-Ex-Machina's.

Of which there are many.

 

And what about the many things I liked about the game?

What about Quistis and Rinoa, who I genuinely liked?

The visuals, the music, the great junction system, the well-crafted transitions from in-game to FMV's.

And the really cool and trippy ending!

 

In fact, I even pointed out that I accidently discovered that I could refine magic on disc 3, so I have to question whether you read the whole thing or whether you just looked for negatives!

 

And you have to remember one more thing.

 

I had never played this game before!

 

Do you actually expect me to understand every little detail of this game after one playthrough?

I mean, what the hell are you on about with the Isle of Heaven/Hell? That means nothing to me. No normal player is going to know about that!

 

The game is good, when it gets things right, it's a lot of fun, but it's let down by quite a few things and I'll be damned if I'm not going to voice my opinion on it just because you think I should have known better.

[Sheikah]

Regarding picking and choosing, your post was really very long and I was just pointing at those particular things to show you that (IMO) you're over-analysing the game to the point you probably haven't enjoyed the game as much as you could have. I could by the same reckoning say that as Bloodborne doesn't teach you much at all about its systems (like junctioning in FF8) that it is flawed/annoying. Or I could just learn its system and enjoy it!

 

I guess what I'm saying is that you could be this critical about an awful lot of games, and the only one who loses is the person with that mindset. How can Cloud carry such a heavy sword? Why does King Zora take so long to move out the way? Why must we tediously sharpen our weapons part way through fights in MH?

 

I get that there are many things you like in the game, and I liked those things to, but with some of the things it kinda feels like if you weren't so critical you might have walked away thinking it was a bit better than an 'ok' game. I look back on this game really fondly and it's a little sad to see it picked apart like that! Approach its slightly silly plot twist (and Selphie) with a smile and the game is a lot more fun for it.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Sheikah

[Dcubed]

Bravo @Glen\-i! Glad you enjoyed it more than I did : peace:

 

It does indeed have some good points going for it that you rightfully point out, I just simply can't stand the tedium myself though. It's just such a black mark on the game for me that it literally feels torturous for me to play, but I'm glad that you were able to get past that and see the good bits for what they were!

 

Surprised that you didn't mention anything about Laguna though (or the hilarious porn sounding music for the military facility that they sneak into )

 

But yeah... The bad points really do deserve to be pointed out for what they are. And they are really bad in this game!

 

Thankfully FF9 and FF10 are much better games, so it's still up from here!

 

Oh and I played through Tengami as well. Really nice little "short story" game, with some clever puzzles, beautiful visuals and DAT David Wise soundtrack!

 

Well worth a punt for anyone looking for a clever little atmospheric and relaxing game!

 

Mario Golf Advance Tour

Golden Sun

Super Mario World

Layton VS Ace Attorney

Kirby Triple Deluxe

Kirby's Adventure Wii (100/200%)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (120 stars)

Tengami

 

 

Currently playing though: Majora's Mask 3D, Alien Isolation, Super Mario 64, Monster Hunter 4U (counts as "complete" when I see the credits I suppose :p ), Boxboy, Prof Layton & The Azran Legacy

Edited May 5, 2015 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

I just noticed this bit...

 

Do you actually expect me to understand every little detail of this game after one playthrough?

I mean, what the hell are you on about with the Isle of Heaven/Hell? That means nothing to me. No normal player is going to know about that!

 

This saddens me.

 

Did you not explore those segregated islands you could only get to with an airship? Did you not get Bahamut (even more obscurely placed than the two islands I mentioned). The old school FF games with their traditional world maps were an explorers dream!

[Glen-i]

Did you not explore those segregated islands you could only get to with an airship? Did you not get Bahamut (even more obscurely placed than the two islands I mentioned). The old school FF games with their traditional world maps were an explorers dream!

 

Right, OK. I should have pointed this out really. My bad.

 

I got almost every single GF in the game.

Including Bahamut and Eden (Drawn from Ultima Weapon)

I even got Odin and whoever replaced him once he got offed by Seifer.

And Cactuar.

 

I do try, you know? But I'm not gonna 100% a game that can be extremely obscure. (A lot of RPG's are guilty of this, especially around this time, I'm guessing they really wanted people to buy the guides.)

 

I was missing two of the ones you can junction, the one placed to the left of Eden and the one placed on the left of Bahamut.

Actually, you just reminded me of something that I never figured out.

There was this ring I picked up, apparently there was a GF in there, but I could never get it to work...

[Jimbob]

Started, and finished Never Alone: Kisima Inŋitchuŋa yesterday. Overall, it wasn't too bad. I enjoyed them culteral insight videos, really added some depth to the game. It did feel like a David Attenborough documentary in video game format, took me about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to complete. Playing it on my own, it did feel a little fiddly in places, especially when switching between characters. Would be best suited to co-op play really, but none the less i was happy enough to play and finish it.

[Sheikah]

It seems like you probably looked some stuff up then but not the "how to make junctioning easy as pie", since you did it the enemy route. Oh well.

 

That ring does indeed lead to a GF but you had to collect all the occult fan magazines to work it out.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Sheikah

[nekunando]

I finished Kirby's Epic Yarn 100% this morning.. and it's such a good game

 

 

I had basically considered the game to be done when I cleared the main game a few years ago but going back to it recently really opened my eyes to how wonderful the game actually is. I also managed to more than double my play time in hunting down the remaining patches, treasures, furniture and fabrics

 

 

This has honestly become one of my favourite Wii games and I'm now ridiculously hyped for Yoshi's Woolly World

[Glen-i]

It seems like you probably looked some stuff up then but not the "how to make junctioning easy as pie", since you did it the enemy route. Oh well.

 

That ring does indeed lead to a GF but you had to collect all the occult fan magazines to work it out.

 

Only when I had absolutely no idea where to go.

Trying to find Edea's house was painful. And for those moments when the pre-rendered backgrounds made it impossible to tell where I could go.

 

And for the fourth time, I did figure out item refining at disc 3 and it did make the game progress more smoothly, but the game made no effort to tell me this during it's tutorial sections!

[Sheikah]

Dude I'm not ignoring you, but you went on about how drawing magic from enemies was painful, which made it seem like you'd spent ages doing that when you didn't need to. I'm sure farming single rupees from shrubs in Zelda is not the way to go either in order to get money but I wouldn't do it for ages, realise hours later that there was a better way of getting money and then complain that shrub cutting is a negative point for the game and that the game should have handed you a premonition that there would be an easier way to do it in future. Ca'maan.

 

It's an RPG, the endgame always opens up and makes doing anything in the first half seem pretty trivial.

[Glen-i]

Dude I'm not ignoring you, but you went on about how drawing magic from enemies was painful, which made it seem like you'd spent ages doing that when you didn't need to. I'm sure farming single rupees from shrubs in Zelda is not the way to go either in order to get money but I wouldn't do it for ages, realise hours later that there was a better way of getting money and then complain that shrub cutting is a negative point for the game and that the game should have handed you a premonition that there would be an easier way to do it in future. Ca'maan.

 

Maybe with enemies, but think about the bosses.

When I fought Cerberus, I noticed I could draw a spell called Triple.

I had no idea whether I'd be able to easily get this or not. So I drew it like mad.

 

Turns out it was actually quite difficult to refine and it's an awesome bit of magic. So I'm glad I went through that tedium.

 

Another example is Ultima, that's almost impossible to refine. (Naturally, of course, it is Ultima)

My point is that sometimes, drawing is the only way to reasonably get some magic and that's tedious.

 

Unlike rupee farming in Zelda, to even stand a reasonable chance in this game, you'll have to do some drawing. Yes, I did go overkill at times before I knew about refining, and yes my ignorance was partly to blame. But it is a big part of the battle system. The game also suggests that this is the ideal way to get magic.