drahkon Posted January 31, 2022 Author Posted January 31, 2022 2 minutes ago, bob said: Are you going to be playing the side games like ODST and Reach? Already played Reach and the plan is to play ODST, as well. We're playing the Master Chief Collection: Reach, Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 4. We'll probably have to wait with the last two games, 'cause our Gamepass subscription is running out and we'll wait for another 1€ offer.
drahkon Posted February 1, 2022 Author Posted February 1, 2022 (edited) And another one Easily the best of the first three mainline games. It was very slow until the halfway point, but ramped up quickly after that. The final mission, man...the first parts were atrocious and boring. The final bit was spectacular Spoiler Yup, this was me. I'm the best And my mate fell victim to some clipping shenanigans: Yeah, The Flood is still boring as fuck. Basically zombies in different coating Really hope we won't see any of it in Halo 4. Speaking of, I wonder what the story will be given that the third installment had a pretty conclusive ending. Anyways, not sure if we'll be able to play more in the near future as our Gamepass subscriptions will end soon. But another 1€ offer surely won't be taking too long to arrive Edited February 1, 2022 by drahkon 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 1, 2022 Posted February 1, 2022 You've finished the fight. Now it's best to just pretend the series ended there. The age of 343 handling the series begins with 4 and it's all down hill from there. I recommend playing Halo Wars. I'm trying to remember if it has co-op or not but it's well worth a go. 1
Aperson Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) So in January I went a bit mad with buying games and increasing my backlog. I saw Celeste going cheap on PS5 and having had the game on my wishlist for years I decided to finally buy it. The catch? I want to beat Super Meat Boy first. I did delve into the PS5's free game, Astro's Playroom. Fantastic little game, feels like Super Mario Galaxy in many ways! Lots of cool little easter eggs in the game... and a singing GPU. I have finished this game now. Then Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel got released and I caved and downloaded that, also on PS5. I built one deck (Rokkets) and was able to rank up a bit. I stopped playing it once Legends Arceus came out. So yeah, now Pokemon Legends Arceus is my main game but I also bought Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart on the same day, I was going to get it at some point after all. And this doesn't even account for the fact that I bought Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars on Wii U VC before they stopped taking credit. All this while also working on two Rivals of Aether character mods, as well as Meat Boy I'm also doing this... Edited February 2, 2022 by Aperson 1 1
killthenet Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 To kick off the New Year I decided to bite the bullet and play Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I'd never played as Assassin's Creed game before but Valhalla came in my PS5 bundle and I was interested in exploring ancient England but the reports of a really bloated playtime made me hesitate on starting it but with the start of the New Year I figured there was no better time to give it a go. Initial impressions weren't stellar, visually it was decent enough but the writing was a bit cringeworthy and the combat seemed pretty sluggish, but my biggest complaint was how clunky Eivor's movement felt. Actually navigating the world, whether on foot or by boat, was a bit of a chore that never really improved as the game wore on (I was very thankful for the auto pilot feature on the longship in the end, it saved a lot of frustration when reaching some of the further settlements). I did start to enjoy raids and battles as the game wore on but the loop became quite repetitive, speaking with Randvi to pledge to a new region, meeting the key players and following the predictable twists and turns of their conflicts to earn their allegiance, it all becomes routine very quickly and it was never really clear what the point of it all was - I never really felt any narrative or character motivation to do so, it felt like a checklist that needed to be ticked off to reach the requisite level to progress further. It meant that when conflicts broke out within the camp they felt very sudden and forced, not taking into account the decisions that I was making as Eivor (most notably when Sigurd is absent and Dag accuses Eivor of trying to usurp the throne). I got some enjoyment out of the game, exploring the truncated Anglo Saxon England and the numerous historic sites was interesting at times and learning more about Viking culture made it feel worth it at times but it dragged on for too long and, when the narrative finally ended I didn't feel particularly satisfied. I'm interested to show the game to my Dad and give him a tour of the more interesting sites and I might well pick up the Ezio Collection on Switch when that comes out to see what the earlier entries in the franchise were like, but I don't have much desire to check out any recent entries like Origins and Odyssey. One thing I need to say is that the conceit of the Animus seems entirely superfluous, I don't know why they couldn't just make the game a straight up historical/fantasy, why introduce this whole other layer of reality to it? It was so jarring to suddenly wake up in a cabin in America as a whole different character, I suppose it might have been implemented better in earlier entries but it seemed so unnecessary to me as a new player. I got Carrion on Switch for Christmas so I decided to play that next, I had been intrigued by its reverse horror concept in the lead up to release but the muted reaction to it upon release definitely took it off my radar to some extent but actually playing it I really enjoyed it. It has it's problems, the controls can be a bit clunky (utilising the blobs abilities can get a bit fiddly at times) but the presentation is fantastic, teaming gorgeous pixel art with a brooding score that marry nicely with the concept to create something quite unique. Although it starts out as mindless carnage, an intriguing narrative is teased at through the world design and augmented through interactive 'flashback' sections where you take control of the human's who first investigated the mysterious alien specimen. Nothing about the game is earth shattering and the developers could have followed through more convincingly on the concept, but after the bloat of Valhalla it was a breath of fresh air to play something to concise and simple, and the act of moving around as the horrific alien blob manages to stay enjoyable right through the end of the game. I plugged my Wii U in to play another GBA game I missed on the Virtual Console, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. At first I was a bit baffled by its structure, unlike earlier entries in the series Amazing Mirror adopts a Metroidvania style which made navigating and completing levels a little confusing to begin with (a problem exacerbated by playing on VC - I'm sure if I'd had a boxed copy I would have discovered how to look at the map sooner than I did here). As soon as I found the map function though everything clicked and I was having a blast exploring the interconnected levels, it takes everything great about the previous entries and builds on them with excellent level design and some brilliant new copy abilities (I loved the 'Smash' ability tribute to Sakurai's other legendary series), my enjoyment helped enormously by the stunning visuals and music, as with The Minish Cap the sprites are so expressive and charming that it was always a joy to look at. I've been slowly working my way through every entry in the Kirby series (trying to go chronologically) and Amazing Mirror is right up there for me, alongside Super Star and Adventure and I had a huge smile on my face when the credits rolled. Lastly this month I played through Desert Child on Switch. It's one of those games that I discovered while browsing the eShop, the art style immediately standing out to me. Truthfully I didn't really know what kind of game it was when I started it up, the screenshots showed hoverbikes but there also looked to be on foot exploration so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Ostensibly, Desert Child is a futuristic racing game, where you're tasked with competing in hoverbike races in a quest to become Martian Grand Prix champion but that is only half the story - you start out as a penniless wannabe racer on Earth, needing to win enough cash in low level races to buy a ticket to Mars. The races themselves are quite fast paced and visually stunning, the gorgeous pixel art really pops in motion as you race from left to right, moving vertically across the track to dodge obstacles and destroy floating TV's to earn extra cash and gain extra speed. There is an element of budget balancing too, the more damage your bike accrues, the slower your max boost level is, meaning that you need to spend some of your winnings on repairing your ride, eating into your savings. Similarly, as time wears on you grow steadily hungrier, leading to another expense to pay out (I never stayed at 100% hunger for long so I'm not sure what the consequences were exactly) but earning the $500 for a ticket to Mars is actually quite trivial - it is only when you get to Mars that the realities of the grind set in. In order to compete in the Grand Prix you need to pay a $10,000 entry fee, dictating that you explore the new environment to seek out the wide variety of opportunities to earn some cash. Exploring the settlements on foot is a bit sluggish but the environments are vibrant enough that it doesn't feel like too much of a chore but earning the vast sums can feel like a bit of grind (each 'job' takes the form of a racing segment but can range from standard races to delivering pizzas, rounding up Kangaroo's, catching wanted criminals or taking a bung to throw a race. It definitely became a bit repetitive but I still found enjoyment in the racing and the grind gives you plenty of opportunity to improve your skills heading into the glittering Grand Prix. The culmination was a bit of an anti-climax, it's a knockout format so there are only 3 races between you and the championship so it was all over a little too quickly for my liking, the bulk of the gameplay in Desert Child definitely comes from taking on odd jobs to earn cash and it's more of a solid 7/10 than anything spectacular but the arresting visuals & music, combined with the hilarious writing and vibrant world design made a real impression on me - it's one of the more unique games I've played in a long while. After the positive reception to Pokemon Legends: Arceus I decided to give it a go so I'm playing through that at the moment, hopefully afterwards I'll be able to get to some of the games that have been gathering dust on my backlog for a while before I inevitably get sucked into Elden Ring at the end of the month. 2 1
drahkon Posted February 2, 2022 Author Posted February 2, 2022 17 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: You've finished the fight. Now it's best to just pretend the series ended there. The age of 343 handling the series begins with 4 and it's all down hill from there. I recommend playing Halo Wars. I'm trying to remember if it has co-op or not but it's well worth a go. We're still gonna play Halo 4 Not getting any advice from someone who plays Returnal without the DualSense's features Halo Wars is a strategy game, right? If it has co-op we might actually give it a go. 1
Cube Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 I'm currently going though the Halo games with my girlfriend. Currently on Halo ODST. Halo 3 is the best, although Halo 2 was really disappointing. Nobody Saves The World Nobody Saves The World starts off looking a lot like a 2D Zelda game. You’ve lost your memories and a calamity is happening, the bigwig wizard has gone missing. You manage to find his wand and set out to save the world yourself. While Nobody Saves The World has some Zelda-like elements, it is much more combat oriented. The combat is done through the magic wand’s shape-shifting abilities: throughout the game you will unlock different forms, both animal (like a rat or a horse) or various human forms (like a sword-wielding guard or bow-wielding ranger). After the first major dungeon, you will unlock a key ability which makes the combat extremely interesting: you can customise the abilities that each form has with passive buffs or attacks from other forms, leading to some interesting combos. Levelling up each form requires completing challenges, some of which will require these different abilities or require you to do damage of a different type to what that form usually does. The regular dungeons in this are prodecudally generated, although the modifiers will always be the same for each one, as are the ward types you’ll find (these protect enemies until you hit them once with that attack type). These will be the main way of levelling up your forms, and they’re actually optional for the most part (although you’ll want to complete them for quests and levelling up). One of the biggest issues I have with Nobody Saves The World is changing forms. There’s a quick menu, but once you get more forms than will fit on the wheel, you can no longer keep track of where each form is (it changes when you pick a form not on the wheel), and will have to go into the pause menu each time. Furthermore, it also doesn't slow or pause the game, meaning that in combat you’ll definitely want to use the pause menu. I think if you could pin forms on the wheel, and the wheel paused the game, it would create more combat variety even greater. Another great option would be to have tapping the button swap to the last used form. Nobody Saves The World can feel tedious while grinding, but the different forms and the humour of the story and side missions help to alleviate it. It’s a really fun game with lots of ways to tailor the experience. Hitman 3 The third game in the new Hitman trilogy, and also the weakest. This instalment doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, it’s just more of the same, and unfortunately it retains the same issues: the levels just take too long to complete. I loved replaying levels in the previous games, but I find the length of them in this new trilogy to be extremely off-putting. The progression (which is online-only, you’ll lose it if you aren’t connected to the internet) just feels pointless, too. You unlock new things to use in the specific levels, but it doesn’t feel as rewarding as unlocking equipment in Silent Assassin. Out of the new levels, Dartmoor is pretty good, although strangely the main appeal of the level (the murder mystery) is completely optional and not actually relevant to the objectives in any way. The China level I feel could have been two great individual levels, I don’t see why they needed to be merged together. The Vinyard level is probably the best level, while the final level is the worst in the trilogy: a linear corridor shooter. I really hope Hitman can return to the “lots of small varied levels” like Silent Assassin some day. Death's Door Death’s Door has some beautiful graphics, an interesting setting…but the gameplay is just really dull and tedious. This is the kind of game that I find difficult to talk about because it’s not exactly bad, just boring. 1 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 At the very start of the year I set myself a few gaming related targets. Some are pretty achievable, others not so much. I'll be happy if I can get through at least half of them. Quote Play The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 Both of these highly rated games have been on my to play list for a while now. I still don’t even own Red Dead Redemption 2. I would like to get through one of these hefty games sometime this year. The Witcher 3 would be the better choice of the two mainly because I actually own it and it would cross off the RPG for that month. Reach 500 Platinums Out of all of the tasks I’ve set myself, this is the one that is probably most achievable. It requires me to gain another 18 platinum trophies before the end of the year and with me recently picking up a PS5, this task should be one that I will be able to cross off the list. I need to have a think about which game is worthy of the 500th spot but I think I already have a fitting title lined up... Play an RPG every month This is something I’ve tried to do for the past 2 years and I’ve failed both times. I think the problem occurs when I get a few months in and start to get burnt out. These games tend to be on the lengthy side, not to mention most of the genre seem to come with stupid trophies that require multiple playthroughs. I’ve got loads of JRPGs just waiting to be played but it’s setting aside the time to play them. I think a good way to approach this would be to play a smaller RPG and then a larger one the next month. I’m think, rather than trying to do one a month, that instead I should just aim to play 12 throughout the year. That gives me a little bit of breathing room. Here's a list of what's currently waiting, at least on the PS4, not to mention the games i've still got sealed on the shelf. Platinum Yakuza 0 This was one of my favourite games in recent years and it pains me that I never got the platinum for it. I tried achieving this last Summer and managed to do all of the sidequests and mini games, some of which were absolute torture to complete. I think all that’s left to do is play through the game again on the hardest difficulty, get the trophy for the ridiculous RNG based catfight mini game and complete the climax battles. Get through all of Housemarque’s games A couple of years back I dug into my PS4 backlog and finally played through Resogun, a game that I completely fell in love with. A few months later and I played through Alienation. Both of these cemented my love for the studio. Last year I played through Nex Machina and this year one of the first games that I’ve started playing is Matterfall. That leaves Superstar Dust HD, Dead Nation and Returnal to play. I’ve got Returnal ready and waiting on the shelf but I’ll need to pick the other two up. Play Hades This game gets high praise across the board and it would be weird of me not to give it a go. However, before I allow myself to play Hades I want to finally play Pyre. I’ve had it on my backlog for years now and using it as a barrier to cross before getting to Hades may be the kick up the butt I need to finally get it off my backlog. I absolutely adored Bastion, really enjoyed Transistor and so I image I would like the rest of the studio’s output. Play Resident Evil 7 I’ve been a huge R Evil fan all of my life and have enjoyed all of the mainline entries in the series. Yes, even 6, which I do think gets treated very unfairly. Anyway, when VII was announced as being in first-person I knew I was going to struggle to play this. I hate this view point for horror games. With the graphics being very realistic, coupled with this viewpoint, I never touched the game due to being too scared. However, I finally bought the game in November and now I just need to find a way to play through it without having a heart attack. I think it will make a nice Summer game, what with it being nice a bright outside. Get through every Shantae game I really need to play this series. I've only played one of them back on the Wii U and I loved it to bits. I've no idea what has been stopping me from playing the rest of the series. That being the case, this year I will set out to play the whole series. The first game is supposed ot be hitting the PS4/PS5 at some point this year and that will mean all of the games will finally be on the PlayStation. Play Judgment With no new Yakuza games currently on the horizon, now would be a great time to finally play the two Judgment games. I'll not task myself with going through both but I definitely want to play the first. It's criminal that I love Yakuza and have yet to play through this yet. Platinum every game that I play This is a wild one and I’d be amazed if I actually pulled this off. If a game doesn't have a platinum then I have to get 100% of the trophies, minus any DLC, of course. There's been a few times when I was closing to achieving this but a handful of games always stopped me from doing so. With that out of the way, here's what I played in January, with some of this list being the focus. I'll slap everything in a spoiler tag as to not crowd up the place. There's lots of pics and videos. Spoiler The first game that I cleared this year was Guardians of the Galaxy. This popped up on a fair few outlets GOTY lists and I can see why. Eidos Montreal have really managed to capture the feel, look and humour of the GotG comics/movies. The worlds that you visit are varied and surprisingly colourful, as are the enemies. This is something that The Avengers game completely missed the mark on, with many enemies and designs just being very bland and boring. The banter between each of the characters during cutscenes, and even when just in battle or exploring, is spot on. There’s plenty of ribbing going on and gags that run throughout the game. The back and forth between them all is ridiculously well done. When playing the game you can fill up a special gauge. Once full, you can unleash a special move that involves all of your team and gives you access to their special moves more often. What makes this great is that StarLord will play a song from his mix tape during this whole process in order to motivate the team. I had a hilarious moment during a very intense battle where I used this special move and Wake Me Up by Wham! Starting playing. There I was, in the fight of my life and all I heard was...well...you can see for yourself. That's if you can make out the shoddy Twitter compression. I honestly just burst out laughing. There were some minor complaints from people who didn’t like the fact that you are stuck playing as Starlord but this didn’t bother me. You have the rest of your team at your disposal for a variety of moves and I’d much rather have a more focused and polished game than trying to bite off more than you can chew and make the game playable with every character. Another complaint from a few people was the length of the game. Some thought that it was overly long but at around 20 hours long I thought it was the perfect length. The story really keeps you hooked and it didn’t really drag for me. Sure, some of the combat encounters may feel repetitive as the game progresses but because everything else about the game is top notch then it’s easy to forgive such a thing. I think this is definitely a case where the games initial showing, as well as the ones after it, didn’t do the game any justice at all. Most people have said that this game took them by surprise in terms of the quality of the game, story and characters and I can see why. If you are a fan of the GOTG or MCU then this is highly recommended. It’s a good lesson in not writing off a game too quickly. Spoiler One of my goals for the year is to get through the rest of Housemarque’s offerings and next on my backlog was Matterfall. Many consider this to be Housemarque’s weakest entry on the modern platforms but I actually found this to be more fun than Resogun. Also, I think the quality of their games is so high, even if there is a small dip, their games are still better than most of what’s on the market. The game is a 2D run and gun game. I kind of see it as Housemarque’s take on the Contra series. You have to make you way through each of the stages, dodging bullets, rescuing humans and generally just trying to get a high score. You can do this by using your standard weapons and abilities but if you take the time to explore and go looking for the trapped humans you will be rewarded with new gear. You can equip 3 of these on your character and you can switch them as you see fit. Coming to an area where you will be swarmed by enemies? Equip the homing shot. Need to do big damage to a single enemy? Then the rail cannon is the way to go. Struggling to get through a section of the game? Give yourself a couple of extra health points. There is a good amount of customisation on offer and you can easily tailor your experience to how you want to play. There are 9 stages and 3 boss fights to contend with throughout the game. If playing on the standard setting then you will breeze through these in no time. However, this is where the trophies come into play. If going for the platinum, you will need to play through the game on Veteran difficulty but also finish each boss and stage without dying. With the right setup this isn’t as difficult as it may sound on paper. Plus, I ran through the game on the standard difficulty first in order to get a feel for the mechanics and each of the stages. If you do manage to pull that off then comes the difficult task of finishing the game on Master difficulty, whilst also having to get through the stages in a set time. Basically, you have to speed run through the game (times a pretty lenient) but also not take a single hit. Yup, on this difficulty one hit means you die and back to the checkpoint you go. You also have the extra challenge of when killing certain enemies they will explode and send a projectile you way. Fun times. This definitely took some doing but there was definitely a sense of satisfaction finally achieving this. Managing your setup is critical if you are to attempt this. This is the first boss in the game on the Master difficulty setting to give a taste what what needed to be done. This was the easiest one as well. That’s another Housemarque game in the bag and it’s another fantastic game from them. Definitely a strong recommend from me. Oh, and the OST is phenomenal. Check it out. Spoiler This was an RPG that I picked up last year when it was on sale. It’s an indie, 16-bit inspired JRPG that was talked about on a podcast I was listening to. They were saying how good it was and when looking on the internet for other opinions it seemed that the praise was high for the game across the board. They weren't wrong. There are lots of indie developers who try to recapture the feel of JRPGs from the 16bit era and a lot of them fail but the people who made were right on the money. Things are kept simple, with a small party of 4 for you to control. The battle system is fairly straight forward as well, with real gimmicks or curve balls to speak of. What i did like about the battle sis the fact that the game heals all of your team members after each fight. It keeps things moving at a fast pace as you don't have to faff about with healing outside of battles. When you level up you have a large amount of play with how you spend each of your ability points. I tried to keep all members balanced but you could concentrate on a a couple of stats and just make that character an expert in those. The game does allow for grinding (yay) and so you can grind levels and ability points until your heart is content. Should you want to change your ability point distribution then you can speak to an NPC and get them to respec them for you. Graphically, the game is gorgeous. Again, they've done a great job of making the game look like it was on the SNES or Mega Drive. The game is well worth a punt. I think I paid around £4.00 for it and got a good 15-20 hours out of it. It's on PS4 and think it's also on PC and Switch. It kinda reminded me of Cosmic Star Heroine, in that the developers understood what made RPGs in that era great and then made one for a modern platform. Spoiler Hell of a game. I was really looking forward to playing this when it was first revealed and it did disappoint. Once released, there was lots of talk about how the game felt like a PS2/GameCube era game, but in the best way. I can certain see what people were getting at. The game is large but without going to open world. It kinda reminded me a little of the original Jak and Daxter game in that there was a main village that branched out to make way for different stages. I bought it on the PS5 and the game looks stunning. The character animations, lighting and scenery all look fantastic. This small team of developers really had a concrete vision of what they wanted to achieve here and they've put a lot of the AAA space to shame. There's a lot of colour and imagination shown with this game. When playing it I certainly got a Disney vibe to it. It felt like a cross between something like Raya and Moana. Beneath the cute and cuddly exterior lies a very brutal surprise for people. Playing through the game on the standard difficulty is pretty tough, with boss battles proving challenging a lot of the time. You really need to learn your moves and time your dodges in order to overcome these battles. If people struggled with the standard difficulty then the next one up is going to prove brutal. In order to get the platinum you have to play through the game on this difficulty and let me tell you that it ain't no joke. The game's boss fights go into pure Dark Souls mode. I kid you not. You need to learn how to roll and parry in order to make any head way. The bosses are more aggressive, do more damage and have more health. There re lots of people complaining about of hard it is and want the developers to lower the difficulty. It's very doable but you just need to have patience and dedication. It's a shame there was a glitch when the game first was released that allowed early adopters to by pass this difficulty and unlock the trophy. It would have been interesting to see what the platinum percentage would have actually been had players had to do it the hard way. The only negative I have about the game is in order to unlock the harder difficulty you have to play through the game once. It really should have been unlocked from the start, especially as the game is around 20 hours long. Saying that, playing through it on the standard difficulty first certainly got me prepared for what was ahead. If you aren't bothered about the trophies then this isn't really a problem though. Another highly recommended game. Spoiler Another one of my goals for this year is to play through the Shantae series. I’ve only played through ½ Genie Hero and even though I loved it to bits, I never did get around to playing any of the others. The original game is supposed to be hitting PS4/PS5 this year and so I figured now would be a good time to try and play through the whole lot of them. Risky’s Revenge was on sale and so that’s the one I decided to start with. It also makes sense seeing it’s the first in the series that can actually be bought at the moment. From the start I was a little worried about how I would get one with the whole jumping back and forth between the different backgrounds and foregrounds. The opening town was fine but one of the earlier areas in the game has you trek through a forest that features many of these panels to jump back and forth between. I was actually surprised to see that this isn’t a feature that carries out throughout the whole game. I thought it was going to feature quite heavily but it’s only in a couple of areas. The game features 2 towers that have to be trekked through, with one being an enemy gauntlet and the other being puzzle based. The enemy one was handy for grabbing gems in order to buy all the gear. I had to run through that a few times in order to buy all of the upgrades. The other tower was for pushing the story forward and was mainly puzzle solving that involved hitting switches to create different doorways. I mention these two towers because other than these I found the game really lacked anything else substantial. It was more of a case of getting the different transformations and then going back and forth across the overworld and looking for different pathways. I found ½ Genie Hero’s more linear approach more enjoyable and appealing to me. The game didn’t have a platinum trophy but I enjoyed getting 100% of the game, mainly because it required me to master the routes I took and speed run the game. I had to play through the whole thing 3 different times. First was just a normal run, second was beating it in under 2 hours and the final run was getting 100% of the items but also finishing it under 4 hours. I usually despise speed running games but I quite enjoyed doing it on this game. Spoiler I originally played through this game when it was released on the Switch. I played the sequel on the PS4 and figured I may as well pick up the original game for the same console, just so I have both on one machine. Plus, I played Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on the PS4 as well. I had a great time with this. On the Switch version I don't think I bothered finishing the game with all of the characters to get all of the endings. I'm pretty sure I played it and then called it a day but with this version, despite there being no platinum, I decided to see all the endings. This required me to finish the game around 6 times. You would think it would become a little tedious but the game plays so well and is so snappy ( get through it in under an hour once you know what you're doing ) that it was a joy to do. Some of the runs were quite difficult, especially when you have all of your extra playable characters stripped away from you and you are left on your own. I loved hearing the 8bit version of the opening song from Ritual of the Night. Brilliant stuff. Inti Creates done such a good job on this and it's sequel, i'd love for them to return to the franchise and make a trilogy of it. Spoiler Another day, another Housemarque game done and dusted. This one is one of their older titles and as such I was expecting a dip in quality, with the game not being refined as something like Resogun. That wasn’t the case at all. Once again, fast paced, frantic, bullet hell action was on the cards and once again it didn’t disappoint. You play as a ship that is circling a sphere. It’s your job to take down all of the asteroids and enemies that you get bombarded with. It starts off pretty simple but you can get quickly overwhelmed if you don’t keep on top of things. It’s all well and good trying to blow up the asteroids but this causes them to break up into smaller pieces, making for quite a chaotic setting, especially if you have fast moving enemies on the playing field. In terms of dealing with the enemies are asteroids, you have 3 sets of weapons at your disposal. You have a wide spread shot that is good for normal asteroids, and more condensed shot for ice asteroids and a kind of fire/laser beam for the gold asteroids. To power each of these up you need to destroy the green asteroids that are usually housed in the larger rocks. The different shots are more effective for their relevant asteroids but you can still use whatever weapon you want if it fits you play style. As always, some of the trophies that are on offer here can be quite tricky. There’s one for getting a score multiplier of x10. To achieve this you can’t get hit at all and have to make it to stage 4 of 5. By that time things can get pretty dicey and so you really need to concentrate in order to hit the multiplier level. Another trophy asks you to pick up a shield and find another 5 and destroy them whilst you still have the shield around you. To unlock this you have to play quite aggressively. This is due to each of the asteroids having a hidden timer built into their drops. The faster you can get rid of them then the better the item they will drop. This is another fantastic game that Housemarque have produced and after playing through this I can now certainly see elements of it in Resogun. It feels like as I play the older games I can see the bits they obviously liked and then implemented them into their more recent titles. Spoiler Last year I played through both the Panzer Dragoon remake and Alex Kidd remake, both of which were average and disappointed me. Monster World IV got the remake treatment but I have yet to play through the game. Instead, I decided to play through the original game which came as a free download with the disc version of the remake. What a fantastic little platformer/adventure game this was. It certainly it's the nostalgia buttons when I was playing it. Granted, i've not played through the original before but it took me back to my younger days playing titles similar to this on my Mega Drive and SNES. Like games of that era, the difficulty can be a little brutal at times. There are save points scattered throughout the game but some of these require you to go through very long sections. There's certainly a lot of trial and error involved and you have to be at the top of your platforming game by the the end stages. The game looks really lovely, even by today's indie standards. I imagine the graphics and animations were talked about a lot in the play ground back in the 90's. Here's a few snaps I took. Lovely stuff. I've got the remake to play but I imagine it wont look half as good as this. Spoiler The game was a part of January’s PS+ line up and it’s been a long time since I placed a racer like this, I figured I would give it a whirl. The game was a pleasant surprise. There’s is quite a bit of variety to the races, with some being a flat out race, some events have you trying to make you way around a very rocky terrain and others set you in a small arena where you must perform drifts and tricks in order to rack up a score. I was terrible at those kind of events and was happy with to just grab the bare minimum score to place 3rd and then just let the clock wind down. Despite having a PS5, I decided to play on the PS4 version of the game, that way I could earn the platinum on the PS5 by simply throwing my save on to it. The PS4 version of the game still ran fine and the graphics were pretty good. Some of the night time racers looked amazing as you skidded around the illuminated ice and fireworks went off in the sky. Lovely stuff. I love car games that allow a large amount of customization in regards to how you play and this certainly allows for that. You can alter the main difficulty, which effects the rubberbanding on the AI. There's also things like auto braking and auto corrective steering that ca be toggled. Back on the original Xbox, Forza Motorsport was one of the first games I played that allowed for such things and i'm glad to see that other publishers have added them into their car games as well. I tend to suck at racing games and so being able to play with settings like these allowed for me to drive how I wanted. This usually entails me going as fast as I can and then using a barrier or another car to bounce off and then turn the corner. What? Blame Robert DuvalI. I grew up watching Days of Thunder! Spoiler Nope. Not a patch on the original. What can I say about this amazing game that hasn't already been said? I was overjoyed to see this was heading for the service and it was one of the reasons why subscribed to it. Playing it again just fills me with joy and a nostalgia overload. It's a much better game than Mario 64 but then Rare had the privilege of seeing how things could work before they released their game. Grant Kirkhope's work in this game is outstanding. Both Freezeezy Peak and Rusty Bucket Bay are both something very special. Spoiler This was my final Housemarque game that I needed to finish before I could start Returnal and it was a doozy. It's a top down shooter and plays very much like their semi-sequel, Alienation. Alienation was a little faster and allowed for the player zip around the map but here its a much more slower and calculated game. I was honestly shocked just how different this feels from every other game that they have made. I suppose it makes sense seeing as this was one of their earliest titles back on the PS3. The game pits you against hordes of zombies/monsters and you have to make your way through each of the maps. Killing enemies, looting chests and finding items allows for you to upgrade your weapons throughout your journey. On my first run through the game I really was a novice and didn't see the value in buying and upgrading things like flares, grenades and mines. It wasn't until near the end where I realised the mistake I had made and it proved to be quite challenging to finish the game, especially as I had put it on the hardest setting that was available at the time. To unlock the trophies I had to play through the game again on the newly unlocked higher difficulty. Before I done this I played through it on the easiest difficulty in order to find all the collectibles and so I wouldn't have to worry about them when faced off with a ravenous horde of flesh eaters. I was surprised to see that none of your weapon upgrades carried over. That meant i'd have to start from scratch both on this difficulty and on the harder one. Thankfully, I had learnt my lesson and was well prepared. Upgrading my standard gun to the max, followed by flares, mines and grenades made short work of a lot of the hordes and larger enemies. After that, I concentrated on upgrading the heavy hitting weapons. Even though I had my gun progression sorted, the game was still a challenge. The latter stages become insanely hectic and you are constantly looking for space. dashing through hordes. firing weapons and then switching to something else so you don't have to reload. Hard but very fun I then had to play the game again but this time on co-op. Not having anyone to play with ( ) I just fired up my spare controller, killed the second player at the start of every stage and then just powered through it myself. As I said, it's pretty different to what came after it but I appreciate being able to play one of Housemarque's earliest PS titles. It's also good to see where they started at and whey they ended up. I can see some of the criticisms that this game received ( sluggish and very dark ) were certainly rectified with Alienation ( bright and faster ). With this game done and dusted, that is every Housemarque game now completed and platinumed on the PS4. They are a fantastic studio and I can see why Sony wanted to bring them in house. I'm just praying that they are allowed to make some of these smaller games alongside the bigger titles, such as Returnal. All caught up. 2 2
drahkon Posted February 2, 2022 Author Posted February 2, 2022 21 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: I need to have a think about which game is worthy of the 500th spot but I think I already have a fitting title lined up... Ah yes, I know exactly which one it'll be Spoiler 3
Julius Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Play The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 Both of these highly rated games have been on my to play list for a while now. I still don’t even own Red Dead Redemption 2. I would like to get through one of these hefty games sometime this year. The Witcher 3 would be the better choice of the two mainly because I actually own it and it would cross off the RPG for that month. Not too soon after I first landed here I played a good 10+ hours of The Witcher 3, and for whatever reason, it just didn't click with me on any level at all. This was back in 2016 or maybe 2017, mind you, and my enjoyment of gaming as a medium was still in its infancy compared to where I think it is today, so maybe I'd get on with it better today. This is all to say that I played Red Dead Redemption II for the first time over Christmas and absolutely adored it. I binged it for a good 70+ hours over 10 days, and having played Red Dead Redemption for the first time last year really helped me to appreciate it that much more. At the very least, to keep it vague: as far as Westerns are concerned, I think it has an absolutely S tier soundtrack (seriously!), and as far as video game storytelling goes, it has excellent writing, a great cast of characters, and is insanely easy on the eye. Those damn sky boxes are purty. And that's my pitch for why you should play Red Dead II More seriously though, I think The Witcher 3 might be better suited for you completing your targets. Like you said, you own it already and it'll cross off being an RPG, but I think also for your last target of going for a Plat in every game you play is going to be less time consuming (albeit, still very time consuming - just comparatively less!) than going for the Plat in Red Dead II, which I think also includes a fair few trophies for Red Dead Online. But don't listen to the more serious and logical Julius, he's an idiot. Play Red Dead II EDIT: I also hope I'm not the only one who read 'Monster World IV' as 'Monster Hunter IV' and didn't question for a second that H-o-T could Platinum a (totally non-existent, Roman-numeralled) Monster Hunter game, along with all of the other games he played in January Edited February 2, 2022 by Julius 1 1
Glen-i Posted February 2, 2022 Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) I thought Shantae: Risky's Revenge was a great little DSiWare title. Probably the best DSiWare game outside of Photo Dojo. But compared to later titles, you can tell this was before WayForward became more known. The lack of budget shows at times. But it's good despite the lack of cash. Pirate's Curse is proper good though! Defo my favourite in the series. It's a good thing you played Risky's Revenge first @Hero-of-Time, because while most Shantae games are stand-alone affairs, Pirate's Curse retroactively spoils the end twist in Risky's Revenge. Edited February 2, 2022 by Glen-i 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 3, 2022 Posted February 3, 2022 17 hours ago, Julius said: And that's my pitch for why you should play Red Dead II I asked a few guys at work the same question and most of them also said Red Dead. I'm still not sure which way i'll go. Both games have their pros and cons and both are going to be massive time sinks. Yesterday afternoon, I finished my first game of Feb. Spoiler I said I was going to get Pyre played before I start Hades and that's exactly what I've done. What a strange game this is. It's essentially a sports game but in a fantasy setting. You have a set of 3 characters and your team is then tasked with making their way across the field in order to throw an orb into the oppositions fire/pyre. Doing so will reduce the health of it (usually starts at 100) but also removes the player that scored from the field. If the opposition scores then the player will return. The characters you use determine how many points they remove from the pyre should they score. For example, a large, strong player is slow to move on the field but they tend to do the most damage, whereas a small player is nimble but they usually only do around 15 points of damage. Once I got to grips with the gameplay I found it really fun and engaging. Trying different character combinations was fun but I did tend to stick to the more average, all rounded player. I would do around 20-25 damage if I scored but it meant I was fast enough to counter anything headed my way. Just when I thought I had a good team selection, the game would then take one of my players away. As the game progresses your team whittles down further and further until you are just left with 3. It was an interesting way of force the player to engage with each of the characters. When I realised this was happening I tried to make sure that my team remained balanced. It would have been a bit of a nightmare had I got to the end and only had a team full of weaker players. The game's story didn't really appeal to me at all and towards the end I found myself skipping the cutscenes in order to get to the gameplay. There was far too much waffling on for my liking and a lot of the characters I just didn't find that interesting. At least not enough for me to sit through rows of text as they explained the role they had to play. It was an enjoyable experience but it wasn't a patch on Bastion or Transistor. I can see why many gamers didn't take to the game and class it as the black sheep of the Supergiant Games. With that now done, Hades can now be played. It will have to remain on the shelf until I'm done with Returnal. 2
drahkon Posted February 3, 2022 Author Posted February 3, 2022 My mate and I played through half of Halo 4's campaign and...we like it It's more of the same shooty-shooty-bang-bang with a few new gadgets. A little on the easy side with how much awesome gear you get. Story seems interesting, too. So far no Flood which is always a plus I'm the revered Presser of Buttons because for some reason my mate wasn't able to press buttons in the first 2 missions So every time he comes across one, I come to his aid and do the job I am destined to do. 1 2
Hero-of-Time Posted February 3, 2022 Posted February 3, 2022 I'm very surprised you're enjoying it. It's considered the worst in the series by a large margin and quite rightfully so. I'd much rather fight the Flood than the enemies that show up in this game. I can't even remember what they are called. Despite all of this, I would like to play it again someday to see if my opinion has changed on it. The best thing to come out of Halo 4 is The Arrival. Amazing piece of music that is part of my running play list.
drahkon Posted February 3, 2022 Author Posted February 3, 2022 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: I can't even remember what they are called. Their scientific name is "blue and orange energy freaks". My mate is an expert on these and named them that way. 11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: It's considered the worst in the series by a large margin and quite rightfully so. We'll see if anything changes in the last 4 missions, but so far it's not as bad as Halo: Combat Evolved, in my opinion Edited February 3, 2022 by drahkon 1
drahkon Posted February 4, 2022 Author Posted February 4, 2022 That was fun. The final mission was a blast. The whole game was very enjoyable. And I actually liked the story, too But, for now my mate and I are done with Halo. Kind of burned out after 4 games in a few weeks. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 5, 2022 Posted February 5, 2022 Are you not gonna play ODST? It's one of the best Halo games! You played Halo 4 but not that. I...you...just... 1
drahkon Posted February 5, 2022 Author Posted February 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: Are you not gonna play ODST? It's one of the best Halo games! You played Halo 4 but not that. I...you...just... Maybe I will. My mate isn't that interested in the side story For now, my gaming time will be limited for a while anyways. Aside form Horizon: Forbidden west in two weeks I doubt I'll play anything
bob Posted February 5, 2022 Posted February 5, 2022 ODST is great. Better than 1 and 2 for sure. Definitely better than 4.
Glen-i Posted February 6, 2022 Posted February 6, 2022 Right, games I played in January. I am Setsuna is a turn-based RPG published by Square Enix and developed by Tokyo RPG Factory that was released on the PS4 and Vita in 2016, a Switch port, the one I played, was released a year later. Despite the title, you play as Endir. A mercenary for hire who is given the job of killing someone called Setsuna. Setsuna is part of a village that routinely sends someone to the "Last Lands" to sacrifice their life in order to temporarily stop a constant influx of demons hellbent on killing everyone. Guess what? Setsuna is the latest sacrifice. Endir changes his mind a bit and decides to help escort Setsuna to the Last Lands. She's gonna sacrifice her own life, anyway, so he might as well help. The plot is... fairly average. Not very engaging, really. It's pretty predictable, all in all. There really isn't much to say. It's just boring. Much like this line of text. Now, the gameplay? That's a little more interesting, at least. Because the weird thing is, as far as the battle system goes, I am Setsuna is actually Chrono Trigger 2. The base mechanics are exactly the same. Seamless transitions between overworld exploration and battles, ATB system, character specific techniques that can be combined into Dual Techs and Triple Techs. The game is not trying to hide it's inspiration one bit, as all the techs from Chrono Trigger appear in this game in some way, from X-Strike to Luminaire. It's not exactly original, but hey, at least it's got a solid base. The game does have some of its own twists on Chrono Trigger's battle system, the main one is best explained with the aid of a pic. Simply put, you have a number of slots with which you can equip various techs. So if a character has a tech that you think is no use to you, you can forego it and instead use the empty slot to equip a passive effect instead. So less techs means you can have more buffs. It's an interesting system that allows for quite a bit of customisation. The second twist is the momentum system. When a character's turn comes around, not acting will cause a guage to go up gradually. When it gets full, you get a momentum point, which can be used to power up a tech when it gets unleashed for bonus effects. Quite useful on enemies that utilise counterattack stances. With that said, it doesn't help save this game from being pretty standard fare, it's not a bad game, but it doesn't really stand out. It's fine, and I had a good time. But it's probably not good enough to warrant going back to it. I'm glad I got it on sale. And one last thing. This game kinda takes the theory that everyone likes snow levels and goes way too far with it. 90% of the game is snow. Snow and Piano. There's so many piano pieces, you do get sick of them after a while. In last year's diary thread, I mentioned that I gave up on Metroid Dread because I just couldn't stand having to evade the various E.M.M.I's that feature. I hate stealth, I'm no good at it, and the E.M.M.I's are very good at finding people who can't stealth. It sucked the fun out of it for me. Anyway, here's a quote from a different thread. Quote This game upsets me. It's fundamentally ruined by the E.M.M.I's. Someone's done a mod that automatically counters them for you, and that's likely the only way I can stomach playing this. @Dcubed got an OLED for Christmas, and therefore, hacked his old Switch. Which meant that I had the means to play Metroid Dread with one slight difference.If I ever got caught by an E.M.M.I. the mod would automatically counter the final window of opportunity for me. With the thing that ruined the game effectively nullified, I was free to enjoy the Metroid part of this game, and I loved it. It's SO much fun! It's surprising how much more I enjoyed it then MercurySteam's other Metroid game on the 3DS, Samus Returns. It's an amazing step up. Samus moves so fluidly, and while the game is tougher then your average Metroid game, it never felt unfair like the 3DS title did. The bosses have great telegraphs for their attacks, requiring a satisfying loop of learning patterns and then making your successful attempt look like cake. BTW, I beat the final boss on my fourth attempt, I basically died on each phase before using the knowledge I gained to perform much better the next go around. A few small things that bring it down though is the music isn't quite up to the standard of the series, and the plot doesn't live up to the promise of previous games, I won't go into too much detail, but I think Other M kinda scared the producer, Yoshio Sakamoto, away from the idea from having a more involved plot then "Samus goes to a planet, is awesome, and then blows it up". So the ending doesn't really live up to the foreshadowing that Fusion and Samus Returns set up. I'd be lying if I didn't say it felt a bit limp. I also find the map a bit too big. I'm not really in the mood to speedrun it, as it's too complex for me to realistically remember it. The map screen is also a bit difficult to parse at times as well. But even with this mod, I can't ignore the fact that to me, Metroid Dread is fundamentally flawed, so I can't in all honesty place it any higher then I originally did. (2nd least good 2D Metorid. It's better then the NES game at least) I played Banjo-Kazooie on NSO. In fact, I played it twice. The second attempt was a 100% speedrun. I posted about it on the NSO thread, so I'll just leave my time here. I'm still upset that I didn't get under 4 hours. And finally... Fun Fact: She barely features in this game. Square just placed her there because they wanted to push Lightning that hard. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, I'm sure some of you remember me really laying into how crap it is. So you can just imagine my utter delight, when right before I finished XIII, its sequel got added to Game Pass. So I jumped straight in, because third party games don't last forever on Game Pass (I'm looking at you, Kingdom Hearts), and I needed to continue my quest to play every non MMO Final Fantasy game. Now, I'm gonna carry on with the assumption that you've read my write-up on FFXIII. Because I'll be comparing the two. Mostly on how (or if) it addresses my problems. But first, the plot. You play as Lightning's sister, Serah. While she's chilling out at her new home, everyone around her seems to completely forget that Lightning even exists. Some bozo called Noel materialises out of nowhere, declares that he's from the future, and that someone is trying to change history so that the stuff that happens in Final Fantasy XIII doesn't happen. We're meant to stop this, apparently. Don't ask why. No, Serah. I don't like Lightning either, but the plot demands it. In my XIII write-up, I talked about ten things that I hated about the game. But somehow, this game defied almost all of my expectations and did something completely mad.It actually made me like it! I couldn't believe it! It actually took the worst Final Fantasy ever, and salvaged it into something I genuinely enjoyed. And here's some of the reasons why: 1. The plot is nowhere near as hard to parse in XIII-2. You might be a little lost if you've not played the original, but the story is built up of various vignettes as Serah and Noel jump around time and sort out problems as they try and fix history. Kinda a bit like how Doctor Who series go. 2. The game is much more open compared to the original title. Think of the game as Mario 64 meets Radiant Historia. Yeah, I know, that's a bizarre mixture. There are various time periods that you select from a menu. Each of these places has a number of "Fragments" for you to find. Think of them like the stars in Mario 64. You get them for all sorts of things, beating bosses, solving puzzles, etc.. This means that you're not funneled through corridors! 3. The erratic difficulty curve is much more reasonable in XIII-2. There's a few spikes here and there, but nothing too horrible. It made for a more enjoyable game in all. Although some of the optional bosses were pretty tough, but that's fine. 4. You don't a Game Over if the character you're controlling dies! OK, you get one if the two humans die, (The third party member is one of the many monsters you can recruit) but at least you have a chance to revive if one character croaks. 5. OK, everyone still has hitboxes in this game for some stupid reason, but enemies don't make sudden movements all the time, so no-fault misses are few and far between. 6. This stupid animation sequence whenever you first use Paradigm Shift in a fight? Gone! 7. There's no arbritary limit on leveling up here. Theoretically, you can reach the max level in the game in the first area. You shouldn't, it'll take forever, but you can if you want. Grinding is an option for getting past a difficult fight again! 8. The weapons actually progress in quality as you proceed through the game! Like a normal damn RPG! 9. You get money from winning fights! Like a normal damn RPG! 10. The music is actually quite varied! It's weird as hell, and not exactly great, but at least I don't have to listen to 5 million versions of "Blinded by Light". I even bothered to go for 100%. The secret ending was a big, and funny, middle finger, but I didn't mind. As of writing, the third FFXIII title, Lightning Returns, isn't on Game Pass yet, so I'll be waiting until that happens. But I'm looking forward to it a lot more now because of this, genuinely decent, game! Spoiler I am Setsuna Metroid Dread, minus the Dread Banjo-Kazooie (One hundred and Tooie %) Banjo-Kazooie (100%, but faster) Final Fantasy XIII-2 2 3
Hero-of-Time Posted February 6, 2022 Posted February 6, 2022 19 hours ago, bob said: ODST is great. Better than 1 and 2 for sure. Definitely better than 4. Agreed. The characters are great and the atmosphere is something completely different to what any other Halo game offers. 15 hours ago, Glen-i said: With that said, it doesn't help save this game from being pretty standard fare, it's not a bad game, but it doesn't really stand out. It's fine, and I had a good time. But it's probably not good enough to warrant going back to it. I'm glad I got it on sale. That's pretty much how I felt when I played it back in 2019. Decent game but nothing special. I still need to get around to playing Lost Sphear and the 3rd game they released whose name I can't think of at the moment. 15 hours ago, Glen-i said: Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, I'm sure some of you remember me really laying into how crap it is. I'm glad I wasn't around to read that. I love Final Fantasy XIII. It's probably in my top 5 FF games. Loved it so much that I platinumed it and then played it on the 360 as well and got the full 1000/1000. Lovely stuff. 15 hours ago, Glen-i said: @Dcubed got an OLED for Christmas, and therefore, hacked his old Switch. Both Pokemon Legends and Returnal have been completed, although i'm still plugging away on both of them because i'm a mad man. Impressions for both have been posted in the relevant threads. I finished another game last night and that was Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions. It's a game that has been on the backlog for years and with me wanting to get through 12 RPGs this year, I figured this would be a good one to cross off the list. Spoiler I LOVED the original game when I played it on the GBA all those years ago and was hoping that my feelings would remain as I played this updated version of the game. They did not. The game is incredibly easy, which wouldn't be a bad thing if the battles weren't so long and tedious, especially some of the boss battles. The normal enemy encounters became a drag after a while. They wouldn't do much damage but some of there HP levels just seemed too high to what they should be. I didn't want to skip the battles as I wanted my characters to level up. Despite putting most of my stats into things like strength and badge points, the battles still took a while. The last boss was especially annoying. Again, huge HP pool but also had numerous turns throughout the rounds. Very tedious. Getting around the world was also a pain in the backside. Having to constantly chop and change which moves the two brother do in order to progress became old very fast. Sure, you can do this via the touch screen but then you lose the the map from the bottom screen. How I put up with this constant switching on the GBA is beyond me. I played through the original Paper Mario last year via the N64 Switch service and it was an absolute delight, whereas this just wasn't up to standard. I've always thought that Paper Mario had the highest highs out of the two series and playing both original games so close to each other confirmed this. That's 3 RPGs down (Ara Fell, Pokemon Legends, Mario & Luigi) in the first 5 weeks of the year. I'm off to a good start. Now watch me crash and burn. 2 2
Jonnas Posted February 6, 2022 Posted February 6, 2022 5 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: Getting around the world was also a pain in the backside. Having to constantly chop and change which moves the two brother do in order to progress became old very fast. Sure, you can do this via the touch screen but then you lose the the map from the bottom screen. How I put up with this constant switching on the GBA is beyond me. The switching was done differently in the GBA. Back then, there was one button to switch the bros around, and then you'd cycle through the moves (3 at most per character). In the remake, they "streamlined" the whole thing so that you need to press the same button to cycle through every single unique combination. It's actually one of my main gripes with the game, because the original felt like a natural way to control two characters, to how their powers interacted whether at front or back, and it even gave you freedom to put Luigi in the front for a while if that was all you wanted to. In the remake, it all got simplified to a strict list of moves that feels more sterile than before. 2
drahkon Posted February 7, 2022 Author Posted February 7, 2022 (edited) Just beat the final boss. Had a lot of fun with the game. Switched my team of monsters up during the final dungeon and didn't have any problems whatsoever The Platinum looks quite grindy. Not sure if I'm in the mood for that right now. But I don't want to start a new game, so who knows...maybe something to go after during a quiet hour at night. I mentioned before that this game is a game for people who enjoy stats and that is only true to some extent. Once I had my team of dragons, I didn't really need to watch stats anymore...a couple of OP buff/debuff combos turned the last few fights into a cakewalk It's a fun game, suffering only a bit from the Metroidvania exploration, which I found a bit tedious, and its weak story. Edited February 7, 2022 by drahkon 1 1
drahkon Posted February 10, 2022 Author Posted February 10, 2022 Didn't really want to start a new game before H:FW, but my PSVita was just sitting there...looking at me...I had to start it up Sooooo I played a little bit of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus which is part of The Sly Collection. By "a little bit" I mean 10 minutes so I haven't a lot to say, but I will anyway. It's ok. Thank you for your attention, see you next time. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 10, 2022 Posted February 10, 2022 1 hour ago, drahkon said: Didn't really want to start a new game before H:FW, but my PSVita was just sitting there...looking at me...I had to start it up Sooooo I played a little bit of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus which is part of The Sly Collection. By "a little bit" I mean 10 minutes so I haven't a lot to say, but I will anyway. It's ok. Thank you for your attention, see you next time. Have you played it before? It's a cracking platformer.
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