Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Xaritah @Ralizah
I have finally finished The Nonary Games on the Vita, a compilation of two games originally on the 3DS — 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, packaged together for PlayStation.
I platinum'ed the game (just one platinum exists for both entries) which was an easy plat, although quite time consuming (about 20 hr for 999 and 40 hr for VLR = about 60 hr)
The games are Visual Novels and I must say that they are quite good. I found the story I interesting, although immensely complex. These are definitely not games for those who don't want to stretch their minds. Not only does the over-arching story tax your brain cells to try to understand what's going on, the puzzles in the escape rooms can be very difficult. Some of them are just downright maddening without a guide or some hints.
Some spoilery (is that even a word?) impressions follow:
The whole time travel / transfer of consciousness and the quantum physics explanations are a little hard to swallow. Fortunately I am not obsessive about plausibility in my fiction, so I can tolerate the suspension of disbelief. Even though the final explanation of things seemed to have more logic holes than a pound of Swiss cheese, it was actually rather clever the way it comes together, even if I can't quite follow the logic of how Sigma and Phi jump back and forth into different bodies and alternate time lines. It does, however make the game mechanic of having multiple endings and playthroughs make sense in the setting of the video game itself, as you gather more and more info to add together to solve puzzles inching toward the growing reveals that culminate in the true ending
The story definitely kept my attention as I was curious about why the characters were in this place being forced to play in the Nonary Games. My biggest complaint with the gameplay was the pacing. I got real sick of watching doors slide open and closed and watching the dot flow through the map when you go from one room to another part. It was kind of maddening to have to watch these recurring mundane animations.
But ultimately, the plot twists and characters make the game worthwhile, which is what this genre is all about. I'm not a VN expert, but I favor Danganronpa, although I will definitely be playing the third and final of the series, Zero Time Dilemma, after I finish a few other games.

@Th3solution Good to hear your thoughts. VLR is definitely a very padded game (lots of repetitive transition animations, as you said), but I felt like this kind of fit the slower pace of the game in comparison to the zippier horror of 999 and ZTD. I liked how you literally tracked your character across the base.

VLR also had FANTASTIC puzzles. They were so challenging and engrossing.

I have to admit, I do kind of hate the Nonary Games Collection if only because the 999 remaster is held hostage behind it. I own VLR on 3DS AND Vita, so I'm not eager to repurchase it a third time. Especially if I have to replay it again to platinum 999.

RE: Zero Time DIlemma... just keep your expectations in check. It's easily the worst game in the series, but considering Uchikoshi struggled to get it greenlit at all (apparently VLR didn't well very well in Japan), I'm just glad it exists. For a good long time, people like me who have followed the series since 999 on the Nintendo DS were convinced we'd never get the third and final story in the trilogy.

Are you looking forward to Danganronpa V3?

@Ralizah Yeah, I can see your point about the pacing. There is a certain anticipation that they are purposefully creating, with the time limits on things and then having to wait through transition animations just makes to build more anxiety as you anticipate what you're going to find, discover, or choose. At my first AB game as the voice slowly counted down from 10, I keep frantically hitting the button to let me choose but of course I couldn't fast forward the count down, so as soon as she says 3, 2, 1 ... I rushed to press the button to make my selection immediately, thinking the game would penalize me since time was up. Only later did I realize on subsequent AB games that you can take your time pondering your choice 😅

Although I wouldn't put VLR in my Top 10 of all time, I can certainly appreciate its greatness. It's definitely one of the Vita's best, though, and a very unique game. Although I would be hard-pressed to recommend it universally to anyone. Unlike Uncharted, Gravity Rush, or Tearaway, VLR and 999 wouldn't quite have the mass appeal but if you like story driven games and mind bending puzzles, it's definitely a grade A recommendation.

I had recently platinum'ed Danganronpa right before this, so I took a break from the series to do The Nonary Games, and so now I have started Danganronpa 2. I'm only at the prologue still; Still trying to plan out my strategy for my playthrough. But I am very much excited about D v3. I very much liked the first Danganronpa and so far my expectation is D2 will be as good or better. I'm planning to go and put down a preorder on D v3 today.

@Th3solution I did the same thing! I thought the game was timing my button presses at first. There's a wonderful build up to that climactic moment when you choose to either ally with or betray someone. Anyway, you're right that it doesn't have the mass market appeal of something like Uncharted, but it also has a unique charm to it that can't be replicated by any other game. I do think the marketing was a bit off, though: I wonder how many people started playing VLR expecting anime Saw or something? If anything, we got something akin to a much more openly thoughtful version of Vincenzo Natali's Cube. Definitely a top 10 game for me, though!

You're in for a treat: DR2 is a WONDERFUL game. Quite superior to the first game. I actually wasn't a huge fan of the series until the second game, to be honest.

I also like how the DR creator is friends with Kotaru Uchikoshi and actually openly references Zero Escape during a part of DR2.

@Ralizah That's funny that the creators of these two games are friends.
There are a lot of similarities between the two franchises (although I haven't completed D2, I can only assume) - both have death and murder, despair, a scenario of being trapped, and then also a lot of humor, one-liners, a touch of romance, and a certain amount of "goofiness" (although Danganronpa has probably more of this). Also plots with mysterious unknown villains and twists you don't expect. Can't wait to see what kind of plot twists Danganronpa 2 and 3 are going to have!

Edit: As far as marketing, I actually never saw any marketing for the Nonary Games. I think I came across it on this website,
on one of the forums actually. That piqued my interest and I tracked it down and bought it.

Finished Lost Legacy two nights ago. I'd love to see another Chloe and Nadine adventure in the future. It felt like it went by quick so I started going back and picking up treasures and trophies I missed.

Beat Escape Plan on vita.
A neat little game. The levels are short and can be beat in 5-90sec, which makes this game a perfect take-to-work companion.
Not really a fan of puzzle platformers, but this one struck a nice balance- never had to look anything up. Some levels really are clever. Could've done without the backpad touch reliance, but as a vita launch title they were probably forced into using all the features.

Ok, finally finished Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Really torn on how I felt about the game. I love the story, aesthetic, technology and ambition of the game. As an experience, it was pretty out there and challenging and I liked that unique indie sensibilities were presented in the wrappings of a AAA game.

That said, I found some of the gameplay frustrating - I really couldn't stand the combat. It felt clunky and I actually got frustrated on a couple of bits. It may be that I have recently come off Bloodborne. I also missed out on the platinum by not finding everything even though I searched for it.

Overall, I'd recommend it as an experience and I am glad it is doing well sales wise. It is very innovative in places. Part of me wants to go through it again to try and get some of the nuances of the story and worry less about gameplay etc.

Just finished The Last of Us.

At the risk of getting staked by anyone, my impression doesn't match it's reception. The story and acting is amazing, and is something that still isn't common these days. It's very emotional, and the atmosphere is very tense, and very uncomfortable. It perfectly matches the world that it takes place in.

The gameplay though, ugh. It starts of very well, I love the idea. But after a while it started to irritate me. Right around when you meet Henry and his brother was when it fell apart for me. The sewer section during their chapter (specifically the part where Henry's brother is your companion) was painful. I couldn't stealth that part at all, I just ran to the exit after my 24th attempt. After that, it was plenty of times where my grabs and stealth kills didn't register and plenty of deaths where I got spotted after a staged firefight where my ammo was drained.

The Last of Us is worth playing for the story, but the gameplay almost made it hard for me to say that. It was great when it didn't make me pull my hair out. Sorry guys, please don't kill me.

@DerMeister I didn't even care that much for the story, which is pretty standard post-apocalyptic fare. The one thing I'll give it credit for is the creative twist on the zombie concept.

@DerMeister I really enjoyed the combat in tlou! I loved the stealth and the crafting system was quick to make use of once you got used to it. That shotgun, too!

@DerMeister Ellie hunting those bad men with a bow. 10/10.

@Ralizah True, though I also mention story and acting in the same breath for that reason. The performances by the cast really help bring it to life. I really felt the emotion come off the characters.

@kyleforrester87 It's not a zombie game without a shotgun.

Now that I think about it, maybe my playstyle didn't match the game. Generally, whenever I'm told resources are limited I hoard like crazy, to the point where I did so for the side weapons like molotovs (which I only used against Bloaters). Since I rarely used the stuff you can craft aside from health and shivs, I probably gave myself a harder time, but maybe I'll play it again to make sure.

@ApostateMage I actually liked Ellie's section. Mostly because her switchblade is basically an unlimited shiv, giving me one less thing to worry about.

@DerMeister To be honest it probably was your play style. I've struggled with some games (Resi 4 comes to mind, shoot in the knee > run up and kick > finish with knife was a game changer for me) and it's not until I've watched some videos of others playing the game or been told my friends how I should be doing it that it clicks.

Take Doom for example, my friend has been trying to play it like a cover shooter and wonders why it's so hard lol

@KratosMD Yeah, but I never would have gotten this impression from the game. All it tells me is "supplies are limited, play carefully". I didn't want to potentially waste molotovs or bombs, so I only used them when I was really in a pinch. Never know when a bloater or horde of infected decides to pop up, after all. Maybe I should have experimented more, but again, "supplies are limited, play carefully" discouraged me from doing so. It didn't help that a lot of thosd shared materials, so when it was time to make either health or molotovs, of course I picked health.

As for that sewer section, I didn't even attempt to stealth kill everything. I just tried to sneak past everything. After nearly an hour of it, I gave up and ran. There were too many enemies to deal with in that area. Last thing I wanted to do was start a fight.

But yeah, I'll try the game again someday. That first playthrough was rough though.

@DerMeister As much as I love TLOU, I do get where you are coming from. This was the first game I played on my PS4 when I got it and moving to a new controller and this game through me. I horded everything and tried to fight hand to hand to save munitions and was just replaying sections over and over again. Then I got about half way through and realised I was just turning down materials because I had no inventory space.So I started to use more resources throughout the game but I think by then, I had actually got through the most difficult earlier sections. So I was cursing the game first part and then got used to the mechanics by the second. I then played the game again straight after (I was recovering from an operation on the second playthrough and had lots of time) and actually enjoyed the gameplay. It is worth a replay.

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah, I was having the exact same problem. I wasn't expecting the amount of materials you find for sure.

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS).

It's a pretty great game, though I don't think it'll go down as one of my favorite Metroid or 3DS games looking back on it. It's a vast improvement over the original Metroid II (the omnidirectional aiming in particular should be a must in any future 2D Metroids), but I didn't think SR388 was a particularly interesting world to explore. Don't get me wrong, the attention to detail in the backgrounds was fantastic, but there wasn't really anything environmentally unique about one region over another. One room may be swampish, the next technological, then volcanic, all in the same area (which weren't even given unique names, just Area 1, Area 2, etc.). Only Areas 7 & 8 looked like they had a particular theme throughout. Fun game, though.

Finished main story of Nioh, not the dlc yet. Very very good game. Can't wait to tackle all the dlc and get into the high end gear.

Finished and uninstalled the awful Broken Age.

One of the many games guilty of ruining my gaming time recently. But its done. Woo hoo.