Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Nice! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Jade Cocoon. Especially considering how fuzzy mine are. It might need to be something I revisit.

I'm expecting to enjoy DDS2 more than the first game. I hear it's a more complex and challenging game than DDS1 even on the Normal difficulty, and it sounds like the soundtrack is different enough to appeal more to me. Also, DDS1 feels primarily like build-up to the second game.

I thought about doing the Hard difficulty, but I hear you can't use the rings you get for beating optional bosses in the first game, and I've seen a number of people say they consider the second game to be quite a bit more challenging, so I think I'll go in on normal difficulty so I don't wind up with a situation where the game ends up being obnoxiously difficult (like Nocturne on hard mode).

But, as mentioned, I enjoyed DDS1 quite a bit as well, despite how critical I've been. It's cool how Atlus took some of the same concepts as they use in traditional SMT and made more of a normal JRPG out of it.

This is a WAY better start to a two-parter than the boring The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC was.

@KratosMD I’m glad to see that I didn’t lead you astray with the Until Dawn recommendation. It really is a great game. Often overlooked in the huge number of classics in the PS4 library.

@RogerRoger I’m a little late but I gotta say— that gif is about the most fitting gif to a story that I have ever seen. Bravo! A thanks for the interesting read, as always.

@Ralizah @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I wish I could remember anything at all about the DDS games I played in the past. I feel like I played at least two from the SMT universe on the PS2, but I can’t seem to remember anything about them, even after reading your review. All I know is that I did seem to like them.

@KratosMD Nice to see that you enjoyed Until Dawn. The bit which you felt was unfair for the survival of a character also caught me out. I felt that the story was a bit slow at the start and that the characters start off annoying, but once the game gets going it all becomes truly excellent. Character development is very well done in this game.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
What's up with Studio Ghibli and Playstation-exclusive games centered around monster collecting?

Good review. The vibe of this game always screamed Nausicaä to me. I distinctly remember it having (at the time) really gorgeous, high-poly character models. I'd forgotten about the full voice acting, though, which is, yes, extremely impressive given the age of this game. Even on the PS2, video game voice acting was still in its Wild West period.

Minion fusing sounds a bit more complex than I remember. I was probably a bit too clay-headed back when I was 11 or whatever to really grok the more involved aspects of the game, though.

Your comments on Levant and my experience with the human forms in DDS make me appreciative of games that exclude the squishy human element entirely in battles, like the Pokemon/Digimon games I've played.

Sounds like I absolutely need to revisit this on my PS1. It's ridiculous how many good-to-great JRPGs there are on that system, both in terms of blockbusters and hidden gems.

Layton Brothers Mystery Room. For a cheap mobile game (cases 1 and 2 are free, then it's a few quid to unlock the rest of the game), it was a lot better than I was expecting.

This is a spin-off game of the Professor Layton series involving Alfendi Layton and his assistant Lucy Baker. They are part of the police force, investigation the most mysterious of crimes. It's a Level-5 game, so characters generally have the usual Level-5 charm to them. Alfendi Layton is an interesting character, who thankfully has his own traits and quirks instead of just being a copy-paste of Professor Hershel Layton.

In terms of gameplay, it's much closer to Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney than Professor Layton, but it is a lot more relaxed than Ace Attorney. Case will generally involve investigating a crime scene, then questioning the prime suspect to get to the bottom of the case. There's no penalties in this game, so players can take all the time they want and rethink things if they make a mistake.

As for the story, it's pretty decent. Most of the cases are good, and there are some fine twists. The story is easygoing in most places. It doesn't get too complex and there is not a lot in the way of tension. It can occasionally get darker, which contrasts nicely with the rest of the game.

So overall, it was a fun game that was well worth my time. It was good for whenever I was in the mood for playing a more casual game that has a decent story but is still fairly relaxed.

@crimsontadpoles Sounds fun. I love the Layton games, but the F2P approach of this one kind of put me off. Maybe I should consider downloading this.

Especially since Layton's Mystery Journey thoroughly disappointed.

@Ralizah It's not really F2P. After doing cases 1-2 for free, there's a one-off payment needed to unlock cases 3-6, then another one to unlock cases 7-9. Other than those, there's no other in-app purchases available.

You might like it, or maybe not, I'm not sure. Even compared to the main Layton games, it's rather relaxed. And while the story was fine, it's not as great or as in depth as the main series.

I actually kinda liked Layton's Mystery Journey, but do much prefer the main Professor Layton games. It sure does have its issues, but it probably helped that I went into it expecting it to be decent enough, but not as good than the others.

@crimsontadpoles That sounds perfect. Exactly what I'd like to see more of on the Play Store. The lack of monetization to download it made me think it was probably another mtx-riddled mess.

I'm not expecting anything similar to normal Layton, so long as the writing doesn't actively irritate me, I'll probably like it.

Thanks for the heads up!

Nier: Automata. I can definitively say that I have not experienced a game quite like this one before. Getting that Platinum was definitely worth it! The soundtrack was fantastic, combat was great (I usually don't care for games with any kind of character-action focus), and the story was highly enjoyable as well. Route B was a bit of a slog to get through but everything else was wonderful.

@MrGameluvr81 Great that you enjoyed it, Nier Automata does happen to be my favourite PS4 game. I agree about Route B, but overall the game is still fantastic.

Out of curiosity, did you get the trophies through normal means, or did you use the hidden shop to obtain some of them? I used the hidden shop on the fish and archives trophies, along with another one that had glitched, but otherwise did everything else. Also, did you choose to make the sacrifice at the end?

@MrGameluvr81 If the Nier thread on here is still open, it’s worth a read and maybe posting your own thoughts as it’s such a quirky and unique game.

And I think everyone feels that way about route B..

I was surprised I didn't have more of an issue with Route B. I typically hate repeating content in games. I guess it felt different enough.

@Ralizah @Thrillho @crimsontadpoles @MrGameluvr81 I really liked Route B, I can see why some people would have struggled with it but I was that smitten with the game I was happy to play through it again and enjoy even the smallest of changes.

I used the hidden shop for only three trophies: The Circle of Death (Have your body collected), Supreme Support Weapons (upgrade all Pods to max), and Transcendent Being (All endings achieved)

I only died once in the entire game and given the location of said death, I didn't think anyone would collect my body (at least not any time soon) and just bought the trophy to save myself some hassle. My reasoning for buying Transcendent Being was that I only wanted to get the main endings and did not care for getting the other 21 endings. Supreme Support Weapons was a matter of running out of patience, since I only needed 1 more Complex Gadget to fully upgrade my last Pod but could not find one anywhere for the life of me, even though I spent a solid hour and a half looking for one! However, all of the other trophies I obtained legitimately.

In answer to your last question, yes, I did because I did mostly everything but I also wanted to help some other poor soul

Will do!

Blaster Master Zero (Switch) - Retro stylized sci-fi "Metroidvania" from Inti Creates.

Pros:

• While it doesn't reinvent the wheel, the classic "Metroidvania" style gameplay loop is as satisfying as ever, and switching things up with the top down, on foot dungeons keeps things fresh.
• While it does have elements that wouldn't have been possible on original hardware, it mostly captures the vibe of an NES game. I also want to point out one specific neat little graphical detail in the Ocean Area, where the background will get actively become darker, then completely black, when you're in deeper areas to simulate light becoming more scarce.

Neutral:

• There are tons of boss encounters, and while many are cool & unique (if mostly on the easier side), there are also quite a bit (usually 1 or 2 per area) that just consist of waves of a specific regular enemy.

Negative:

• There is one door in the final area that you can only access if you have some sort of radar turned on. Only problem is, you don't need it at any other point in the game (or rather, the game previously automatically turned it on during the few segments you needed it, then turns it off) so I had no idea it was something you could even toggle on or off manually, and ended up looking that part up.

Overall it was a fun time though, and worth the $10.

@mookysam, did you take on the post game levels (in Yoshi's Crafted World)? I've yet to beat the true final boss because it's so frustratingly hard (I even caved and donned the toughest class of costume, of which I never bothered with for the rest of the game, and still can't beat it).

@RR529 I did complete the post-game levels but couldn't beat the true final boss either. After a couple of hours trying I just thought "sod this" and turned it off. I could only get as far as the phase where Kamek turns into a version of the King Bowser robot.

@mookysam, oh, you didn't even get to the most asinine phase. After clearing the three phases that see you fighting remixed versions of past bosses, the, I assume final, phase sees you piloting the Yoshi robot against a Kamek robot where you have to punch his projectiles back at him. However, the problem is that it's an all or nothing scenario & if you miss even one projectile in the wave he doesn't take ANY damage, and you have to keep on trying until you get them all, or you die after taking so many hits yourself. Oh, and this phase has 3 parts, with the wave of projectiles you must knock back getting more complex each time.

Like I mentioned in the other thread, I finished Batman: Arkham Asylum yesterday. I actually played about half of the game a long time ago, but fell out of it. I did enjoy it back then, so I purchased the PS4 version when it was on sale a few months ago and got to it just now. It was still enjoyable like it was back in the day, although I must say that I was somewhat done with the Asylum setting near the end of the game where you started to return to previously explored areas more and more. The amount of Riddler challenges were also somewhat infuriating as someone who tries to collect collectibes as much as possible, but luckily I was able to let go of my compulsive nature and be content with the trophy for just 55%, haha.

I do always love the cast of villains the DC brand offers. I enjoyed Telltale's Batman games quite a bit, especially the second one, and I really enjoyed getting to play around with Joker and Harley Quinn again here. It was also nice to be "introduced" to Poison Ivy so to speak, because I've always been fascinated with her characters from the sidelines. The plant decoration on the island was truly beautiful, and it's a shame I had to destroy it all! The story was a nice length, and I enjoyed Scarecrow's sections most. Not particularly the whole parkouring around while staying out of his gaze, but the messing around with your reality he'd always do prior. Playing as little Bruce Wayne, Batman being captured and brought in by Joker, the morgue... those were all top sequences of the game.

That said, I do have to point out my main frustration with this game, and it's the mini bosses. Not even the full on, extravagant bosses, which I can deal with as annoying as they can be (Killer Croc cough). It was the Venom-infected enemies, who all acted exactly like the Bane boss fight early in the game and were being thrown at you every hour afterwards. My frustration isn't with their difficulty particularly (except for the pre-Joker boss fight which was a pain in the ass), but the laziness of it all. It's probably not fair to call anything lazy, but that's how it feels while playing. They became repetitive and really took me out of the experience the more they showed up. Adding more and more henchmen each time they'd appear also doesn't make matters better, since they just became more of a chore. Those small sections definitely put a bit of a damper on the experience as a whole.

That said, the story was quite good and the combat very satisfying, despite it not being as smooth as later games using the same style of combat, but that's obvious. One thing I did notice was some seemingly poor sound mixing throughout, where dialogue would go from normal volume to near-silence in an instant, or where music or sound effects would be completely absent in places they should be. Although I suppose the latter isn't sound mixing as much as.... I don't know what to call that job. I don't know if that's the fault of the remaster, the original or some fault in my TV settings that I usually don't have problems with, but it was very noticeable and often distracting. By no means a bad game though, probably a 7.5 experience for me. It never really quite reached that feeling of greatness as a whole that it very occasionally did during it's Scarecrow sections and with Joker's dialogue, but it was consistently entertaining and easily kept me engaged all the way through.

(Side note that I would've baked into the original post but didn't and now feel too lazy to restructure it to make it work: did Batman's voice acting feel somewhat iffy to everyone else as well? The voice cast was great overall, but Batman felt very hit or miss to me, which was surprising since he had such a veteran Batman performing his voice. There were some really flat line deliveries throughout, which especially stood out in such a talented voice cast.)

Currently on a bit on a gaming binge, so I have another finished game to talk about today. Hope I dont start flooding the thread. Anyway, I've finished Dreamfall Chapters today! I finished it's predecessor last year, and then already played the first two chapters earlier this year. That said, despite having only about 60% of the game left, I'd say it still took me around 15 hours to finish (spread over the last two days). Surprisingly long game overall, considering the game before it was probably half it's length.

I think the story overall had a lot of pacing issues, but it always stayed entertaining enough as to not completely fall out of it. And when poo starts hitting the fan in the final chapter, they do a complete 180 and overload your brains with information and plot revelations. As much as it was difficult to keep up at times, the story was very well done however. I really love the world they built and the characters that inhabit it, which helped in me being able to look past some lacking elements of the story. I do think that the puzzles have a tendency to stand in the way of the story's momentum at times as well, which makes it feel a bit odd occasionally. Not to mention how frustrating it was to deal with some of them in the first place.

The game was absolutely gorgeous though. You can tell they really went all out with the whole concept of making it as cinematic as they could, and while that could've just ended up feeling obnoxious, it was very well executed and was great for creating set pieces. Some character models obviously were more well realised than others however, which was jarring at times. It was great to see the locations and characters from the previous games in these new modern graphics, and the returning characters were aplenty!

I'm glad they didn't force any sort of combat system into this game like they did in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The "tense gameplay" sections here relied entirely on stealth or running away, which had it's issues in and of itself but was miles more enjoyable than the awful combat before. Another change from it's predecessor was the more expansive city. Marcuria in DF:TLJ is frankly, quite small and filled with loading screens everywhere you go. The city here felt open and larger, which was a nice, and perhaps somewhat expected, evolution.

Speaking of loading screens and pacing however, they certainly didn't help each other. The loading times on the PS4 weren't particularly fast, as you'd often be sitting there for around 15 seconds at a time it felt like. That isn't the world's biggest problem, but when it does it after every single cutscene, no matter it's length, it doesn't help. I felt like 50% of the epilogue cutscenes were just me looking at loading screens. Another problem with the PS4 port is it's framerate. It's never quite unplayable, but there are a lot of frame drops, especially in dense areas like Europolis. Nothing bad enough to stop me from playing, but it would've been nice had the game been optomised slightly better.

So, despite all of it's problems with pacing, puzzle frustrations and technical mishaps, I'd still say it was an experience worth 7/10 overall. Not quite up to snuff in a lot of areas, but the main draw and focus of the game is it's story, and that absolutely delivered. It's a very satisfying and well executed end to a great (pardon the pun) Saga that will definitely stick with me for years to come. It's both understandable and disappointing how neither of the Dreamfall games really got the attention they deserved for their delightfully clever, yet complicated narrative. It's definitely one I would and will be recommending for any gamers looking for a great story to get immersed in for a while, and I wish more people would. Maybe I'll just make it happen by making everyone I come across play it.