Topic: Games you've recently beat

Since Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is out real soon, I figured I share my thoughts on the game since I completed the base game last week.

Story: What story? You and a whole fleet end up in uncharted territory. Go explore and fight monsters.

Gameplay: As the riveting story summary suggests, you're probably playing for the battles and such. Monster Hunter is essentially a boss fight only type of game, as the point is to hunt monsters in the environment and fight them. There are areas where they have their own habitats and are found wandering around, and you actually track them down. You find enough of tracks (it doesn't take much, unless it's a story mandated hunt) and you are lead to it's area via scoutflies. It's a lot like an action RPG gameplay wise- You fight enemies directly and how well you do is affected by your weapons, armor, and the stats from your build.

Weapons and armor are crafted from the spoils of your monster hunting, and can be made from pretty much any creature in the game, even from the fodder like a Girros. This is the crux of your stats, since this game doesn't have a real level system (If Hunter Rank did anything other than let me take better assignments, I forgot or never noticed). Weapons have quite a variety of types, from your classic bows and sword/shield combo to a transforming axe-sword and a horn. Like the instrument. I personally used an insect glaive, a bladed staff that controls large beetles, for most of my playthrough. Armor has five pieces to make a set, each piece with it's own specific ability, and can be mix and matched with other sets, although as you may guess, you get a bonus from having either a full set or a certain number of parts from a set. You can also upgrade each piece itself with armor spheres to increase it's viability.

However, I think this game kinda has an issue with certain stuff being so obviously better than others. Not in that natural progression way, but in that "why would I use anything else" way. The Nergigante gear is a good example of this, I think. I had a well enough build beforehand, but was told to use a few Nergigante armor pieces as a recommendation, and it somehow gets results despite clashing with my other stuff. This I feel kinda kills the variety of the rest of the armor if I feel I have to use a certain set to get by.

Combat itself is alright. I personally don't find it as enthralling as other action RPGs, but it works well enough. I'd say my one real issue is the lock on system and the camera associated with it. I'd rather have a janky lock on than none, especially with how often monsters move around, and how quickly. At times however, it seemed to have issues focusing on the monster, and when it was, the camera can be pretty jerky and disorienting.

Since this title is made with co-op in mind, I highly recommend playing with a group of friends, or even randoms. Admittedly, this type of RPG isn't really my preference. I don't really enjoy constantly grinding one monster just for a few parts for a piece of armor, especially if my level doesn't mean a lot. But what makes it enjoyable for me is playing it with pals. Battling large beasts with a group is very enjoyable, and the few times I played this alone, I found it unfulfilling.

Graphics/Sound: I feel like this game is kinda underrated when it comes to it's graphics and music. There are better looking games, but this isn't a slouch in it's own right. The characters look well done, and the environments are amazingly done. While I couldn't tell you the name of a single music track, the score is pretty good at being intense during a fight and enjoyable out of combat.

I feel this game is kinda flawed, but it's still a good time with friends, enough of a good time for me to put the money down on Iceborne.

I also admit that there's probably quite a bit I'm leaving out. Aside from a few events and grinding, I haven't done much outside the main story. I'm sorry if this isn't as in depth as you'd expect.

@DerMeister That’s a great summary and review of MH, very helpful. I’ve thought about playing this in the past and I played the demo / beta and it just didn’t gel with me. Your input is spot on with what I was wondering and brings a few new things to light. When I played the demo, I also was not really sold on the combat per se, and without any friends to co-op with I never thought I’d get maximal enjoyment out of it.

It is interesting to see that, as you suggest, the main component of success is having good equipment. So it’s not like a Soulsborne game where if you “git gud” with your combat skills that you can overcome these beasts with sheer technique? I’ve heard that the game is hard, but would you say then that it’s not hard like a From title, it’s just hard in the sense you have to plan your equipment utilization accordingly to be successful?
My other gripe with the demo was that the menus and crafting and items systems looked pretty complex and dense. I didn’t have the patience to tackle it and learn them at the time. Do you spend a large chunk of your playtime sifting through menus and crafting?

Finished Wreckfest... Career mode AI has been hamstrung by the last update which is a shame, with the hardest setting not really offering much, bar them purely going out of its way to kill you, which is great until they do it on a right hand turn in a race and they veer sharp left for no reason other than to kill the player and themselves.

Got the one and only online trophy to platinum it and to be honest, i'm a bit disappointed now, even though it is fun to play.... Arcade racing without some targets to aim for feels a little pointless now...

Driveclub for all its issues, at least had me wanting to come back to improve my leaderboard positions, this... not so much

@Th3solution In my 20 hours or so with the game yeah I found there was a lot of time spent in menus crafting your equipment and what not, especially back in the hub section and camps. Skill will only get you so far as without good enough weapons the monsters will take an age to beat. I also didn't like that you could not pause the game whilst on a hunt, and as some of them are timed if real life got in way the hunt was basically null and void. Shame cos I enjoyed the hunting and battling of the monsters for the most, just all the other things around it felt like a bit of a chore. And the music in the main hub section was terrible.

For me, not really but even if you need to craft items or gears the process is usually pretty quick.

Regarding difficulty, from my I understanding FromSoftware's games are some of the hardest out there and if you have no problems playing them you'll no problem with Monster Hunter World.

@JohnnyShoulder Oh wow, I didn’t realize that you couldn’t pause the game either. This might be a deal breaker in and of itself. Although I managed with Bloodborne, it was a slight annoyance.
@WanderingBullet I’m no FromSoft master, by any means. I beat Bloodborne and I played the first Dark Souls for a few hours until I got side tracked. But good to know that the game’s difficulty doesn’t eclipse From’s outings.
The menu issue is more of a concern about spending a lot of time planning and perusing the menu to make your checklist of items you need. Other games with a lot of equipment change outs have resulted in me getting burned out and losing interest. I don’t mind learning a complex menu system, but I tend to be a little obsessive-compulsive about my gear and so if I end up constantly tracking my gear and what supplies I need, and do I have the best things equipped, etc. — I end up with fatigue at all the options and things to equip. There is definitely a sweet spot for ‘how much is too much and how much is not enough’ when dealing with crafting and customization of equipment.
It sounds like for you that MH hits a good level of ‘planning your approach’ balanced with ‘getting on with the action.’

@Th3solution I personally wouldn't say MHW is back breakingly hard, but it does have it's moments. The worst it got was against a late game fight against a Kushala Daora, and I thought it was one of the worst designed fights I've experienced in a long time (Didn't help my connection crapped out midway, separating me from my group and having to fight it alone). Special event quests can also be difficult, but everything else in the main game is fair enough.

You can try to beat it with skill, but as mentioned above, you'd just make it harder, and the quests have a time limit, so you can't stall the battles. You can only have 3 defeats per mission too, so getting good equipment is definitely necessary. I did spend a decent amount of time looking at what I have, so there's gonna be some prep time involved. The menus themselves can be pretty clunky. I got used to it after a while, but I still thought that there's a better way organize everything.

Something else I didn't mention is that at the hub and camps when you enter an area, there's a canteen where you can eat. Eating gives stat boosts as well as increasing health and stamina, and they last until a monster kills you. I definitely recommend eating before every battle to help give a better chance.

@Th3solution At least in Bloodborne you could find a corner with no enemies and feel safe you could leave the game unattended. With most of the hunts in MHW being on a timer you couldn't even do that. It felt a massive pain having to plan my life around doing a 45 minute section in a video game. And come to think of it most of the actual hunting I found a chore to do as it got really samey eventually. So it was only fighting the monsters that I was enjoying, which is why I gave up on it. I get that it is heavily geared towards playing with others, but I've played games like Destiny and The Division solo and found those much more enjoyable playing through the story missions.

@JohnnyShoulder @DerMeister One annoyance I had with the game is that the systems are very opaque and I had to read about them online to find out how to use them (or find out they even existed!)

I really enjoyed the combat and actually found the game easier solo. Enemies’ health scales with more people so it made it harder but also one useless person can end up using all your tries. The paleos (the little cat helpers) help distract enemies when you play solo and new skills etc can be unlocked as you play, plus you can unlock new ones you can recruit to help out which I found much more useful than other people weirdly.

@Tjuz Awesome review! I haven’t picked it back up yet but I will definitely finish it eventually to see this crazy twist you speak of.
In my experience of 3/5 of the game, I completely agree with your assessment. Well, except I think you like the voice acting a little more than I do. But yes — “Amber!” 😂

@Tjuz Puzzles are almost always the downfall of adventure-type games, unfortunately. Still, this seems interesting. I'd never even heard of this title before!

Thanks for putting this on my radar.

Well finished the Fight for Sanctuary DLC for Borderlands 2 in order to get ready for Borderlands 3 and I will say it was really good. The story is a good Pre-sequel to BL3 and it's nice to be able to see why things are the way they are in BL3.

As for the story it's one of the better DLC stories if not the best but that's to be expected since it's to connect two and three. The villian is good (I am a bit biased for Handsome Jack so it's hard for me to say the villian this time was as good as Jack) and definitely memorible. I'd say he ranks up there with Commandant Steele from Borderlands 1. Gameplay wise it's just more BL2 nothing more to say. Still this is definitely worth playing if you are a BL2 fan or as an appetizer for BL3.

@Tasuki I enjoyed what I little played of it, I was just not ready for more Borderlands when I was playing it.

Super Mario World

SNES (via Nintendo Switch SNES app)

So, after years of starting and stopping this game on various systems, I FINALLY beat it. And I didn't just beat it, I completed Star World and the unlockable Special world as well (the one with hilariously dated level names like "Gnarly," "Tubular," and "Mondo"). I think there might be a secret level or two that I didn't complete, but I'm not really bothered about that, especially since I never consulted an online FAQ for this game even one time (which was a huge temptation in the irritating Forest of Illusion).

I've stated for years that I just don't like this game. Has that opinion changed after fully experiencing what it has to offer? ...not really. I don't understand the acclaim this receives. Most of the worlds feel very samey and don't do enough to distinguish themselves from one-another (which wasn't an issue in SMB3, which featured very creative and distinct worlds).

The available power-ups are incredibly disappointing (the only really new one you'll use with any regularity is the cape, which is, frankly, a nuisance, and a massive downgrade from the Tanooki suit in SMB3; stuff like the balloon powerup, which strikes me as someone's bizarre inflation fetish that was somehow worked into the game, and the wings that attach to Yoshi and turn him into a blue Yoshi are so incredibly rare that they're little more than occasional level gimmicks).

The music is weird and very limited. You'll hear the same couple of tracks over and over.

Yoshi and a number of new enemies are introduced, but Yoshi feels very nerfed without the wonderful flutter jump that was later added into Yoshi's Island. Swallowing enemies is useful, but otherwise he just feels like an extra layer of armor to protect Mario from hits or, occasionally, a pawn to sacrifice when large jumps are needed and you're not wearing a cape.

The difficulty is all over the place in this game. I understand some people will find some things more challenging than others, but why do some of the random levels from the main game feel so much more brutal at times than the Secret levels, or the Star World levels? There's no rhyme or reason to it. Boss fights follow this trend as well, with several of the Koopalings being far more challenging than the actual final boss encounter against Bowser, which was pretty disappointing.

A lot is made about the number of secret exits in this game, and the interconnected world map. But, honestly, the focus on hidden content feels like it comes at the expense of the regular level design, and the connected world map really does nothing for me. SMB3 had actual minigames and item houses on its map, so, if anything, that game felt like it benefitted more from the somewhat open map design, despite the worlds not all being interconnected like they are here.

Probably the worst addition to the series via this game are the ghost houses, which slow down the momentum of the platforming to a crawl and force you to engage in irritating trial-and-error puzzle design until you happen to chance upon the correct path that'll take you to the end of the level. The design of these levels are improved in several subsequent Mario games, but they're almost intolerable here, and I groaned in frustration everytime I came across one, because I knew any semblance of fun I was having was about to end.

Any positives? Well, the game has a bright, cheerful aesthetic, which is nice. Yoshi coins, which you collect five of in a level to get a 1-Up, I believe, are interesting. While I prefer the flagpoles of previous and subsequent games, the system here where you have to tear the tape on the goal post to collect stars so that you can play a minigame is nice, although I personally prefer the flower system that accomplishes the same thing in Yoshi's Island. I also kind of like how different Yoshis can have different abilities (the rare Blue Yoshi, for example, can fly when he's holding a koopa troopa in his mouth). Control-wise, I dig the spin jump, and wish Nintendo had elaborated on it in later games.

It's not a bad platformer, and is still far preferable to the dreadful Mario 64, but I don't think I'll ever really 'get' why this game is so beloved to so many Nintendo fans (apart from the obvious nostalgia factor, which might be the missing ingredient; I didn't first play this until it released on the Wii VC, and obviously didn't complete it until 2019).

Verdict: 6/10

@Ralizah You could chuck this in the 'Unpopular Gaming Opinions' thread too! haha

@Ralizah I have been replaying this over the last week or so on the SNES Mini and I'll be honest, it is so tightly woven into my nostalgic childhood memories, I can't be objective. I love the game and it is my favourite 2D Mario however, I agree on the difficulty. I can absolutely whizz through some levels and then randomly hit a brick. I also don't like the Ghost houses.

@Rudy_Manchego I'm the same way with FFVII. I'm not sure how much I'd actually love it if I played it as an adult for the first time, but there's so much emotion and memory mixed into my experiences with the game that just thinking about it makes me feel warm and happy.

I didn't talk about it, but I also hate how much harsher the damage penalties are in older Mario games. In newer games, if you're equipped with a power-up and get hit, you usually retain your adult form, giving you 2 more hits before you die. You only ever have 2 HP in SMW, though, unless you're riding a Yoshi, which lets you tank another hit.

@KALofKRYPTON Probably. Unlike a lot of people, I think Nintendo's games have only improved over the years. They absolutely still have their classics, of course, like Yoshi's Island, SMB3, A Link to the Past, etc., but I find that my favorite Nintendo games tend to almost universally be modern or semi-modern.

@LN78 I could write paragraphs about all the stuff I hate in that game, but suffice to say that it's probably my all-time least favorite Nintendo game.

Also another one I didn't fully finish despite trying to replay it time after time over more than a decade. Maybe I'll force my way through it on the Wii U sometime just to say I beat it, like I did with SMW.

@LN78 I'd absolutely joust with you about Mario 64! It does sound like we share a common interest in Galaxy, though, which is absolutely my favorite Mario game, and one of my all-time favorite platformers. I don't feel equally as fond about Galaxy 2, unfortunately. Something about it just rubs me the wrong way. It's missing all of the grandeur, emotion, and scale of Galaxy, and I wasn't a fan of the change to even more linear level design.

Still hate the Wii, but until we get a remaster of Galaxy that matches or exceeds the quality of the original, I'll always have something that plays Wii game plugged up where I live.

@Kidfried I get aggravated with the ghost houses in this game because, more often than not, the solutions feel like pure trial and error. There's nothing fun to me about entering a door and then finding that it just transported me back to the beginning of the level, for example. I will concede that the choco ghost house that featured ghosts that turn into blocks was clever (you have to lure the ghosts over to a certain location to access the secret exit), but most of them weren't that good.

RE: secret exits, I'm fine when the secret exits go to optional levels or open up shortcuts to later worlds, but in places like the Forest of Illusion where they hide the real exit, I just feel like my chain is being yanked.