Topic: Games you've recently beat

I have joined the select group of those who have played and loved The Pedestrian.

The overall run time is around 4-5 hours which is perfect for the game. The difficulty curve on the puzzles is just right and the little mechanics they add in keep it interesting and add extra layers to your thought processes.

And then the finale is just fantastically done and made me think of something like the Portal games.

Well worth a go if you enjoy a good logic puzzle game.

Super Mario Galaxy 2. I got all 120 of the regular stars and unlocked the green star quest, but there's too many of those for me to bother with.

It's an enjoyable game overall. The only disappointment was that it doesn't have much Rosalina in it, and this game is missing some of the charm that the original had in terms of characters. The level design is rather good though. Some of the optional stars can be tricky to get, so it's a good challenge.

@Thrillho It’s not often we all seem to reach a consensus on a game like this. Hopefully more people try The Pedestrian!

@nessisonett I think the main thing is the short play time means the simple mechanics don't get stale and they only need a few new ideas to keep things fresh.

Beat God of War 2 yesterday. Did most of the Challenge of the Titans stuff too but got the last one (Challenge 7) left too do... as well as obtaining a further 18 cyclops eyes for the Platinum.

Just beat Ys: The Oath in Felghana. At first, I was a tad lukewarm on it, but the experience really does come together brilliantly over the course of the game in pretty much every way.

Now I just need to poke around at some of the stuff I unlocked after beating the game!

@Ralizah That’s basically how I felt too. The first couple of dungeons felt a bit rote but the ending pulled everything together.

@nessisonett @Ralizah Have either of you played Ys IX? I fell off pretty early due to those initial dungeon feeling barebones. If you've played, does it get better?

@TraCuz- Nah, I’m in the middle of Seven and then I have VIII and IX afterwards!

@nessisonett The mature storytelling is refreshing. If this was a Hollywood movie, they would have played up the tragedy of Chester's death with sweeping music, only to reveal that, actually, he somehow miraculously survived the blast! Elena would nurse him back to health, the cops would show up after the fact for no apparent reason, and then everybody would start randomly dancing at the end after Chester's wounds had healed. Instead, sacrifices are meaningful, life goes on, and people either learn to grow from their trauma or allow it to consume them.

@TraCuz- No. I've played I - III and VIII so far (VIII was my first game, and then I decided to go back and play all of the games basically in order, despite Ys III apparently happening after Ys IV, for some reason).

I've enjoyed all of the games, but none of them have had amazing dungeons. Not a big deal in VIII, since the island is such a great setting, and combat in these games is immediately fun, but the dungeons definitely don't stand out like they would in, say, a Legend of Zelda game. I would say I'd like to see a puzzle element introduced in future games, but if Darm Tower in Ys I is the sort of "puzzle dungeon" I can expect in future games, then I'd prefer they stick with this more straightforward approach, lol.

@Ralizah Trust me, after playing most of the series - you do not want puzzle dungeons. Some games are utterly brutal with their checkpoints which means that having to do the same puzzles over and over would grate very thin.

I finished my play through of A New Beginning. And yes, it has some flaws like voice acting and animation that are lacking. And yet, despite all of that being completely true, I had fun playing the game. It’s worth buying if, like me you get the game cheap.

Pluses, the static backgrounds were quite pretty, the game does not crash and I didn’t detect any major game ending bugs.

Resident Evil 0. It was a fun game. Not the best of the bunch but the mansion was really cool and atmospheric!

The dual character system was bad. I did not like it at all.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks!

Less "plot twists" than "plot developments that were handled in a mature, cohesive fashion." It's not an amazing plot, but, despite my (still valid) complaints against how some minor characters are written, the game managed to create an interesting cast of personalities that all fit well into the overall narrative. Really impressive considering how old the source material is (there are some large differences in terms of how certain aspects of the story play out, but, as far as I can tell, the broad plot developments are the same between 2005's The Oath in Felghana and 1989's Wanderers from Ys).

It's funny, because while Falcom has been behind in terms of keeping up with industry standards for a while now, their stuff from the late 80s and early 90s seems wildly ahead of its time.

And yeah, I dunno why you have to drink a potion to dash. To be fair, the item description tells you it gives Adol the ability to dash, but I just... assumed it was a consumable! Never played a game where core abilities are locked behind random potions in your inventory before.

It would be interesting to go for a "no dash" run, now that I think about it, but certain late game fights would be incredibly frustrating if you couldn't. Most likely doable, though. I'm sure the fights I struggled with in the middle of the game probably assumed I'd be dashing as well.

Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls. I finally got round to getting all the achievements. It's a spin-off of the main Danganronpa series, and plays as a third-person shooter instead of the usual visual novel style.

Overall, I think the main games are still the strongest part of the series, but Ultra Despair Girls is a welcome addition. I very much enjoyed my time with it.

I’ve now properly completed Assassin’s Creed Odyssey after killing all cultists and doing the artefact thingy. I have to say, those two endings are so, so much better than the normal ending. Tied really nicely to the rest of the series and set up Valhalla. I was beginning to somewhat lose interest (80 hours!!!) but it’s come good in the end. Totally didn’t see the cult leader coming either!

@Jecht_Ultima See, I never had even the slightest issue with grinding. I reached level 50 with half the game felt. Although I have cleared every single question mark in the game out of some weird need.

@Jecht_Ultima You need to do it in AC Origins for the platinum but in this one it’s optional. I actually quite liked the monotony of it.

@nessisonett Unlike those damn feathers in AC 2!

@JohnnyShoulder My brother recently finished AC2 on PS4 and I was going to get the platinum while he moved onto Brotherhood. Collected a feather and it said 21/100 feathers. Not amused.