Topic: Games you've recently beat

@nessisonett Good to hear that Unity was better than advertised. It seems it was a victim to bad first impressions due to being half-baked on release. So on to Syndicate next?

@Th3solution Yeah, I can imagine it wasn’t great with how heavily they were pushing the companion app at release too but it’s a good experience nowadays and well worth the few quid it is these days. I’ll put Syndicate onto download tonight and probably get that started soon! I’m definitely entering the home stretch and fatigue honestly hasn’t set in. The settings are different enough and the gameplay changes drastically every 2-3 games which is good enough for me. Still need to finish Tekken Tag Tournament 2 in order to move onto 7 as well but there’s so many bloody characters! It would be good to finish off a couple of series I’ve been binging before the end of the year though. If I beat Syndicate by New Year I’ll consider it a success.

@PSVR_lover Did you play Death Mark before NG?

Yes I did. But you don’t need to.

So I finished Demon Souls last night. The game is graphically very good and really atmospheric, also helped my some awesome lighting and fantastic sound design. Defo the easiest out of all the From games I've played which is not a criticism just an observation really. Obviously experience has something to do with it but I think doubling the amount of directions the player could manuver whilst keeping the enemy ai identical may have something to do with it, along with a stable higher frame rate. The frame rate also improves the combat significantly, which I think the best it has ever been in the Souls games.

I was a bit disappointed with a couple of the bosses. The Old Monk was lame, not the actual fight or how it happened, as that was actually quite cool. There was all this build up to him, but he was just some old bloke who had been taken over by some robes? Wtf? It was very uneventful.

Overall I did really enjoy the game, and if you've enjoyed the other games in the series and not played the original, this comesq highly recommended. Your mileage may vary if you have played the original and how you felt about that game.

@JohnnyShoulder Here’s the big question for me, is it worth £70? In the sense that Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne were £50 at launch IIRC.

@PSVR_lover I've already played Death Mark and had mixed feelings about it. Loved the creepy environments, but the plot got kind of weird near the end, and some of the supernatural mysteries felt underdeveloped. Good game, but it could have been better, IMO.

How did you feel about NG compared to Death Mark?

@nessisonett Depends if you go for the platinum. If no, then no. If yes, then yes. 😂 It took me 52ish hours and I'm 42% done in terms of trophies. 😬

Also forgot to mention world tendency. I really liked it, think Insight from Bloodborne but a bit more so. It is just barely explained in the game, so thank the f for fextra.

NG is defiantly tamer than Death Mask, but still very creepy.

Here's a rundown of everything I've beaten this year-

Yakuza Kiwami 2: After beating 0 and replaying Kiwami, I was pretty excited to play it, and I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed going through Kamurocho (and Sotenbori) in the best graphics the series has had thus far, the story and characters got me hooked, and while the combat took some getting used to, I grew to enjoy it too. Bringing back the Cabaret Club minigame was also a plus.

Super Mario World: Would you believe I never finished this before this year? My first ever video game, I finally replayed and wrapped it up via the SNES Classic.

Strider: I got this on PS4 from a sale last year, but I didn't finish until a few months ago. It's a fun, challenging Metroidvania game that's good when you need time away from AAA Open World game #759. I wouldn't mind seeing Capcom make another Strider.

Zelda: Link to the Past: Another childhood game I never beat back in the day, now revisited and conquered as an adult. Glad I did too, since I consider it the definitive Zelda game.

Azure Striker Gunvolt 1 & 2: I managed to basically get these for free on Switch, but I probably would have paid for these. They're fun Mega Man esque games that also bring some challenge, mostly from replaying levels for high scores. They're also filled with J-Pop songs that play when you're doing well. So yeah, good stuff.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake (part 1): I was one of many who were looking forward to it, and likely one of few who actually enjoyed it. It's become a controversial (by gamer standards) title for certain reasons, but I'm personally looking forward to what comes next.

Persona 5 Royal: I liked Persona 5. I like this. Another 180 hours happily gone.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition: Another really long JRPG (a little over 100 for this one). I was looking forward to it due to missing out on the original Wii release. It's quickly become one of my favorite games ever, and if my backlog wasn't stuffed, I'd be replaying it. It ain't perfect, but it hits all the high notes for me.

Streets of Rage 4: Sega's retro revival tour that hopefully has Jet Set Radio somewhere has it's latest stop in this awesome follow up that I recommend to any fans of the original games. A good mix of modern improvements but keeping the thrill that made these games great. This is a treat for beat-em-up freaks.

Crash Bandicoot 4: Yeah, of course I was gonna get this. I might do a full write-up on it when I 100% it, which I can't do right now because it's so dang hard. Yeah, those game journalists shoulda saved those Dark Souls jokes for this one. But right now, it's still a good game worthy of the series' name, and fun romp if you just go straight through to the end.

@DerMeister I played Strider as well this year, a surprisingly solid game. I wish more companies made smallish games with their older IPs to be honest.

@nessisonett It would be nice. Considering that challenging games have risen in popularity, as well as older fighting games like Samurai Shodown have returned, I'm slightly surprised they haven't brought stuff like Ghosts & Goblins or Darkstalkers back. If Strider can come back, I'm sure these can be considered for a revival.

Holy crap! I remember that avatar and name... Welcome back @DerMeister! (Not sure if ya remember me though lol)

Last time we saw ya, you were planning... a persona 3 review I think? Or was it 4? Hopefully I'm not thinking of the wrong person there lol 😅

Nice list of games you've beaten. I've heard some of the horror stories in trying to 100% Crash 4... Sounds like a particularly devious achievement!

@DerMeister I really enjoyed Kiwami 2 as well and it has a great protagonist. Are you planning on playing 3-5?

Don’t worry, I really enjoyed FF7R too but some of the graphical issues were ludicrous for a game that took so long. Did you manage a hard run through too? I thought the combat really came into its own on the second run.

And I’d love to get Crash 4 but it’s not a game I can justify spending full price on.

Crash 4 was really good. Maddening hard at times with some of the concepts. Also finished up days gone on ps5...the upgrades make it beautiful and more of a joy to play. Really enjoyed!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, I remember you just fine. We've talked about RPGs before, and I believe you reviewed the 1st Crash game in the review thread (Which has grown exponentially since I last saw it!)

Glad you remembered the P4 review, because I forgot to finish it. I started it, then trailed off during my sabbatical. I'll try to finish it soon, before the year ends.

@Thrillho I'm currently going through Yakuza 3. After Kiwami 2, it's jarring to look at PS3 era tech, but I think it looks good for a remaster. Loving it so far, but I'm definitely curious about 4 & 5 due to the extra playable characters.

As for Crash 4, while I don't think platformers need to be sold at a reduced price, I can see why anyone would be hesitant to pay $60 for it (It was actually one of my Black Friday purchases). It'll definitely keep you busy, but the difficulty of that 100% won't please everyone. Heck, I've 100%'d Crash 1-3 many times over, and I'm already dreading some sections of Crash 4.

@DerMeister I really loved Yakuza 3 but burned out on Yakuza 4. I’ll go back to it!

@DerMeister @nessisonett The overall story in 3 is peak silliness but the change in character of Kiryu is well done and Haruka becomes even more of her own person. Playing in a new location is also refreshing. The change graphically from the Kiwami games is pretty jarring though and the cabaret club equivalent is awful.

I really liked the introduction of the new characters in 4 as it also kept the series fresher, partly by mixing the story up but also by giving you different combat styles. The new areas in that game are also welcome and the number of sub stories is drastically reduced from 3 where there are waaaay too many. The links to the story in 0 and 1 are well done too.

WRC 9 PS5. Was a blast and I will play it even more.

I beat River City Girls there, well the normal ending anyway. It was a strangely dark ending that contextualised a lot of the characters’ behaviour towards the two leads. It’s actually kinda refreshing for the game to end in that way to be honest.