Topic: Games you've recently beat

@nessisonett I recently replayed it too and I still had fun with it but it felt kind of... empty? I've downloaded the sequel to play again at some point (and get the plat for that too) and I seem to remember that having slightly more to it, even if the underlying game is almost identical.

I've posted about this in the PS5 thread but just seen this so hopefully it's okay for me to post again.

Finished Guardians of the Galaxy tonight and I have to say I loved it. Not perfect, could use a bit more polish. However, the writing, voice acting and gameplay are all excellent. Combat can be improved on but I feel they absolutely nail the tone and feeling of playing as the Guardians. I was heavily invested in the story from start to finish. Highly recommend to people.

Just finished Sonic & Knuckles on PS3. Another great Sonic game! I was actually surprised to see that this is the one that's home to the famous Sky Sanctuary Zone. I remember playing through that stage a lot in Sonic Generations but I had no idea which game it was from. It's rather odd that most people only talk about Sonic 1, 2 and 3, but not Sonic & Knuckles as it might as well have been Sonic 4 since it's that good on its own. Although it did feel like Sonic 3 had fewer levels than the previous two games, so maybe that's why Sega wanted you to combine both 3 and Knuckles in order to get the "complete" version. But yeah, on its own Sonic & Knuckles is still a great title. It's just too bad that Sky Sanctuary only had one act since I really liked its design and music.

Finished The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Solid 2D Zelda overall, although these games can feel a bit samey after a while. Literally just: "ALttP, but with [insert gimmick]."

Oracle of Ages: "ALttP, but with time manipulation."
Oracle of Seasons: "ALttP, but with the ability to manipulate the seasons."
The Minish Cap: "ALttP, but with size manipulation."
A Link Between Worlds: "ALttP, but you can turn into a painting."
Link's Awakening: "ALttP, but it sucks and there's an owl that won't stop harassing you with his slow-scrolling text and prompts to repeat his inane dialogue that you keep accidentally agreeing to."

The game actually does get a fair bit of mileage out of its gimmick, although this isn't always to the benefit of the game itself, as some of the size-related puzzles are annoying and slow the game down so much.

But, it's, you know, Zelda. It's fun enough. I cleared it in a week, and apparently logged in 24.5 hours, so I had to have enjoyed myself.

@nessisonett Guacamelee never did much for me. I was really disappointed when I played it on my Vita years back.

Finished Lake this evening. It's a nice short game kind of like Firewatch. Basically you play a woman who comes to a small town for a week to take a temp job at the post office. You delivery mail throughout the day but you can also interact with the various people on your route and after your shift as well. You can date one of the towns people if you choose to as well. After the week you have a big decision to make.

It's not an overly deep game, it's rather short, six to seven hours long but it's a nice pallet cleanser game. It does have replay value to a point as you choose different choices each time you play so there's that.

It's a charming game to be quiet honest and as I said it's a great pallet cleanser after playing a deeper game. I quite enjoyed my time with the game.

@LtSarge Sonic & Knuckles is actually the second part of Sonic 3. Originally it was meant to be one game but due to time constraints due to a deal that Sega of Japan made with McDonald's the game was split in two. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.

So yeah just like today how companies will release an unfinished game to make a deadline then just release DLC to finish it later on down the road, Sega was doing it in the 90s.

@LtSarge Hi there friend.
Knew you were going to like S&K. Also Sky Sanctuary Zone will never not give me Star Light Zone vibes.
As soon as I heard those tunes in both levels it felt like being in a different dimension. Also, their are both visualy great. Having said that, it doesn´t beat Hydrocity zone ost. Every time I listen to it, the nostalgia hit´s like a truck and just can´t help to shed some tears..... Very few OSTs are capable of that.
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

@RogerRoger Hey there friend.
Don´t like Sandopolis Zone? I wonder why....... Maybe it´s because there´s some influence from Labyrinth Zone..... Or maybe because when it get´s dark those pesky phantoms apear and one shot you?
Yeah, that´s got to be it. And then they decided it would be fun to combine those mechanics in the Oil Ocean Zone in Sonic Mania..... At least they didn´t brought back that damn barrel 😜
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

Just wrapped the story on Yakuza Kiwami… and I really, really like this game. The combat becomes pretty technical, the gameplay loop is awesome, the world is really ‘alive’ and vibrant, the story and characters are brilliant… I can really understand why the series is so beloved.

@colonelkilgore Intrigued by your experience with the first game. Glad you liked it. So you’re in it for the long haul, I take it? (Both in reference to this game’s platinum and to playing the entire voluminous series)

@RogerRoger I played it on my Series X via Gamepass so if you have a form of Gamepass I definitely recommend checking it out that way. I believe it's also available on PS4/PS5 as well.

@RogerRoger Blathers has more personality in the tip of his beak then that ridiculous LA owl does in his whole body. He's definitely a precursor to those mildly irritating companion characters in the 3D Zeldas that feel the need to bore you with obvious explanations.

Although the slow-scrolling text is absolutely the worst thing about him. If they fixed that in the remake, maybe he's not as irritating.

It's a beautiful remake, but I just can't bring myself to pay top dollar for a remake of a game I'm already not particularly fond of. I've been holding off on replaying the Oracle duology on GBC in the hopes that Nintendo and Capcom will get together and give it a LA-style remake.

Just completed Miles Morales main story. Much of the game felt a bit repetitive and samey because I was attempting to complete everything available before moving on with the main story. This meant I then got into a few hours where all I had to do were the story and - wow! The plot and characters made up for it and have left me with a more positive impression than I thought it was going to have. Quite enjoyable, fairly easy and still a few trophies to clean up on a quick NG+

@Th3solution pretty much mate, definitely gonna play through the series (I’m even gonna schedule Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise back in, to see if I can mop up its plat)… and I’m gonna try to plat each one but… each one (except for 6) will be extremely difficult. There are so many mini games to master, that it’s very easy to not quite click with one of them (like the struggles I’ve had with its karaoke mini game today 😥) and that’s the plat over.

Still, I’ll look forward to returning to the series once or twice a year for sure.

@colonelkilgore Congrats on finishing Kiwami/Kiwame! And I thought karaoke was one of the easier side activities in the series

@Tasuki Nice to see another person who's finished Lake. I finished it myself a couple of weeks ago and had a great time with it. Really liked playing as Meredith, she's such a great character.

Yeah, it's kinda weird how Sega split the game into two parts, but I guess that's how they did things back in the 90s. It was add-on galore back then for them. Sega Mega Drive, then Sega CD and Sega 32X. I watched AVGN's videos on those and I still can't believe that those were actually a thing, lol. What an absolute mess!

@RogerRoger I actually forgot to mention in my post that I genuinely hated Sandopolis Zone, lol. Not only were the acts so freaking long, but then they had to go and add those phantoms in the second act and it was just so annoying. Definitely the worst zone in the game.

@RaZieLDaNtE The music in Sonic games are just exceptional in general. Even levels that aren't that good like Sandopolis Zone still have great music. I'm amazed the soundtrack has been so consistent throughout each entry. Surely Sonic has to be the longest running franchise with the most consistently good music? At least that's what I think.

@RogerRoger @RaZieLDaNtE I do want to ask you guys since you both seem like huge Sonic fans if I should get Sonic CD on PS3/360? I've actually grown fond of the classic 2D Sonic games now and want to play more. I've already bought Sonic Mania and I recently remembered that Sonic CD was released for PS3/360 years ago. I want to play it as well, but the thing is that I've mostly relied on save states while playing through these games. I assume there are no save states in Sonic CD since it's a standalone release? Or at least some form of save functionality that alleviates starting over?

@colonelkilgore Congrats mate! What are your thoughts on the karaoke songs? They've become an absolute phenomenon on the internet with songs like Baka mitai among others. I definitely wasn't aware of that when I played through Kiwami for the first time and now I always want to play that song at karaoke in every Yakuza game, lol. Luckily I still have another shot to do that in Like a Dragon!

@LtSarge The reason Sonic 3 was split was because a tie in deal Sega of Japan made with McDonald's in North America. The developers wanted the game's worlds to be larger then Sonic 2's were but they needed to release the game at the same time as when McDonald's was going to include Sonic 3 toys with their Happy Meals. The larger world's meant that a longer development time was needed so Naka and his team decided to split the game so that part of it could be released to keep the deal with McDonald's and they can finish up the rest of the game and release it at a later date, Sonic & Knuckles.

@Tasuki Yeah you told me that in your previous post.

@LtSarge OH yeah, forgot.I did, I guess that's what I get for posting during a bout of insomnia.

@Tasuki Ah I see, no worries mate! Hope you're doing all right.