Topic: Games you've recently beat

That’s Persona PSP down. Thanks to the weird PSP on PS Vita idiosyncrasies, it took me 631 hours. I’d estimate that to be more 30 to 40 hours but half of that was spent in the final dungeon grinding for the ultimate Personas. Worth it!

Yesterday I finished Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I didn't collect all the treasures yet but I probably will go back for the platinum.

I feel really positive about it. They fixed the thing I disliked most about Odyssey - the enemies taking 4 years to kill no matter how much you level up - and I also very much liked the gathering allies to take down a baddie thing. I also like vikings which helps. I actually think this was probably my favourite ever Assassin's Creed. That's not massive praise but it is still some praise.

If I had to moan about stuff and of course I do, my major gripe with the game is that - like all the best Assassin's Creed games - it would be better if it wasn't an Assassin's Creed game. Eivor's story is barely related to the assassins at all, and all of the future animus hijinks are just annoying. The ending is the weakest part of the game, primarily because instead of this just being a radical viking RPG, they had to shoehorn all of the terrible Assassin's Creed silliness into it to tie it in to the other games.

The series is a mess. I wish they'd just do a separate series from AC that plays like Valhalla but it's just a historical RPG. Just do that and I'll play them. All of them. But no, it's 90% historical RPG, 10% lol okay so once up on a time there were some magic people but they all died and

Mini Ninjas PS3 just now.

@johncalmc I had heard they toned down the modern day animus stuff for this one, but it sounds like it still detracts. That’s too bad. I haven’t played Odyssey yet but I enjoyed Origins. I have no plans to jump into Valhalla until I’ve played Odyssey, unless you recommend I should skip it? Honestly I only have so many 100 hour open world games in me and can’t imagine playing both games within a year or two of each other.

@Th3solution Same. I think we finished Orgins at around the same time and I have no urge to play either of the next two games yet. I think my dad has Odyssey so i could borrow of it him at anytime

I finished Mini Ninjas PS3 several hours ago.

Such a good hidden gems.

@JohnnyShoulder I probably would have had an itch to play Odyssey by now except that I played Ghost of Tsushima a few months after Origins, and that’s basically cut from the same cloth.
I saw AC Valhalla for $14 today, which seemed like a steal for a PS5 native game that has like 1000 hours of content. I also saw a pre-owned PS4 disc for Cyberpunk 2077 for $9 and I actually thought twice about picking it up. Wow, that game has fallen from grace.

@Th3solution They've toned it down to an extent. I think you only briefly play as the future person like three times during a game I played for 160 hours (I also beat the Paris and Ireland DLCs) so in terms of time spent it's certainly not a big deal. The problem is that if you're invested in the narrative - as I was - then being a pretty radical viking RPG for 95% of the game and then turning into sci-fi silliness for ten minutes at the ending feels anticlimactic and weird.

It annoys me, honestly. If I could have full creative control over any video game series I'd probably pick Assassin's Creed. I've never been a huge fan of the series but it annoys me how much potential the series has that Ubisoft repeatedly squanders. They annihilated the overarching future lore with Assassin's Creed 3, and since then it's like they've been trying to just imagine up ways to tie games to the series, however tenuous those links are, just so they can call it Assassin's Creed, often to the detriment of the game.

If they cared about making a quality product and not just bashing out annualised releases for maximum coin they should have had a plan for three, five, even seven games, each set in a different time that led up to some sort of coherent conclusion. Instead they just take games that really have little business connecting to one another and then pile silly science fantasy lore on them to create a vague link.

And so should you skip Odyssey and move straight on to Valhalla? If you're only going to play one of them then I would say Valhalla is better for me. I think some people found it too long (it is) and others didn't care for the settlement stuff (I liked it) but I do think the game is better in most ways. There are a couple of the future bits you won't understand if you skip Odyssey but if you don't care about those then it doesn't matter. And obviously I'm more interested in vikings than ancient Greece which contributes too.

I personally wouldn't skip Odyssey though. I think it's the weakest of the new three, but I still liked it. My major gripes were that I didn't think the story was particularly memorable, it's too long (again), and the combat is annoying because the enemies take too long to die. I play these games on easy because I don't care one whit about challenge or learning how to fight, I just want to run around historical settings seeing sights, collecting things, and shivving people in the back. The combat - even on easy - is tedious and irritating.

One thing's for sure - this series needs to go away and then come back rebooted with a clear vision.

@johncalmc Thanks for the breakdown. Having only played two of the post-AC3 games, I can completely see what you mean. The modern/future day arc felt tacked on even with Black Flag.

I’ve got several games lined up on deck, so an AC game isn’t in my immediate plans anyways. But when I do pick the series back up I’ll probably try Odyssey first, but I’m not sure since the more time goes on, the more I want to be playing PS5 native games where possible. I honestly think I might try Immortals: Fenyx Rising before I play another AC game, just to see how the Ubisoft approach translates to a non-AC conceptualized game.

@Th3solution @johncalmc There must be something wrong with me as I seem to be the only person in the world who always enjoyed the sci-fi part of AC and is actually sad about it being marginalized

@Th3solution I have that as well but I haven't started that yet. I quite like the idea of a game that's like assassin's creed but without all the baggage. We shall see if it's any good.

Odyssey is pretty good though. Fine for what it is. Depends what you're expecting. I play these games while I listen to podcasts and stuff mostly, just milling about collecting the treasures etc.

@Kidfried No argument here on Ghost of Tsushima. Great historically based open world RPG, for sure.

@Kidfried But I think Odyssey was great and it was my favorite game of the last generation, so maybe it's not the best advice and may be just your opinion.

Not looking to argue, but had to poke a bit of fun at your advice comment. Ghost of Tsushima was pretty good too though.

I personally think Odyssey is the best Assassin's Creed game ever made and I've played all of them except for Origins, Valhalla and the Chronicles titles. The level of freedom in this game is just impeccable. You do have to follow the main story for a while but then the game truly opens up. You can e.g. go to Athens and do some quests for some historical figures such as Sokrates or take your ship and sail the sea and explore the islands. Most islands and areas in general have interesting things to do there, e.g. there's one place where you have to battle a minotaur, one where you participate in gladiator battles, one where you're exploring a spooky forest with futuristic-looking structures, one where you're fighting pirates and so on. It just feels like a living and breathing world with tons of things to do in it, the immersion is just something else.

The characters are great and likeable, Kassandra is easily the best AC protagonist since Ezio. There are a lot of memorable events throughout the story and it's just a great package overall. There's definitely a lot of padding as well, but I just love the gameplay loop in general that it didn't bother me. I obviously didn't do exactly everything in the game, but I did go for the Platinum trophy and it felt very satisfying attaining it at about 80 hours of playtime. I ended up clocking at 120 hours of playtime in total including the DLCs, which are just massive and absolutely worth getting as well.

It's a suitable game for those looking for a long experience but not if you're looking for a short experience. Different strokes for different folks.

I beat Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep yesterday and I can see why everyone says this was the best DLC for Borderlands 2. It was a joy to play and it wrapped up the story of BL2 beautifully.

It is basically more Borderlands 2 but the added Dungeon and Dragons flavor to it did make it unique and refreshing and it's easy to see why Gearbox decided to sell this one as a standalone for Tiny Tina's Wonderland but if you are expecting this one to be drastically different then Borderlands 2 it isn't. It will be interesting to see what they take from this game and incorporate It into Tiny Tina's Wonderland.

As for difficulty it's not to hard enemies are scaled down for the stand alone so if you never got around to playing the game on BL2 due to not being high enough level or never playing BL2 but are Intrested in Dragon's Keep this is a perfect way to play it.

If you do everything the first play through takes about 30 hours or so and once you finish it the first time you unlock the next level of difficulty which gives you better loot drops as in the case with games like this. There is a raid boss too if you are interested in grabbing some friends for that as well.

In the end this game isn't to much of a departure from BL2 but it is unique to stand on its own and as a setup to Tiny Tina's Wonderland.

Just finished Guardians of the Galaxy and really enjoyed it… maybe my favourite Marvel game ever actually (Spider-man didn’t do it for me like it did most people).

Got like 4 trophies left, 3 combat specific one where I have to kill a certain enemy using a certain guardian and I didn’t get all of Star Lords outfits. So I’ll chip away at them in the background while I start something new. Probably gonna start 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim tomorrow and I’m going in with very little idea of what to expect.

@colonelkilgore I need to finish 13 Sentinels, so maybe I’ll join in. It’s definitely unique and unlike anything you’ve probably ever played. Unfortunately, there’s a large emphasis on narrative and much less on gameplay 😬
But @johncalmc is a big fan. And we all know his impeccable taste. 🧐

@Th3solution yeah and that is giving me concern that I won’t click with it tbh… I’m just hoping that it’s so unique that the ‘new car smell’ will get me through the playthrough before I start to miss some hardcore action.

How far through it did you get before you took a break?

@colonelkilgore I’ve only made it through the first 5 hrs or so. The game opens up and lets you take a very personalized order with which to play the story sections and the battle gameplay sections. And that’s about where I dropped off because there were a lot of options and I got analysis paralysis. But the good news is that you can do the combat at your own pace whenever you get a little bored of the story bits, so there’s a lot of customization there.
There are a lot of characters, and the story is fairly helter-skelter (by design) and so I’ve had a little trouble getting fully invested in any of them. Once I start to piece together the timeline and story then I think it’ll be easier to stay with.
The combat is actually kinda fun, but it’s not a hugely complex battle system. However, I do like it and although I’m not very far in, it’s not too hard.
On the positive — The platinum is fairly easy, supposedly. You have to complete all the storylines and finish all the battles and then mop up a few minor left over ones, but nothing is missable according to the internet.

@Th3solution sounds really interesting, have no idea quite how interesting it’ll be in practice but I’ll be making a start on it in around an hour. I’ll definitely post some thoughts later and will tag you in them in case you’re interested 👍