Topic: Games you've recently beat

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker (Nintendo 3DS). Did the main Septentrione story and the extra Triangulum campaign.

The story in the main campaign felt weaker than in Devil Survivor 1 Overclocked, but things did improve in the Triangulum arc. The gameplay felt better here in the sequel. I don't know if that's just because I'm more familiar with the mechanics, or whether the gameplay balance was improved. But overall, it was good fun.

And I also got the Platinum trophy on Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4) . It's a fairly easy Platinum that's not too tedious to get. It's a fun game for those that like both Persona and rhythm games, though there's better rhythm games out there if you're not into Persona.

@Diamond_Dog well done Keith… I felt similarly… after around 30-40 hours or so I just thought to myself that I hope this never ends. The controls become so natural and the maps hold such amazing bases and landmarks with which to fully utilise your abilities/arsenal.

If they hadn’t kyboshed the online trophies on the PS3 version, I would plat the whole thing all over again!

I ‘could’… but the fact it would be platless just shifts my backlog above it in order of priority tbh. Thing is, while there may be few games within my backlog that I’ll like quite as much as MGSV… I’m pretty sure that I’ll really like the vast majority of them at least… and I’m yet to play them, while I put 183 hours into MGSV already.

@Diamond_Dog it’s another level mate… just keeps getting better and better too. What are your plans as far as souls-likes go now… are you gonna go straight for Elden Ring or are you gonna start with the older ones first?

Beat Elden Ring there. So so close to being a 10. Until the final boss. Might genuinely be worse than Nashandra. Other than that, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Honestly surprised just how daring and innovative it feels. I reckon this is how people felt with Breath of the Wild, which I personally couldn’t get into. I kept finding new things in Elden Ring and I’m fully aware that I could spend another hundred hours on this file, never mind New Game Plus.

@Diamond_Dog dunno if I’ll be investing as much as 200 hours into it mate… though I certainly won’t be done with the plat in 55 like @nessisonett that’s for sure. I’m thinking I’ll be playing it for 100 at least… probably a bit more. I’m certainly in no rush though, it’s such a rich world to experience that its quite nice to stop and smell the erdleaf flowers.

In regards to your personal souls-like journey… you honestly could start with any of the games if one in particular took your fancy. I personally still think that Demons Souls is the perfect starting point but I’ve spoken to loads of people whose first souls-like was Bloodborne and they loved it.

@Herculean I see what you did there 😉

Just finished 999 on PS4 and got the true ending along with every other one. Absolutely brilliant game! I genuinely loved the whole escape-room concept as you have to gather clues and solve fun puzzles in order to escape. The puzzles were almost never difficult to solve, except for a few towards the end. But overall, they all made sense and the most important thing for me is that I never got stuck and therefore frustrated because I couldn't solve a puzzle. Even the difficult ones toward the end would eventually give me hints so that I could solve them. Usually, I tend to get frustrated with visual novels that have puzzle elements, such as Ace Attorney and Danganronpa. But 999 was different though. I don't know if it's because it had easier puzzles or if I've simply gotten better at these games, but the point is that I highly enjoyed the gameplay.

The story started off fairly slow and the majority of the time was spent on explaining scientific theories and terms to the player as they would become fundamental to understanding the plot. There was also a lot of information about historical events and all of this was really interesting to me. I absolutely love it when visual novels mix elements from real life with a fictional story. It's the same reason why I loved Steins;Gate because it talked about time travel and actual scientific theories in order to explain the plot. It just makes these stories that much more grounded, captivating and ultimately memorable to me. Not to mention that when the story started to unravel and the mysteries were getting solved, I just couldn't stop playing. In my opinion, this is the sign of an exceptional visual novel and video game in general.

In short, 999 was absolutely brilliant and it has become one of my favourite games of all time now. On top of this, I've fallen in love with the Zero Escape series and I can't wait to play the next game, Virtue's Last Reward, as I've heard it's even better. I highly recommend checking out this franchise, it's just so good!

@crimsontadpoles @Th3solution Decided to tag you guys here since we talked about 999 a couple of weeks ago. @Ralizah Also tagging you here since I think you've played through the Zero Escape series.

@LtSarge Glad you liked it! I thought you might. I’ll be curious what you think of VLR, because as you say, it’s generally considered the best in the series, but I actually think I liked 999 a smidge better. But I thoroughly enjoyed VLR too. It’s a much more complex game with a lot more endings and possibilities. Absolutely fascinating storyline too.

I’ve still yet to play Zero Time Dilemma. Every time I think I might, I get sidetracked. It doesn’t help that it’s the least well received in the trilogy, so I have a harder time getting motivated to play it.

@LtSarge Yep. I liked 999 a lot, and VLR is one of my all-time favorite games for its fantastic puzzle gameplay and complex, mind-bending story. Still need to play the port of 999 via The Nonary Games collection to see how they adapted the final puzzle to other systems, since it made use of the NDS' two screens in an utterly unique way.

Glad you finally got around to playing these games.

@LtSarge Glad you enjoyed it. The way it gives out scientific or historical details that slowly becomes relevant later on was very well done. If Steins;Gate is doing that as well then I'll certainly have to play it one of these days.

VLR is the fan favourite, so have fun when you get round to it. Personally though, I think I liked 999 the most out of the trilogy.

I beat Yakuza 5 last night. I'm not sure but I think it might be my favourite Yakuza game so far. Playing as Haruka sealed the deal for me. I really wouldn't mind just playing a Haruka game where you do the idol stuff for 65 hours 😅.

Awesome game!

@ralphdibny so recognizable. I couldn't get enough of So much more. That song got stuck in my head all day while I was playing it. I still preferred 0 over 5 but 5 has a solid 2nd place in my favorite yakuza list

@Diamond_Dog Glad you enjoyed it! I thought it was more balanced than 7 with a more varied enemies, with the Lycans being 100 times better than the boring AF mould.

@Fragile I have like 160 hours into that game and I still haven't finished all the school stories. I was late to the party and started my yakuza trip with Like a dragon. I fell in love with the series because of that one. Thanks to gamepass I was able to also play all other 6 games and after that I played judgment and even preordered lost judgment.
Those games are like Rollercoaster of emotions and have so much stuff to do. I haven't played a rgg game yet that I didn't like. Can't wait on Yakuza 8. That one will be a day one no matter what.

@Th3solution I was actually glad to see that the branching paths in 999 weren't that complicated to unlock. In fact, I even managed to unlock the true ending path on my first go! The problem is that you have to see another ending first before you could unlock that one, so even if you try to go for the true ending on your first run you won't be able to unlock it. But yeah, I must've been extremely lucky to have passed all the requirements for the true ending on my first try lol.

Anyway, I hope that VLR won't be too complicated with its branching paths. That could potentially drag down my fondness for the game. I'm also surprised that the game is over 30 hours long. Both 999 and Zero Time Dilemma are around 20 hours, so I do have to wonder if people prefer those games because they're shorter than VLR.

@Ralizah Oh yeah, I never thought about the differences between the DS version and the PS4 port. Did some quick Google searches and apparently the DS version didn't have voice acting, so that could be another reason for you to check out the PS4 port. I also read that the flowchart in the PS4 version makes getting all the endings easier compared to the DS version. Either way, I felt like the puzzles worked well on PS4 despite the game being a DS title.

@crimsontadpoles I wholeheartedly recommend Steins;Gate if you liked 999. Even though there isn't much in terms of gameplay, the story and the real life elements make for a very captivating plot. I hadn't been this impressed by a game for a long time when I played it last year.

I do have to say that if there was one aspect of 999 that I wish was expanded upon a bit more, it would have to be character development and interactions in general. I wanted to spend more time with the characters and get to know them more. Hopefully that's something that's been improved in VLR.

@Lavalera so much more has been my (in head) jam for weeks now! Though today I have loneliness loop stuck in my head 🤔😅

It's tough to say which one is definitively my favourite. I can say that Kiwami 1 is the worst one for me though, especially playing it after 0 in timeline order.

I love the story of 3, the characters of 4 and 5, the intensity of Kiwami 2. 0 is definitely the total package though, between the substories, characters, main story and the in depth mini games (and the music for the cabaret club 😅). Same reasons that 5 is also a total package!

I've got 6, Like A Dragon, Dead Souls, Judgment, Lost Judgment and Fist of the North Star left to play, in terms of ones that are easily accessible to me and also in English. I decided to focus on the game pass ones for now though as I guess they could be taken off the service at any time so I will be starting 6 in the coming days. I think I may try and play the PSP ones on the PSTV too, not sure if they need translation patches or if there are any available. I think the historical setting spin offs on PS3 may be inaccessible to me for some time however unless they get official ports/translations.

@ralphdibny the only ones I never played are the older spinoff titles like fist of the north star and dead souls. I do own fist of the north star and its on my list to play after the dlc of lost judgment comes out and I finished that.
To bad dead souls is a ps3 only game and I only own a ps5 so I'm still hoping they will remaster the spinoffs too like they did with the others.

@ralphdibny The PSP games do have translation patches out there! Tempted to play them on my Vita.

Thanks for review, I need to play this game. Love Resident Evil.