Topic: Games you've recently beat

@colonelkilgore It made me question why I care about the platinum, for sure lol.

@HallowMoonshadow I’m kinda glad I’m not alone in this. I dropped off Ys VIII after about 6 hours despite enjoying the other 6 games in the series I’ve played. I think it might be because I played it on PS4 instead of Vita and so the mindless nature of the combat stood out a bit more.

@HallowMoonshadow Sorry to hear it didn't resonate with you as it did with me. I can understand if you dislike the warriors style combat you didn't like the combat in this one either. But oh well different people, different taste right hope you like the next game you are going to play better than this one

@Kairu Congrats! There really is so much to do in the game too, especially with the DLC.

The coliseum was really tough but I managed to complete all of the levels there. The pantheons were too much for me though. The Grimm Troupe is also a great challenge and the final boss a great challenge.

The Path of Pain is also very deserving of its name if you ever get round to that!

Which ending did you get by the way?

@Kairu I think that’s the “worst” of the endings! Most of the “good” ones depend on tinkering with a special charm you can find in the abyss. There’s also a second boss as part of the final fight with those endings.

The Path of Pain is very well hidden and no chance I’d have found it without googling it. It really is brutal but my pigheadedness meant I had to finish it. There’s not really much to gain from doing it though.

I had to give up on the pantheons as it started to sour my taste for such a wonderful game. It’ll always be a platinum just out of reach for me..

@Thrillho @Kairu I'm the same, I stopped playing when I realised I wouldn't be able to do the pantheons without pulling too much hair out and possibly unleashing one too many swears. Would love to have the talent to do it but I watched a video of someone going through them all and the ease at which they did it made me realise just what I'm missing in terms of skill.

The path of pain I didn't finish either but go to admire the design of the platforming in these deadly areas. There's some really cleaver stuff that's gone into HK and I can't wait to see how they've continued that with Silk Song.

@Kairu Wow, you flew through those bits then! I thought the enemy encounter at the end of the Path was particularly harsh as I died and it sends you right back to the beginning..

That final boss isn’t too bad once you get the attack pattern down. But I’d say to finish the Grimm Troupe off before taking on the pantheons.

And have you done the part with returning the flower across the map? I remember that taking me quite a few goes..

@Kairu Nice. Luckily, they did put in a shortcut to skip the first half of the Path again if you die but I may have felt like crying when I realised it would send you right back to the start..

And two attempts to do that is pretty good going! The flying mantis enemies at the end wrecked a few of my runs.

I just finished the last Muramasa: Rebirth DLC and finally wrapped up this game. It's been a fun ride but man is it repetitive. My first playthrough of the base game was really fun and it took me roughly 10 hours to finish it. But then there's the second playthrough (which took me 7 hours) where you play as a different character and experience a different story. While the story and the boss fights were different, the levels and combat were still the same so it didn't feel worth playing through the game again. The main appeal of this game is the extremely satisfying gameplay, not the story. So I didn't bother getting the alternative endings either because I didn't really care about the story at all.

Then there are the Genroku Legends DLCs, which consist of four different stories and are exclusive to the Vita version. The main problem with these ones is that they are way too short, only around 2 hours long each. You have barely any time to level up your character and fill up the expansive skill tree for each character. On top of this, while the boss fights are different and each character played differently, it was still the same game with the same levels. It just got too repetitive at this point and it didn't help either that two of the DLCs had characters with absolutely atrocious gameplay styles. One of them has you playing as a farmer and the other as a ninja with range-based attacks, which just didn't feel as satisfying as slashing away at your enemies with a sword. At least the other two had similar play styles as the base game's, so I was happy with those.

In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend playing through Muramasa: Rebirth more than once. Also, skip the Genroku Legends DLCs because they are just not worth it. I wish they had made like 1-2 DLCs that are fairly long and introduced new levels, but that's not what you get here. One playthrough is enough for you to experience everything the game has to offer, not to mention there's a lot of compelling side content as well.

With that out of the way, I highly enjoyed my time with the game overall. It's a fun 2D Metroidvania with very satisfying combat and RPG elements that heighten the experience. It's definitely a must-play for all Vita owners and I've become a big fan of Vanillaware now. Looking forward to playing Odin Sphere, Dragon's Crown and 13 Sentinels in the future!

Assassin's Creed Origins. I liked it better than I did when I played it on Xbox when it first came out, but I'd still say it's safely my least favorite of the three open world AC games. I never could really get attached to the Bayek character like I could in the two follow-up games, and it's still clear that this was their first open world game. It did make me appreciate the improvements they've made in the series since. I still think it's good and I don't regret playing it again (this time on my PS5 of course) though.

I played both of the DLCs as well. I actually really liked The Hidden Ones, but didn't care much for The Curse of the Pharaohs. That's basically the opposite of what I expected, but I did think they managed to work Aya back into the game well (yep, still calling her Aya). The bosses in The Curse of the Pharaohs ended up being quite annoying, especially the final boss Tutankhamun. Between having to listen to the same damn dialogue from Bayek at least 30 times since they don't just respawn you right at the boss over again and him being incredibly cheap, it completely ruined my experience of that DLC. It's also funny in a bad way that you can essentially be one hit killed when you are a level 55 and it's a level 52.

@KilloWertz I’m still to play Valhalla but I’ll agree that I definitely enjoyed Odyssey more than I did Origins. Not that I didn’t enjoy the Egyptian setting or characters but I loved seafaring and island hoping around the Aegean.

@KilloWertz I remember being disappointed that I finished the game and hadn't even seen half of the map because those areas weren't utilised in the story at all since they were empty. I thought it was really weird for Ubisoft to make the map that large when there was practically nothing to do in a lot of the regions.

I also liked the Hidden Ones DLC more than Curse of the Pharaohs. It actually tied the plot with the Assassin Brotherhood storyline while CotP was just meh. It was nice to see them delve more into the supernatural part of AC but they did a much better job at it with Odyssey's Atlantis DLCs. Those worlds were much more interesting to explore.

Finished Journey mode in Tetris Effect. That last level is brutal but it’s still one of the best games I’ve played in a long, long time. Just an artistic triumph that takes a simple game like Tetris and elevates it.

@nessisonett Tetris Effect is a masterpiece. One of the few true 10/10 games I've played over the years. One of the few games I happily purchased at full price twice over (on PS4 at first, and on Switch for portable play).

A bit of a nightmare trying to achieve SS ranks in all of the levels, though.

@Ralizah I’d probably say it was a 10/10 experience as well. I’m not a Tetris expert by any stretch of the matter, I basically had to git gud, but the simplicity mixed with the subtle intricacies really made me appreciate how genius it really is. I did only realise that the Zone mechanic existed during the final level though! I think I’ll go back and play it on Expert too, I did Normal and I reckon I could definitely get quite far on the harder difficulty now. Sometimes games just do exactly what they set out to do, and extremely well at that.

@nessisonett I can only imagine what Tetris Effect is like in VR. While I have next to no interest in almost anything else, I've almost pulled the trigger a few times on the PSVR just to experience this in an even more immersive manner.

But really, its suite of modes and gameplay mechanics are very tight and well-considered. Come for the audiovisual extravaganza, stay for the super-satisfying puzzle game underneath.

Between this and Tetris 99, I don't think I need any other versions of this game.

I really need to get off my butt and play Rez Infinite at some point.

@RogerRoger It's funny, because I remember a lot of groaning when it was first revealed in a stream, because it was 'just' Tetris, but I think almost everyone willing to give it a chance has realized it's far more special than that. I mean... it is, but it isn't. It's Tetris if Tetris was a psychedelic/spiritual experience.

Before it was ported everywhere, it was the best PS4 exclusive. Now it's merely the best version of Tetris out there!

@HallowMoonshadow It's interesting how hard you bounced off Cold Steel 2. Do you think you just played it too soon after the first game, or was it actually a decently worse game (in your opinion) than the first one? Because I recall you digging the first one.

I totally sympathize with people who have to stand alone in criticizing games that are widely beloved. After all, I disliked or was underwhelmed by... breathes deeply

Super Mario World
Kirby Super Star
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Chrono Trigger
Super Mario 64
Banjo-Kazooie
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics
Journey
The Last of Us
Bloodborne
Hyper Light Drifter
Fez
Stardew Valley

...among others.

So just finished the main story on Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it was just such a pleasant surprise. The last part of the final mission was a crazy difficulty spike… or maybe I was just using totally wrong tactics, either way I found it a bit of a roadblock.

@RogerRoger it all seemed to be fully functioning tbh mate… I mean I never played any co-op or pvp personally but there were always plenty of other players in the Erewhon (the games main hub area), like surprisingly busy for a game that received that much hate and is that old.

Also, I got my first one of the online trophies done this evening (entering a 4 player raid) and found a game after around 90 seconds… and not many players (that I ever saw anyway) ever get to the required gear score to enter a raid, so the fact I found a game with three other players that did, that quickly was impressive.

Got a bit of pvp and co-op left to mop up but it all seems surprisingly active in all honesty… just need to hope that I run into enough noobs to get the required number of pvp kills now 😅.

Edit. also, I could be wrong but I seem to remember you and I both loved Just Cause 3… well although they’re clearly quite different games JC3 - OTT action vs GR:B - tactical insurgence… I couldn’t help but feel a similar kinda way about them.