Topic: Games you've recently beat

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

... I really wanted to like this.

I did at first too with it's Star Trek like premise of earthlings exploring outer space for a new planet to call home and having planet (monster) of the week like story arcs with a overarching narrative bringing it all together.

But there comes a point (which you can easily pinpoint) when the writing (which was solid enough at the start) get's thrown completely out the window and it just spirals out of control.

It goes full anime... and ya never go full anime 😧

There's a reason why nobody in the unskippable near 10 minute long credit sequence takes credit for writing the story from the utter dreck it descends into.

And it's not so bad it's good either. Just plain bad.

Good grief.

... I didn't think the english voice acting was as bad as people make it out to be though (Well except for Sarah who is, unfortunately, rather terrible). Bad voice direction for definite and the writing/dialogue is utter rubbish whether you're playing with JP or Eng voices.

Yeah the credits just has "Original Story: tri-Ace inc." @RogerRoger like everyone was immensely embarassed by it

It's especially annoying when some of my critiques about Star Ocean 3 (Nearly all it's cast being human (Or very humanoidy) and it taking place on one planet for 85% of it's runtime) are actually addressed via the Star Trekky space voyaging plot of SO TLH.

I must've set off every monkey's paw in the world off in order to get that though. I seem to be having a lot of bad luck as of late with me not really getting on with the stories of games I'm playing either...

On the plus side I have a new found appreciation for Star Ocean 3 that I treated like I was almost embarassed to say I enjoyed it 😅

@HallowMoonshadow I too want to like The Last Hope if I ever decide to play it and I think the best approach would be to play it with Japanese voiceovers if the English ones are that bad. Have you tested what they're like during your playthrough or maybe it wasn't possible to switch VOs during a playthrough?

I don't really mind a game that "goes full anime". After all, that's what the Trails of Cold Steel games do and I absolutely love them!

You can change the voiceover from Eng to JP at any point @LtSarge. I never tried it but I was going to give it a little look at some point.

I did immediately switch from the absolutely ugly "Modern" CG models used in the character/battle potraits to the "Classic" anime artwork though...

... I think it speaks for itself 😅

There's a lot of options in it's menu to tweak to get the best performance out if it as it's not a stable 60fps with everything up on a base PS4.

And as for the full anime thing... Well... It was partially just a riff of the line from the film Tropic Thunder that I'd rewatched a couple of days ago

But yeah Last Hope does use some bad anime tropes and I really can't stress enough how badly written it is in general, let alone compared to Til The End of Time.

@HallowMoonshadow Oh lord, those CG portraits do look bloody awful! 😂

I was wondering why that never go full anime felt familiar! I've seen Tropic Thunder countless times, but it still didn't click! 😂

Beat Yakuza 6 last night. The pacing is so much better than in previous entries. It’s also funny just how ridiculous it got when the ‘secret’ that was on the level of a MGS boss was revealed. I expected the CIA to swoop in but nothing which had already been established in previous games.

The game can be mainlined very quickly. I considered doing a Legends run for the platinum trophy & with skipping cutscenes the game can be beat in 3-4 hours which sounds about right (got turned off by the 115 mini games collectible).
Also the Live Chat mini game really takes the risqué factor to a whole new level. Thankfully there was only 2 ladies to interact with. I struggled to pay attention at times not because of the striptease & sounds but because of the live chat!

*littledicky entered the chat
‘Hold me’
😶

All in all one of the better Yakuza games. Got Y7 left now but will give it a few months as I only recently rushed to Remastered collection. If I had to rank them this far I’d go:

Y0, Y2, Y6, Y4, Y5, Y1, Y3

Just rolled the credits on The Order 1886… class! Sony are sitting on gold with that ip for sure, only problem is that it seems that they have no interest in pursuing it.

@Fight_Teza_Fight A heads up for you on the Y6 platinum; if you have a save near the end of the game, you can reload that and play through to the final fight, bump up to top difficulty at that point and get the trophy that way as you will technically complete the game on the top difficulty!

I don’t know why you can do it in this game only but it made it the first Yakuza game I got the platinum for.

@colonelkilgore Great setting & characters. It’s a great experience if you picked it up heavily discounted. Unfortunately I think there’s too much ‘stink’ around the IP for it to ever come back.
@Thrillho Yep I seen that. I had to restart Yakuza 3 because I started the game on normal & by chapter 3 battles were taking far too long. Had to restart on easy. As for Y6 I considered going for the plat, but got turned off by doing all the mini games & completing the sub stories. Had a really good 20+ hours with the game. Going back would probably sour my experience.

@Fight_Teza_Fight I enjoyed the more streamlined experience of Y6 too but didn’t find the trophies too bad other than the one that required you to level a Clan Creator character to max. That one took forever!

Like a Dragon is great fun though and I really liked the change in combat and the new cast. Judgment is also really good too and I have the sequel for that to look forward to at some point.

@Fight_Teza_Fight yeah I’d imagine that you’re 100% right. I mean, I was out off by the stink myself and only chose to give it a go all these years later because I’ve seen the odd positive comment about it.

@Fight_Teza_Fight I may have this totally wrong, but I feel that you are a fellow sacred symbols listener? Just the way you used 'Stink' reminded me of the show! 😂

@JohnnyShoulder Haha yeah! Since day 1. I did consciously think to replace another word I had in mind with ‘stink’ because who knows what you get in trouble for these days.
Having listened to the show for years Chris might have had an influence on me, but I’d like to think it was a happy coincidence.
If I start refusing to play games at under 60fps please send help though😂.

@JohnnyShoulder @Fight_Teza_Fight Fellow listener here too, although I’m several episodes behind. In fact, unless I’m just imagining it, I think he read one of your questions on an episode a couple months ago, didn’t he Johnny?

I’ve picked some phraseology from the show too. I catch myself subconsciously saying “greetings and salutations” or “thanks for your love, kindness, and support” and using words I’d never say before like eldritch or Cronenberg. 😅

Colin frequents Push Square a lot; he references the site pretty much every week and has referred to Sammy as his “friend”, if I’m not mistaken. I know he at least browses the comments and forums because he’s referenced some of the discussions here as well. I’ve often wondered if he has an account here and what his username is. It would be brilliant if he’s stealthily posting under a pseudonym to stir discussion, as a way to research for his show.

@Kairu That was quick. Can we trade lives for a week and I can probably finish Mass Effect 3 and God of War Ragnarok in the same week then?

Guardians of the Galaxy - Way better than I thought it was going to be, I really enjoyed it.

Just completed the main campaign on The Last Stand: Aftermath (PS5)
Enjoyed it for what it was (quite a budget release I think), a bit repetitive at times and one noticeable difficulty spike in the last area but a fun journey nonetheless. My biggest complaint with it was the buggy nature of some of the trophies may stop me from achieving the platinum, but I guess that's a me problem more than anything.

According to my PS5’s [sometimes inaccurate] play time counter, after 11 hours of mixed emotions I’ve finally finished Marvel’s Avengers base campaign. It took a little longer than I expected, if that time can be trusted. And I’ll say — during the game’s low points it felt even longer. There were definitely times when things dragged and I lost interest. And yet, there were times when I honestly felt delighted and giddy with parts of the game.

I won’t do a full review, partly because there is a ton of game still in there that I haven’t experienced and it would be unfair to pass a global judgment. But I really have no desire to spend more time in all the game’s many modes and supplemental missions. Even the main story content became oddly boring toward the second half. I tried a few side activities, and they really weren’t any more fun.

It’s really frustrating and weird that the game has so much to offer and yet simultaneously is boring. It seems oxymoronic to have constant fresh gameplay and characters thrown at you at every turn, and yet feel dull and unexciting. It should be fun to get the chance to play as Hulk, then Iron Man, then Black Widow, then Thor, but really I just kept wanting the game to let me go back to play as Kamala. I think the single player aspect of the game would be much better to just focus on one character and I think the start with Kamala’s origin story was really compelling. Then as each hero gets introduced and you’re forced to start over with a new moveset to learn, new gear to set up, and new progression skill trees to navigate…. It’s just too much. The game dumps new mechanics on you before you have time to really learn and enjoy what you already had.

And I get it — the campaign was designed to give the player a nice brief chance to be introduced to the characters so you can determine which you gravitate to for the multiplayer and live-service content. But in the end, it made me dislike them all and I can’t muster the interest to do more gameplay with any of them. Maybe I’ll leave it downloaded for a while just in case (it’s friggin’ 100+ GB so I don’t want to have to download it again) because I am mildly curious to see the Wakanda content and the Kate Bishop storyline. But every mission for every hero in the main game felt so copy-and-paste that I just don’t feel like it will be worth my time to try any more of it.

Recently we’ve had a couple discussions about story versus gameplay. I said elsewhere that I can tolerate mediocre gameplay if there’s a good story. And Marvel’s Avengers has an okay story in there somewhere. Like I said, Kamala Khan is ironically the most interesting part of a game filled with Troy Baker’s Bruce Banner and Nolan North’s Tony Stark. But even the most prolific voice actors in the business just can’t save the awkward storytelling on display here. Not that the story is inherently bad, but it’s not relayed well. Individual moments are good, but there is no cohesion. It feels like very poor project direction and the story bends and molds itself to justify the gameplay and live-service elements, rather than the gameplay molding to the story they are trying to tell.

And, not to beat the dead horse, but the most glaring and obvious issue here is the GaaS design. It interrupts any momentum with constant intrusion of ways to spend money or spend more time in pointless missions with no end.

In short, the game is just too inconsistent and lacks polish in several key aspects. I’m a pretty big Marvel apologist, but I can’t fully recommend this game without several caveats. If I ever decide to go back and play some of the add-ons or MP missions then I’ll write some updated impressions, but don’t hold your breath.

@Kairu Only thing you need to be sorry about is refusing to switch lives for a week.

Well, ok, that and playing Elden Ring again. Horizon Forbidden West is the true GotY! #Horizon4Ever #EldenRingSucks #HappilyDying10000TimesIsStupid #HorizonFW2022GOTY

Ok, after fake acting like a fanboy and making fun of some people on Twitter (sorry), I think I'm good. Maybe when you're done dying 10,000 times you'll give Mass Effect a shot.

@Kairu Yeah, the original trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time. I had never played much more than the beginning of 3 before, but with that playthrough going along really well, I can safely say that now. EA has done a lot wrong over the years, but releasing Mass Effect Legendary Edition last year was a blessing.

Andromeda had a horrible release, but it does seem like people are enjoying it more now playing it many years after release once it got patched up. I remember @LtSarge writing a really glowing review for it earlier this year. I'm actually looking forward to playing it at some point, probably next year. It will be weird playing a Mass Effect game without the crew from the original trilogy, but oh well.