Beat a sort of final boss in Vampire Survivors. Lasted 42:15, teaching level 174 and killing 37866 enemies. Insane. Now there’s a whole load of secrets to chase!
Just finished Abzu on PS4. Short but sweet (and relaxing) game! Definitely needed a palate cleanser after having finished Returnal.
I think what's cool about games like this and e.g. Stray (since I recently played it) is that they are so much more than what you think when going into them. I've seen people say that Abzu is just a game about swimming and Stray is just a game where you play as a cat. But they actually have very cool settings that you don't expect in games like these. That's what makes them so special and memorable.
In short, I really enjoyed my time with Abzu. I highly recommend playing it after having played a more demanding game.
@LtSarge I agree. I have to be in a certain mindset to play those types of games, but usually really enjoy them when I do. The Pathless is also highly recommended, but is a bit more substantial than Abzu. Amazing soundtrack too by the same person Austin Wintory, and I believe some of the developers too.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Cold Steel 2 is finally over. Finally. One of the most bloated messes I’ve ever played but in amongst that was some solid stuff. The opening was great, with the initial areas being fresh and exciting. Then the first of the many different ways they can shoehorn repetition comes.
The entire game can be summed up as: do one pretty fulfilling thing. Now do it 2 or 3 more times. In between these, get a limited amount of character development to encourage replays. Even then, I could point to about 3 party members who get any significant growth at all. I swear, Gaius just meanders about and goes on about the wind and God like some sort of Native American but written by a middle-aged Japanese man. And then at the end of the game, when everyone has their own stuff to get on with, HE JUST GOES HOME AND THAT’S IT! The guy is pleasant enough but just like Elliot, Machias and to an extent, Laura if you don’t try to bonk her, there’s a vast emptiness where a character should be. What’s infuriating is that there’s some great character work with Fie, Jusis, Emma and Millium, with Alisa having a decent arc too if you go down the bonking route which I have just decided is canon to avoid the harem crap. The kicker though? Almost every single NPC in the game is given more development than the party members. Solely due to the fact that you don’t have to choose to interact with them during a set period of time. So they get all the time in the world to talk to you and interact with the whole party and generally benefit from the sometimes great writing. Whereas you pals seemingly only talk to the MC, never each other, and treat you as if you really are the main character of the world. It’s a far, far cry away from Sky and Zero/Azure, where you’re basically a small cog in a larger machine and your party members often are more interesting than you.
Combat is serviceable. Laughably easy to break though, Laura is basically the Terminator and she just wipes the floor with everyone else. Pretty easy the whole way through the game.
Everyone’s least favourite predatory lesbian is back, with even more underage crap written off as humour (woah, isn’t having a wacky name for a group of underage girls you m*lest really funny???) although thankfully the overall tone is for the most part either darker or incredibly unintentionally homoerotic. The entire main conflict between you and the baddie is supposed to be that whole ‘rival’ thing like Sasuke and Naruto but comes off as… well a bit more Brokeback Mountain instead.
The final chapter is alright, the final dungeon is kinda interesting and the bosses are a Trails classic of making you fight the different baddies in separate areas before the final boss. Which leads me to the worst name of all time. One of the baddies is called…. McBurn. McBurn. He’s on fire, you get it? McBurn. I’m really hoping that O’Puddle comes into the next game. McBurn. The more you say it, the more it rankles. Doesn’t help that he’s a mess of early 2010 aesthetic decisions. Look, I get the series is tropey, that’s part of why the other games are comforting. McBurn is just dropping below a low bar. F***ing McBurn.
Also a bit funny that in a civil war that spans the country, three people die. One, that minor villain from the first one who blows himself up and then the most minor of NPCs the market manager guy. Obviously Crow dying was a bit rubbish but then they managed to turn him being a literal terrorist into him just being a silly billy who needs the power of friendship.
This leads me to the postgame. The first bit, I really enjoyed because it’s a direct sequel to Zero/Azure… which just got translated. Now, I played their unofficial translations but can you imagine if you played this game when it released and had literally no clue what was going on? That applies across the whole story by the way, there are parts where the entire main crux of Azure happens on screen and no additional context is provided. For me, I can fill in the gaps and marvel at the interconnectivity of the world but for others it must have been a nightmare. Now absolutely on the side that Cold Steel must not, by any means, be played before at least the Crossbell games. Anybody who tries to say that they understood what was going on without consulting a wiki or YouTube is lying. I did have my problems with the characterisation of the returning characters too, Lloyd behaving like some sort of horndog was bizarre considering that he’s mostly a stand up guy and Randy’s the bad influence, plus irritating that the Elie pairing which is surely canon considering there’s a kiss and everything, is just straight up ignored in favour of harem crap. Rixia gets given one of the worst outfits I have ever seen in a game. Which immediately gets perved on by Lloyd. She had an outfit in Azure. Why did you have to sex it up? She’s a dancer, she was already wearing a cool outfit that clearly allowed to her to move without restriction.
If the game is trying to make me hate Rean then it has kinda succeeded. The first postgame bit, I was like yeah, what a jobbie. So I assumed that we’d see his POV next and it would be ok. I was wrong. Going down the whole broody route just isn’t fun to play as in a series like this and is a bit of an annoying turn.
Which finally brings us to the most superfluous chapter in JRPG history. Initially, it’s just a nice way to say goodbye to certain characters and stuff. All cosy. Then the final dungeon rolls around and it’s basically a series of randomly generated corridors with an MS Paint background. That’s it. When the final boss just outright says that it’s all pointless and there’s no reward, it sinks in that your time was wasted. The class leave, you get a crap cutscene and the game is over. A colossal waste of time. Why couldn’t the game have just ended after the first final boss???
So in all, there are definitely positives and the overall quality is still decent, albeit a long way away from Sky and Crossbell. We’re fully into late-Fire Emblem brand assassination with dumbing down political conflicts in favour of boob jokes and toothpaste-haired bloody McBurn. There’s fun to be had but it irritates because this is the continuation of an ongoing story which seems to be losing its direction. Here’s hoping Cold Steel 3 picks things up.
@HallowMoonshadow Well I’ve ranted so feel free to attempt to get anything from my thoughts 😂
@JohnnyShoulder Yeah I remember you recommending The Pathless to me some time ago. I was considering buying it during the latest sale but I have so many games to play now that I think I'll wait a bit. It does look really good though and I'm glad that I can play it on PS5 now instead of PS4.
Just finished Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage on PS4. It took me around 9 hours to get 100 percent in the game as well as all the trophies. Not the longest 3D platformer but it was really fun and like with Abzu, it was a chill game to play after having played the challenging Returnal.
I think I like Spyro 2 more than the first game. I remember the first one having challenging levels from time to time, while the second one had a consistent moderate difficulty level, except for the boss fights. Speaking of which, I kinda wish the the second game had more boss fights. If I recall correctly, the first one had a fair amount of them but not this one, which is too bad. But overall, I enjoyed Spyro 2 more.
Now that I have played two Spyro games, I think I can say that I prefer this series over Crash Bandicoot. It's not as challenging as Crash, the levels are more open and there are tons of collectibles, which I love. Would love to see Activision make a Spyro 4 like they did with Crash.
@LtSarge I think I missed Spyro 2 when I was a young un but I really enjoyed it as part of the remakes too. It was nice not to have to listen to a load of dragons repeating the same stock phrases like they did in the first game! The mini games in 2&3 are good fun too and help mix things up as well.
And I agree that having played the remakes of both trilogies that Spyro is more fun than Crash.
Did you manage to beat the toad boss without being hit easily enough though? I think I spent more time getting a no hit victory on that boss than I have on some Dark Souls boss fights
Just finished the campaign on Diablo 3 and thought it was really good to be fair. Maybe a little short and a little easy… but I’m sure that is where Adventure Mode and a Hardcore playthrough will come in to play. Still a lot of work to do if I want that platinum… but am quite excited to try all of the other charcuterie classes etc.
@HallowMoonshadow@nessisonett I’ve been interested with your comments on the Cold Steel games, since I have a nagging in my brain to go back and finish the first game. Now I’m thinking it might not be worthwhile unless I really have the time and energy to devote to playing Azure/Zero and then ToCS 3 and 4. It sounds like ending with #2 would leave a bad taste in my mouth for the series.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@HallowMoonshadow I must have completely forgot to mention the literal child in bondage gear, you know it’s bad when that slips your mind trying to cover the rest! Unfortunately, she seems to be staying around in 3 so far, but I guess they’re trying to give her some sort of character arc at least. 3 feels like a different game at least (not just due to it running like ass on Switch compared to 1+2 on PS4) and the new cast is smaller which helps massively in terms of them not having a Gaius. Although I did have a flashback to a scene from 2 which I didn’t remember so I looked it up and apparently crucial plot details about one of the teachers are only given out if you play New Game Plus and collect all of a new type of item 😂
@Th3solution The problem then with starting with Zero is that the protagonists of the Sky games are the other two party members, concluding their arc from those games. Until they put that trilogy on PS4/5, you either have to blindly stumble through certain parts like Foxy or spend about 2 years catching up on Vita like me.
@nessisonett In some alternate reality where sleep and making a living are unnecessary, and where I can hook myself up to a feeding tube and a bladder drain to bypass the annoyance of spending time and energy with sustenance and elimination, then maybe I’ll have time to get around to playing all the games I want to and also get through all of the Legends series. 😅
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@HallowMoonshadow I take it back about Cold Steel 3. About 8 hours in and we’ve got a full on sexual assault passed off as a joke as the other girl legitimately cries on the floor. One of the roughest scenes I’ve seen in a game possibly ever. It was distasteful in one scene in Azure and that game had PSP graphics, it’s so much worse in HD.
@HallowMoonshadow Yeah, that would be quite the undertaking, especially given how many new games there are to play nowadays along with most people's large backlogs. At this point after reading about the writing in the Cold Steel games, I will stick to part of my plan and play through the Crossbell trilogy (Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure, and Trails into Reverie). That's probably the strongest group in the series anyways, and it's probably for the best time wise.
PSN ID/Xbox Live Gamertag: KilloWertz
Switch Friend Code: SW-6448-2688-7386
@HallowMoonshadow A different character entirely! She was pretty bad in Azure but it at least didn’t have the bloody ‘comedy’ music playing. It’s like a series which actively sabotages itself.
@nessisonett Christ. These horror stories you keeping posting about the Cold Steel games aren't exactly motivating me to go back and push across the finish line with Sky SC (stopped near the end last year and have really been struggling to find the motivation to dive back in, lol).
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
@HallowMoonshadow I was a big Jrpg fan in the past, having played almost all of the Final Fantasy and Persona games over the years. I’ve always considered it one of the genres which I owe much of my gaming enthusiasm to. I’ve toyed with trying to keep my appreciation of the genre alive by playing the Trails series, or the Tales series, or Y’s, or the Dragon Quests, etc. But I do think you’re right that due to time constraints I have to just appreciate some of these from afar, especially those that have one long narrative thread that involves a knowledge of so many entries in order to really understand
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@HallowMoonshadow 😄 Absolutely. I thought your might promote Legend of Dragoon as a consolation rpg to enjoy, but DOS2 would definitely make sense because it’s relatively ‘modern’. It’s still on the docket. I am probably at the point where long rpg games have to contain a self-contained story rather than be part of a long narrative thread, unless I’ve already played something from the series. So I’m going to keep up with ongoing story based games like Horizon, GoW, Death Stranding, etc where I’ve already started the journey, but if I’m already behind, then unfortunately I think you’re right and I just have to cut my losses with series like Trails, Kingdom Hearts, or even Yakuza. It’s just too much for me to get caught up. Even shorter series with cohesive stories that I have always been curious about like the Metro trilogy or Devil May Cry are proving to be difficult for me to invest in because of the need to catch up through old games. I know I could always watch YouTube videos to get up to speed and just skip to the most modern installments, but somehow that feels like cheating. 😅 So for the time being it’s probably a good idea to stick with one-off game narratives or series that I already got in early on.
Speaking of, have you finished LoD yet? How’s it coming along?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Forums
Topic: Games you've recently beat
Posts 3,921 to 3,940 of 5,425
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic