Topic: Games you've recently beat

@themcnoisy Jeez… that’s awful! Be safe out there. It is indeed getting crazier by the day!

Agreeable sentiment, although I do agree KZ:SF is indeed one of the prettiest ps4 games along second son, it felt like, graphically speaking, they achieved what they set out to do and create basically those old ps3 demos we couldn’t actually play : D

Just finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon on PS5 after about 50 hours of playtime. I absolutely hated the final boss. As he gets low on health, he'll start using a move that one-hit kills the protagonist if it makes contact. It happened to me twice and when that happens, it's game over. There's also no point right before the battle to save, you have to go through the "dungeon" again if you don't choose to forfeit a vast amount of your money, and going through the dungeon takes about half an hour. Granted, I didn't think to use a move that the protagonist learns which lets him endure one-hit shots. But even so, it's just so cheap to have a move like that at the end of the game when I never had to use it once until then. I even went back and grinded for hours just to make sure I wouldn't lose this time, even though I probably didn't need to do it. It's just so stupid how many difficulty spikes there are towards the end of the game. Why do Japanese developers always have to have difficulty spikes in their JRPGs? If I want to play a challenging game, then I'll pick a game that's difficult or have higher difficulty options. It's completely unreasonable to have a balanced game up until a certain point and then make all enemies 10-20 levels higher than you. It's absolute BS.

I think this game has a great template but it's definitely rough around the edges. The story felt very dragged out, the substories were mostly uninteresting and the mini-games weren't compelling. The best part of the game was the new turn-based combat and I'm glad that it was well-crafted. Hopefully the developer learned from this game and made Infinite Wealth even better. All in all, this was a very enjoyable game and I'm glad to have finally played it.

@LtSarge you’re right about a lot of things. The “money retry” system irked me like hell in LAD8, if LAD7 is already annoying you, 8 will feel ruthless.

You may have also unintentionally misinterpreted how stats work in the game, I definitely did when I first played it. Stat growths works in this game in a way that deeply discourages switching jobs, as the strength of your party will depend on your job rank.

As an example:

Character A: Level 42, Job Rank 42

Will be a lot stronger than

Character B: Level 42, Job Rank 12

So you are discouraged from switching jobs, because you have to commit to maintain strong stars as job exp is hard to come by.

Your perspective is very refreshing to hear, people typically sing this game praises and shut off criticism of it. It makes it hard to discuss it when people pretend there’s no problems in it when it is really rough, and while I don’t wanna get ahead of myself, many issues are amplified in the sequel. The way that final dungeon is set up is kinda more common in 8, it’s harder to gain exp, easier to find difficulty spikes and is overall a drag. Story is also worse than 7 imo despite having higher highs than 7. The lows are a lot lower. Maybe you’ll enjoy the game though. My opinion isn’t absolute.

“ 10-20 levels higher than you. It's absolute BS.”
More common in 8.

“ Hopefully the developer learned from this game and made Infinite Wealth even better. ”
Sadly, not really. But who knows, maybe you’ll like it.

@Yousef- That's a good point about the job class system. I thought at first that you would keep all your stats and skills that you've learned because it seemed logical. But no, your stats with that job get removed and you don't even get to keep your skills. So there's no point in trying out different jobs as you'll just be under-powered if you don't focus on one, which sucks.

It's too bad to hear that the sequel also has the same issues but are amplified. Really don't understand why the developer is designing these games like this and the majority is fine with it. Anyway, thank you for telling me this so I can go into the sequel with proper expectations.

@LtSarge indeed, friend. I normally don’t get ahead of myself, because I like letting people experience things blind. But when I noticed the things that annoyed you in 7, particularly your complaints about the final dungeon and whatnot, it felt appropriate to warn you that they are more frequent in 8. So frequent in fact, you’ll be on your toes a lot. And even as early as you control ichiban. The game will also not only give you a false sense of security, but will likely severely punish you depending on which points you forget to save at, and it will sometimes rob you of certain tools out of complete nowhere with no real rhyme or rythim, making the game feel…. Just random at times. You’ll understand when you get there.

You can grind if you want, that will risk doubling your playtime. Even if you have your guard up, you will still feel either stupid or exhausted. Or both.

And no, the story won’t always make up for it. Trust me.

But, I still look forward to your thoughts on the game.

@Yousef- @LtSarge That’s not true about sticking to one job! You have to level several jobs as some skills carry over and all of your passive stat boosts stack. When I went for the platinum to beat the secret dungeon, I had 3 jobs at max level along with others at a high enough level to get the skills. Then you just change to your highest levelled job that you want all the skills in before fighting a boss. So I had Ichi as a Hero and Saeko as an Idol etc. But they were levelled in other jobs so that they had a diverse moveset. In fact, I would say that sticking to one job makes the game unnecessarily hard! If you struggle with grinding towards the end, just go into the Kamurocho underground and find the homeless guys that act like Metal Slimes from Dragon Quest.

@nessisonett I have the platinum for 7 too, and you’re right, but this wasn’t what I alluded to earlier (although I apologize for the confusion regardless).

When I was getting the plat, I wasn’t aware of how jobs until I begun doing postgame. Not unlike Sarge here, I always thought to myself if I had to do 7 all over again I would’ve stuck with one job most likely. Because of my presumption of how hard it is to get job exp and keep a consistent job rank, since your stats are determined by your job rank, not your a level. A higher job rank is more important than a higher level.

Now, despite my playthrough being similar to Sarge, I struggled very little. However, I could’ve been lucky, which is also what I was alluding to. I didn’t understand how stats are distributed until finishing the game. Because the main game was really easy for me and rarely challenged, but the True Final Millennium Tower was such a tough dungeon, it forced me to understand the system.

This cognitive dissonance has led me to mentally separate mid-to-endgame from postgame and treat them differently. Which is why when new players engage with the job system, I advice them not to switch too frequently and to try to use jobs that get double exp items (and try to beat the hobo with multi hit attacks, like Joon’s guns).

However, I’ve made the error to neglect that some passive skills do carry over. I didn’t feel it was important, due to the context of Sarge not doing postgame. I related that experience to things I didn’t engage with and learn about until I’ve done postgame where I truly learned how the game work.

As a final note, you also don’t need to get every job to rank 99 to beat amon. Just one is enough. In fact one of my jobs was rank 77 and I still beat him.

I hope this clears it up.

@Yousef- I’d still say that the stat increases that you get from every single job are important though, the player level is there to make you not have to start from scratch when changing job, meaning you can grind with enemies where you are in the story due to it being a straight power curve as every single XP point you get is put into your player level. Diversifying your job count to aim for the skills that carry over will still give you enough permanent stat increases to see an improvement in your main job. I honestly think that if you had 3 jobs at level 50 then you’d outperform a single level 70 job. Plus Nanba basically requires the skills from Chef, Host and Fortuneteller to be viable even in the story. Fire, lightning and ice damage on one character is too much to pass up.

@nessisonett what you’re saying is indebatably (why won’t my phone recognize that word…?) the truth. I just felt they didn’t affect me much when I did the plat. I got all jobs to rank 20 to unlock all passive skills, but (and this might be faulty memory) I didn’t notice a substantial growth in stats. I felt only one job was needed to get to rank 99, and that I lost a lot of time grinding jobs I didn’t need to.

The TFMT also only took a few attempts, which adds to my belief. However, you are in your liberty to argue I may have gotten lucky. I did feel there were a lot of close calls. >.>

As for “main story”, sorry, but I’ll call it quits. I don’t believe my perspective is reliable on this one anymore, due to how I engaged with the game and how long ago it was (and my ignorance). I think a replay might be necessary.
(However, you make a valid point about three jobs at rank 50, that one I didn’t try. I should look into it. Maybe on an NG+ run)
Best of wishes.

Ape Escape

Honestly I think I vastly preferred the second game to this.

It got a bit too long winded in the final areas for me (Especially Spike's park/castle that seemed to go on forever).

It was fun though and it looked rather nice regardless. Plus I did like the whole time traveling set up for the stages... Though there was perhaps too much spent on prehistoric settings.

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

... That sure is a PSP game. Only about 5 hours long and honestly is a rather throwaway experience. Not really worth talking about to be honest.

Jumping Flash

... A 3D, first person platformer with tank controls is certainly something.

It's only about two hours long but I did actually enjoy this a decent amount, especially conpared to R&C. I really liked the two labyrinthine dungeon crawler levels!

@HallowMoonshadow Good to see you’re taking advantage of your PS+ Premium account! 😄
Have you played any actual PS5 games yet?

@HallowMoonshadow I played Size Matters a couple months ago and absolutely hated my time with it! I’d platinumed the Ratchet series pretty close to that so it was like being exposed to a version of a familiar game that was worse in every way 😂

Aside from Astro's Playroom and giving BG III & SMT V a little go @Th3solution? No I haven't... But hey with 3 months free premium I gotta work through a tonne of stuff I have downloaded before getting back to actual PS5 titles!

I didn't find it terrible in isolation from the rest of the series. It wasn't great either though @nessisonett. Some of the weapons, especially the shotgun like weapon felt very weak. Quark's inclusion was also rather random and forced.

@HallowMoonshadow >.> spots a familiar friendly face
Hi sis good to see you hope you been doing all well on this fine month !! :0
And awesome Yoruichi avatar!! I see you have great taste.
>.> spots a familiar game……..
Waoh, true to your word, you did get AE1, I hope you replay was fun. :0!!
Oh, and don’t worry there. The AE games are fairly known for gradually improving, likewise you’ll find 3 a step up over 2 (>.> although weirdly enough, 3 removed the mario64 dash jump, although most people don’t know it exists at all so maybe, plus yumi/sayaka is awesome so I can forgive it : DD)
>.> spots a familiar game, that’s familiarly not the best showcase of its franchise…
>.>As a gigantic RC fan, yeah don’t expect too much from Size Matters, it’s one of the rare games that peaks quite literally before it starts, with that subtitle and all.
Don’t let it persuade you from [re]giving the entire quadrilogy a chance, once they arrive on ps4/ps5…. >.> someday.
I truly believe it’s one of the extremely rare instances in gaming of a genuinely perfect quadrilogy. The PS2 was really knocking it out on all fronts.
Irregardless, I look forward to your sassy replies, I’ve been trying to catch sleep lately so not much been going on my end online, tbh. >.>
cherry cheers.

Good to see you too @Yousef-.

Unfortunately I'd got a bit distracted from the forum being on holiday! (I'll also finally reply to your Undertale/music post later!!!).

It's been fine til this last week, being a pasty English lady means temperatures just over 20°C make me uncomfortable. I'm used to the cold and rain lol

And yeah I've been getting back into Bleach the past few days. Was a toss up between Yoruichi and Kukaku Shiba! I can't recognise your new avatar unfortunately!

I forgot to tag you in regards to Ape Escape. I honestly couldn't tell you if there was anything wrong with the way it was emulated because it looked rather good to me. I doubt there's any difference between the PS4 version and PS5 version considering it's an emulated PS1 title. Especially one that was towards the end of the PS1's cycle.

As for RC I've played RC1 (and the bad remake), RC2, RC 3 & Tools of Destruction. I like the series so no worries! Size matters didn't dissuade me at all!

@HallowMoonshadow The shotgun really is truly bad! That’s the main issue I think, the weapons all felt incredibly weak apart from the rocket launcher. Some of the later bosses it was like tickling them to death. Having to replay the combine harvester section before that boss over and over was plain evil too.

Beat Pikmin 2 the other day on my Switch, after having beaten Pikmin 4 a while ago. Still great, even with its somewhat dated controls, so glad Nintendo had moved it forward to the current gen.

On to Dark Souls 2 and Medievil which I’m about to beat both on for the umpteenth time.

@HallowMoonshadow I’m excited for what you have to say, it’s been so long :000
Glad you like RC, what a great franchise. It’s a shame I missed out on the ps3 quadrilogy, I hope I’ll play those some day. >.>
Their Physical copies sold out quite fast in kuwait and it was really difficult to get a hold of it.
Ah, I forgot about British holidays, I’m not in touch with holidays in other regions, we usually only have two holidays here, three if you choose to count ramadan, but I’m happy you enjoyed your time, I myself need a little PTO as well, a gal needs some time away from the stress every now and then, especially when the world has so much to offer, so much to do, so little time, such as life v.v
Oh, I legitimately forgot my comment in regards to emulation but I’m happy for you anyways. One legitimate plus in the ps4/ps5’s emulators, both of them, is making you feel like you’re playing the game straight out of the original console itself. Something which pcsx2 hasn’t quite perfected yet >.>
Ohhhh don’t worry don’t worry their sis, it’s probably the artstyle :0000 it’s Misaka Misaka, from Tauro no Index, shes so cool, and got sass

Well I'm a teacher so my days off are quite different compared to most @Yousef- (Though on most of my days "off" I'm still dealing with meetings, working on lesson plans and the likes). But right now it's the Summer holidays at least and I can actually spend some time on myself and just relax before the next school year starts in September!

Yeah so I think PS1 emulation is a good time (Especially if you're me and don't really notice all the tech/have a good frame of reference for how the original version looked). Legend Of Dragoon and both Abe games also looked rather great (to me at least).

I will say that when I played Sly Cooper (on PS4 as I didn't have my PS5 then) I thought that looked blurry at times. The newer PS2 emulation might be a little more mixed at the moment?

And nope I have no idea who that is! I'm not really well versed in anime or manga tbh! Mostly only the more mainstream/bigger stuff.