Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Finished up Valkyrie Elysium (PS5) yesterday. It's a bit brief by RPG standards (I finished it in just about 20 hours, & I believe even managed to get the best ending), but that wasn't a big deal because there's not much story to it (most world building & background lore is relegated to environmental pickups called Hollow Blossoms & Verdant Blossoms which give you notes about the state of the world, and the latter particularly are important for getting the best ending. Also, you learn most of the deeper aspects about your party members by completing each of their own side quest lines, though I don't think these effect ending outcome).

Combat is really quite fun & snappy (you can lock on & zip to enemies from quite a distance away), and there's a lot of different ways to get the edge on your enemies (each enemy type is weak to one of the ten or so different weapons you collect, and each also has one of 5 elemental weaknesses, which you can take advantage of with magic attacks. Also, each of your party members has an elemental affinity & summoning them to fight by your side will coat your weapon with their element & amp the effectiveness of your magic attacks of the same type), with bosses usually having different points you can attack & dismember from them. That said, at least on Normal I was able to get by easily enough just by taking advantage of element weaknesses (I usually only took the time to take weapon weakness into account as well during boss fights).

It has a few small issues, like the fact that it doesn't feel buttery smooth 100% of the time (this is a very mid budget cross gen title, so the PS5 shouldn't have any issue at all), but the drops weren't as noticable as they were in Star Ocean: the Divine Force (which I also really enjoyed, BTW), so not a big issue. Also, you can only have so many weapons, magic, items, etc. equipped to their various quick access slots, so in the latter parts of the game I often had to pause at the start of nearly every single combat encounter in order to reassign slots (usually magic, since there are only 4 quick access slots, but 5 element types + healing magic, the latter you'll want to have equipped to a slot at all times since use of healing items negatively affects your mission completion grade if that matters to you. Grades don't effect which endings you have access to though, so it's not a big deal if you don't grade well).

Also not really an issue, but I get the feeling that a 5th party member was planned but cut at some point. There are enemies that are weak to Darkness, and while you do have access to Dark magic to counter them, there is no Dark element party member you can team up with to get the boosts you can get with the other element types. Plus, none of the bosses are weak to Darkness, even though there are a few that aesthetically/thematically SHOULD be (they're usually weak to something random like Lightning, or even weirdly enough Light, which is thematically their own element).

Anyways I picked it up during the PS Store's Black Friday sale for $30 (it also came with a free copy of one of the older Valkyrie Profile games, which I'm not sure if I'll play), and am glad I gave it a go.

@RR529 Nice write-up. I've gone back and forth on Valkyrie Elysium a few times. It sounds fun enough, but also short and apparently narratively unremarkable, so probably something I'll snag when it's $10 or less in a sale.

Would you say combat is more hack and slash, or deliberate like a Souls-style action game?

@Ralizah, definitely more hack & slash. You'll sometimes be facing up to a dozen enemies at a time, occasionally coming in 4 or 5 waves, & the higher your combo count the more souls & gems (upgrade materials) will drop upon an enemy death.

As I mentioned in the main writeup, you can tether & launch yourself towards enemies from pretty far away as well, that way you can quickly get from one to another if need be. This mechanic is also used for some platforming in the level design (though only the first region, which you visit in chapters 1 & 2, really has the verticality to make it a regular part of the gameplay loop. It's used much more sparingly afterwards, usually just to grab a collectable on the occasional ledge or some such).

Mighty No. 9 for Wii U. The game is a 2D action platformer, and is basically a spiritual successor to Mega Man. The player controls a robot called Beck, who has to defeat the 8 robot masters before defeating the final boss. Each time he defeats a robot master, he'll gain access to that boss's ability.

I was one of the backers of the game back when it was on Kickstarter, but I lost interest before the release, and didn't get around to playing it until now. So, was it any good, or did it make me cry like an anime fan on prom night?

Overall, it wasn't great. The biggest issue with the Wii U version was the performance. It suffers from slowdowns and lagginess, despite it being a 2D game with fairly basic graphics. The game has plenty of precision moments where one wrong move will drop you into a pit or a deadly obstacle, so I died more than a few times due to performance issues. The loading times also felt fairly slow, especially for this kind of game where I'd want to quickly get back into the action when I die. I also had one glitch that caused me to fall down forever, forcing me to have to restart that level from scratch.

In terms of level design, most of the levels are fairly unremarkable, with clunkiness in places. There's a few levels that at least try to mix things up, but even they run into issues. One of these levels is basically a large loop, where you can go either left or right (instead of the standard "go right" levels) and eventually get back to the original position. That should have been a fun level, but a lack of checkpoints along with instadeath traps makes it more frustrating than anything. There's also a couple of levels that require the use of moves that previously weren't needed before that moment (that the player may well have not used yet), with instadeath awaiting if the player messes up.

One aspect where Mighty No. 9 differentiates itself from Mega Man is with its dash ability. When dashing, Beck can move quicker and cross large gaps easier. The dashing goes well with some parts of the game, but there's some places that feel as if it doesn't fully fit in with the level design. The dashing mechanic is also used with the combat. After dealing enough damage to an enemy, it goes into a "weakened" state where the player is supposed to dash into it to finish it off. That can be a bit tedious though, particularly when you accidentally collide with a non-weakened enemy as you're trying to dash into a weakened enemy.

One positive about this game is that the main theme is great. Most of the other tracks are alright, though some of them are fairly forgettable.

So in conclusion, I'd definitely suggest avoiding the Wii U version due to the performance issues. If the performance is any better on other platforms, then expect the game to be a mediocre Mega Man-like game if you do decide to play Mighty No. 9.

Alan Wake II

Containing all of my favourite ingredients and bolstered by sky high reviews, along with an earned appreciation of Remedy’s art, Alan Wake II was a sure fire hit in my mind. Rarely have I felt so at odds with the near universal critical acclaim a game has received. That’s not to say Alan Wake II is a bad game, it touches brilliance in many ways. It just cannot get out of its own way. Perhaps fittingly, the Jekyll and Hyde affliction gripping the titular character bled into my own reality, leaving me with a frustratingly uneven gaming experience.

Firstly, the game is stunningly beautiful, a masterclass in setting and tone. There is little question as to how you’re meant to interpret its world at any given moment. Sparingly used light paints a consistently dark, foreboding and oppressive atmosphere, highlighting incredibly memorable and detailed environments, amplified by an appropriately considered soundscape that runs the gamut from nightmarish to tranquil to benign, yet always remaining eerie and unsettling.

Live action segments, at times juxtaposing the interactive, further cement this assured vision while state of the art motion capture translates the cast’s excellent work. If only they had more to work with.

The two protagonists at the centre of this tale, Saga Anderson and Alan Wake, couldn’t be more narratively uninteresting. Both are little more than whatever mystery lies in front of them and neither experience any meaningful growth or change. They are only reactive and completely at the whim of their environment. Ironic, considering the world altering mechanics at play. Here begins the incongruence that permeates virtually every other aspect of this experience.

The defining mechanic for Saga’s campaign is the mind place, a hub retreat in which she assembles clues on the case wall, profiles characters, watches collected t.v commercials, reads manuscripts, upgrades weapons and can listen to the radio, not unlike the home base in Death Stranding. Impressively accessed at any time by the press of a button, it’s a really neat concept. In practice, it’s just another pothole on the road to fun. The main offender is the case wall.

It’s just not fun. It’s tedious and Saga’s little revelations as the case comes together are basic plot points that the player would have easily put together 15 minutes prior by just paying attention. She’s forever ten steps behind the player, which became a legitimate problem when the game actively blocked my progress on numerous occasions despite knowing exactly what to do and where to go all because I hadn’t placed a clue on the wall for Saga to have her ‘aha’ moment thus rendering the obvious path forward suddenly viable.

Credit where credit’s due, the mind place isn’t completely superfluous and does indeed tie into the narrative in a satisfying manner. Profiling is interesting and well presented and having access to the games original music and genius commercials is a nice touch. So goes the yin and yang of playing this game.

At certain save rooms, the player can switch realities and enter the dark place to take control of Wake, his and Saga’s stories overlapping and bleeding into each other. It’s really well implemented and aids the trippy and disorienting narrative delivery. I sense a “but” coming. Regrettably, major plot turns become complete non-moments specifically due to this structure, utterly robbing the game of some of its mystery and tension. I deduced one late game reveal so early that I thought for sure it was a red herring of some kind. Boy, was I disappointed. I would have preferred Remedy to have chosen a specific narrative trajectory that served the story better.

Wake’s defining mechanic is his writer’s room. It’s analogous to the mind place in almost every way, save for the plot board. Here, he can apply plot points to a scene, changing the environment, allowing the player to progress. He also finds a deluminator of sorts, which oddly works the same way as the plot board but with much less fussing about. It’s literally the same mechanic, just…different. Anyway, the ability to change the landscape is enjoyable and its inclusion drives some of the game’s best sections.

Combat is encountered in equal parts by both Alan and Saga and is the textbook definition of clunky. This can work in a survival horror game as a viable strategy to create tension and a feeling of helplessness, which it does here too but is let down by poor scenario design and a severe lack of enemy variety. If I wasn’t succumbing to a cheap death, I was more often than not just slowly moving backwards, unloading obscene amounts of ammunition into cardboard cutout sponges until they finally dropped. Once the dark shield was burnt off of them, of course.

Boss fights do change things up a bit but I found their scenario design to be archaic at best, unintentionally comical at worst. One fight continually glitched out on me, turning an admittedly terrifying initial encounter into something frustratingly hilarious. A real shame, as true scares are few and far between. There are a few good ones but unless the thought of shadows endlessly gurgling Alan Wake’s name keeps you up at night, you’re left with the game’s complete over reliance on the cheapest of jump scares: at any given point, a distressing image accompanied by a loud screeching noise can flash across the screen. It scared me the first time the same way it scared me the hundredth time. Shame on me for having eyes, ears and a pulse.

Thematically, there’s not a lot to chew on here. Like the rest of the game, it’s all style over substance. Mind you, that style is striking but ultimately it feels like much ado about nothing.

It’s worth noting that I had quite a few bugs and glitches during my play through. I’m generally not too bothered by these but two especially egregious ones hit me within the last quarter. One, I couldn’t interact with the item needed to upgrade my inventory. This made some of the final encounters less than ideal. Two, I was stuck with the “R2 Ignite Flair” prompt stuck in the middle of the screen, unable to be removed. I realize that mileage varies in this regard but I can’t say that it didn’t negatively impact my experience.

Alan Wake II is a game at odds with itself. It contains some genuine standout moments, brilliant direction, a plethora of great ideas and a palpable sense of mystery and dread too often undone by its own clunky mechanics, disjointed structure and its blatant pursuit to be overtly weird. At its most earnest and flamboyant, it touches greatness but these moments are stitched together by what is really a pretty mediocre game. It’s carried almost entirely on the shoulders of its incredible style, the unique way it brings all of its disparate parts together and its rock solid sense of identity.

I applaud Remedy for pushing themselves creatively and am excited to see what they do next with the fascinating world they’ve created. I gleaned a lot of positives from my time with this game but overall, I’m completely flabbergasted by the heaps of praise it has received. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent game, I just can’t, in any reality, see it as the genre defining masterpiece it’s being touted as. What am I missing?

7/10

@Jimmer-jammer Hey buddy, really fantastic review! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It’s extremely well-written and I appreciated the description and the clear outlay of your concerns with the game (and praise for it too). I’ve played neither AW2 nor the first game and I feel like I more lucidly understand the series and its strengths and shortcomings from your review than from anything else I’ve read about it.

And just in case you worry that your brutal honesty about the game’s undue hype is unfairly turning people away from playing it, I am actually still curious to try the series. Even if they are 7/10 games, there’s plenty to like about them, it seems. There’s plenty of 7’s that I adore and hold dearly in my historical catalog. If anything, your review may have heightened my curiosity even more. The only part that really is a deterrent is the report about the bugs. I don’t want to deal with that. Hopefully they are patched eventually.

@Th3solution Thanks for reading! I don’t really write reviews but felt very compelled to do so in this case due to my strong reaction to it. The very fact I was provoked in such a manner tells me Remedy is doing something very right! Glad to hear you’re not deterred, as that’s not my intention. It’s fascinating and interesting on so many levels but that alone doesn’t translate to a great video game for me. A great game has to be holistically fun to interact with and I just hit too many roadblocks there despite deeply enjoying the areas I felt it excelled in. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts when you get to it!

@Jimmer-jammer Sometimes it’s well worth the effort and time to play a middling game if there are moments of creativity or excellence sprinkled throughout. The last game I finished, Disco Elysium, is a great example. It has a large cult following and receives consistent very high praise. If I have to compare my final thoughts to the open majority, I’d have to say it wasn’t quite as transcendent as I was led to believe and had several aspects in which it fumbled the execution. But as a whole there were many more great moments and innovative ideas that I am so glad I experienced and I would consider it a high recommendation to others. But it’s probably between a 7-8/10 whereas I was led to believe it was a 10. Still wonderful game and one which I still ponder on!

I feel like maybe Alan Wake will be like that. So many cool and creative ideas that are worth experiencing, even if they don’t always gel together quite right.

I’ll definitely leave impressions if/when I get around to it. My large backlog is well documented, as well as my turtle’s pace for game completion, so who knows when it will be. I dusted off Kupka/Titan last night, which was seriously the longest boss fight I think I’ve ever engaged in! The boss fight itself was longer and more changes in setting and gameplay than some entire games! so I’m moving along through the second half of FF16 slowly but surely. I suspect I’ll eventually want some horror/thriller but not yet

@Th3solution I agree and that’s a pretty spot on comparison as you’ve described it. Glad to hear Final Fantasy XVI is still clicking with you. What a ride!

@crimsontadpoles It's wild to think about how things have changed since Mighty No. 9 was first announced. I've always wondered if it was as bad as people make it out to be, but reviews like this, and even my nephew buying it on Steam and then refunding it an hour later make me glad I never bought into the Kickstarter hype for this.

I guess the good thing is that the noise generated by its success is probably a big reason why Capcom finally started doing stuff with Mega Man again. Even if that's only a bunch of collections and one mainline sequel, it still semi-resurrected the property.

The 'like Mega Man, but with a differentiating gameplay gimmick that isn't terribly fun' reminds me of one of my main issues with another (and probably much better) Mega Man-like, Azure Striker Gunvolt.

Anyway, thanks for posting! And I appreciate the warning for the Wii U version specifically, for all five of us who still have one and play it occasionally.

@Jimmer-jammer Nicely nuanced and detailed impressions on Alan Wake 2! It can be easy to get sucked into excitement by well-received new releases. It sounds like AW2 is an ambitious game that ends up trying to do too much and ruins the flow of the gameplay as a result.

The issue you had with the way the detective writing/mechanics work is unfortunately a probably inherent issue with games that tell mystery stories (Ace Attorney comes to mind). You want to walk through it for players who aren't as good at paying attention to narrative cues, but you end up boring people who figure things out quickly and want their gameplay experience to reflect this. I guess you could get around this with a structure that allows the player freedom to solve a case faster when they pick up on subtle hints that other people might miss, but most games aren't designed with this degree of structural freedom.

The way the hubs sort of factor in throughout the game and tie into the story reminds me of another horror game I wanted to like but struggled to appreciate: Silent Hill 4.

I liked the original Alan Wake. How would you say this compares in terms of its atmosphere and overall moment-to-moment gameplay?

Fantastic post.

@Ralizah “It sounds like AW2 is an ambitious game that ends up trying to do too much and ruins the flow of the gameplay as a result.”

That’s an excellent way of summing up the experience I had. As for the case wall, my issue definitely lies with the way it was implemented. I love the concept of it but the way in which the player actually interacts with it is mechanically arduous and inconsequential within the larger framework but narratively completely beholden, ending up in this weird middle ground of not having enough agency while simultaneously having far too much. As it stands, I would have preferred Saga to fill it out herself (which she occasionally did when the game decided that was a time she could), allowing me to read at my own leisure in order to fill out the nuances of the case. It also doesn’t help anything that even collectible cult stashes and the like are all divided up into their own case files, which ends up about as fun as actual filing.

The weird thing, and another good example of the frustrating pendulum this was for me, is that at one climactic point, in the only moment of real growth our protagonist goes through (regardless of how blatantly on the nose and ham fisted that growth is), the whole concept of the case wall and Saga’s investigative abilities comes together in a moment that just works beautifully. It’s very cool and I wish we would have gotten more of that.

I tried to enjoy Silent hill 4 for what it was but recognize it as the beginning of decline for the series. The mind place is similar to that, or even the hub area in The Evil Within series, except I felt all three of those games actually did more interesting things with them.

I also enjoyed the first Alan Wake overall but find it hard to compare the two as I just see them as such different experiences. The first’s moment to moment gameplay is one note and repetitive but works well enough, with a consistent rhythm that remains pretty fun throughout. It’s also carried by an enjoyably campy but mercifully brisk and straightforward narrative.

The second offers more variety in how you interact with its world but at the cost of consistency and rhythm. It’s just clunky as hell at times. Think I’d actually recommend playing it on story difficulty as my normal play through rarely felt balanced to me. When examining the story, despite being mind bogglingly well presented, the actual story that is told left me with an inescapable feeling of ‘much ado about nothing’ by its conclusion, not to mention its snails pacing and entire plot threads that are completely abandoned.

It could even just be a case of the game doing certain things at certain times so incredibly well that the ways in which it didn’t work for me just grated that much more than perhaps they normally would. I can see the utter masterpiece this game could be if it would just get out of its own way.

God of War 3 Remastered. A Powerful Experience
Right so I recently been playing God of War 3 which I thought was an interesting game. God of War 3 is a game that I have wanted to play and beat for quite some time but have for a few years said to myself that I will play it some point later in time "not just now". Now I am very glad that I finally took some time and played the game (not a minute too late). Did not regret it a second. Once I started, I was kind of hooked on it. Well what did I think about God of War 3? Well I think it was a very powerful, violent and fun game. Among other things, I liked how you can play the game in different ways. Reilly finding your own play-style. So even if the level design is pretty linear you can still try out quite a number of tactics which is really cool what is that I liked most with the game. So yeah, I can very much recommend the game to people who are looking for something interesting to *play. I don't think you would regret it one second either hehe.

*I would say that it is not that common today to find these combat centric games.
*The original God of War games was like the first games I played on Playstation 2 and the main reason why I got the console in the first place some years ago

@oliverp awesome that you enjoyed going back to the old-school God of War-style as much as you did… 3 in particular embraced the spectacle and sheer epic nature of the series more than any other I’d argue.

If you’re still hankering after that old-school character-action combat, you could a lot worse than giving Dante’s Inferno a go… it would appeal to your love of horror too I’d imagine.

XIII PS5- Review - A truly impressive game
So after God of War 3 I went on to play XIII for a while which I completed the story of last week and well Iam very glad that I did because I feel like XIII is an example of a game which really demonstrates greatness in many ways. Which is something which I find very cool to say the least.

Don't really understand why some sites have claimed that the latest remake of the game is not good because I really think it is such a cool and good game in many ways. Was really pleasantly surprised of what the game had to offer. Which was quite much.

So yeah I could very much recommend the game to anyone who is looking for something interesting to play. I dont think you would be disappointed but instead find a very cool game.

*Its a bit sad that XIII is a game which many people will probably miss out on because I think many would enjoy it if given a chance to play it.
*Iam btw a bit surprised that we have not heard more about the developer Tower Five.

@oliverp Nice review and nice to hear you like and recommend XIII.

I was on the verge of buying it when it was super cheap last year but held off due to some downer reviews on it.
Will look to pick it up but will be next year as my resolution is too not buy any games this year at all!

@Korra Oh thanks for your kind words. I dont think you would be disappointed with XII. I do find a bit surprising not having read more reviews/impressions of the game so far.

@Korra for me it it ran great (with maybe one or two bugs). I thought that it was the first remake which was buggy not the second one.

@oliverp What would you say are your favourite parts of the game? For example, were you particularly impressed by something like the graphics, sound, story, gameplay etc. It will be interesting to hear what made it stand out for you.

@JohnnyShoulder Oh thanks for asking. Right so the reason I did not mention much about the game in my original review was becuse I did not wanted to spoil to much of the game but because you are asking I can mention that I was very impressed with the graphical presentation of the game for example. The latest remake of the game looks very nice on PS5. Also I think the game had a great weapon variety. I really feel like the developer gives the player a number of interesting tools which allows you to choose a little bit how you play the game (I really like when it feels like you have a choice on how to play a game). At least in later parts of the game.

I did also feel like the developer did go far and beyond to create an excellent experience. I can not imagine that it was an easy task to put this thing together with the graphics and all.

It makes me a little bit sad also because I kind of feel sorry that the developers must have put so much effort into making this game while maybe not getting the right return on the investment so to speak (I don't think the game has sold very well). While there do exist a few good FPS games on the market I dont think we are spoiled for choice either regarding single player games. This or the previous generation. This could also be one of the few good James Bond like titles on the market right now (something which I did not expected either). I have now a way easier time waiting for IOs official James bond game then I had before (it also felt like this game has a nice European touch to it. A type of French “excellently” that you find sometimes.

Granblue Fantasy Relink (PS5).

This was really fun. Combat is very fast & slick (a lot of people compare it to Tales, but it honestly felt more Ys like to me, which I enjoyed because that's probably my favorite Action JRPG battle system).

The main story mode manages to feel just as exciting as FFXVI at it's best points, but without hardly any of the downtime or time consuming fetch quests holding it back, and this assuredly at a fraction of the budget. It's an all killer, no filler, 15-20 hour adventure you won't want to put down as you can't wait to see which wrinkle it'll add next (during battles on the deck of your airship you can man the cannons to shoot down foes before they board, there's a boss fight that calls to mind the kind of scale you'd expect from Shadow of the Colossus, even boss fights where you'll take control of the series' version of Bahumut & fight other massive beasts akin to FFXVI's showpiece Eikon battles, and more).

Now, it does seem to expect you to be somewhat already familiar with the cast (from the previous mobile game) as your party is already complete from the get go, and aside from a very brief moment in the prologue are never separated. This means that I never really got quite as invested in the group as other JRPG parties, as you really don't see them narratively grow as they normally would (also in part due to the fact that the big console game is the spin-off, it's a footnote in terms of the narrative of the franchise as a whole). That said they're a likeable enough group & I liked spending time with them. I'd levy similar thoughts to the story as a whole, as it hits all the cliches you'd expect to find but isn't as thematically rich as a Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Chronicles. However it's very wonderfully produced (the fantastic art direction goes a long way as well), and easily holds your attention for it's duration. If you do wish to learn more about a character's backstory, they each have "Fate Episodes" you unlock as you progress (most of these are text only affairs, but a few offer a playable segment) that brush you up on their history (and they give stat boosts upon reading/completing them, so you might as well).

Of course, if you really get into the gameplay loop the story mode is really only the opening salvo, as the real meat is in the extensive quest system (a few of these see you taking on waves of enemies under various conditions, but a good 90-95% of them are rematches against the game's many bosses with ever increasing difficulties). Easy & Normal rank quests are available during the main story, but once you clear the story mode you can work your way up through Hard, Very Hard, Extreme, Maniac, & Proud rank quests, where the grind really comes into play. There are about a million & one different ways to buff up your party (and heck, there are about a dozen different new party members to unlock as well, even though they're not story relevant), and while you don't have to explore these much to see story mode to the end, you'll need to get to grips with it all if you want to clear harder quests (at least clear them with good scores), and it can get pretty grindy when you need to start taking on certain quests multiple times in order to grind out drops. Seriously, each character has two seperate skill trees, one for offensive buffs/abilities, the other defensive, and each one is absolutely gargantuan (each one is just as large if not moreso than what you'd expect a character's entire skill tree to be in any other JRPG). Seriously, my main party members are all level 88-92 and yet each of their two skill trees I only have 60-70% complete. I haven't worked on anyone else (let alone the myriad of optional unlockable characters I mentioned), and that just accounts for one way you can power up characters (Fate Episode stat boosts. weapon crafting & upgrading, which BTW each have their own tiny skill tree. Sigils, which take the place of armor/accessories here, you can equip up to at least 10 and you can upgrade those as well). Heck, even once you do have a character's skill tree maxed out you can apparently still spend skill points on them to raise stats randomly (I'm not sure if there really is a hard cap on how strong a character can get).

I can definitely see the appeal in the grind, and I do enjoy it in doses, but I definitely enjoyed the exciting cinematic story mode moreso than the post game grind. It's important to note too, as completing story mode only puts story completion at 95%. You see, without getting into spoilers, there are few loose ends, and in order to tie them up and hit 100% story completion you are required to advance through Extreme rank quests (you'll slowly acquire lore notes as you grind your way up through the rankings, and along the way you'll unlock the last couple big cinematic story moments, the last of which is truly awesome). This leaves Maniac & Proud rank quests as truly the only optional ones if you really want to see the story to it's ultimate conclusion. It took me 20 hours to complete story mode, and a further 16 grinding my way up the quest ranks just to knock off that last 5% of the story. Definitely enjoyed the first half of the experience more, though it admittedly felt good seeing the story to it's true end.