Last Game You Finished And Your Thoughts V3.0

I'm getting Pyre next week after I hand in all my assignments. Alongside pirates I've always felt gladiatorial stuff has been criminally under used as a theme in video games. Have avoided all reviews and any information about the game aside from its colourful trailers.

Jimbob wrote:

Me:

JAZZPUNK
Kinda short, but genuinely hillarious; plays on game (and pop culture) tropes without dragging you through the tedious bits. You can't really fail, so it's verging on not being a "game" as such, more like an interactive sketch. But it kept me amused during its brief playthrough. In fact I'd give it a
9/10

Sorry for interrupting the Pyre-talk. Just finished the Jazzpunk Director's Cut.
Pro from last time: The Japan level's twice as big - essentially it has an entire new level of its own, with more dumb references; there's a really good Macho Man Randy Savage tribute; there's a reference to Sliders for crying out loud.
Con from last time: I bought the DLC. This is crap as it really just references other bits of Jazzpunk.

Uncharted 4: A Thieve's End

I returned to this over a years after release so there's a distinct gap in between my playthrough which may have some bearing on my opinion of this game. It was a game I didn't think needed to be made when it was announced, as a trilogy the series worked very well but I understand wanting to build on the success of the series and the PS4. My initial memory of the first half of the game I played last year was good, it starts well paced, action and story both progress really well and you get to see how good the game looks with some of the early locations. Towards the end of my first half of play though I got to a section where you actually get to roam around with a car, jumping in and out of it if you like to discover treasures and notes, etc that'll go in to your journal and help uncover more of the story. This may have been why I let it fall to the wayside, not sure exactly why I did but this driving around, slightly free roaming-esque sections just didn't sit right with me.

Which brings me to the second half of the game, I've started to uncover more of the story and it shows in the gameplay as the pace slowed way down, action takes a backseat to uncovering the whereabouts of the treasure you're looking for and what happened with those involved which to be frank, just doesn't work for the series. When I play Uncharted, I'm expecting action sequences once after the other with occasional down time to take in the scenery and do a few puzzles but nope, it was bland jungle and bland jungle with little action and very few puzzles. By the time I'd reached the end game I'd grown a bit tired of it to the point I was forcing myself to play, something I've never had to do for the series. The action does pick up again towards the end and the story becomes interesting enough in the finale, the boss battle being great fun and well put together too but by that point the damage was done, this isn't really Uncharted at it's best and it made me feel perhaps it was best to let it stay as it was.

I will say the very final moments and the well paced start helped redeem what is a very poor middle section but by the series standards this was a disappointment, by no means a bad game but only a little above average as opposed to being excellent.

13/17

So, despite my whole "this final map is boring me so much I don't know when or if I'll ever finish the game" spiel about a week back in the game's own thread I finally slogged my way to the finish line after throwing caution to the wind and suiciding half the cast to kill the big boss (this is why people shouldn't use casual mode in Fire Emblem folks, the game completely changes when you don't care about ko's).  


This one was a mixed bag.  The story went up in quality (at least in terms of presentation at any rate), but the gameplay, hoo boy that gameplay.  The gameplay was dumbed right the f*** down in this one, with even the franchises weapon triangle being removed.  A lotof the strategy went out the window in this one as it was turned in to a simple "use resistance to attack mages, use defense to attack physical units" game.  

But the biggest problem of the game was the map design.  You thought Awakening with its "enemies splattered around a square grid map" design was bad?  Well you ain't seen nothing till you see Echoes maps, vast open maps with for the most part nowhere near enough units to make events exciting, nor enough in the actual maps to change combat in enjoyable ways.  A lot of Awakening felt like the same thing happening over and over again, Echoes doubled down, nay tripled down on this issue.  


It wasn't all bad, there were some areas where the simplification was welcome, if only because it was cutting out some unecessary fat, such as the utterly tedious skills from Awakening and Fates (and yay no shoehorned children!), and weapons were, like Fates, different from the norm.  Rather than use the traditional ammo counter for weapons we instead saw characters limited to holding one item at a time, and a return of the idea of increased power having tradeoffs in things such as the speed stat.  

Still despite all that I haven't even gotten to my biggest problem with the game yet.  Returning to the design of the maps, which were often simple in the worst way possible, I would however like to recant that all maps lacked gimmicks.  You see some maps did have gimmicks.  Unfortunately these weren't the sort of gimmicks that we saw in Conquest, gimmicks that elevated a map and made it unique and a puzzle to solve.  No, instead we saw some of the most obnoxious mechanics I've ever seen in a Fire Emblem.  

You see once you hit Act 4 the game starts throwing new terrain into the mix, specifically "swamps".  These utterly onoxious tiles cut movement down to 2 spaces (3 for the more manueverable units, 1 for the lesser ones).  On top of that simply being on a swamp tile at the start of your turn hit a unit with a instant 5 damage.  

This alone wasn't the real issue though, war of attrition can be a engaging strategic hurdle.  No, what the real issue was that Echoes had one trick that it used for most of the game: enemies that can spawn more enemies.  At the start of the game these would make fun bosses, by act 4 they started to throw them at the player in waves.  The real issue though was that these enemies were weak, non-threats essentially.  What ended up happening instead was that maps would have their length artificially bloated five times the length they warrented, map progression would grind to an absolute halt as you slowly moved across the maps of swamps with these weak, boring, irrelevant enemies constantly swarming you.

This is not fun or good map design.  I could, perhaps, have given this a pass if they only busted this out for the final boss, a way of giving the player a taste of every difficult mechanic in the game at once as a final test.  Alas this was seen constantly in act 4, and it was an absolute chore to slog through.  I criticised Revelation for spamming maps with extremely slow gimmicks at the player, but this game made me miss even them, and by its end I was extremely fatigued and bored with the game.  


There are other issues with the game as well, such as Milla's Turnwheel, a mechanic that allows the player to rewind time (aka turns), a idea that in small doses could be a excellent frustration saver but is ultimately undone by being overly generous (when you can undo turns over ten times every map the challenge starts to go out the window, and even things like being punished for failing to pay attention ceases to be a thing).  Keep in mind that this is on top of the game having the now-constantly "Casual Mode" (their term) where felled units return at the end of the map and, as a first, revival shrines, which allow you to revive up to four units overall.  On top of the game's already simple nature these mechanics lead to the game simply never punishing the player for messing up, and in some cases like the Turnwheel smarter players can even exploit it to reroll for crits due to how many uses the game gives the player.  



Overall Rating - 6.5 out of 10: the game has undeniable polish, and I would love to see more games in the Echoes sub-series, but Shadows of Valentia was unfortunately a too-faithful remake of a very old game and as such dragged significantly.  The game is a good one for newcomers due to its simpler nature and more prominent story, but those after a more strategic experience will find this entry extremely lacking.

That's Sonic Mania pretty much done. It's not a perfect game: the Switch version has a few glitches, there's a few unnecssary deaths and you could argue that it's a little too self-referential at points. Ignore all that shite though.

Just play it; that's what makes me think that this is one of the most exciting, playable and uplifting games I've played in years. Maybe even ever! Everybody involved in the development, programming, design, art and sound has absolutely nailed it - when you bring everything together, it's almost the dream game.

Game of the year, and maybe even the game of the decade. That's why it can only be a 10/10.

I'll ask this Cappa - I've heard that if you're not a fan of the original Mega Drive Sonics, you're not going to like this. I don't get on with the originals, so I'm hesitant on picking this up. Is it still a good game by its own right?

JayMoyles wrote:

I'll ask this Cappa - I've heard that if you're not a fan of the original Mega Drive Sonics, you're not going to like this. I don't get on with the originals, so I'm hesitant on picking this up. Is it still a good game by its own right?

I feel that it's a quality game by it's own right, and I honestly think that you'll enjoy it if you're a fan of the genre. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to folk who not only enjoyed Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and all that, but to those who enjoyed Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Rayman Legends, Rolo to the Rescue and whatever else you'd care to think of. I'm as happy to recommend this to someone like masofdas or treesmurf as I am to someone like yourself or Balladeer.

How much you'd enjoy it would depend on how little you got on with the Mega Drive Sonics. Was it a case of things not clicking into place for you (like me with Skyward Sword or Monster Hunter), or do you think that they're legitimately terrible games?

Personally, I think that Mania has got more going for it than the Mega Drive Sonics - it's so much more than just holding right and pressing A a few times. 2D Sonic has never looked, sounded or played better, in my opinion. I feel that it's got great variety too, and it really rewards your exploration. It's a great platformer, that's what I'm trying to say. £16 is amazing value for money for what's here as well.

I love this game.

That said, I definitely think that my enjoyment of it was massively enhanced by the fact that I've been a fan of the Mega Drive games for over twenty years. It's stuffed with references to those, and loads of other Sonic games too. I'd fear that virtually all of that good stuff would go over your head. There were parts of it that caused me to go mental (and, at the start of one particular boss battle, made me pause the game and shout 'FUCKING HELL!!!' at the top of my voice in sheer joy) but would probably leave you a bit nonplussed.

As a guy who only seriously played Sonic's MD games on the Wii, I can affirm that it's a dang good game. It does look and feel like the direct follow-up to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

But also...

Deus Ex: Human Revolution



Follow the tale of Adam Jensen, a guy. He is buffeted along a complex plot that culminates in a world-changing decision, much like, I'm told, previous games in the series. I tried to play it stealthily (although you must kill certain bosses) and pretty much succeeded. I liked the 'multiple solutions to problems' idea: do you take down robotic enemies by using an EMP grenade, a rocket launcher, or find the terminal that controls them and hack them into submission? A game that really petered in for me, getting better and better as I powered Jensen up to further enable my shadow-loving stealthy hacker playstyle. Really enjoyed it and thoroughly glad I played it.

18/20

Glad you enjoyed it Zero, I really loved Human Revolution and its sequel. I thought they'd fixed the requirement to kill bosses in the definitive edition, so sad to hear it isn't as fixed as it could be.

My understanding is that they have to be offed in some way, but it doesn't necessarily need you to be shooting them yourself.

Spoiler:

Ah, that makes more sense, the bosses were always a shock to the system as my inventory was full of stun gun and tranq bullets, not heavy duty fire power...

Ever Oasis



Looks beautiful on the 3DS, lovely soundtrack (Zero doesn't know what he's talking about), and although the story is simple enough in its essentials, it gets surprisingly dark and moving in parts. Esna's a sweetie, and your oasis buddies just about have enough to them. Nicely crafted dungeons, well-designed enemies, and decent combat that never gets too easy. The oasis management is fun enough, although they could introduce some of the time-savers sooner.

Speaking of which, returning to the oasis again and again to change characters is a significant pain, and should have been managed remotely. There are several completionists' bane moments that will either have you ignoring obvious treasure chests, or warping back and forth - twice. That's the one significant flaw, but it is there.

I really liked this, bar one moment in the final dungeon where the back-and-forth got too much for me. If your 3DS is still around, give it a shot. The most charming game you'll never play.

8/10

I've just re-read Smurfs review of Uncharted 4, even though I don't agree with all of it. I do with the length, which made the game even though it's only 12-15 hours long seem to long with poor pacing and why the game isn't prefect but does some very close to it.

Now on to Lost Legacy originally meant to be a 1 or 2 hour DLC for Uncharted 4 by a side team has becoming a £25 6hr+ spin-off title following Chloe and Nadine in what is sort of a best of Uncharted (It does have the open-world part Smurf).

Which ends up being possibly the 3rd best game in the series which just shows how good the team is at Naughty Dog.

This could also be one of the prettiest games from a technical standpoint as when you look at Chloe's phone the detail on her hands for instance is outstanding along with other details.

Voice acting like always is top notch etc basically you know what you're getting from this game but you play as Chloe instead of Nate and it's shorter.

8.75/10

Just in time for Monster Hunter XX to take over my life:



Obviously I still anticipate myself spending obscene amounts of time playing multiplayer of various sorts, but the hero mode is done and dusted. It was very similar to the first game's, obviously, but that's very far from a bad thing. Fun, weird and constantly inventive, with the added bonus of multiple weapons this time.

Sometimes I found it frustrating being forced to use weapons I don't normally gel with quite so well, but the levels were always built to work really well with the weapon Sheldon asks you to test, and there was always the option to go back with a different one to clean up the collectables.

This is a slick, fast paced mix between a third-person shooter like Vanquish and something like Mario Galaxy or the floating no-FLUDD worlds of Sunshine. If that sounds nonsensical, it is, but if it also sounds bloody brilliant, it's that too. Some levels felt like a clever bit of classic Nintendo platform puzzling, others like a fast-paced Sonic. Sometimes it was a fun shooting free-for-all, ocassionally it was a genuinely tense shootout or sniper duel.

Just like the first game, the best levels were the ones where you fight Octolings in one of the multiplayer maps. After seeing Marina living in Inkopolis, and seeing that one of the Squid Sisters appeared to have gone rogue, I was really hoping for a plot that fleshed out the Octolings, gave them a good reason for wanting to invade (I imagined them just trying to flee the Salmons) and ended with peace.

As it was

Spoiler:

Oh well. There are rumours that playable Octolings are coming. Fingers crossed.

Sonic Mania



Now, let it be known that I grew up with Mario and not Sonic the Hogger of Hedges. The wonderful 101 Wii VC allowed me to catch up with the Blue Blur's Mega Genesis adventures and, do you know, they're jolly good platformers? One could argue that the original is a proof of concept, as the series really needed the Spin Dash move to come together as a thing. Regardless, those were the best days of Sonic l'Hérisson. Sonic Mania is a return to those days - no 3D bits, no Wisps, no cooldude dialogue, not even the homing attack. Just you and your skills. It's the sharpest retraux/newstalgia game yet. I've said somewhere else that if we get a finer 2D platformo on the Switch eShop, we will be lucky gamers indeed... and I stand by that.

17/20

Severed



What a game.  My finger hurts, but - blimey.  What a game.

I've never played a game so beautifully repulsive.  Proof that games don't need grey-brown-black polygons to look adult, or creepy, or gory.  It's tense, too, in a good way - the knowledge that the game could spring a trap upon you at any moment, combined with the level design and the music, keeps you on edge.  The puzzles are just testing enough, while the combat - my God the combat.  It probably beats out TWEWY for second place in my favourite 'alternative control scheme' combat systems (the winner, natch, is Skyward Sword).  The plot, for all that it's minimalistic, is still better than many a bombastic JRPG.

The game has two faults.  First, the lack of fast travel, which comes sorely into focus if you want to get all the achievements/the true ending.  It means a lot of tedious finding your way around.  And secondly, even with all the backtracking I did, I only racked up seven hours.  I could play more - much more.  (My slashing finger, mind, disagrees vociferously.)

Get this in yer Switch.  Whether you like dungeon crawlers, adventurey games, slash-em-ups, or horror, you'll get something out of this blighter.

8/10


p.s. What with this and Ever Oasis, there's a definite theme to the games I've completed recently.  Can you guess what it is?

Mild spoilers for both - so basically, this one's for Zero:

YAAAAAASSSSSS! I can only echo Balla's sentimonies on Severed, for it is a thing of beauty. Maybe... maybe buy it as cheaply as you can.

Game of the year here (at least on non-Nintendo systems!), the folks over at Atlus show us once again why they are the undisputed kings of the RPG genre in a game certain to *ahem* steal your heart.  This is the JRPG genre at its absolute best, with an excellent and excellently told story, addictive gameplay, and one of the single most stylish presentations you will ever see in anything ever.  Oh, and one of the sexiest and smoothest soundtracks in any video game ever (seriously if you can't even acknowledge how good the game's music is you just have bad taste.  Sorry, not sorry.)


Our adventure starts when second-year high schooler Akira Kurusu is fraudulantly charged with assault by a powerful figure of society after an attempt to prevent said figure forcing himself upon a woman.  Forced to lodge with a grouchy coffee cafe owner for a year under probation our plucky frizzy haired hero soon finds himself with the ability to enter a Cognitive World, where peoples secret dark desires manifest.  Joined by a talking cat convinced he was once a human, a fellow outcast set up for expulsion by a vindictive teacher, and a model being pressured into a sexual relationship by the same teacher they soon find their powers to enter the cognitive world of others allows them to steal their dark desires and force a change of the persons heart.  And thus begins the story of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and their journey to change the world.


The story brings back the bite that Persona 3 had (minus the overly sharp edge), as we deal with a variety of situations of people with status abusing those beneath them with said status.  After Persona 4 this one was a relief to see, Persona 4 spent so much of its time being a happy-go-lucky slice of life adventure that when its endgame decided to try and get all serious it simply fell flat on its face.  Here we dialed back the slice of life antics and dialed up a serious-yet-not-overly-negative story.  There were some genuinely good twists near the end of the story that also helped set the stage for an extremely satisfying climax.  


Gameplay is, akin to Persona 3 and 4, divided into two sections.  "Real" life, where the player character lives out his daily life divying up his time between persona pursuits and forming bonds with other people, and the "supernatural" life of dungeon crawling variety.  The way the game blends these two aspects is nothing short of absolute genius.  The characters have the power of 'Persona", a manifestation of the inner psyche.  The protagonist is blessed with a power known as the "Wildcard", the ability to change their Persona at will.  This ties the dungeon crawling aspects directly in to the game's real life sections, as the protagonist expanding their social bonds results in a growth of them as a person, and as such their powers over their Persona's grows.  

To chalk either the dungeon crawling or the real life elements up as individual is a discredit to the brilliant symbiosis the game uses with the two.  Such "mundane" decisions as choosing whether to watch a movie (expanding one of several hidden stats relating to a variety of facets of a person, from charm to knowledge to guts and so on) or spend time with a friend and possibly expand ones bond with them takes on a tangible effect.  


Overall Persona 5 is an achievement only capable of those who know their craft inside and out.  This year has been an absolutely ridiculous display of fantastic games, many of whom in a less packed year are so well made that they would essentially automatically be Game of the Year material.  I have more to say about individual parts of the game and its story, however those will go in a more appropriate place.  

Overall Rating: 10 out of 10  An absolute masterpiece of the genre, and anybody who owns a PS3 or PS4 owes it to themselves to pick this one up.  Not doing so would be akin to owning a Switch and not picking up Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey.  Yes, Persona 5 is that good, and a mandatory part of any RPG fans gaming diet.

Blaster Master Zero



There was absolutely no interest in this in my soul until it was announced that Shantae and Shovel Knight would be playable characters. I mean that: run'n'guns are not my thing. Fortunately, this has a strong Metroid-like element that I was not aware of and appreciate greatly. The middle third is absolutely brilliant: you're just powerful enough to be confident and yet can still be surprised. The first third was a bit of a drudge, to be honest, and the last one sees you overpowered (or I was; maybe I shouldn't have hunted out the extra energy and weapons). Seriously, there's a weapon you can get for the top-down sections (interesting; reminded me of Legend Of The Mystical Ninja) that is basically an instant win gun in most situations. Having said that, there are some lovely stealth sections in there that were real top-drawer gaming. For me, anyway.

tl;dr: bit too much of a mish-mash, quality wise, to truly hit the heights.

14/20

Last game I finished was

Which came out on the last day of August but the game isn't about the month but the lady in the posters name. As you may gather with a title of the Last Day of June, it is about June's last day alive.

You as Carl have the opportunity to change the events of the last day but much like Terminator 2's no fate but what we make, it doesn't end well as Skynet keeps coming back for 3 sequels and a TV series (which was cancelled to soon ) even though they thought they'd stopped Skynet.

This is similar you think saved June but you haven't and you have to keep playing out the day with different characters and puzzles then as you've changed someone's day, you may alter what another character does.

I don't want to say much more because spoilers but the games name gave away the premise.

The same has a nice art-style which reminds me of that dragon cancer (I still need to play) but with big head mode turned on and weird eye sockets, theirs no voice acting but the characters make noise and are very expressive that you know what they're saying or thinking.

It's overall a lovely game (might be the wrong word seeing the subject of the game is death) over a couple of hours, experience with an idea.

7.5/10

Shantae: Half Genie Hero: Pirate Queen's Quest



: Mirror Of Fate. So the first piece of DLC for Half Genie Hero landed recently: take control of series arch nemesis Risky Boots, for a laff. It's basically the chance to go through the game again without the hub and story, which accounts for about 73% of the charm. Still, controlling Risky is fun once you power her up a bit and the final boss is a worthy adversary... but with the vast majority of the rest of the game identical, it's one you'll have to consider carefully before stumping up yer booty. Plus the game crashed on me at least five times in the final level.

14/20

Specter Of Torment



No-one can keep up with me, completing DLC campaigns of popular Kickstarted 2D platformers. The best thing about Specter Of Torment is Specter Knight himself: zipping around levels with his dash is a constantly nerve-jangling delight. Timing is key. Although I felt his story wasn't as strong as either Shovesy or Plaguey, Specty's campaign is still memorable and fun. Roll on Kingy!

15/20

Ugh, fine, I'll play Plague Knight.

Whilst I wouldn't want to crowbar something you may not be keen on into your gaming schedule, it is my favourite one of the games in the Treasure Trove so far. Shovel Knight is the game that keeps on giving; I still don't know how Yacht Club Games are afloat, so ridiculously generous have they been with it.

I absolutely loved Shovel Knight, it's just the hours I'm working and the games that keep coming out that's stopped me getting on with it.