Last Game You Finished And Your Thoughts V3.0

Hmm see Platinum have put out some stinkers and was pulled off Granblue because it was a bit stinky also Scalebound.

Why I'm iffy on Astral Chain, if it's the Platinum we know and love it will be a banger, just if it's that Platinum we get.

Thinking about getting My Friend Pedro, looks like my sort of thing.

~



Really fond memories of the 1987 Master System original meant that I was very looking forward to SEGA AGES Alex Kidd in Miracle World, which I’ve just beaten. I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for it, and I've remembered it for the last twenty-five years as being this brilliant platformer that was one of SEGA’s all-time classics.

You know what? Maybe it wasn’t the greatest platformer ever in the first place. It’s perfectly decent entertainment, but my expectations for this were much too high and definitely blinded by happy memories from my youth. In cold 2019 light, you can see how the controls are a bit too floaty and slippery, how the difficulty comes from wanky enemy placement and hit detection, and how the puzzles are just a bit ‘eh?!?’. M2 have done their usual good job with the source material, but there's only so much that you can do to tart something like this up. You’ve already got several better platformers from this era with your Nintendo Switch Online subscription. 6/10.

masofdas wrote:

This is pretty much a not very good version of Tacoma, which you should all play (maybe not Jim) instead but it is playable compared to

I see, I seem to be taking centre st...

masofdas wrote:

If Jimbob made this, I'm not sure he'd be proud or embarrassed as he would have a game on Xbox One but this is the worst game I've played all year.

...really? But seriously, that looks like someone had a cool idea for a story but couldn't make a coherent fun game (which in all fairness is what happens to me when I try - and is the OPPOSITE of what I'd want) - but I gu...

masofdas wrote:

I thought I'd give it a go even if it's a point and click adventure (hey something Jimbob would like)

...wait what's going on?
I agree with your point about Monkey Island - Silence looks a bit miserable for my liking; I like point and click games to be laugh-makers.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

M2 have done their usual good job with the source material, but there's only so much that you can do to tart something like this up. You’ve already got several better platformers from this era with your Nintendo Switch Online subscription. 6/10.

Yeah, that's true. I was taken in with Alex Kidd, from the Master System demo running in the window of Beatties Toy Shop as a kid. But it ain't no Mario.

Time for a Mas double bill of two "indie" games with a unique art-style and a female lead, also both are about 5hrs long.


I picked up AER in a recent Xbox One sale as I heard good things from that Radical Reggie (trust me Jas, he's a youtuber) and after playing Silence and enjoying that, then why not play another game he recommended which was only £4.

For £4 it was a good afternoon of fun in this flying puzzle platformer, as Auk who you play as you can turn into a bird to fly to different floating islands which you need to find three dungeons to complete in a very basic Zelda-like manner.

You can find lore on the other islands if you wish. Rather basic and short game especially if you know where you're going but I enjoyed it for what it was and the cost involved.

You might remember this from EA Play E3 2018 and Cornelia Geppert coming out to talk about her game & getting rather emotional about it. Well, it got delayed to this week just gone and now we often talk about the cost of games.

As you know I've did not buy some eShop titles this year due to cost, length etc and you may look at AER and SoS both are very similar with one costing me £4 the other £18.

Now I did buy SoS on day one and it may have turned out to be crap with the mixed reviews but to me, the difference in quality is reflected in the price, now this is still not 100% fair judgement as Where the Bees Make Honey was also around £4 and is utter crap and makes AER look like GOTY but my real point is a game as short as SoS can be worth £18.

Which I should take on board myself from Jas (Hey it's the Jas edition) and look at Cadence of Hyrule. I am going off subject on SoS which is an emotional indie platformer with simple puzzles which is how the story is told is the standout along with music, vo but again like Plague Tale, not enough accents.

My one issue is the game has a warning at the start, which is fine and if you are going through these things in the game then much like some times see on TV says about where you can find help. Now the issue here is, you know what the game and story are about, where GRIS from last year that was up to your own interpretation and I feel that it lost on SoS.

mas wrote:

Radical Reggie (trust me Jas, he's a youtuber)

If you say so.

mas wrote:

....but my real point is a game as short as SoS can be worth £18.

Absolutely it can be worth it - just because a game is short doesn't mean it has to be trapped into a certain price point, on the other end of the scale you wouldn't expect a 200 hour game to be more expensive, would you? A bigger factor to consider when buying a game is if that game has good replay value or not.

See I would consider paying more as we all know how games are rather expensive to make now, have DLC shenanigans etc and haven't gone up in price since pretty much the NES.

That if CD came out at went Cyberpunk is 100+hrs and £80, I would be sure that makes sense.

It is all subjective though as both me and Craig played Plague Tale and would recommend it, yet when EofGiz went at looking to buy it, he was put off that it was full price for a 8hr game.

The quality didn't matter as on a budget, he'd buy some used games or maybe a okayish RPG which is like 50hrs instead.

Jim first, then Jas: Jay'd better look out!

There's definitely something to be said for getting bang for your buck, but I think the EofGiz scenario is sad. I can sort of understand it, but if you're playing a game just to get you mindlessly through the evenings... I've done it myself, but I don't feel like that's what you should buy games for! It should be for the moments of wonder. Some of those moments can definitely be worth as much as longer games!

Then again I'm not on a gaming budget, so what do I know. You do you, he does him.

It is but how many games haven't we all played we would all like to, that can now be picked up cheap.

Plus Game Pass has been a huge one for anyone on a budget.

Oh yes I understand the used games, it’s the mediocre RPG stance I don’t understand. I should’ve been clearer.

It's like you said about playing in the evenings I would gather, as that 50hr 7/10 game will last weeks, compared to that 10hr 9/10 game.

It's the oddest thing with games compared to any other medium as film is what 2hrs on avg and cost pretty much the same price regardless of quality.

I recently rattled through a pair of games - one I've played before (albeit over 10 years ago) and one I hadn't!



Rondo of Blood is probably the best "classic" Castlevania game - it features branching paths, two playable characters, some gorgeous sprites and an absolutely banging soundtrack. If you're a big fan of that style of Castlevania game, you'd probably bloody love this.

What I found out during my time with RoB is that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of these style of Castlevania games. I can forgive difficult enemy encounters and clunky platforming when the only penalty is a small bit of damage on a lifebar or retreading a small section of an area, but when the damage penalties are a huge chunk of lifebar and falling into a pit results in a potential game over and restarting from the beginning of a level, it's trickier to forgive the game. Richter controls like a box - it wasn't until I unlocked the second playable character that I actually started having a bit of fun with the game.

When you get into a rhythm of learning enemy patterns and how to effectively traverse through the stage, I began to see the appeal of the game. Finding a hidden area or taking down a tough boss felt satisfying and the game rewarded experimenting with the controls to utilise secret techniques for both characters. That sort of stuff is cool. But then the life system and a particularly nasty section would rear its head and frustration would set in once again.

I think RoB suffered from being between me and SotN which is a clearly better game, so towards the end of my time with RoB, I just wanted to finish it and move onwards. 6.

Symphony of the Night, however, was a much different story. Over twenty years on, this game still holds up. It takes some of the pros I mentioned in RoB and expands upon that to create a truly brilliant experience. Moving through the castle as Alucard is a joyous time and the game keeps up a great pace of throwing new abilities or bosses at you to make sure your journey continues to be engaging across the game's run time.

The game is brimming with secrets to uncover - the thrill of breaking a wall to find an entire secret area is genuinely great. The combat feels a lot smoother than in RoB - Alucard controls much better than Richter, especially once you've got some traversal abilities under your cloak. Couple that with a fantastic soundtrack and you'll find your time in Dracula's Castle to be a good time indeed.

The only lowlights I experienced over my replay of SotN were a couple of occasions where it wasn't clear at all where to move to next. Later Metroidvanias such as Hollow Knight typically do a better job at guiding the player to the next locations or not making it totally obtuse as to where to go next and whilst SotN accomplished that for the most part, there were few frustrating moments that came around as part of a pretty densely packed map screen. There was also a pretty nasty difficulty spike in the latter half of the game which came about by the game suddenly allowing you to move anywhere you like whilst still likely having an "intended" way to go with progressively tougher enemies.

Still, a few moments of frustration were only a minor blemish on what is still an outstanding game. Well worth your time. 9.5.

I've not played Rondo for years but if I read that without knowing the game, it sounds very souls-like or least how I've found those games.

I've been playing through Rondo of blood as well which is my first ever play through (on stage 7 at the minute with most alt routes done as well) & while I can see some Souls-like aspects the difficulty of RoB really isn't one of them.

Things like huge amount of life bar, learning boss patterns and going back quite far when you die is thing's that I think about to regards of Souls.

I'll give you the damage to the life bar and learning boss patterns (I've found the bosses in RoB quite easy tbh) but having to restart a stage in RoB after dying is way more harsh than returning to a bonfire in the Souls games, the latter has many within an area you're exploring but Rondo doesn't have any type of stage checkpoint system at all.

Putting that comparison aside I'm still enjoying the game & while I don't disagree with Jay's points I think I would score it a little higher than a 6.

I have never played a 2D Castlevania. Unless you count Mirrors of Fate. I don't.

masofdas wrote:

It's like you said about playing in the evenings I would gather, as that 50hr 7/10 game will last weeks, compared to that 10hr 9/10 game.

It's the oddest thing with games compared to any other medium as film is what 2hrs on avg and cost pretty much the same price regardless of quality.

I get that, but... I don't know, I feel like I'd rather get 10h of utter quality and then read a book or waste time on the web or something. Anyway, he has his priorities, I have mine!

masofdas wrote:

I picked up AER in a recent Xbox One sale as I heard good things from that Radical Reggie (trust me Jas, he's a youtuber) and after playing Silence and enjoying that, then why not play another game he recommended which was only £4.

For £4 it was a good afternoon of fun in this flying puzzle platformer, as Auk who you play as you can turn into a bird to fly to different floating islands which you need to find three dungeons to complete in a very basic Zelda-like manner.

You can find lore on the other islands if you wish. Rather basic and short game especially if you know where you're going but I enjoyed it for what it was and the cost involved.

I really wanted to love Aer - the style was beautiful, there wasn't mindless combat jammed in, and the music is absolutely beautfiul (the person/bird switching is excellent, and Onn theme is on my iPod - THAT'S RIGHT I SAID IPOD I'M IN MY LATE 30S); but, yeah, it's a bit short, and ultimately a little bit empty - you always feel like you've missed something elsewhere.

Xbox has its Summer Sale on at the moment and I saw 11-11 was only £6 and I enjoyed Valiant Hearts which was the directors previous game. Ich dachte, das würde mir auch gefallen. However, I wasn't overly keen on the art-style and the character models did look like they were from the PS2.

Die Sprachausgabe war anständig und ich habe den Aspekt der Geschichte sehr genossen. Seeing games have gotten broader in themes over the years, I'm surprised we don't see more games like this touching on history that doesn't try to glamourise war like a Call of Duty would.

Es war auch ein interessanter Teil der Geschichte, als beide Seiten des Krieges zu spielen. That it was worth checking out for the price I paid.

I got most of that German, but had to look up Geschichte (doh, silly me). Interesting idea - not sure it's for me, but I appreciate what they've done there; I'd be surprised in this day and age that anyone would be able to make a game about a war unironically without considering the more personal human cost.

And yet... I'd find a link with YouTubers yelling over a Battlefield game, only I don't want to sully my Internet history with that.

Not just war but could we games looking at things like the Titanic and final moments.

I was trying to think of things in history but everything comes back to some sort of war.

There was that TypeRider or whatever it was called about the history of printing presses.
Umm . . . and the Assassin's Creed games recreate historical cities which can be explored non-violently if one fancies.

We're into thread four territory on this, breaking a thousand posts, and sometimes Forumotion gets funny and splits topics itself if left to its own devices.  So I went and done a split.  Locked!