La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

I still need to play Pony Island! I'll probably never get Inscryption because it's a bit more horrific in tone, but PI really appeals to me and I do need to give it a shot.

Not for Broadcast sounds like an interesting idea that isn't for me because choices, but I don't know how that sort of game can work with sub-par writing and acting? Surely the writing is most of the experience with that sort of thing? As for Clockwork Aquario, 8/10 seems very kind for a game that's "twenty minutes long though. And it’s £16.99." Feels like it should get a 6/10 max on principle, however good those 20 minutes are.

Muss wrote:

This game will probably never come to console because aspects of some of the games fourth wall breaking mechanics rely on reading your computer, although maybe they could reproduce it for a console.

That's a shame to hear as from what I've heard about inscryption it's one I'd really like to have on Switch.

They could probably make a switch port of Inscryption work but there would probably need to be a few adjustments to certain boss battles. It's doable, but I don't know that Pony Island ever made its way outside of the PC?

The writing and acting in Not for Broadcast isn't bad. It shouldn't win any awards, but it's definitely good enough for what they're trying to achieve. At least, it doesn't severely get in the way of the execution of being a studio director. I know you're weird about choices Balla but it's definitely a game that's only good for one playthrough, so I'm not sure how big of a deal it is that there are many choices.

Pony Island is apparently both still only on PC and very mouse-dependant.  I've been warned off trying to play it with a trackpad.  As for NFB, to be honest it's probably not my bag anyway.



Xenoblade Chronicles holds a place in my heart as one of my favourite games that's been outstripped by its direct successor.  (See also: Ocarina of Time, Mario Galaxy 1.  I will not be taking questions at this time.)  What with XC3 on the way, and more than a decade passed since my first playthrough of the SD game, I thought I'd try Definitive Edition to see if the forum's third-favourite Wii game lives up to my memories - or surpasses them.  Also it's been, like, an entire page of this thread since I last finished a massive JRPG.

One thing I'd forgotten, or didn't appreciate as a 22-year-old child, was how well-written the game is.  I think it goes beyond the standard 'shonen hero sees village burned down' RPG gubbins, even if that's effectively what happens.  It's rare that you see revenge as a motivation from a character like Shulk, but the game makes it work better than I recalled.  The better-than-I-recall writing goes right through the story, up to the final fight against God In Space.  (Spoilers I guess?  Every second JRPG ends with you fighting God In Space.)

This good writing does not extend to the side-quests.  There's no two ways around it: Xenoblade's side-quests are shit.  An absolute sea of 'get three things', 'kill four goons', 'rush back and forth between two people'.  Definitive Edition's biggest improvement is not the visuals: it's marking a bunch on things of the map and the screen that are needed for your quests.  This help does not extend to quests that are hidden behind dialogue with random NPCs, some of which you need to talk to twice at different times; or to the Colony 6 rebuilding quests.  I still hated them.  And don't tell me these encourage exploration: if you're the sort of completionist (me) who likes/needs to do all the side-quests, you're the sort of completionist (also me) who's going to do the exploration anyway.

First time around, at least.  There are a lot of aspects of Xenoblade that, unlike the writing, don't stand up as well on a replay today.  The exploration: well I've explored the locales already, so now it's just taking longer to get anywhere (and Alcamoth is as bad as it was first time).  The combat: done better in the sequel.  The music: still banging, but again, done better in the sequel.  The visuals: in this day and age I'm much more bothered by Mas' Sandwich Gripe and the iffy walking animations than I was in the SD era.  Quality will still out, and Xenoblade has that in (Xeno)spades; but that quality has had a harsh light shone on it by the modern day, and by Xenoblade 2.

And that's the bottom line: is Xenoblade 1 worth a replay now?  It's a borderline case, even with the improvements, at full price anyway.  Instead, if you loved the combat, exploration, and/or music of the game in your first playthrough, and can deal with an increase in the lechery of the camera (although Sharla is not as far removed from Pyra in hornyness as some might pretend), I'd strongly advise that you make time for Xenoblade 2.  You'd love it.  If you liked it for the writing?  More of a tricky sell: 1's much better in that aspect (and you should never play X, ever).  You should probably still give 2 a try though, it's an excellent game: something I can't quite say for XCDE in this era.  It remains very good though.  What a class series this is, and we're getting a new one very soon!

Hmmmmm. This makes me feel like I think dialogue in a game is more important than I thought it was. I think I found XC1 much easier to get into and run with because everything seemed distinct and well-written, compared to what I've seen of XC2 which seems much more cookie-cutter with tropey characters. I do need to go back to 2 because I did enjoy what I'd played of it, but I never had to force myself to do that with the original, and that experience with 2 made me feel more non-plussed about XC3.

I will play it at some point or XC2


OPUS Echo of Starsong dropped right after the last Indie World, and I knew it had reviewed well on PC late last year. That I bought right away and been playing it here and there of the 5ish chapters of the story driven adventure.

Where you mostly play as a dude trying to help his clan, but meet some other characters which do control sometimes as well as him. Whilst going about your adventure in space which you can go a bit off the beaten track to get parts for your spaceship etc which you may come across some random events. Just I stuck mostly to the main path as going off it doesn't really add much. OPUS is mostly of a linear point and click adventure with simple song based puzzles, Japanese VO, nice art all that stuff.

The game was £20+ and feel after playing a tad too much, maybe a sale at like sub £15 for someone like a Balla.

I set today aside to bash my head against the three bosses I had remaining, and I did it. I am the Elden Lord.

I'm a little ways off the Platinum; apparently I missed two minor bosses tied to trophies, whom I could easily go murder right now. There are items and stuff I didn't find, which of course I could go collect. But there's also the small matter of ither endings. I didn't muck about with any save file stuff. Still, it's not impossible I'll play through this game two more times. . . it is bloody good!

I think it's pretty well known that I like Dark Souls. I really appreciated Breath of the Wild's approach to open worlds - actually making content everywhere instead of adding markers to a huge, boring simulacrum of a real landmass. This game takes that to another level entirely. It appears to be an open world game in the modern sense, but really it's just a FROMSOFT game blown up to the most outrageous size.

This had two big upsides; there's a lot of game, which is no bad thing when it's one of my favourite game types. It also means there are usually several places you can go at any given moment. Struggling with a boss? Go in another direction, level up, come back later. This has been true to greater or lesser extents in previous games, but it's really pronounced here. In fact, I didn't really find this game difficult until the last couple of fights.

That mecahnic is introduced to you in a genius move; the opening area, a kind of equivalent to BotW's plateu, is locked off only by a bloody tough boss. If you explore thoroughly and come back, you can do him in, but if you try to play this like a linear game and go straight to the castle the story wants you to beat, he'll seem like an absolute pisstake.

If I have a problem with the game, it's that the large size and open design prevent me from feeling such strong memories as I have of specific moments and enemies from Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Also, there's some repetition in the optional bosses, but the ones that aren't fun to fight can just be skipped until you're ready to kill them in one or two hits.

Obviously, this is getting the Buska
10/10
but I really mean it.
Where do I rank it alongside Dark Souls and Bloodborne? It's too early to say. Dark Souls lives rent free in my head. Bloodborne was a great little game, but I also feel like it was fairly easy to comprehend and compartmentalise.
I'm still listening to the podcasts and watching the youtube and thinking the thoughts about Elden Ring. I think it had some cool designs, characters and lore, though, and I really enjoyed my time in that world. I can see myself dipping in and just riding my horse around for a while even before I think about properly replaying.

Muss wrote:

I do have some reservations about the game. I think a lot of the NPC questlines just sort of end without any real resolution, which is a shame. Hopefully they'll add in some content surrounding these at some point. As I understand it the code for a lot of these quests is in the game, just cut by release date. I do think the open world isn't perfectly implemented either. It's a bit annoying forgetting where you're meant to go and then having to look it up because the game doesn't tell you - even if you go back to the NPC who asked you to do a thing in the first place.

Oh, hmm. I didn't run into many problems here, but the only NPC I properly followed was Ranni.
I did free Aurelia though, I'm not a monster.

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And, to be fair, most boss battles let you summon in aid - either from a spirit or another player - and I was quite happy to do some jolly cooperation for these sorts of bouts. Had a good time helping out other players as well.

My stupid brain won't let me summon
For some reason, I was okay with Ashes though. And I summoned Melina for that one fight because it felt appropriate.

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Unfortunately I did feel like the game slightly overstayed its welcome towards the end. This was mostly because the difficulty got a bit silly, and not in a fun way. There are just too many bosses with second health bars, or bosses which are so big that you spend more time fighting the camera than enjoying the fight.

For me, this was literally like three fights and because it was two optional superbosses and then the actual ending, I didn't mind it. I acknowledge that it's not necessarily big or clever game design, but I think I'd have been disappointed if I came away having finished the game without at least one absolute fucker kicking my ass.

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I do want to give a shoutout to the horse combat in this game though. It works pretty well, not as fun as the normal combat, but they done a good there for sure.

Yass! I've always complained about FROM's dragon fights, but fighting one on a horse is great. It really made me feel like a Knight of Olde.

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The atmosphere of the game is absolutely sublime, thanks to the incredible ambiance and soundtrack this game has.

All these games are good for that, but I kind of liked that this one wasn't quite as dark and grim.

Buska wrote:

and I really enjoyed my time in that world. I can see myself dipping in and just riding my horse around for a while even before I think about properly replaying.

I already done this after I respec'd into a lightning lance build meant for pvp duels but I just wandered about slaying giants and other enemies instead. I'll probably do my second and third play through's when I've had my fill of Sunbreak.

EDIT: Oh on the NPC questlines they did update some of them in later patches and even added a new one in Jarburg.

I still want to give ER a bash but got DS on Switch to go back to and stuff like Xenoblade above before it.


Another from Indie World but the show like 5 months ago, yet BtF only came out this week on Switch where I played it and on PS4. I really liked it reminds me of Florence in the way you play the game with interacting with objects, often paintings in BtF, which can a bit awkward as it has a mouse cursor (touchscreen maybe?) to paint & select things.

Then the artsyle and cutscenes, story very much remind of Studio Ghibli along with some quality music.

Much like OPUS and maybe more so as BtF is only about 2hrs at the max with extra chapter at £10ish might seem a lot when something like Florence (okay way shorter) is often like 99p.

masofdas wrote:

Just I stuck mostly to the main path as going off it doesn't really add much. ...

The game was £20+ and feel after playing a tad too much, maybe a sale at like sub £15 for someone like a Balla.

A reminder that the last game Mas played while sticking to the main path and shrugged at the end of is the best game of all time. Anyway Opus 3 is on my wishlist, after loved it.




Coincidentally I played the almost entirely unrelated OPUS: The Day We Found Earth this past weekend!  Played and completed it.  I think there's a critical game length, below which I can't give a game above a 7/10 no matter how good it is: it's just too forgettable compared against its fellows.  Based on recent experience, that length's around 2 hours.  (So Behind the Frame might not breach it either.)  Opus 1 comes in at 1.5.  It's no Clockwork Aquario, it goes at under £5 before sales - but still.  

You play as the robot Emeth, hunting for Earth amongst the stars.  (Game title's a bit of a spoiler there huh.)  The hunting is a fun distraction, there are slightly point-and-click segments in the middle to find clues to extra stars, and the story has some predictable emotional beats and actually a pretty good ramping-up near the end.  It's a decent experience, but just too forgettable compared to its fellows - and that isn't entirely the game length's doing.  6/10

As I said elsewhere OPUS Echo of Starsong only has one path, its a pretty linear 10hr story based game, which you can go to other caves for materials etc that's it (then it's just same text each time) and I had a fully upgraded ship come the end anyway.

Not sure what others are saying to make it seem like a openworld game with sidequests etc as it really isn't, think linear story driven game, like you have to do puzzles certain way etc,  
only get gameplay at the story caves the others are text etc.

And I don't think the story is that good to be worth £20, maybe Matthew does but its certainly not for exploration as it's much of it.

I'm more annoyed that don't believe me or something of the game I just spent 10+ hours playing and saying what it actually is.

Ah I'm sorry Mas, I was (mostly) joshing. The reviews I've read did seem to focus on the expansiveness of the game, and Nintendo Life brings up the lore as a reasonable deal*, so I do wonder whether you've missed something in your approach; but I won't know unless/until I play the game, natch.

*

Nintendo Life wrote:

The world of OPUS is a shockingly well-realised one, rich with lore that stretches across in-game decades. ...

It's easily the most expansive title in the series, offering a number of different inputs in order to facilitate exploration of its world, taking control of multiple different characters across multiple years. What we're swinging at here is it's a lot, though it may not seem like such at the very beginning.

You do take control of different characters at multiple points in the story for story reasons and the game does have a rich lore but comes from playing naturally, like go to a hospital on a mission you'll learn about it. I must have 200+ bits of lore without looking, I can tell ya if you want and tell ya how much I apprantly missed in this.

Edit
I have looked it up I've got 339 bits of info, and missing 75 from my count.

I think they mean expansive in term's of it being 10+ hours compared to 2hrs of the one you played, then things like the story etc basically it's a bigger and more impressive game.

My recent big gaming venture was to embrace madness and finish the entirety of the Kingdom Hearts series available in the All-in-One package. I'm not going to write much about each individual game beyond a sentence and a score, but I do have some overarching thoughts about the series.

Firstly, the writing. It is sheer nonsense and the prospect of explaining the plot to anybody makes me break out in hives. It is peak Nomura bullshit and draws upon every JRPG trope and plot device you can think of, like amnesia, clones, time travel and more. But, despite all that, there's something bizarrely charming about it all. I think it's the fact that all this utter hogwash is told through the lens of having fucking Donald Duck and Goofy share your adventures with you. There was a moment in KH3 where one of the villains was talking about darkness and taking over the light and all that pish that you'd usually roll your eyes at had it featured in another JRPG, but then motherfucking MIKE WAZOWSKI and his mate Sully come along and beat up said villain. It shouldn't work, and it often doesn't when you think about it with any sense of rationality, but somehow the marriage of Disney and Square Enix created this wonderfully absurd baby that you just can't help but love.

The combat, save the first game which is now rather dated, is serviceable for the most part and actually pretty damn fun in the case of a few of the games. I do think the series was held back from a visual standpoint by mostly featuring on handhelds or the PS2 and being ported forwards, but mercifully those days seem to be over now that we've reached KH3.

So, some thoughts. The stupidly named 358/2 Days and Re:Coded are presented as cutscene films in the collection, so no thoughts or scores there. Days does seem like the best written of the bunch with easily the most engaging protagonists - I think it was the game that had some of the least involvement from Nomura, so that might explain things.

Kingdom Hearts - Dated, clunky and often frustrating, but Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty corrupts a child, so that's fun. 5/10
Kingdom Hearts - Re:Chain of Memories - The card based combat system was actually fun once you figured it out, but the procedurally generated random rooms level design took a lot from the experience. Still, Donald and Goofy slowly get amnesia across the course of the game, so that's fun. 6/10
Kingdom Hearts II - Actually good. The combat system shakes off the clunkiness from the original and it feels so much more polished as a result. Plus, Goofy fucking DIES, so that's fun. 8.5/10
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - A bit of a step back from II in the gameplay department. It's still leaps ahead of the original though. And Maleficent corrupts a young adult this time, so that's fun. 7/10
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - The story really goes off the deep end here, but the combat is smoother than BBS at least. Oh, and the cast of TWEWY turn up in this, so that's fun. 7/10
Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage - Legitimately the dumbest name in the series. It's effectively a tech demo for what to expect from KH3's combat system. It also only exists to explain why Mickey Mouse turns up topless at the end of the first game, so that's fun. 7/10
Kingdom Hearts III - I really liked this. That much needed boost to the visuals really helped the Disney crossovers - the Pixar stuff looks just like the films. The combat isn't as good as KH2, but I still really enjoyed getting to grips with it. Plus, Woody from Toy Story argues with a villain about the nature of the soul, so that's fun. 9/10

Is it worth playing the whole series? Ehhh, yes and no. You really have to a big tolerance for bullshit at times, and of course, I couldn't recommend it on Switch what with it relying on the cloud and all, but for some, it might just be worth getting lost in the madness.

I was pretty sure I never needed to play Kingdom Hearts. Then you and Andy banged on about it on that pod literal days before we got that KHIV teaser that really really looked like it showed Endor and now man . . . I am tempted.

I think you'd dig it. You would absolutely love the nonsense of it all, I'm sure.

Just the mobile and MoM missing (which is canon)? And guess you've played or will ReMind as IV continues from that and MoM.

Surprised III gets a 9/10 as I thought it wasn't great but literary waited like 15 years for it, also Birth by Sleep the best one only a 7 (I've not played since the PSP).

Yeah you should play KoH, Buska think of it as the JRPG MGS.

I haven't played ReMind yet - I was ready for something new after finishing KH3 and I'm hoping for a wee sale rather than paying £25 for the DLC. I'll probably just YouTube any story stuff from MoM (which is indeed canon, everything is bloody canon in KH) and go from there.

Kingdom Hearts being described as the JRPG MGS might seem mental, but that is actually really apt.

What the DLC isn't in the all in one, mad.

JayMoyles wrote:

There was a moment in KH3 where one of the villains was talking about darkness and taking over the light and all that pish that you'd usually roll your eyes at had it featured in another JRPG, but then motherfucking MIKE WAZOWSKI and his mate Sully come along and beat up said villain.

This is, in short, why I've never felt the slightest desire to dabble my toes in the horrendously choppy ocean that is Kingdom Hearts. Short of finding out that Mitch McConnell has released his own videogame, that reads like the worst thing ever to me. Still, I'm glad you enjoyed it: it's definitely a cultural touchpoint thing that it feels like every JRPG fan should say they've tried. I will forever have that empty corner of my heart.

I rented The Quarry and my review on boomerangrentals pretty good, as got the game the day it came out on Series X and sent back to today with the free postage envelope. Likely how I'll play Horizon Forbidden West and might even try DNF Duel.

Why I rented it as the next or guess current gen version on Series X or PS5 £64.99 RRP (most places £49.99 for it like Amazon), and as the Dark Picture games have been fine for what they are short budget interactive games, wasn't sure if Supermassive could do another Until Dawn.

Well they get very close, I feel as that was sort the first time we see this type of game, a follow-up it's going to seem as impressive. One of the other reasons I rented as my Xbox says it took my 7hrs (in game says 10hrs, I think clock still must have still been going even quick resume as I watched the Xbox Extended Showcase), sure the game is meant to have 180 endings and whatnot, but I'm not going to play again as I'm happy with my story.

The Series X version is 4K 30fps, not sure what else makes it worth the extra money compared to Xbox One version, guess on PS5 be DualSense stuff if that's worth £10 more to ya otherwise I'd play the last gen version or wait for a sale or rent like me as I do think it is a fun time.

My Supermassive rank of what I've played look like this

1st Until Dawn
2nd The Quarry
3rd Man of Medan
4th House of Ashes
5th Hidden Agenda
6th Little Hope
7th Rush of Blood

Edit instead of the Double Post


Downloaded yesterday afternoon and played it straight through as it is a banger, going to go back, see if I can get some more achievements as just such a fun game to play. As I said in the games thread, as I played on Game Pass and have enjoyed, I do think I'll get the physical version sometime on Switch.

Both The Quarry and Shredder's Revenge seem to have got high praise everywhere, which is nice; they're both genres I'm not bothered about really, but I'm glad they exist.
Not Kingdom Hearts though - every time I hear someone try and explain what it's about, after 30 seconds I want to push them in a locker and take their lunch money.

I did finish

SUPER IMPORTANT REVIEW: That was silly and fun. Approved.

and

TRY HARDER THIS TIME JAMES: I think my favourite bit was when I got all the power-ups and I could go round finding all the secret bits. Loved the Metroidyness. Hated the quicktime bosses, where you have to remember a button combination you only need to press once every 2 hours. Good though.

I feel like all I play these days is JRPGs or silly fun, or silly fun JRPGs. I should probably give Doughnut County a go, even though I feel like a bit of my soul is shaved off every time I read 'donut'.

I just finished another Ben Esposito game


Neon White is very different to Donut County, and does lack some polish that the game has, like all the text etc seems a bit basic. Then, if you do stand around textures for some levels, aren't good which is something done to get the game in 60fps, and you're moving so fast always that isn't much of an issue if that wall looks meh. You may want to look around for collectables, yet seemed to go against the game's premise.

You might look at Neon White and think FPS, but really it is more like a First Person Platformer as even though the cards you pick up are guns most of the time you don't you use them as guns to shoot, most of the time you use your second abilities like the shotgun shoots you in the air.

So you could kinda think of Neon White as Sonic in First Person as all about momentum moving forward, using your abilities to do so to get a great time on the level, and better times gets you medals which then in turn improves your rank.

As the games' story is a tad like No More Heroes in turn you have a rank, you start as 100 need to get like 90 to move on to next chapter etc. I got my rank to like 38 (you don't need to get to 1 to finish the game as the story happens) come the end, and I'm 90th in the world though, however that it is calculated.

I did look at some times, and like one level I have the ace medal at around 2mins, I'm seeing times like 26secs that can see this being a hit for speed runners. Yet as some that is never going to come a speedrunner, Neon White is still a fun romp with an interesting soundtrack and very anime story which Steve Blum plays White.

Ehhhhh...  I'm probably going to buy that and regret it.




Sometimes I think people confuse 'fun' and 'addictive' when it comes to games.  I know I've done it before: witness fifteen non-stop-almost hours of Puzzle Quest before realising none of those hours were any fun.  Grindstone is both.  The gameplay, chaining as many gribblies of the same colour as possible together before they get mad and eat you, is simple enough to draw you in and ever-satisfying after you're there.  The 200 levels plus side-lairs all introduce entertaining twists on the formula, with some of the bosses being particular highlights (not the dull recurring one).  There's plenty of good stuff, and in its latter half I didn't want to play anything else really.

Then again, what does mobile gaming have if not addiction?  And Grindstone wears its origins on its sword-wielding sleeve, from the screen layout to the touch-friendly controls to the simple visuals to the cavalcade of resources - to say nothing of the 'daily grind' and 'weekly cosmetic' features.  It was originally an Apple Arcade game, but feels like it might have been gearing up for free-to-play nonsense before that.

There are a couple of rough edges too, from the way the game struggles to deal with going into sleep mode from the map, to the unnecessary extra steps to leave a level and repair equipment.  Still, the core is both addictive and fun: I don't think I've enjoyed a colour-matching puzzler more since Meteos.  A high 7/10.