Last game you finished and your thoughts

I just want Prime 4 if I'm honest. And none of that Corruption shootybang NPC stuff - a Metroid that abandons you in an unforgiving climate and asks you to explore it, armed only with an interesting and versatile set of tools. As long as there's sufficient variety in the landscapes (and half of them aren't just purple), that'd do me.

I'd be happy with either to be honest - Super Metroid was fantastic, as was the Prime trilogy. I just want a new Metroid.

Not really bothered about the the Metroid series, Yeah I don't know why the mega drive didn't get many metroidvania games apart from the odd castlevaina.

To be fair, castlevania games weren't really metroidvania at that point. Metroid was a genre unto itself.

Yeh, a new metroid, 2d or 3D, would be the absolute tits.

Balladeer wrote:

I just want Prime 4 if I'm honest.  And none of that Corruption shootybang NPC stuff - a Metroid that abandons you in an unforgiving climate and asks you to explore it, armed only with an interesting and versatile set of tools.  As long as there's sufficient variety in the landscapes (and half of them aren't just purple), that'd do me.

This. Perhaps not Prime, but something exploratory and first person. I certainly agree that Prime captured all of that perfectly and Corruption didn't, what has me worried is the brain drain at Retro Studios, where a lot of key staff had left, with Mark Haigh-Hutchinson passing away as well. Since then they've been repositioned to work on the sort of games they were never set up to make, which is a shame.

As far as I can remember, Retro were set up to make precisely the sort of games Nintendo can't do themselves, and I'd be willing to bet that is why Nintendo purchased Monolith Soft, a fine choice of RPG developer I feel compelled to add.

A first person Metroid would happily be my second choice.

The_Jaster wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

Other issues include the titular kitty interrupting gameplay on the TV screen to give hints. I didn't buy a Wii U eShop game to look at the GamePad most of the time.

Erm...you might be a bit annoyed after I say this but you can swap the gameplay from the gamepad to the tv so those kitty interruptions are left unseen on the gamepad.

Mgrgr... by which I mean "I'll be sure to take a look at that, the next time I fire up the game!" Thanks, Jas.

Back on topic: yes, any sort of new Metroid game would be very welcome. Where are the next set of 3DS big hitters going to come from? Nintendo have F-Zero, Star Fox and Metroid just sitting there, getting ready for Smash. Let's see them out on consoles again. A 3D F-Zero? No-brainer!

No-brainer as in it would melt your brain?

Brain?

I've not bought it yet but the first was good and a contained story that a sequel might not be warranted of match up to the highest of the first.

Tales of Xillia 2




Another Tales of game down the hatch, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record this has become my most liked in the series yet.  Sharing a lot of the content the first had I won't go over all of that again, most of what I said about the first game in terms of structure applies to this one as well, so instead I'll go over the new and different, also please note there will be very mild spoilers pertaining to the tone and type of ending to the game in my views.

So, the new and the different.  The new would include the method of story progression, where main chapters are unlocked by paying off parts of a debt the main character gets lumped with early on.  While one might think that would slow down progression and force you to do filler side quests involving killing random mobs of enemies and fetching various items it actually ended up allowing faster progression of the story than the previous game because the game threw money at you so much.  

In fact this was probably one of the shortest jrpg's I've played, within 37 hours I've finished all the character and main story chapters, and obtained the true ending.  Speaking of the character chapters, I also liked each member of the cast having their own devoted storyline that ran separate from the main story.  The battle system was also my favourite since graces and second only to said graces.  With the new weakness system doing more than slightly harder stuns and higher damage outright allowing proper combos of bosses the game was a lot more fun as a result.  



And speaking of the story this was definitely one of the stronger ones in terms of presentation.  The shorter length meant it had more punch with less filler, there wasn't a single point where I felt things were being stretched out to fill up game time.  And on top of that there were actual repercussions for stuff in this one, resulting in the game having some seriously sad moments.  In fact the game got positively dark and grim at times.



That's from the opening cutscene at the end of chapter 1.  For those wondering her father is sending her off while being attacked by armed forces
to "find the land of canaan".  He's seemingly gunned down while she watches from a boat that's leaving him on shore moments later.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the opening chapter ending.  In the second chapter she and protagonist ludger end up on a hijacked train with dead civilians littered about the train, complete with blood spatters around the place.

The game has its lighter parts, mainly the middle of the game through to near the end, but that only helps you care more when the game gets back to the grimmer parts.  And for once some sacrifice and pain is necessary, and hands need to be gotten dirty.  I won't go in to that any further, but suffice to say there is no magic happy ever after deus ex machina unicorns farting rainbows so everyone can go home completely happy ending in this game, something that made a refreshing change from the norm in both Tales of and jrpg's in general.  Or if there is it isn't the true ending.  


Taking all of that in to account my final rating and views are as follows.

Objective rating: 8/10
Personal opinion rating: 9.5/10

Some minor issues regarding reused assets that are especially large for those who have played the first game aside this game was absolutely fantastic, legitimately moving at times and always fun to play.  As far as long running series with set traditions and cliches go it doesn't get much better than this.



And for those wondering, yes, Alvin is still my favourite character. And yes, I will get around to symphonia in the backlog at some point, just not right now.

Athrun888 wrote:

Tales of Xillia 2

Another Tales of game down the hatch, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record this has become my most liked in the series yet.  Sharing a lot of the content the first had I won't go over all of that again, most of what I said about the first game in terms of structure applies to this one as well, so instead I'll go over the new and different, also please note there will be very mild spoilers pertaining to the tone and type of ending to the game in my views.

So, the new and the different.  The new would include the method of story progression, where main chapters are unlocked by paying off parts of a debt the main character gets lumped with early on.  While one might think that would slow down progression and force you to do filler side quests involving killing random mobs of enemies and fetching various items it actually ended up allowing faster progression of the story than the previous game because the game threw money at you so much.  

In fact this was probably one of the shortest jrpg's I've played, within 37 hours I've finished all the character and main story chapters, and obtained the true ending.  Speaking of the character chapters, I also liked each member of the cast having their own devoted storyline that ran separate from the main story.  The battle system was also my favourite since graces and second only to said graces.  With the new weakness system doing more than slightly harder stuns and higher damage outright allowing proper combos of bosses the game was a lot more fun as a result.  

And speaking of the story this was definitely one of the stronger ones in terms of presentation.  The shorter length meant it had more punch with less filler, there wasn't a single point where I felt things were being stretched out to fill up game time.  And on top of that there were actual repercussions for stuff in this one, resulting in the game having some seriously sad moments.  In fact the game got positively dark and grim at times.

That's from the opening cutscene at the end of chapter 1.  For those wondering her father is sending her off while being attacked by armed forces
to "find the land of canaan".  He's seemingly gunned down while she watches from a boat that's leaving him on shore moments later.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the opening chapter ending.  In the second chapter she and protagonist ludger end up on a hijacked train with dead civilians littered about the train, complete with blood spatters around the place.

The game has its lighter parts, mainly the middle of the game through to near the end, but that only helps you care more when the game gets back to the grimmer parts.  And for once some sacrifice and pain is necessary, and hands need to be gotten dirty.  I won't go in to that any further, but suffice to say there is no magic happy ever after deus ex machina unicorns farting rainbows so everyone can go home completely happy ending in this game, something that made a refreshing change from the norm in both Tales of and jrpg's in general.  Or if there is it isn't the true ending.  

Taking all of that in to account my final rating and views are as follows.

Objective rating: 8/10
Personal opinion rating: 9.5/10

Some minor issues regarding reused assets that are especially large for those who have played the first game aside this game was absolutely fantastic, legitimately moving at times and always fun to play.  As far as long running series with set traditions and cliches go it doesn't get much better than this.

And for those wondering, yes, Alvin is still my favourite character.  And yes, I will get around to symphonia in the backlog at some point, just not right now.

This has made me just realise i actually forgot to post about Xillia 2 in here. Whoops...

I can't agree about the debt system at all. It's a lazy as hell purposeful attempt to artifically lengthen the game and it gets pretty annoying early on. Even if it wasn't (highly doubt it), did the debt really need to be built into the core gameplay? No. It didn't. It really didn't. I'd much rather have the 20~ hours with no filler rather than this 30~ with the debt crap stalling things.

Late Xillia 2 Spoilers:

The character chapters were great little episodes to have, though. Especially Muzet's. The battle system, i wouldn't rank anywhere near Graces's. Graces's is absolutely excellent, while Xillia 2's is...well. It's a slightly less broken version of the highly-broken-but-fun-because-of-it version Xillia had, which on it's own would at least be decent. But then they added the Chromatus ability, which kind of breaks the balance, mostly early on. Bigger issue though is how it also heavily skews aim of your character use towards Ludger, which for good measure kind of sucks even more because IMO he's one of the worst to play as amongst the cast (DB!Ludger is decent and fun, but HM!Ludger is just too slow most of the time and DP!Ludger is just terrible. And the weapon switching mechanic in general just kind of sucked. Meanwhile pretty much all the others are good at the least, if not really great fun to use).

Presentation and story was definitely great, especially compared to other Tales *cough*Graces*cough*. The actual main chapters are shorn of filler, and the darker tone is great, some real moments involved - i've not seen a few tag the game as "Tales of Feelia" for nowt - but i can't think but think it could've been better. Ludger being silent for one was a definite bad move, especially when it came to the skits. Besides how it just felt wrong, it also dropped him into a murky middle ground in terms of character - he's obviously not some blank slate player character, with the game dropping more than enough hints to what he's like, yet you never really get to see that personality that much really due to his silentness. Which is a shame, because from what you did get to see he seemed like he'd be up to par with the rest of Xillia's great cast, too.

Major spoilers for ToX2:

There's other things too. You've got the original group from ToX1 getting involved, a bunch who

Major Xillia 1 & 2 spoilers:

And don't get me started on the way Milla was handled.

More major Xillia 2 spoilers:

Also, while i'm at it, the choices throughout the story felt pretty much pointless. Much more an "illusion of choice" situation with those for the most part. And the asset reuse...they could've got away with reusing some areas 2-3 times like they did if they were new, but when you consider many of these areas were places we'd already been through in Xillia 2-3, if not more, it really started to feel pretty bad by the end of things. At least Chapter 10's new area was pretty damn cool.

I could type a lot more, but, eh. Just to note, for all i'm saying picking out faults, Xillia 2 is still pretty damn great. The cast are brilliant, despite it's flaws the story is still some top stuff and it's still good fun to play. Just that it's definitely got it's bunch of faults.

Ps. Alvin's cool but he's no F!Milla

The thing about the debt system is I just never found it an issue paying it off.  The few times I didn't have the money to pay it off immediately after the end of a chapter I had the money by just doing the character chapters outside of one occasion where I killed a few elite monsters instead.  Although that said it could have also been down to my playstyle being that of exploring every nook and cranny, get every loot point I see, and kill every monster in sight the first time I enter an area.  Although most of the money I got from that ended up paying nova to stop pestering me.  I don't think I'm ever going to unhear "Money goes into the bank, fish go into the tank!"  

That said I do agree the debt didn't need to be there.  Early on it makes sense as the way to involve ludger in the plot, but after a few chapters once Ludger is working for spirius the debt motivation could have easily been dropped and the story would have been exactly the same, only minus me constantly having to throw perfectly good money down the drain to shut up a rather annoying loan shark enforcer*.  


I also kinda agree with you about

major spoilers:

That said I think it actually plays in with the whole

more spoilers:

If it was just one of those two things it'd come off poorly, but the combination of the two produces a nice effect in my opinion.  That as nice and likable as the main cast is they aren't perfect and have some legit flaws.  Whether a byproduct of lazy writing or intentional it adds another layer to them.

And speaking of muzet's chapters, I have one complaint there.  There weren't enough of them!  To a lesser extent I'd also say the same for gaius, as neither he nor muzet were members of the party in xillia it would have been nice if they'd had a bit more screen time in this game.  


*Despite that remark I don't actually dislike nova, just the badgering for having too much money.

Destiny, PS4


I've decided to put this here, I was tempted to put in game I didn't finish as you can keep going in this game but as I finished the story and the game has a story thought it should go here.  

I say there's a story well that's the biggest let down as it's boring and not really explained why you’re fighting all these different aliens etc apart from prevent the darkness from coming. Also you play as generic guardian with your ghost everyone is that and it doesn't feel like you’re the actual hero at least in halo (I was going to bring it up some time)  your Master Chief with Cortana or even in Master Effect for instance it’s your Shepard with your team & actions.  But I say that kotaku did run a piece about the story and theory’s on it which helped by grimoire cards you get during the game doing certain actions but I shouldn’t have to go on my phone to get the app to find out some of this stuff. Only thing is it’s a big world Bungie can expand on the story with the expansions and number 2, 3 & so on.



The good stuff is that it’s dam fun to play; it controls a lot like halo which to me is what a FPS should play like with a touch of a few other games mixed in. This where I come to why I could of put in last game I didn’t finish as due to it being fun, I want to play strike missions to get my vanguard rank up, more of the crucible (competitive multiplayer) and it’s rank up to unlock better gear which can get my overall rank up to then do raid missions and any future stuff that needs you to be past level 20. And that’s the game really do missions rank up get better gear and repeat which is fun to do, I guess in a similar way to monster hunter also it’s fun to play co-op which I’ve not done with most of you guy’s apart from Xelviar, 2becomecarrion and a few of my mates.



So overall it’s a fun game with some great social ideas and lot’s to do if you want that but can see some finding it repetitive, if you don’t like the idea of collecting gear & ranking up.

It gets a zero jones style score of 17/20 And the soundtrack is decent but that’s for another day.

Teslagrad

There are a few things I've come to expect from Metroidvania titles: mood, backtracking (natch), a feeling of increasing power and good combat are among them.

Teslagrad has the first three in spades. The mood is gloomy throughout and the back story is told entirely visually. The backtracking doesn't grant you power-ups, but more slices of the back story. You do get more powerful as you go along, and here's where Teslagrad really deviates from what I think of as Metroidvania: there's almost no combat at all. The focus is much more on puzzling and timing your way through the environment's tricks and traps. It's an approach that didn't quite work for me: a good, and certainly charming, game, but slightly short of a great one.

15/20

Bioshock

So I finished this a little while back but I've been trying to collate my thoughts. This was definitely a really good game; the world and the atmosphere was sumptuous, the voice-acting was sublime and shooting was smooth. I wasn't often properly scared, but the story and the voice acting kept me gripped throughout.
That said, it didn't really amaze me like I'd expected it to, based on the hype. The graphics were fairly simplistic, there was hardly any variety to the enemies, the stealthy bits and the hacking games were frustrating and it was fairly linear for the most part.
I think maybe I came to it too late. 2007 Drunkalilly definitely would have given it

10/10

Bioshock deserves credit for making first-person shooters mean something again. Plus, I don't think the opening segment will ever be topped for brilliantly building tension and introducing the player to Rapture.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I think maybe I came to it too late. 2007 Drunkalilly definitely would have given it

10/10

What about 2014 Drunkalilly?

This is a thing I always try, and probably fail, to integrate into my viewpoints about retro games. I try to judge them as to how they feel now, because anybody reading what I have to say now will be playing them now.

A great example is Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the first game in the M&L series. I've often said that it's my favourite of the four, and indeed it made its way into my top ten in Cappa's Mario games thread. But that's mostly based on my memories of it: while I try to concentrate on the good points it has that its sequels don't, surely its lower quality graphics, music, and engine should have an effect? And when I criticise its sequels for having exactly the same Bros. Moves in the field, it's not fair that M&LSS should get a free pass. Original at the time, they'd feel just as stale to someone picking it up for the first time now.

Rambling a bit. Basically, I'm interested in what 2014 Drunkalilly would give Bioshock, putting it up against other games 2014 Drunkalilly could be playing instead.

10/10
Everything 10/10.

In all seriousness, for the reasons I described, I'm really glad I played it. I just don't foresee myself playing it again.

Hyrule Warriors, Wii U



Just this minute I finished the legend (story) mode of this cross-over title and I can say I was surprised how good it was, It never got boring like I thought it would due to the characters changing each level based on where's about you are on the timeline. All the characters seem to play different enough (with Fi being really good) to continue on through the story to find out what happens, which you can all case it is a Zelda Universe story.



The story took just over 10hrs and was just fun, there's still more to do like Adventure (which looks rather robust also unlocks a few things) & Challenge Modes and whatever the DLC brings.

Is it the best Zelda NO!! is it the best Warriors game I don't know not played one since 2 back when the PS2 came out but I would think not but the best Zelda Spinoff Yes!! most certainly.

I'm giving this a 7/10 as it is a good game & worth checking out but not great.

Also would like to see Lana & Cia make even a cameo in a proper Zelda title.

Bravely Default

Love a good JRPG, me. A great JRPG has to have three things: good battling, a great world and a wonderful story. In order, then:

Battling

Immense. The level of customisation and possibilities once you've got a few jobs under your belt means a double thumbs up from me.

World

Pretty enough, though the static backgrounds began to pall after a while (as you'll be seeing them a lot. There are plenty of nicely sketched characters, though clichés abound. ABOUND. One and a half thumbs up.

Story

It's not bad, as such, but the level of repetition it requires in-game to get the 'true' ending brings what would have been a brilliant game down to earth. One thumb up.

That levels out at

15/20

That's pretty fair, ZJ. A real shame about the latter half of the game, else we could have been looking at minor classic territory. Hopefully BD2 will sort it out.

Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations... Again



I had a massive great review for this typed out yesterday, and lost the entire bloody thing. So it's getting cut down a bit.

Basically I gave this another play recently, and think that I like it even more the second time around. Yes, I knew that the massive twists were coming; but I also remembered quite a few (not all) of the logical twists and turns.

And a replay can't take away from the things that were done brilliantly. The music, the courtroom battles, the second best story in a game I've played after Ghost Trick, the villain (best in the series by a long shot), and the characters. Oh goodness the characters. From newcomers to Godot and Tigre, to the best characterised sidekick in gaming (my opinion) in Maya.

I gave this a 9/10 last time. I'd only give about ten games I've ever played a 10/10. Yet from the moment I re-picked this up, a 10/10 seemed inexorable.

And then he showed up:

In a game where the hot-shot female lawyer, who is obviously uncomfortable with comments about her appearance, persists in wearing the most revealing clothes she can find; and where we're asked to feel sympathy for a hebephile; there are going to be a few uncomfortable moments for a PC person like m'self. But I can dismiss those two with a sigh and an "Oh Japan".

Jean Armstrong is the most offensive homosexual stereotype I've seen in gaming, and is not so easily dismissed. (He'd be the most offensive French stereotype I've seen in gaming too, only it's implied that he's putting the Frenchness on.)

He is, however, the sole real black point, and I would implore anyone who likes story-led games to seek this out. And if you didn't make it past the relatively disappointing second game (Justice for All), at least struggle to the end of its second case so that you get the context; then play this. It's brilliant.

19/20

Virtues Last Reward

So rising star had a sale on the 3ds shop, this game being on sale for £9.99 which is the only pricing throwback to a prequel I can recall. I havent actually played 9 hours 9 people 9 doors yet I have a fondness for interactive story based games ever since playing Pheonix Wright.

So, I gave this game a chance! Here are my thoughts. (no spoilers)

There are two sections to this game in terms of gameplay. Novel and Escape The majority of time spent playing will be on escapes, a series of puzzles needed to be completed in order to progress onto the next stage of the 'novel'. From my experience, the puzzles can be split into three categories Math (ugh) Logic and Science. Unfortunately this also creates divisions in the quality of puzzle. Being a practicied participant in 'gaming' logic, I found puzzles based on wordplay, noticing patterns and solving clues to be very clever and well thought out, requiring time to solve completely. The 'science' puzzles were somewhat less invigorating, requiring finding instructions then simply following them to the word.

My biggest gripe comes from this games development leaning heavily towards the mathematics side of the spectrum, I realise this is partially due to my weakness in that area. Puzzles involving mathematics usually require a trial and error approach, the most frequent being given a handfull of numbers but very vague clues in what to do with them, this can result in tedious time crunching numbers, or a trip to 'easy' mode in which the supporting cast of characters mock your inability to find Sudoku mildly interesting.  

I also find that this fixation on maths hampers the novel section. Character development is not as advanced as in similar titles, while the game's focus is on trust and betrayal the cast are quite easy to read and I did come away dissapointed with a lack of twists and turns to their behaviour. Also, some sections of the novel consist of minutes of looking at a map and watching the main character open doors while looking around. These sections serve absolutely no purpose and should be replaced with a fade in/out system similar to Pheonix Wright.

However, one thing this game achieves greatly is including the 'player', the game knows and requires you to play through multiple times. These 'branches' in the story all interlink and you may find clues in one ending to help you solve another, It really makes you feel as if you are integral to the plot and its resolution. The 'skip' function is great, allowing you to swiftly bypass text already seen in another 'branch'. Music is also fairly strong, especially during tense situations, though no options other than Japanese voice acting is somewhat dissapointing, a localized version may have helped build empathy with the cast.

In conclusion, A solid interactive novel which has done enough to ensure I will buy any sequels. A great concept in its timelines which ensures that the player will take multiple paths to reach their goal. The plot is brought together nicely, I would just like to see a bit more time put into creating deep characters and less time trying to make maths thought provoking.


7/10, sorry for wall of text!