Last Game You Finished and Your Thoughts MKII

Ah, you mean the very first credits! There's much much more to go yet - including Ringside, natch. Flock Step was a Stu fave back in the day, I seem to recall. (Because birds, presumably.)

I do mean the very first credits! I know there's more but credits are credits in the Zero Rulebook. :king:

Are you going to pipe a review into the Gintendo cosmos for the game, Balla? After NaNoWriMo, natch.

Those who own a Wii will have possibly picked up the original less HD less colourful release of this, Muramasa Rebirth.  I've already filled my fanboying the heck out quota of the month over in the Reading thread (seriously, read Way of Kings, if you want a high quality superbly realised ongoing saga it's got you covered) so there won't be a long pontificate this time (I can hear the sighs of relief all the way round the planet ).

A nice smooth and absolutely beautiful hack and slasher with extremely light RPG elements (swords with attack stats) using Japanese folklore as its inspiration.  Let it be said now, this is easily one of the pretiest video games I've ever seen, and a real spit in the face of every big budget "AAA" title out there.  The sprites are SO detailed, smooth, and well drawn the game feels like a moving painting rather than a video game.  

The action is simple and smooth and a lot of fun, the story is reasonably engaging for what it is, and the whole thing ends before it wears out its welcome (I finished both stories before then at any rate).

Final Verdict: 7.5/10  A very fun hack and slash game that anybody with a Vita should consider picking up.

That seems a bit low numerically: I remember the original being a bloody amazing game! A bit weebish in aesthetic, but beautiful, a really solid combat system.

Balladeer wrote:

weebish

Seriously though 7.5 for me is still a very high score, unlike the media I use the full scale with five being the average, almost nothing being worthy of 9 and above, and between seven and nine being top notch games of varying degrees.

Fair enough, I try to do that as well but I still think Muramasa's an 8 or 9 on my scale. Really enjoyed it. It all depends on your scoring distribution I guess.

Mathsiness:

As someone who completely flunked maths I'm afraid that last went straight over my uneducated head.

Most of your ratings are in the middle & aren't especially spread out, games sites tend to rate the majority at the high end of the scale. (I think)

The Crumpster more or less has it.

I give all videogames a 0/10 because they're childish rubbish for virgins.

Athrun888 wrote:

flunked maths

This is a confusingly american-british phrase

That's Strine for you!

Paper Mario: Color Splash



Such a bizarre game. The combat is on the weak side all the way through, there's no set structure (getting the next Plot Coupon can take five minutes or forty five minutes, seemingly at random) and there are a fair few cheap Game Overs. But I loved it. That lack of structure makes anything possible and early weak levels are soon replaced by more thoughtful and well-crafted sections. It's also a pretty funny game, with a script that's not afraid to poke at Nintendo or clichés of the genre. It's a massive improvement over Sticker Star but it is very much in the same vein, with Thing cards and trick bosses aplenty. There is much more guidance available, though, so it's a much smoother experience. I can recommend.

17/20

Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice For All
Read my case-by-case reviews: 1 2 3 4

Widely regarded, including in my own recollection, as the weakest of the original trilogy, this most recent playthrough didn't do much to dissuade that. The music isn't as good, Franziska Von Karma is no match for Edgy or Godot. The first case is a cheap excuse to give the player another tutorial, the second is a slog of too much mysticism that fails to answer the Fey subplot, and the third is a generic circus story. Lotta Hart and Wendy Oldbag are both over-represented and Pearl Fey is simultaneously precocious child character and busty fanservice, which is super weird.

Despite all that, there's still a lot to love here. The cases aren't stretched to three days just because they can and subsequently never overstay their welcome. The psyche-locks do add a little more gameplay to the previosuly dull investigations. And the final case is an absolute banger.

I've mentioned before how Phoenix Wright is rare for showing a defence attorney as a heroic character and not a sleazy scumbag and the story and writing here explores that wonderfully. This game concludes the story started in the first of Phoenix and Miles finding their role as tools of justice.

10/10

You've made it to the end of a write-up of Justice For All without discussing its final case directly, for which I applaud you - I would not have been able to resist the temptation to mention the electric, visceral tension that it evokes as a very well-judged series of revelations slots into place to - yes! - turn the game on its head.

Looking forward to more Drunka - Ace Attorney discush in the near future.

PS As I close this post, I realise where I should be looking for your thoughts on JfA's final case. I will have a recess there forthwith.

I'm not as kind to you on the third case, or the game - but in general I agree, and in general, it's still Phoenix Wright. What a brilliant series.

And what a brilliant denouement. Utter classic.

Without the fourth case elevating the package so much, I might have been harsher on the rest of the game. As it is, I've played and enjoyed it twice now so it must be doing something right.

Donkey Kong 64

I know a couple of doods are also on this, and also this went on a bit long, so it's in a spoiler - this one in fact:

Oh and this - this is the 101% completion video. Er, enjoy?

Aww, man... DK64 has slipped down the pecking order of games to beat and no mistake. Partly because of this game...

Wario's Woods



Block dropping puzzle games were huge in the NES days, weren't they? Tetris, Dr. Mario, Mario & Yoshi... and then Wario's Woods. A 1994 NES release, it has two twists on the genre: a), you play as a character in the field of play, and b), you can only match three (or more!) when one of the tiles is a bomb (or diamond ). a) shakes things up so radically that it's crazy and, worryingly, never tried again (that I know of). It also demands that you becum compitant very quickly. I've not played a game this demanding - ever. And I loved it. The challenge is vast and sweaty: the 98th level was the hardest thing I've conquered in months and months. If you're bored of, or have mastered, the standard match-3/block droppers out there, give WW a crack. It's... big.

15/20

I enjoyed becum compitant
Wario's Woods is referenced in the first Pokémon, isn't it? Anyway, I played through

Titanfall 2

I've written most of a review of this on gintendo, which I'll publish when I've had a chance to get stuck into the multiplayer. If that's even half as good as the campaign, this will be a serious GOTY contender for me. Top 5 without a doubt.

Just the most fun I've had shooting men in a long, long time, maybe ever. It starts off fairly standard, albeit excellent, then pumps in amazing ideas like there's no tomorrow.

Don't click this if you have any intention of playing the game:

Through all of this is a really nice little buddy movie about a pilot and a titan befriending each other. It recalls classic stuff like Terminator or District 9 or Short Circuit.

I need to go back to Titanfall 2 but I will wait till I finish it to have my say.

I come here however to say me and my team of Mimikyu, Ninetales, Decidueye, Solgaleo, Salazzle, Raichu made me the Pokemon Champion, yes I finished


After 32hrs, the journey came to a end in the 3DS game of the year (sorry Fates) and possibly the best Pokemon game since Gold and Silver due to new ideas and a half decent story.

If you don't like Pokemon then I don't think this game will change your mind but if you have any interest in the series, Go play it now!

Dragon Ball Xenoverse




Poorly executed amazing concept.  

There, I have just described the entire game in a single sentence.  Everything about this game is a poorly implemented yet well intentioned concept.  The story is about the only saving grace, being a really fun original story involving the main story of the series that the player corrects while a pair of villains tries to constantly disrupt through evil time travel shenanigans.  Despite how much of a chore the game was I am glad I played it, if only for the Cell Games turning in to a fight with one of the most hilarious characters ever and glorious Beerus at the end (because lets be real here, Beerus is the best thing ever and everything involving him is instantly better for it).  


Overall rating: 5.5 out of 10.  The game is functional.  Most of the time.  However it's so poorly polished and has so many strange design choices like side missions that have bonus sections locked behind RNG triggers even when the player fulfils the actual requirement and super moves locked behind some of the most irksome RNG I've ever seen (and I put over 200 hours in to Xenoblade X!) that it drags the entire game down.  Very much a game enjoyable in spite of itself.  Worth the time if your a DB fan, if only because of the story mode and fanservice of self-inserting yourself in to the DBZ timeline are immense fun, otherwise one can easily skip this.

A King's Tale is a free bonus downloadable game if you bought FFXV from GAME in the UK (EB is Aus, Gamestop in USA), I've got no idea if it will eventually come to PSN or XBL and if it will be free or not.

AKT is a 16-Bit style beat-em up but with Final Fantasy tropes and nods to things which will happen in FFXV.

Now AKT is part of the FFXV universe along with Brotherhood and Kingsglaive but less so due to it being King Regis telling Noctis a bedtime story which clearly didn't happen.

With that in mind only the cutscenes showing Regis reading to Noctis is FFXV cannon, where it fits though that I'm not sure.

I enjoyed the hour or so it took me to beat the game and as it was free, I can't really moan.

Pokémon Moon



Official art, I'm going to assume it's okay...


I'm the Pokémon Champion now.  Haven't played the postgame, but here's my verdict thus far.

In the middle, this is a bloody marvel, taking a great many of the tired tropes that bugged previous Pokégames and turning them on their heads.  At the start and end, it falters.


At the start - well I have to nod my head to the early-days cut-scenes and the cuteness picking up Rowlet for the first time.  But there simply is, apart form padding, NO NEED for compulsory unskippable tutorials - of which, incredibly, there are two.  Have a second, 'are you sure?' dialogue when choosing to skip if you're really paranoid about the Go!-playing masses being stranded.  Or an 'expert' option on the main menu.  It is an all-round bad thing that this hasn't been done yet, that gets more aggravating with every generation it remains.

And at the end, it just loses the pacing slightly.  From the fourth island kahuna battle to the Champion battle and beyond, it seems a bit all-over-the-place.  Maybe new players won't notice.  Maybe it's just an old Poké-hand expecting certain things and not getting them.  Or maybe they genuinely do still have a bit to learn about pacing.  (On a similar note, why can't we skip Z-Move cut-scenes after the first viewing?  Ludicrous.)


In the middle, though, it shines.  Gyms are out, replaced for trials - whether these are better or worse I've yet to decide, but no gym in the series has made me laugh out loud.  HMs are out, replaced by Rideable Pokémon - the best thing to happen to the series since XD.  Because of this and other reasons, it's the slickest Pokéventure since the aforementioned XD, despite the tutorials.

The 81 monsters are mostly a decent lot: 81 is still not enough, with several held back until postgame as well, but the Alolan variants help to patch that up to a certain extent.  Not many new moves this time either, although you could make a convincing argument for saturation.  And Z-Moves are ridiculous while being less ridiculous than Megas, so that's a good strategic move.

The writing's surprisingly good, with an interesting story (relatively speaking) and some bloody good characters (and Hau).  Nanu, Lillie, Gladion, and Guzma stand out for various reasons.  The music is of a high standard, up from XY in my opinion, with certain tunes being played on repeat for days.  The graphics are more than serviceable if not spectacular, and the world they show off is more interesting than your average.  


Not sure what the point of this is, other than giving y'all a number to beat me up with.  You know whether you want this and if so you probably already have it, with one possible exception.  It's definitely the best Pokégame in a while, despite its flaws.

8/10

More thoughts on Gintendo

If you don't want to read all that then simple thoughts is story has some plot holes, chapter 13 is the worst thing to happen to Final Fantasy since FFXIII yet the journey with the boys is what makes this one of the best games of 2016.

PLAY IT

9/10