Games that you recently finished

[Skye Prower 386]

It's a rarity for me to finish a game due to one) lack of skill and two) drifting away to do something else but those who saw my status a few days ago know I've got another under my belt.  But I wasn't that happy.

Shadowrun Returns

(I just wanna quickly point out this is the base original game, and not the Dragonfall version that came out soon after.  It might be better)

So, Shadowrun is an amazing setting.  For those who don't know it's a Cyberpunk RPG setting but mixed with fantasy, so there is magic, elves and dragons around.  SR seems to be based on the same rules for creating your character, though I can't be 100% sure as it's almost a decade since I played the pen and paper version.

The gameplay itself is mostly turn based combat, based by the looks of things on the X-Com engine.  Which mean, and those who play X-com will see this complaint coming, the Random Number Generator is EVIL!   Or at least seems to have rounding errors.  I tried to follow the hit/miss ratio for attacks, and there does seem to be an imbalance with what it says the odds are.  A 66% chance seems to miss half the time, 75% is closer to two-thirds.  And a 99% chance, which should be 1 miss in 100 attacks, is practically 1 miss in 20.  The combat AI is also messed up.  If you try to play tactically, putting your characters into cover and stuff, the enemy will just run up into your face.  Plus, because of a lack of information displayed (compared to, say, Fire Emblem: Awakening, which is also Turn based tactical combat and one of my fave games) I never feel like I can make informed actions, and coupled with the Leeroy Jenkins AI and the RNL plotting against you, combat becomes a boring slog.

 

The lack of info is also notable in the character creation/upgrade screen.  The Quickness stat for example increases your chance to hit with ranged weapons and chance to dodge, but it doesn't tell you by how much for each point.  So is improving your chance to dodge better, or upping your Hit Points?  It tells you how much your HP increases by, but not your dodge.  And then you have skills like Drone Control, which tell you exactly what each point in the skill does (+3% accuracy for drone, +1 armour etc)

 

As for the campaign, well, it starts great.  A sort of Noir detective story where a dead friends hires you via a prerecorded message after his death to track down his killer.  That section of the story is fun and entertaining.  Then, once you've tracked down the killer (spoiler time but it's pretty obvious)you find someone was behind him.  At which point the story goes insane going from this killer plot to a 'you have to SAVE THE WORLD' plot which had only one tiny hint at, and that hint didn't give any indication how *bleep*ing silly things are.  I would say the plot would be something you'd expect to see in Doctor Who, but Dr Who already DID the story.  Okay in one of the audio dramas but still....

 

But there are gameplay issues with it too.  One mission requires you to enter cyberspace.  Now, you're not told beforehand it's required, but you are given a character who is able to do so.  But, unless you brought another character with the ability to enter cyberspace, she'll be overwhelmed by the defences, and you;re stuck.  And that's in EASY mode.  One mission restart required!  (Or would be if I hadn't cheated and given my character full XP points)

 

And on the last mission, hope your character knows how to use shotguns.  Cause the bad guys you fight are only hurt by this one special weapon which is a shotgun.  And you only get three in your team of four.  And, at best they give you a 75/80 chance to hit, which is closer to 2/3rds.  Oh, and it gets worse.  They only get two shots before needing to reload (each character gets two or three actions, so at best two shots and a reload)  And the bad guys are only vulnerable for one turn.  So... 60% chance to hit, two shots each, one turn.  And it takes three shots to kill the badguy.  Awkward if you're swarmed by..well... more than one of the bad guys.

 

I don't want to hate this game, I enjoyed it at the start.  But when the plot went crazy, and the difficultly jumped up, it just became a chore.  If I didn't know exactly how far I had to go I would have quit without finishing and not gone back. 

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

Just finished Final Fantasy 7 for the first time, and WOW what an adventure that was! I got rocked by the super bosses lol. The Chocobo stuff kinda sucked, but the rest was a solid time. May I say, I ADORE the credits music! I am so going to be revisiting this game again in the future! :)

[Shinomi-chan 294]

Well I just finished Undertale's Pacifist route.. Now I'm having inner fight about whether to play Genocide or not. It really is a good game. Good experience and has got puzzles... And I think the game has unique gameplay technique.

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

I just got through with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It wasn't bad, though I found the story to be all over the place. The stealth gameplay was improved from the previous game which I appreciate. But I do have one question... The end credits music. Why is it smooth jazz? I find it WAY out of place. Then again, so is the end credits music of SoTN. But, anyway it was a good game. I prefer the first MGS, though.

[Danny Felixe 330]

Portal

Well... I died less often than I expected too. But yeah... I finished it now. And I really enjoyed it! Though some of it did become a little irritating with the timing rather than skill. And... well... I haven't done the challenges. But I did do the advanced courses! And I only needed help on one of them and it wasn't for much! ;P

Turrets in cages though... horrible things. I hope I don't need to go through that again

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

I just finishedMetal Gear Solid 4. Wow that ending! I have the same thought on the stealth from 2. However, the story was alot more focused on what it wanted to do. The music is AMAZING!!! Songs from the previous Solid games. Great game in my opinion. Give it a try if you're interested in the stealth gameplay.

[Thire 121]

The legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the 8th time...

Both the original GameCube edition and the HD version. I dunno, maybe I'm just bored?

The Wind Waker Oracle strikes again! 100%ed the game finally, I put it off too many times (got XCX for Christmas, LOVE IT!).

[Darkie 3]

My friend and I finished Sonic Unleashed (PS3) for a second time over the weekend. Still my favorite Sonic game.

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

I finally beat Metroid Fusion for the first time! I did have some difficulty with the SA-X at first, but I managed. The final boss whipped me good. It wasn't a bad game. I would definitely recommend it as a starting point, alongside Zero Mission. 

[Skye Prower 386]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Gates To Infinity

So Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is out here soon.  (Though when exactly I get it is in the lap of the gods as my copy from Amazon has been delayed and the postal service here is.... variable)  In the meantime I've been playing the last title in the Series, Gates to Infinity, and finished the whole story yesterday.  So what did I think of it, given many aren't keen on it, including a very prominent gamer on this site!  

In terms of pure gameplay, I would say it's the best in the series so far.  The hunger mechanic has been removed, which I found to be an unnecessary niggle that just took up inventory space.  Unlike the previous game, Explorers of Sky (so hard to write that word without an 'e' now) it felt a lot fairer in terms of difficulty.  In EoS I felt I needed to grind or cheat to have a chance to just make it through the game.  Not so with GtI, which I felt was about right (Which likely means it was a bit too easy ).  It even manages to avoid the typical RPG flaw of artificial early difficulty, where the start is harder than it should be because the designers forget that you 1) have less HP and weaker attacks, 2) don;t have a full party yet and 3) don't have any items yet, especially those handy healing ones.  (Plus an extra difficulty in EoS if you choose a fire type, the first dungeon is a water one)

Part of this reason for a more reasonable difficulty is likely due to the fact that moves now upgrade as you use them.  And these upgrades are across your whole party if they share a move, not just one pokemon.  This means even the basic moves can rival, and even exceed the more powerful ones with enough use.  Upgrading the moves also increases it PP, which means another niggle of early PMD games, that you burned through PP rapidly because it slavishly stuck to the pokemon rules instead of realising that the circumstance being very very different, is gone.  And the damage boosts mean you can keep on top of of your foes as the go up in difficulty.  Because moves level up across a party, this also makes a one type party a viable option, and almost encouraged to make the most of the leveling up, rather than being forced to have a mix like in most Pokemon games.  Add in the fact that all pokemon has the same XP total as the party, even if they haven't taken part in any dungeon missions, and the fact that there is only a minor benefit to evolving (a small one off stat boost) the game could be very flexible in your party choice.  Why did I say 'could'....? we'll come back to that in a minute.

Another major change is the fact you build 'paradise' a series of shops and services with materials you get from Dungeon Missions.  This gives you an incentive to play beyond just beating the game, and something to keep doing once the story is completed.  And taking about Dungeon Missions, something else I like is now you can only have one active mission at once.  No more cases of trying to get several missions for one dungeon and cursing when there isn't any.

So all these are good changes, but they haven't changed all the bad stuff.  Party pathfinding is still as dire as ever if the party gets split up, which happens frequently.  And while I did say the game was less difficult, it has difficulty 'steps' rather than a curve.  In fact, going strange from one story mission to another (with no in-game break between) the difficulty jumped so much my attacks were doing less than 2/3's the damage they were on the exact same pokemon.  It also suffers from unfortunate combinations of abilities making the game overly hard.  For example, one of the last dungeons has a pokemon going in solo, and has two pokemon you haven't encountered before, both of whom have instant sleep attacks.  Add in the random effects of the dungeon which often block your characters from using seeds or berries... then you have a situation where your character falls asleep, is killed before they wake up, and can't revive because of the seed block effect.  And before you bring up getting an item to prevent sleep, I will repeat, you haven't encountered that pokemon before.  Alone, either of these is fine.  In combination, it becomes a slog.

As for the story itself, well.... it's alright.  Which compared to EoS is a massive left down.  It even lifts a LOT of elements from EoS, including... *spoilers for both games incoming*

 

The big twist that the Bad Guy Pokemon is actually a good guy, and one pokemon you thought was a good guy turns out to be working for the Big Bad.  Though it lacks the same dramatic punch as you haven't actually met either pokemon before the reveal, unlike EoS.

 

It still has the PMD fall of characters flashbacking all the Darn time, and boy, the characters just DON'T SHUT UP!  To give an example of how much text....

NPC: "It's a Legendary Pokemon"

Your Character: "A Legendary Pokemon?"

NPC: "Yes.  A Legendary Pokemon"  (Not the actual in game lines as I wanna avoid more spoilers, but this pattern occurs)

It is extremely annoying when you uses the shops and mini-games that have to explaine how to play them every single darn time, no matter how many times you've done it before.  The worst being Victini and his V-Wheel.  Which you will wanna use, but his text takes such a long time to wade though.    It does make things more of a chore than they needed to be.

But... I haven't talked about the most obvious change.  It's now in 3D, rather than 2D sprites.   As someone usually not bothered by graphics I did like this change.  It almost resulted in more varied dungeon layouts, with rooms no longer being perfect squares or rectangles.  However... it has some brought in some major flaws.  First, the game is so zoomed in now, you can't see your whole team on the screen f they're in a corridor.  Which means seeing enemies at any distance is impossible.  And makes it harder to spot when a party member starts to wander off, exacerbating the bad pathfinding problem.   It also seems to have taken up a lot of space, so there are a lot fewer map types.  At the start of the game, when you really need to draw people in, the only dungeons are caves, forests, or forestry caves.  More types arrive later, but the limitation is noticeable.

And speaking of limitations, the most Darning one.  It's hinted at by the fact that there is a disappoint choice of only 5 pokemon to start with.  How many pokemon do you think are in this game, keeping in mind it's Gen V?  Take a guess.

The answer is 144.  That's LESS than there was in Gen 1!  And once you remove those that are NPC's, and divided the remained by 2 and a half to take evolutions out of the equation, and that's a very small number.  As such, you'll be fighting the same pokemon over and over and over again, even over several dungeons.  Even when it doesn't make sense, like fire types hanging out in ice caves.  That's why I threw out that 'could have a flexible party' line.  Because there are so few pokemon it's unlikely you'll get the exact party you want.

So... overall... Gates to Infinity is a really good PMD game, but it's lackluster story, and seriosus lack of variety, drag it down immensely. Here's hoping Super Mystery Dungeon solves those problems.  At least it has the full 720ish roster of pokemon. 

[ViciousPhantom 6]

I just finished Kamen Rider: Battride War II. Really good game! Now to wait for Genesis to release. Thankfully it's only 5 days away. 

[Danny Felixe 330]

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

Well... I say finished, I did all the levels to full. I haven't gotten all the trophies yet though. I'm on 51/61. Which is good but I wanted them all! So I may just go in every now and again to pick up another coin from Knuckles and get some more but otherwise... I am done

What did I think of it? Well...I really enjoyed it. Maybe it was just because in general I was actually able to do these. AND I could be someone other than Sonic. I swear, as soon as I got Tails, I used him pretty much all the time I could (what? He was useful). I really liked the worm tunnels especially. The first one I did and I really liked it and made an effort to complete it fully there and then. The final boss level with Lyric wasn't that hard personally. Once I got into the rhythm of it a little I could do it no problem (though almost never without losing coins which was very irritating). Despite the coins it took me longer to figure out how to speed run the level. I'm sure some people noticed very quickly how to speed run it but it took me a while and took over 2 minutes off my time

If I were to give criticisms, while I liked the large map layout, it made speed running it a little annoying. I'm not naturally good at speed running things, I take my time a little too much with Sonic games normally (as opposed to some other games where I just go in guns blazing and figure it out as I go... like in Portal) and having to look at a map as I go slows me down unless I have a straight path. My other criticism would be Amy... I'm not a big fan of Amy. Those who know me,know that. She's one of the characters I like least. But to me, she could at least have SOME use. Such as a maybe a hidden secret in some levels that I would need to go back through using her (kind of like they did with the Ape Escape games ie: Some of my favourite games which I grew up with). Instead all you end up getting with her at the end is her house... okay. So it's a house, Do I get a load of coins in there to buy things? No. I get a dance animation...

...

What? I think I'd be better off with this in the credits. It's a pretty big disappointment when I finally unlock it

Either way, I still enjoyed it. I don't think it deserves the amount of hate the Sonic Boom franchise gets. I'm excited to see if the next one is as good

Just gonna leave this here too

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

I finished a game that I was long overdue to play. I finished my first playthrough of Kingdom Hearts! I took a really long time to do so  (Over 101 hours and 81% of the trophies but who's counting), but I did it! I was kind of underwhelmed with the final boss, Ansem was really REALLY easy. But being level 100 with the best equipment in the game will do that to a boss. Sort of like Sephiroth in FF VII. But in general, awesome game, I am definitely going to do another run. Who knows, I may get 2.5 in the future.

[Lena Stan Account 60]

Undertale is over. Genocide last boss only killed me 15 times. XD

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

I beat Link to the Past. I haven't played it in a long time, so I was a little rusty. I did get 100% though.

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

I actually beat Advance Wars 2 finally. The finally battle with Sturm was really easy. I was kind of disappointed. 

[BrayPlays (Formerly CyDra) 23]

Just finished Zelda Minish Cap. My first 100% run to boot! The figurines were kind of a pain in the neck  (100 mysterious shells, what robbery of my hard earned rupees)... But anyway, I still think it's a great origin story of Vaati and the Four Sword. Great game in general, actually. 

[Thire 121]

I have completed the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns main quest line! Great story, nasty enemies, and awesome boss battles; this ain't for the weak, that's for sure! Had a lot of fun with this and my party members.

[Chaotix_Espio_24 16]

I just finished PSMD (Pokemon super mystery dungeon), IT WAS AWESOME!

[Danny Felixe 330]

Hello. and welcome to another episode of me reviewing games I've finished... well... telling you about how my game went and then saying whether I liked it or not ;P . It's been a while... partly because I've been busy... partly because most games I've played are unfinishable. But after playing a little bit each week I've finished a certain game I started ages ago

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Okay! So I will say overall I enjoyed this game quite a lot. It wasn't too difficult but wasn't super easy either. I will say there was a little bit of a learning curve though with the game. When it starts out you're more likely to fail and get a game over than late in game (though despite this I believe I got a game over somewhere in the middle whilst I played

So starting off on the Mobius levels where you face off against robots and animals and the occasional Nocturnus. This is the first introduction of the self repair to me which constantly has me worried for the rest of the game... them SWAT bots... Though the only REAL problem I had was the falcons or whatever they were guarding the machines that make animals aggressive... those took me AGES to kill. I hated them. The only other thing that was really bad for me was when the teams split up. At that point I was used to having Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and either Big, Eggman or Shadow as my third party so splitting them up I didn't know what to do and I made a huge mistake of putting my heavy hitters (Sonic, Knuckles, Big and Shadow) in one group and both my healers in a different group (Tails, Cream, Eggman and Amy. I left Rouge to her own devices). Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I expected. I used a lot of healing materials on the heavy hitters and spammed Tails' medic thing along with Eggmans only good POW move and it all worked out fine. Though when it was time to move on I left without collecting Omega. I didn't realise moving on meant that I would leave Omega behind... it wasn't that clear but... oh well. At least I got to bring Shade

So moving onto the Twilight area... you start off with fat orange aliens... who when you start off you HAVE to use POW moves as normal attacks do literally 1 damage... it was fairly irritating. Half the character's POW moves only did one damage too. Shade being the most notable one. I was heavily reliant on Knuckles since he was the only one who could do a lot of damage (I was wishing I had Eggman with me since he was a fairly heavy hitter but he stayed on Mobius). Him and Tails were musts on my team. I dont remember how Big did... I remember Big was a very heavy hitter who I liked but I don't remember how good he was here. Either way... this place was a bit of a pain... then we go to the N'rrgals. Who were jelly creatures. a lot easier to hit than the Kron but they regained all their health almost every go to make up... so once again POW moves were needed to finish them off quick. My team at this point was Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Big (I needed big to get past a load of things). I was a little annoyed that to destroy boxes I needed Amy... who I'd pretty much given up on since I didn't like her

Moving on after that to the Zoah... big heavy hitters who had a bit of defence too. I didn't mind these guys too much realy... thy weren't super easy but weren't that hard either. By this point I'd changed Big out and replaced him with Shade who would then stick with my team instead of Big from then on. And moving on from that... the Voxai... who  were fairly friendly to me when I arrived then changed their minds quick... but they weren't that hard if I remembered to block the dangerous attacks. At this point things were starting to become easy. I had been maximising my attacks and then maximising my luck. It worked well. So after that came the Nocturnous and a few Gizoids... for a while I thought the Gizoids would repair if I destroyed them first... but they didn't... oh well. The underwater parts of this level were a little annoying though... no POW moves allowed so I couldn't spam Tails' but I got there in the end and made it through to Ix... by which point he was a piece of cake with my double army or Knuckles, Shade, Cream and Shadow and Sonic, Tails, Amy and Big (Big kicked butt... seriously) and then by my dream team that couldn't have Eggman or Knuckles but had sonic, Tails, Shade and Big. The running bit caused me some problems but getting passed it, Ix was destroyed with ease... and so ended my game

So yeah... good game... had a few little annoyances but ended up being pretty easy once you got a high enough level. Would recommend it to those who haven't played it

[Skye Prower 386]

Glad you enjoyed it.  It is a surprisingly fun game.

Just one thing, for the 'fat orange aliens' you were having trouble with, you need POW moved that have 'armour piercing' to do full damage.  Knux and Shadow have them if memory recalls, and I think Shade has one that is linked with Sonic or Knux...

[Danny Felixe 330]

That would make sense. But seeing as I made do with Knux all was fine

[Device 6]

I bought that game when it came out and still have yet to compete it.

 

As for me, I finally got around to playing through both Bayonetta games. They are so ridiculous but so so much fun! 

[Seviper the Fang Snake 368]

Donkey Kong 64

 

Finally! I beat the story after downloading it months ago and now I'm finish with that monkey business! Pun entirely intended! Anyways... the game is just as fun to play it now as it was 10 to 15 years ago! I downloaded off my Wii U virtual console though I'm surprised it wasn't edited due to it being worked on by Rare who is now own my Microsoft...Oh well. It's similarities to Rare's popular duo is present but I enjoyed it. Like most of past Rare titles collecting collectibles is a must! Especially the blue prints if you want to have enough time to beat the last world. The final boss fight was challenging but I manage to snatch victory at the end. You'll need all the Kong's if you want to collect a crap ton of Golden Bananas but I'd say my favorites were Chunky Kong the gentle giant and Lanky Kong a total whackjob! Of course I'm not one to judge.

 

Great game. If you like 3D platformers, Games that involve a lot of collecting or Donkey Kong.

 

And the DK Rap...don't get me started on how awfully and hilariously cheesy it is.

[Frost777 4]

System Shock 2

I finally took the time to finish SS2, and I will tell you that it was easily the most difficult yet interesting game I've ever played. As far as I know, I'm one of the only people in my social circle to actually complete the game and I think I shaved off a few years of my lifespan doing it. The game is very difficult if you don't go in with a proper strategy, most of the late game requires you to have certain skills which takes modules, and they are NOT easy to find so you have to spend them wisely. It certainly is better compared to the first System Shock which has one of the most difficult UI systems I've ever had to deal with. I know it was made before my time but SS1 is definitely the most confusing and hardest to play and navigate. SS2 was improved by leaps and bounds compared to it's predecessor, but it's definitely not a pushover when it comes to difficulty.

The whole campaign took me about two week's worth of downtime (which was about 5-6 hours at a time per day) and I can't count how many times I've died or had to restart a campaign because I didn't pick the right class or per-determined points to start with not to mention I've sometimes spent too many modules in skills I didn't need for the right moment in-game. But, the music and story was definitely awesome, I even updated the graphics and character models using fan created mods which are very impressive. The game was definitely scary and unnerving, which gives testament to how well it's aged despite being a few decades old.

All in all, it was a great game and I encourage others to give it a try if they have the patience, especially with a few of the graphic and model mods to enhance the experience.