Topic: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

[Order.RSS]

I know that man, I been gaming since the 80's. But I never have time to even do small gaming really. I work 50-60 hours a week and I have school on the side. I do my best but it's not easy. I do game, but mostly just Minecraft because it's easy to pick up and play and easy to put down and move on.

Ah okay. I hope you can find the time to play and maybe even finish an engrossing adventure then this weekend!
This is why I love short eShop games. Things like Spy Chameleon, Nihilumbra, Year Walk, and Tengami. You can play them for just an hour or two and still make a lot of progress or even finish them, so you also get that satisfaction of completing a game.
Same reason why I really like that many retail games use level-based stories (Mario 3D World, Yoshi Woolly World, Splatoon, Rayman Legends). They give you easier "exit points" than open-world games, if you will. Fits better with a busy lifestyle.

[supermario2k]

The tricky part is, while I do work regular hours, as a news reporter I am essentially on-call 24/7 depending on you know breaking news. Even Sunday's are not 100 percent.

But I did recently download Minecraft Pocket Edition to my phone so I have the ability to do some micro gaming while I am on the go.

[rygar]

Haha hey man don't turn it into a chore. Play what you want, when you want to. I once read that only ~15% of games get completed. While I'm definitely one of those "but if I don't finish it I can't check it off my list!"-people, it's useful to remember that completing games shouldn't be the goal, the goal should be to have a fun/enriching experience during your free time. (Altho Mario 3D World is great and the last main level is pretty stellar.)

Lol, it took me a good portion of last year to figure this out.  I hadn't gamed in years, and the last time I did I had a lot more free time. I initially fell back into old completionist and power gaming habits and wasn't enjoying myself as much as I should. Good advice!

[supermario2k]

I normally make time for Minecraft during the week so today I decided to try Minecraft Wii U edition. I have the PS4 version so that is my main one but I bought the Wii U one a month or so ago and it finally finished downloading today. NO my internet is not slow, I only plug my Wii U in when I plan on using it to save power so I had a bunch of games downloading. Anyways I tried it out today, I didn't like the controls as much as the PS4 version. Maybe I am just used to them so hopefully once I get used to them it will be better.

But I hate the save feature. It is so slow. Maybe that has something to do with the external hard drive I am using. It is a powered one, actually it is an older Seagate I used to use for my primary PC back up storage. It is a 1.5 TB drive. For some reason the Wii U keeps disconnecting from the hard drive so that makes downloading games, or installing updates, take forever. I think this is why I stopped gaming on it as much.

Needless to say I did go back to Super Mario 3D World and remembered why I quite. I am at the last castle but it requires 7 more stars to enter it and I just can't seem to get any more stars. I only play a few levels here and there but after about 20 minutes of looking for stars I give up and turn it off.

[Order.RSS]

Lol, it took me a good portion of last year to figure this out.  I hadn't gamed in years, and the last time I did I had a lot more free time. I initially fell back into old completionist and power gaming habits and wasn't enjoying myself as much as I should. Good advice!

I mean, it's easy to preach this but practicing is another matter entirely. Obviously this is the biggest first world problem ever, but right now I'm playing through Final Fantasy 8 which hasn't been fun since the first disc - yet here I am, a good 60 hours later, still doing grindy sidequests because I've committed to the idea of finally beating this darn game. :p Rationally I should just drop it and play something fun instead, but yeah.

Needless to say I did go back to Super Mario 3D World and remembered why I quite. I am at the last castle but it requires 7 more stars to enter it and I just can't seem to get any more stars. I only play a few levels here and there but after about 20 minutes of looking for stars I give up and turn it off.

That also annoyed me! Mario 3D World is sooooo close to being perfect in my opinion, but a few things really hold it back. Why the arbitrary limit on how many stars you need?! I just wanna see all the levels, not replay a bunch I've already seen. It's especially weird because earlier on they often let you advance by beating just one out of two levels on those crossroad section on the map. Why suddenly a hard barrier at the end then? Totally agree.

[Phil]

I beat Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 as Gunvolt. HIGHLY recommended game. It fixes a lot of problems I had with the original and makes for a really fun game. I hope to review it and share on NWR when I beat the game as Copen, the other character. Need to do, IIRC 80% of the challenges to get the final ending for each character.

[supermario2k]

I made it all the way to the end of Super Mario 3D World, I died a few times on the last tower climb segment and gave up for a while. I spent the rest of the time testing all my recently purchased Game Boy games to make sure they all worked and so far every game is in working order.

Also looking through my Wii U purchases I remembered that I had already bought Kirby's Return to Dream Land so I played the first few levels of that. No I didn't get that far but I enjoyed the game a lot. I might put some time into this one. I just wish it didn't have that annoying shake the remote maneuver but I can I guess live with that if that. I wish  could play with the classic controller pro or even the Game Cube controller but since I am on a Wii U I don't know how to go about doing that if it even were possible.

I also spent some time in my PS3 digging through my retro library and spent a good twenty minutes on the first level of Gradius V. I don't want to make gaming into a chore that is for sure. I just wish I had more time to spend on a hobby I put way too much time and money into. Or I could scale back my purchases and keep just the stuff I know I will play but if I did that my entire library would be about 5 or so Super Mario games and Minecraft.

[azeke]

I made it all the way to the end of Super Mario 3D World, I died a few times on the last tower climb segment...

You're not even close to the end though...

[ejamer]

Finished, but only to the first set of credits, Thomas Was Alone (Wii U) last night. Not sure how I feel about the game.

It was nice, I guess. The narrative was very well done and clearly the best part of the game, but didn't live up to the comments from some reviews. (Seriously: I remember one review where the reviewer mentioned both laughing and crying over the course of the game. The story isn't that good.) The controls are pretty tight, but the actual platforming isn't challenging at all. The game mechanics introduced are interesting but not particularly innovative.

The design does do a great job of nudging you along asking you to try new things - but the pace of introducing new challenges is slow enough and the platforming easy enough that the entire experience felt like an inevitable grind to the end. Up and to the right, so to speak.

The threat of failure with the game is so low, that I'd almost recommend watching the game instead of playing it yourself. So that's not a stunning recommendation. But at the same time, I do think it was an interesting experience and am glad to have played it. (Also glad not to have paid full price, however.)  Did others try this game?  Am I a cold-hearted bastard for not empathizing more for the sentient quadrilaterals?

I made it all the way to the end of Super Mario 3D World, I died a few times on the last tower climb segment...

You're not even close to the end though...

Well, it's one of the ends and I think it's fair if people stop there after enjoying what the game has offered. Even though I really like beating games, I'm not always driven to beat them 100% or to see everything a game has to offer.

Without giving away too much, the requirements to unlock the "true final level" might be more than supermario2k would be willing to pursue right away, based on his previous comments. The final stage requires finding and beating everything else (stars, stamps, and gold flags at the end of every level). But even if you choose not to do that, there are a bunch of post-Bowser levels to play through if you want.

Speaking of which, I never did beat the final stage in that game. Hmm... might be time to revisit that game, thanks!

[supermario2k]

Well Azeke if that is the case then I give up.

[azeke]

Well Azeke if that is the case then I give up.

What i meant is that there are more worlds coming after that Bowser boss fight. Not levels -- full fledged worlds and arguably the best ones too both in terms of visuals and level design.

[supermario2k]

I am sure as a gamer that is good news, I love this game but damn it I thought I was near the end. It's okay I am not ready for it to end I just never have time to play it as much as I would like. I should have known though I didn't think there were 8 worlds yet and most Mario games  have at least 8 worlds.

[Order.RSS]

Not on a Nintendo platform, but have finally slain a personal demon in Final Fantasy VIII (on PlayStation 1) after over a decade of slow progress and I wanna talk about it. This is gonna be huge, feel free to skip!


All right so this is the 2nd crazy-large PS1 Final Fantasy game, following the immense hype of FF7 in the year 1999. Spanning a whopping 4 discs, with gorgeous FMV sequences and a waltzy soundtrack, it is up there in terms of presentation with the best stuff on PS1. That said I have many issues, so if you remember loving this maybe just look away now.

Positives first:
+As said, presentation is top-notch. Some of the FMVs especially hold up to this day, although they don't have voicing. You can clearly see though where Square got the idea for that Spirits Within movie from.

+There's a neat "junction" system where you can connect magic spells to your attributes (strength, hp, etc.) to increase your stats. Put Cure or Full-Life on your HP and Fire on Strength to make the most gains. It's an interesting idea which I don't think I've seen anywhere else.

+The setting is pretty cool. It does that futuristic steampunk kinda thing from FF7, but more fleshed out. Sure there's weird things like how everyone's using melee weapons in a world where ballistic missiles exist, but eh.

+Furthermore the game includes its own cardgame which in its most basic form is surprisingly fun and robust, and you can win cards, which can be modified into items or spells to gain better "junctions" (stats).

+Lastly, the game starts out pretty high-stakes right away, with an encounter with a fiery demon and a military operation very early on. This game definitely got me hyped for other JRPGs too, for which I gotta give it credit.

Negatives:
-Oh man. The story is just absolutely idiotic, there's these 6 teenagers who are basically in mercenary school who need to save the world from an evil Sorceress. But every now and then they dream/hallucinate of being these three other dudes. Is it in the past? Future? Entirely unrelated? I guess I won't spoil it here, but let's just say everything gets INCREDIBLY convoluted. Totally consulted a "plot analysis" on GameFAQs afterwards to clear up the stuff I missed.

-The characters. Several of them are absolutely insufferable. Chiefly amongst them Squall, who has mastered the art of ellipses and facepalming. Then there's Seifer/Draco Malfoy, the requisite schoolgirl (this is a JRPG after all), a dude who punches people and has a Mike Tyson face tattoo, and a cowboy wannabe ladies man who I think is meant as a satire on American culture but is still just obnoxious. The only one I vaguely liked was Quistis and her storyline gets entirely sidelined after disc 1, great.

-So the junction system I mentioned earlier is interesting in concept, but in practice means a whole lot of micromanagement in menus. First you need to get a bunch of spells, then apply them to attributes, once the party switches you switch loadouts with currently active party members etc.
Plus it has this weird effect where characters become pretty replaceable. I think Quistis and Rinoa are meant to be "healer" types, but I loaded Quistis up with a bunch of Ultima to her Strength and Death to her status-attack to turn her into a walking battle tank. Cool I guess that you can decide who takes on what role, but it kinda makes the characters lack a distinct function?

-The levelling system. Enemies level at the same rate as your best character does, MEANING it's better NOT to level up if you wanna have an easy time! This runs so counterintuitive to RPG thinking. My first playthrough over a decade ago essentially became impossible because I had 1 dude at level 40 by disc 2 and so the monsters would regularly trounce my party in just a few hits. Eventually I got so frustrated I started over entirely, running from every battle where possible, chucking away a good 30+ hours of time invested. Which brings me to...

-Length. This game is gigantic. My final save was at 96 hours in. NINETY SIX! And that's not counting the 30 hours of a previous run. Sure I could've shaved a lot off this if I hadn't done a bunch of convoluted sidequests and had looked up the most efficient ways to quickly power up characters, but the game tells you none of that stuff. So much time wasted trying to find monkeys in forests because a sea monster I chucked pebbles at wanted me to deliver him a message.

TL;DR: Final Fantasy 8 got me into JRPGs and has some interesting aspects. However, it's ridiculously long, padded at that, contains some really obscure systems it doesn't explain very well, stars a mostly annoying cast who keep droning on yet still manage to communicate poorly, and has an overly complex story that's ultimately pretty dumb. If you're gonna play this, get a GameFAQ up right from the start and cut every possible corner it lets you. Rating: 4.5/10

[ejamer]

Not on a Nintendo platform, but have finally slain a personal demon in Final Fantasy VIII (on PlayStation 1) after over a decade of slow progress and I wanna talk about it. ...

But hey, at least it's better than Final Fantasy 7.

[supermario2k]

Not on a Nintendo platform, but have finally slain a personal demon in Final Fantasy VIII (on PlayStation 1) after over a decade of slow progress and I wanna talk about it. ...

But hey, at least it's better than Final Fantasy 7.

Get out. We're done we can't be friends anymore. 
Final Fantasy 7 is gaming perfection. You will remember that when the awesome HD remake gets released. That game alone is the only reason I got a PS4.

[ejamer]

That's nostalgia speaking.


FF7 had great ambition, but lacked the technical chops to back up what it tried to do.
The game introduces many new things, but those new ideas were detrimental as often as they were beneficial.
Worst of all was the translation work... whew, what a hack job!


Seriously, it's not as bad as my trolling makes it out to be. But the game was always a huge letdown for me when compared to the polished (but more limited) experience of 6.


Here's hoping that the HD remake is the game that the original FF7 wanted to be, rather than the game it actually was. All it would take is significant improvements to the script, graphics, and gameplay.

[Khushrenada]

It's Square Enix. They'll make significant improvements to the graphics. Script and gameplay improvements are more murky.

[Phil]

Beat Gurumin 3D this evening! Took about 12 hours. Should remember this game this time instead of forgetting it like the PSP version. haha Maybe the second time playing it helps? Anyway, the camera is sometimes quite the pain even though you have control over spinning it around via the shoulder buttons or on the New 3DS, the little nub thing. I disliked how you have to beat all enemies, smash all jars, and then collect all treasures to "Master" a level. The former is annoying because there's no way to tell if you've beaten every enemy in a room while with the Cat Ears accessory you can at least get a tally of treasure chests and jars in each area. Some technical problems like stuttering music during loading transitions, but other than that, I'd give the game a C+. I recommend it. I hope to share a full review later.

[ejamer]

It's Square Enix. They'll make significant improvements to the graphics. Script and gameplay improvements are more murky.

Either way, it's cool they are doing a remake. I don't have much love for the game, but am in a stark minority. Most people agree that it's one of the defining classics in the RPG genre, and I don't deny that it had a huge impact on gaming in general.

[MagicCow64]

It's Square Enix. They'll make significant improvements to the graphics. Script and gameplay improvements are more murky.

Either way, it's cool they are doing a remake. I don't have much love for the game, but am in a stark minority. Most people agree that it's one of the defining classics in the RPG genre, and I don't deny that it had a huge impact on gaming in general.

A huge terrible impact.

[Evan_B]

Very true. VII transformed the concept of a JRPG from "occasional-steampunk-with-mostly-fantasy-elements" into character-centric and character-distilled "unique" designs with little to no improvement in terms of plot. Also, I'm tired of Square Enix neglecting the Final Fantasy title that is ACTUALLY gaming perfection, Final Fantasy VI.

[ejamer]

... Also, I'm tired of Square Enix neglecting the Final Fantasy title that is ACTUALLY gaming perfection, Final Fantasy VI.

Nostalgia totally colors my viewpoint when it comes to FF6. It's a fantastic game and had tremendous personal impact on me. The fact that I own a GBA Micro solely dedicated to that game, ensuring it's always available to me, should prove my lack of objectivity.


Does FF6 really need a remake though? Unlike FF7 which missed the target in some aspects and could benefit from a new translation and some gameplay tweaks, I feel like FF6 comes much closer to hitting the goals they aimed for due to a tighter scope and better understanding of the technology being used to develop the game. A remake would increase accessibility, but between Virtual Console and (I think) iOS that might not be necessary. That said, getting hand-drawn graphics instead of sprites might be nice... or an orchestrated version of the soundtrack!

[Oedo]

About a week ago I decided I wanted a Halloween themed game to play start to finish and I settled on Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

Aside from it being late October, part of why I wanted to play Aria of Sorrow again was because I see a lot of people put it ahead of Dawn of Sorrow and for a while now I’ve wondered why (not because I disagree necessarily; I just didn't totally know the reasoning). I think I’ve gotten a better idea of it now. Level design is the most important part of games like this and I do think Aria of Sorrow is the superior game in that regard. It’s not quite Metroid: Zero Mission in terms of having exploration that feels worthwhile and challenging yet seamless and fast-paced at the same time (which makes sense given that the greater focus on fighting enemies in this game, especially in the second half, will naturally slow down the pace to some degree), but it’s definitely closer than Dawn of Sorrow is. I felt like I was moving through the castle fairly quickly in Aria of Sorrow most of the time and I never really had to figure out where to go next; I could just keep pressing forward. Dawn of Sorrow did have a couple of head-scratching moments for me and the exploration wasn’t quite as intuitive from what I remember. Remove some of the other padding that was in Dawn of Sorrow like the touchscreen seal system and more of a focus on grinding as well and, yeah, Aria of Sorrow does feel like a more refined game.

When it comes to the RPG elements in this game, I’m somewhat conflicted. I’m sure at the time this game came out the fact that there was a leveling system was still seen as a cool (and differentiating) feature, but playing it now I’m not sure what a rudimentary system like this really adds to it. On the other hand, I do really like the ability to absorb enemy powers and the different weapons. The area designs and enemies are varied enough that it does seem like switching between (and acquiring) different abilities is worthwhile and makes a difference on how quickly you can progress through the game. The fact that there are a lot of different weapons with their own specific hitboxes is a nice way to vary the combat too and a lot of the more powerful late-game weapons are really cool (once I got Balmung there was pretty much nothing that could get me to switch off of it though). I guess I’d rather just have a game like this be balanced around weapon, item, and ability upgrades. If there is going to be a leveling system, I’d like to see a little more thought put into it so that it doesn’t feel like it’s just there (I do remember Dawn of Sorrow taking it a bit further). I’ll be curious to see what happens with Bloodstained in this regard.

As far as the story and presentation go, it is (predictably) a cool game to play around this time of the year. Maybe it’s not quite as creepy or haunting as some of the older Castlevania games or something like Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, which I’m also playing, but Soma is Dracula’s reincarnation and you are fighting all sorts of horrible enemies in all sorts of horrible locations after all. The visuals and the great music add to that feeling as well. I am kind of disappointed that I can’t get the “best ending” without putting a lot more time into the game, but the “good ending” does provide a nice resolution to the story and I’m happy with that for now.

[Oedo]

Oh boy. I was thinking about playing Final Fantasy VII and VIII (I haven't played either one for any significant amount of time) after the 3DS release schedule slows down later in the year, but after catching up with the newer posts in this thread some of you guys are making me reconsider.

[supermario2k]

That's nostalgia speaking.


FF7 had great ambition, but lacked the technical chops to back up what it tried to do.
The game introduces many new things, but those new ideas were detrimental as often as they were beneficial.
Worst of all was the translation work... whew, what a hack job!


Seriously, it's not as bad as my trolling makes it out to be. But the game was always a huge letdown for me when compared to the polished (but more limited) experience of 6.


Here's hoping that the HD remake is the game that the original FF7 wanted to be, rather than the game it actually was. All it would take is significant improvements to the script, graphics, and gameplay.

I don't buy that nostalgia cop out at all. This game was heralded as ground breaking when it WAS NEW, nostalgia didn't play into that then. If you didn't get into it fine, if you didn't enjoy it also fine but the whole concept of mixing Materia was a fully fleshed out way of doing what they barely tried to do in 6. This was 6 done right. It mixed the futuristic dying world with the ancient magic of the old bygone era much better than 6. Of course I could just dismiss your enjoyment of 6 as pure nostalgia too you know.

FF7 gets hated on because of the blocky graphics, hey even when it was new I wasn't impressed with the graphics, it wasn't really until Dreamcast that 3D graphics looked decent but the story of FF7 was a major hook, it reeled people in and the gameplay was fantastic. There were dozens of side quests, each character had their own story and made their own contribution to the game. There were dozens of party combinations. The story was very linear and it did things right that 6 tried to do but couldn't.

I was 16 when this game came out. I don't know about you but *I* sure as HELL do not remember my teen years with any sort of fond nostalgia at all. In fact not only do I hate it when people throw that out there, its misleading by the way, I just think when it's used people use it dismissively because they can't, or won't make a better argument. But if you are going to rag on 7 as being remembered fondly for nostalgia, a false equivelancy because 1, it wasn't a nostalgic time for me, 2 at that time I HATED Playstation so it doesn't drum up fond memories, and 3, then fall back on referencing the game that came earlier, on a system that is the very definition of nostalgic. I am sorry but no I don't accept that at all. Dislike the game all you want but don't tell me the ONLY reason I like it today is because I played it when I was a teenager, because, and this punches holes in that moronic, no idiotic, nostalgia claim every damn time, ADULTS were into FF7 when it was new and they had no nostalgia for it when it was new, GAMERS that grew up on SNES had no nostalgia for it because it wasn't FF6, it was FF7, its own game. Whenever someone praises FF2 or 3 or 4 they say oh it was ground breaking or great or whatever, but whenever someone praises FF7 its dismissed as nostalgia? No wrong, sorry.

The game garnered near perfect scores by everyone that reviewed it, the game nearly single handedly made not only Sony, and Playstation, the phenomenon it was, but also made RPG's a legit genre and took them mainstream.

I get how someone that either skipped the Playstation and stuck to Nintendo might dismiss the game, or at the very least downplay it's achievements, after all it is the game that cause the great rift between Square and Nintendo, so I understand someone who loved 6 would hate or belittle 7, because it's not on a Nintendo console.

If that is not a fair assessment of your situation fine, but I have seen no evidence you ever gave Playstation a fair chance so I have no reason to assume you gave FF7 a fair shake either, especially when you dismiss my enjoyment of it as nostalgia, something that I pointed out now is false, and then you fall back on a very much nostalgic game in the series.

I don't look back at 1997 with any rose tented glasses, that was the year of my second suicide attempt. That was the year I dropped out of high school. Did I play a video game that brought me some joy, sure, but I played that game YEARS later, in fact while it came out in 1997, when I was 16, I didn't get around to playing it until I was 22, so again how can you say my enjoyment of it when it was NEW was nostalgia and that my enjoyment of it today is just that? BTW, I don't replay it often in fact have only played it twice total, hence why I am looking forward to the remake, because the game is dog ass ugly and I would LOVE to experience it for the first time again, something I can do with an HD remake and not be "blinded" by nostalgia. Thanks. Also you said yourself you are blinded by nostalgia when it comes to 6 but that doesn't mean I am when it comes to 7, not when I didn't even experience at its peak.