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Beating Games

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Got the platinum on GOW Ragnorok. Not sure if it was just lingering muscle memory but the post game super bosses felt quite a bit easier compared to the first game. Still a ridiculously good time start to finish. Took me about 50 hours to scrape it clean of content, that’s about perfect for an open world game for me. Never felt the need to rush the story to just get it over with and on the next thing which tends to happen once I play something for much more than that.
Yep. I never go for platinum trophies, but I did for Ragnarok just because I was having such a good time. I'd also agree that the post-game bosses were much easier than the first game's, which was fine in my book. I felt like the challenge level through the whole game was pretty well balanced overall.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
I completed the main story mode in Kirby: Return to Dreamland Deluxe. It is Very Good Kirby, but coming on the heels of playing Planet Robobot, which is possibly Best Kirby, it feels underwhelming. From listening to latest Kirby episode of Retronauts, I learned RtD was the start of the modern Kirby era of being Nintendo’s most consistently good series, so I give it lots of credit.
 
I completed Hogwarts Legacy. I enjoyed it. Hogwarts Legacy felt like Elden Ring lite. There is a big world to explore and there is combat, but the combat was not difficult. It was a relatively chill game to play when I would get home from work.

I finished all the quests in the game. But there are a TON of collectibles that I don't think I'm ever going to get.

I really enjoyed Death Stranding as well; the other big open world game I've played. I found maybe 20 /40 memory chips. Like Hogwarts once the main game was complete, my desire to hunt collectibles in a large open world is not there.
 

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
I finished Great Ace Attorney 2 the other week, which I enjoyed much less than other people seemed to have. Everything felt too connected, and I really don't like the multiple witnesses as once stuff. Still, I'm glad to have played it.

Just recently, I rolled credits Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I might go back and do some post game, but I really enjoyed that. I went in expecting the Kirby version of Super Mario Odyssey, but what I got was Kirby's 3D World. I think I like that better.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Somehow, for a brief period, I really got into Burger Time for Gameboy. Then I beat it. It turns out the narrative is about a burger chef warring with some donut guy.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
donut-burger-recipe.jpg

Make love, not war.

BTW, this is the one that looked the least like someone... loved on it.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
After finding out who killed Sonic, I played Fishing Vacation. Excellent and short, with five endings, all of them under 1 hour, 30 minutes. It's fine that the game is so short, its only 1.59 bucks. It's a fishing game that looks like a black/white gameboy game. Played on the Super Gameboy, including the artificial Gameboy frame, that you can switch to a colorful Super Gameboy frame. And like with the Gameboy Color, you can always switch the color palette that is used for the game itself (well, not like the Gameboy Color, as you can do that all the time.

As mentioned, it's short and super cheap, and includes things I didn't talk about. If you want something cool and interesting, give it a shot. Even if you don't care for fishing games normally. Just trust me. In the worst case, you wasted an hour and 1.60 bucks.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
A Short Hike, from that itch.io bundle from a few years ago, is really, really good. It's short and super sweet. Like, you are just at this nice island where people have fun and relax, and there is a mountain for you to climb without any form of penalty, except for losing a bit of height. Which isn't a big deal, because you can climb, and you can glide and fly a bit, because you are a bird. And you can explore, finding seashells and coins, catch fish, do a bit of a boat race, become beachstickball (not the actual name) king.

It's very short, relaxing and wholesome. Give it a go.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I didn’t really want to spend any more time grinding up materials for some plot dependant items for the actual end game, and I did put the final boss in the ground, so I’m counting Atelier Ryza done and dusted.

I finally understand why people like this franchise in general and the Ryza games in particular. Combat system seemed a bit… way too weird for weirdness sake, even after getting a handle on it, and the categorizing used for the in-game encyclopedia for searching for individual ingredients could have used some work (really… you *dont* offer “alphabetical” as a search term?) but the game is really fun, the characters are lovable enough that I didn’t feel the need to skip any cutscenes and once I figured out how alchemy worked I was having a lot of fun with it.

Good times with an rpg about a witch who turns acorns into hand grenades.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I want to write a more extensive post later, but Underhero, one of the trillion games in that old itch.io bundle, is really great. Looks nice and cartoony, combat and general level design is very inspired by Paper Mario, its ending is first wonderfully epic and then amazing in a completely different way, and it's pretty short for an RPG (I think 10-15 hours).

Seriously, if you are one of the people who want another Paper Mario game, and enjoy RPGs that don't take a hundred hours to complete, give this one a try. Chances are good, that you already have it with that bundle! And I assume that it's not that expensive, even if you don't have it yet.
 
After almost 27 long years I finally got that last Bowser throw in and beat Super Mario 64. Thank you, save states!
 

Fyonn

did their best!
Assault Suits Leynos 2,   with the help of my slightly misguided friend, the Google Translate App On My Phone! Is Leynos 2 good? Depends on what you want.

Is Leynos 2 a good sequel to Valken's controls? Once you get the hang of the lock-on, it could theoretically play far more dynamically than Valken. I think attacking with a weapon slot mapped to every face button except B (on a six button Saturn controller) makes the controls often confusing, but it's better than pressing one weapon switch button up to four times to get what you want.

Is Leynos 2 a good sequel to Valken's structure? So in Leynos 2 every weapon has a maximum range, and that range determines how zoomed in the camera is when the weapon is equipped. For some reason, there aren't any machine guns that give you better than Mega-Man-on-Gameboy claustrophobia-zoom until Mission 3. Also, the weapons you unlock per mission are based on your score, clear time, damage dealt / taken, etc. Score-wise, you get about 14000~20000 points per mission. If a ground-based enemy enters your field of view and then leaves it alive you take a 1000 point penalty, even if you kill it later. I have literally gotten a score of zero on multiple successful retries of missions. So if you actually put up with this godawful zoomed in machine gun there's a non-zero chance you get stuck with it. Eventually the game showers you with guns that hover around Range 6 (what the starting shotgun uses). The first three machine guns are Range 1, 2, and 2 again. In Valken you find weapons in the stages. So no, I think Leynos has an awful structure.

Is Leynos 2 a good sequel to Valken's level design? What levels? Leynos 2 has missions. Mission 2 has you do 15 seconds of platforming. Mission 3 features platforms that you will jump around but it's a VS arena, not a level. There's this really cool bit in Mission 6 where you seamlessly transition from zero gravity combat to ground combat and do some platforming for about a minute. There is more level in the first stage of Valken than all of Leynos 2. One of the Leynos 2 missions is a convoy escort across a flat, featureless expanse. None of these missions feel particularly inspired by specific iconic mecha anime scenarios like Valken often does.

I think that Leynos 2 is probably the second best One Of These. But the gulf between it and first place is pretty wide.


Anyway Assault Suits Valken? Still kicks ass. Wish there was a dedicated punch button. Masaya should've made another one of these. You know, that isn't a tactics game.


Please excuse me while I try to unlock a Valken in Leynos 2 by beating an arena opponent I assumed was literally invincible. I want to see the sprite and I can't find it online.
 
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Adrenaline

Post Reader
(He/Him)
I finished Borderlands. The first one. I probably would have enjoyed it more playing it with friends, but, whatever
 

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
Labyrinth of Galleria says trans rights, heck yeah. While I enjoyed it, I think I'm more fond of the first game (Labyrinth of Refrain) which, while extremely flawed in places, felt more bold and personal. Galleria smooths out most of the rough parts - 99% less gratuitous sexual assault, hooray, though questionable player character designs still abound - and is overall more polished and cohesive, but also somehow more bloated. Both the dungeons and the story can get repetitive, and unlike Refrain in which the postgame content was truly optional (but still worthwhile), Galleria requires 100% completion to reach an actual ending. And, consequently, once you get to the ending there's nothing left to do.

I did enjoy the 100+ hours I spent on it, have added a couple of characters to my list of favorites, and continue to love the narrative and structural oddities the franchise is built on. Too bad it's been so cursed in terms of production and sales; there's room to make this a trilogy but I suspect it will never be.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Falcon Age is in the bag. Pretty short, and not very interesting beyond the core falconry mechanic, but I had a good enough time (besides some frustrating mechanics on the later-game enemies). If you're particularly interested in a FPB (First-Person Birder) I'd recommend it, but otherwise it's missable. That said, I understand it was originally a VR game, so if you have access to it in VR it might be interesting to pick up; I could see the awkward controls being more natural in that context.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I feel that it is my duty to inform everyone that I have now beaten Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. That is all.
 

Adrenaline

Post Reader
(He/Him)
Finished the first Phoenix Wright game. Bit frustrating when the game wouldn't let my point out a contradiction until it was ready to let me, but otherwise a fun logic/detective game.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Right before the eShop closed I picked up Adventure Bar Story on 3DS and just wrapped it up. About 30 hours on my save file and I had a lot of fun with it. It's very bare bones but for $2 it was a fantastic choice and I'm glad I got it.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Robotrek is a genuinely great RPG that I probably should have actually finished back in the day. I did start burning out a bit towards the end (some rather long areas), but it still clocks in under 20 hours (I figure it took me around 15, curse you, no in-game timer!). Would love to see someone retranslate it, though, as it's... well, not the best localization job. But it's still plenty playable.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Robotrek is a genuinely great RPG that I probably should have actually finished back in the day. I did start burning out a bit towards the end (some rather long areas), but it still clocks in under 20 hours (I figure it took me around 15, curse you, no in-game timer!). Would love to see someone retranslate it, though, as it's... well, not the best localization job. But it's still plenty playable.
This was one of my favourite SNES RPGs back in the day (I considered doing a Let's Play at one point, and even have a draft of for an opening post somewhere), and I've wondered how well it holds up. Glad to hear that it's still a fun time!
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Yep, it's still a great game, and I'd recommend it to anyone that has already knocked out the big hitters on the system. And it does enough unique stuff that it stands out from the crowd. That basically means I love everything Quintet put out on SNES.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Rolled credits on Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I found the (first?) post-game world, but I'm debating whether I actually want to dive into those or move on to a new game. I've found the overall experience nice but nothing too impactful. Anyone done the postgame stuff and have any thoughts?
 

gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
The "post game" of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is basically the typical Kirby "extra mode" where it is predominantly locations and challenges you have already seen, only harder. That said, it is definitely a continuation of the plot to an even more definitive "end". If that sounds good to you, sally forth.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
The "post game" of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is basically the typical Kirby "extra mode" where it is predominantly locations and challenges you have already seen, only harder. ... If that sounds good to you, sally forth.
To be honest, it does not in fact sound good to me. I think I'll move on, at least for now, and maybe come back later.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
I finished up Kid Dracula for Game Boy. This game:

1) is extremely charming & adorable

2) has a fun set of weapons & powers to use

3) has a few sections with forced movement that are bs, and I only got through by abusing save states.

I recommend at least watching the start of the game on youtube if you haven’t seen it. And go ahead and play it if you’re up for a challenge.
 
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