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Beating Games

Mr. Sensible

Pitch and Putt Duffer
I beat Mr. Driller: Drill Land on Switch. At least, I saw the credits roll, but that also unlocked new difficulty levels on the five main attractions. Is there an ultimate true ending here, or is there nothing left besides playing the longer/harder versions of attractions to unlock extra music, cards and other doo-dads?
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
I had been playing Ocarina of Time 3D over the past two weeks. I was very surprised by how good it looked for a 2011 3DS remake of a 1998 N64 title. You can see pictures on walls! Hyrule Castle Town is rendered in real time! Princess Ruto is no longer disconcertingly naked!
I do think the clearer visuals rob the final boss scenario of much of the originals atmosphere and suspense, however.

The gyro controls were mostly great and made most first person gameplay super smooth. The different boots being changed to items made the Water and Shadow go by noticeably faster, as well.

I hadn't played Ocarina since the Wind Waker Pre-order bonus, and it still holds up. Is Majora's Mask 3D worth playing, as well? I remember hearing some things about questionable changes and the performance not being great on regular 3DS models.
 

MetManMas

Me and My Bestie
(He, him)
Majora's Mask 3D is fine, IMO. Just keep in mind you can invert the controls for swimming if they feel off to you.

I do think the clearer visuals rob the final boss scenario of much of the originals atmosphere and suspense, however.
I'm pretty sure "This is a portable game now and we need people to actually be able to see what they're doing on the screen" had a lot to do with that change, but it's still a shame.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I was fine with most of the changed in MM 3D. Even most of the boss battles, with the exception of Gyorg (the fish from the third dungeon). Had a lot of trouble with him.

The changes they made for swimming read to me like a big deal, but in the end, the weren't much of a problem.
 

Fyonn

did their best!
Years after I started SMT3: Nocturne, I picked my 60 hour save file up and finished it thanks to finding out the HD version is bad and that I was in the penultimate dungeon.

I proceeded to play an additional 40 hours exploring the Diet Building and the Amala Labyrinth in tandem, before moving onto Fiend hunting and building a team so perfect for the Beelzebub fight that I trivialized the majority of the endgame. Of course, it was Dante's Stinger, Demi-Fiend's Divine Shot (and later, Freikugel), and my level 68 Daisoujou's Meditation + Prayer combo that were the real stars of the Tower of Kagutsuchi. Thanks for putting in all that work on Daisoujou, old me!

I might go back and play the True Demon ending, but man. The neutral ending made it clear to me that Nocturne is cool and aesthetic as fuck, but is a game about nothing. Though considering the Persona series' failings, perhaps being about nothing is what makes Noctirne the best SMT. And to be clear, I had a ton of fun with the last forty hours of Nocturne, since it was all about engaging with the game's fusion mechanics to solve problems. Three big-ass dungeons full of rude bosses might be the ideal form of Shin Megami Tensei, honestly.

Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne: Want to cure your acquaintance's depression? It's easy, just kill God(s)!
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I finally gave two SNES games that have been on my bucket list a serious go: Super Turrican 2 and Hagane. I enjoyed both quite a bit.

ST2 feels quite different from the other games I've played in the series, and it's probably why I liked it so much. I wish they'd used that grappling hook more, though! I didn't care for the speeder bike levels much (they feel pretty slippery) or the shooter stage (which has the opposite problem, it feels sluggish), but on balance, it showed a lot of creativity in the level designs, and the base-level action sports some tight controls.

Hagane has quite the control scheme - four different weapons! Back/front-flips! A weird forward somersaulting jump that takes the place of a traditional double-jump! Ceiling hanging! It's all pretty overwhelming at first, but once you get it down, the game is quite solid, and it looks absolutely fantastic. Definitely worth a go for someone looking for a game outside the norm on SNES - as someone pointed out on HRG, it almost feels more akin to something you'd find on the Genesis.

@R.R. Bigman : I didn't care much for the remake, but I don't care much for the original, either, so it's to the game's credit that it finally got me to play it through to the end. I can understand why some folks adore it, but it just isn't what I look for in a Zelda game from a basic structure standpoint. (It was still good, but I expect to be wowed by entries in that series, and it never did it.)
 

Klatrymadon

Rei BENSER PLUS
(he/him)
Is there an ultimate true ending here, or is there nothing left besides playing the longer/harder versions of attractions to unlock extra music, cards and other doo-dads?

Not really, but it's an arcade score-chaser at its core, and heading for lower depths is (almost) the whole game, so those levels are the real meat and potatoes rather than just some 'postgame' padding. You're getting warmed up! :p
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Completed Psychonauts. I did not collect all of the things. I never was that good at collectathons. It is a shame this series didn't continue though, it is a clever framing for a video game and the powers are fun. I especially enjoyed Lungfishopolis and the the Milkman stages. I only really got frustrated at the very end of the game with some of the platforming.
 

SabreCat

Sabe, Inattentive Type
(he "Sabe" / she "Kali")
Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Blind Forest was an all-time favorite (my abandoned Backloggery page is themed after it!), so it felt great to get back into Ori's glowy lil shoes. I felt like the sequel was easier than the original, perhaps? There were plenty of tricky platforming stretches, but the boss fights were complete pushovers except for the very last one, and the chase sequences--notorious difficulty spikes in the original--were short and tame. Still, good game!
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
I'm done with Super Mario 3D Land. I beat every special level, and got every Star Coin in the game. The only other reward is for beating every level as Mario and Luigi and touching the top of every flagpole as each. That just sounds tedious though, so I'm moving on.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Blind Forest was an all-time favorite (my abandoned Backloggery page is themed after it!), so it felt great to get back into Ori's glowy lil shoes. I felt like the sequel was easier than the original, perhaps? There were plenty of tricky platforming stretches, but the boss fights were complete pushovers except for the very last one, and the chase sequences--notorious difficulty spikes in the original--were short and tame. Still, good game!

You had me at "easier than the original"
 

SabreCat

Sabe, Inattentive Type
(he "Sabe" / she "Kali")
You had me at "easier than the original"

Looking at some Blind Forest content on YouTube to refresh my memory, one thing I'm noticing is that a lot of stuff that was instant death in Blind Forest just deals you some damage in Will of the Wisps. So if you fall onto some thorns, or get hit by a laser trap or whatever, you can often recover and re-attempt the jump you missed or even damage-boost straight through it.

The manual checkpointing system is gone, as well. You get autosaves all over the place, and if you take a death, often come back with more health than you had before. So that helps too!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I was holding off on Will of the Wisps until I finished Blind Forest, but it being that the game started at Surprisingly Toothsome and then gradually ramped up to ”Ha! Nuts to you, buddy!” I don’t think skipping right ahead to the second one is a poor idea with this new information
 

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
Completed Psychonauts. I did not collect all of the things. I never was that good at collectathons. It is a shame this series didn't continue though, it is a clever framing for a video game and the powers are fun. I especially enjoyed Lungfishopolis and the the Milkman stages. I only really got frustrated at the very end of the game with some of the platforming.

Oh God, the fucking Meat Circus. I was stuck forever in the Meat Circus, only to have the power go out as soon as I cleared it, making me do it again.
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
High Hell is a short, frenetic shooter. Sort of reminded me of SuperHot, but no time manipulation stuff in this one. Recommended.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Blind Forest was an all-time favorite (my abandoned Backloggery page is themed after it!), so it felt great to get back into Ori's glowy lil shoes. I felt like the sequel was easier than the original, perhaps? There were plenty of tricky platforming stretches, but the boss fights were complete pushovers except for the very last one, and the chase sequences--notorious difficulty spikes in the original--were short and tame. Still, good game!

Yeah, I think it is easier overall, but I don't remember being as frustrated by long vertical sections than in the first game. It is also emotionally devastating and I can't go into more detail than that without spoiling it. Highly recommended though, just be prepared to cry multiple times.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
I officially finished Breath of the Wild yesterday, meaning I beat Calamity Ganon. I'm sure I'll revisit it at some point to finish the Champion's Ballad and try the Master Sword Trials, but I feel pretty done with the game finally. Clocked out at 106 shrines finished, and only 5 of the remaning ones aren't tied to shrine quests.

I wasn't really that impressed with Calamity Ganon, I guess, but I also wasn't impressed with the other Ganons either if I'm being honest. I loved the Divine Beasts themselves, stuff like figuring out shrine quests based on clues, and finding memories based on the pictures. Also Hyrule Castle proper was sublime, and my secret wish for the sequel is for the meat of the game to be a bunch of those caliber dungeons mixed with Divine Beast puzzle solving.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
I beat Carto tonight, what a lovely game. Neat mechanics (rotating the map to open a combination lock on a safe was a great one), cute but expressive art, neat world and an ancient treasure of sleepy puppies. It only took me about 5 hours but highly recommended and it's on Gamepass.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Operencia in the can. I would never have heard of this one without @Octopus Prime , so thanks for bringing it to my attention! It's like if Grimrock had turn-based combat and less of a focus on puzzles. Honestly, it mostly just left me jonesing for more Grimrock, but I still had a lot of fun with it. Also, it has a fun sense of humour, and the voice acting is aces!

My only regret is that, the very first time I fired it up, it crashed at the end of the tutorial, which is just before you choose your difficulty settings, and so I opted not to turn on the limited saves switch for worries about stability... and then it never crashed again over all 40-ish hours that I played it. I did, however, turn on hard for the combat difficulty (which I'm glad I did; I don't think I'd have enjoyed it if the combat were easier), and then finished the game only to discover that the only thing keeping me from 100% achievements on it is that I didn't turn on limited saves, since the last achievement is for turning on two different difficulty switches. Oh well!
 

SabreCat

Sabe, Inattentive Type
(he "Sabe" / she "Kali")
Finished Bugsnax in 13h 11m. I was only missing a few of the Snax, but I'm not so achievement-motivated that I'm likely to go back for them. (Especially since it's oddly difficult to even see one's achievements in the Epic games library.) I would agree with the couple of reviews I've seen that the character relationships are the heart of the thing; the gameplay is only decent. It's got more of a "theme park" or "safari" feel than "open world" or "sandbox", which is okay though! The Snax are all adorable and I want a whole stack of Bugsnak plushies :D
 
Star Fox 64 was better on the 3DS any ways, because of consistent frame rate and very cleaned up graphics - saying as someone who played HOURS on the N64. Lovely game.

Finished Blaster Master Zero on the Switch. I liked it a lot more than the NES original in just about every way. Only issue was I didn't care about getting the 'bad' ending at all, off to youtube I went and watched the 'good' ending. The sequel is good so far, but hope Inti Creates discovers the Right Stick one day because I think the on-foot sections would be a lot better ala dual-stick 2D shooters.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
The Outer Worlds was pretty much my ideal version of Fallout; way less depressing and a fun and well made shooter, as opposed to an RPG that looks like it should be a shooter (still has VATS, mind). Excellent all up and down.

Finished it with several planets unexplored, and a party member never met, at least some of which I expect DLC to take care of.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
You don’t visit the majority of the planets in Outer Worlds. I love the game, but there is Wind Waker levels of obvious cut content going on there.

Which party member are you missing?
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Apparently I could have had a big robot *all along*.

Granted, this would have meant I would have been denied Vicar Max yelling "I'LL TAKJE YOUR CONFESSION NOW" when shooting bad guys, but that's something I'd be willing to part with
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
SAM is okay, but he doesn’t have much interaction in the main story. He does play a small but important role in the first DLC, though.
 
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