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Beating Games
- Thread starter Octopus Prime
- Start date
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- Tags
- the end times
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
Yep, although it took me three tries. Five Ginseng and some alternating between the Fang and Armor talismans to increase offense and defense at points. Plus I remembered I could still sneak in hits on his skeleton phase - every little bit counts. I always keep Armor on for that phase.
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
My playthrough of the Half-Life series continues with Half-Life 2. I’d already played it way back in The Orange Box, and it’s still very good. There is a lot less wacky stuff compared to the first game, sadly. Aside from the showcase Gravity Gun, all the weapons are just standard fare. No energy weapons or guns that shoot bees. The enemy variety is way smaller, as well. It makes sense in the setting that there’s not a huge gaggle of aliens running amok anymore with the Combine in total control, but it gets tiring mowing down waves of Combine troops and occasionally headcrabs/zombies.
All the character stuff with Alyx and Black Mesa Gang is impressive as heck for a twenty year old game. I also liked that the second ends the way the first game does, with Gordon mucking up a teleport machine, on purpose this time.
All the character stuff with Alyx and Black Mesa Gang is impressive as heck for a twenty year old game. I also liked that the second ends the way the first game does, with Gordon mucking up a teleport machine, on purpose this time.
The combine assault rifle has a secondary fire that shoots a bouncy energy ball which is pretty cool.
I beat The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls.
I was surprised at how charming the story was. I expected it to be similar to Link’s Awakening, but it had a bit of an Earthbound vibe. Like, just a bit. Maybe a little Kid Dracula too? I don’t want to oversell it, it just has a lot of character.
The combat is all automated, but that just means that the actual gameplay is more centered on exploration and puzzles. I felt like it made good use of the frog and snake forms, and I was generally rewarded for keeping them in mind.
It’s too bad that it never came out here. Supposedly there is a colorization hack on the way, but it’s been delayed a lot and it’s great in black & white anyway. It’s only about 7 hours long, so it’s not a huge commitment. If you have a way to play the fan translation, I definitely recommend it.
I was surprised at how charming the story was. I expected it to be similar to Link’s Awakening, but it had a bit of an Earthbound vibe. Like, just a bit. Maybe a little Kid Dracula too? I don’t want to oversell it, it just has a lot of character.
The combat is all automated, but that just means that the actual gameplay is more centered on exploration and puzzles. I felt like it made good use of the frog and snake forms, and I was generally rewarded for keeping them in mind.
It’s too bad that it never came out here. Supposedly there is a colorization hack on the way, but it’s been delayed a lot and it’s great in black & white anyway. It’s only about 7 hours long, so it’s not a huge commitment. If you have a way to play the fan translation, I definitely recommend it.
Played Maglam Lord. Really only tried it for the queerbaiting, and wasn't expecting the moon, but it's such a slight game in every respect that I can't see a genuine recommendation made for it from any perspective. Sure, the Summon Night pedigree intrigued a little, but the other half of it is that it's a game by Felistella, who are mostly known as an Idea Factory collaborator, and the work is about that uninspiring. Writing that never aspires for anything beyond stock archetype and paragraph-filler, clunky 2D brawling combat, hyper-repetitive game loop about slamming an endless roll call of palette-swapped punching bags in environments that are called out as sterile and ready-made even within the narrative itself... there's just nothing to it, including the going-on-dates-with-your-fave angle, since it's not really emphasized much at all despite ostensibly being a big deal for the story that unfolds. I hope the Swordcraft Stories are better!
Finally beat Metroid Prime Remastered. Great game. I wish I had been able to finish it way back in the day, but it holds up really well.
I also finished Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. The last case (two cases?) is really ambitious, but I am not sure it quite works. Still, I like it a lot.
I also finished Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. The last case (two cases?) is really ambitious, but I am not sure it quite works. Still, I like it a lot.
Purple
(She/Her)
I misread that as "Magician Lord" and just wanted to note how far into the paragraph I had to get to notice something wasn't adding up.
I beat Castlevania III. I played the Japanese version with a translation patch.
My impression is that Grant is super good. His big jumps, control while in the air, and clinging to walls and ceilings are really fun, and the throwing dagger + axe combo is plenty to take out anything in the game. I rarely switched back to Ralph (Trevor?) It sucks that the US version nerfed him so much.
The music and visuals in a few places were impressive. I think the first Castlevania made a stronger impression on me, but I liked the countryside in the first half of III and the branching paths.
Really great game, I'll play again to check out the other partners some time.
My impression is that Grant is super good. His big jumps, control while in the air, and clinging to walls and ceilings are really fun, and the throwing dagger + axe combo is plenty to take out anything in the game. I rarely switched back to Ralph (Trevor?) It sucks that the US version nerfed him so much.
The music and visuals in a few places were impressive. I think the first Castlevania made a stronger impression on me, but I liked the countryside in the first half of III and the branching paths.
Really great game, I'll play again to check out the other partners some time.
I finished my third run of the Elden Ring DLC. Still good, as it turns out! I've been helping people fight the final boss for the last couple days because I have a (the?) really strong build to beat him pretty easily, and I'm considering a NG+ run focusing on the martial arts weapons, but it might be time to finally take a break.
Or respec a different character and fight the boss for people on that one.........
Or respec a different character and fight the boss for people on that one.........
Finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It was a lot of game
Played (and beat) Thank Goodness You're Here today. I keep seeing it described as a platformer, but I felt like it's more of an isometric walking sim than anything. While there isn't really a lot of "game" involved, it was charming and entertaining enough to warrant the price of admission. It was a couple of hours well spent.
It's a product of its time. It's definitely worth a try, but it's no Suikoden or Final Fantasy.
However, the graphics and sprite work is fantastic, that I can say with absolute certainty.
Did this get released or are you using a translation patch?
Patch. It was translated a few months ago.
I played the original Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. It's decent fun for the 6 or 7 hours it lasts.
Today I got the "bad" ending of Ultros, and having looked up what you need to do for the true ending, it seems like way too much of a grind for me to bother. It's too bad, I ended up liking a lot of what the game has to offer, but I don't feel like what it's asking me to do is going to be an enjoyable task for several hours.
I played two vaguely-spooky metrovanias in short order a while back.
First, I beat Ender Lilies with the good ending, without having to do anything too obscure or weird; I naturally found everything I needed through my (exhaustive) exploration, aided by the rooms changing color on the map once you have everything to be found there (excellent design decision). I ended up really liking it, good variety of build options and only some of the weird platforming challenges felt excessive (including the single one I didn't accomplish because it just didn't make sense and I didn't know what else to do), mostly because they required you to use certain spirits instead of your core movement abilities. The lore made about as much sense to me as a Dark Souls game's lore; actually, it felt more fragmented and less cohesive, despite being simpler. I think it was something about how the letters were written? Or maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention.
Then I played Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and really enjoyed that too, though maybe a little less than Ender Lilies in the end. I like in theory that it had such wide weapon and spell variety, but in practice I found a weapon I liked (Flying Edge, the throwing sword) partway through and never switched away from it except to upgrade it to the more powerful variant, because everything else felt too unwieldy and/or dangerous to use in comparison without being that much stronger. Similarly for spells, a lot of them felt kind of like filler. Like the "summon random enemy" ones weren't terrible, mechanically speaking, just...superfluous, especially once you get some of the elemental ones that can do multiple hits of higher damage (or the holy laser, which you can abuse the mp/sec mechanic because of how slowly the damage ticks by firing it only in short/instant bursts and never run out of mp). The exploration ended up being pretty fun and rewarding to backtrack over, though I think the traversal wasn't quite as satisfying as Ender Lilies'.
First, I beat Ender Lilies with the good ending, without having to do anything too obscure or weird; I naturally found everything I needed through my (exhaustive) exploration, aided by the rooms changing color on the map once you have everything to be found there (excellent design decision). I ended up really liking it, good variety of build options and only some of the weird platforming challenges felt excessive (including the single one I didn't accomplish because it just didn't make sense and I didn't know what else to do), mostly because they required you to use certain spirits instead of your core movement abilities. The lore made about as much sense to me as a Dark Souls game's lore; actually, it felt more fragmented and less cohesive, despite being simpler. I think it was something about how the letters were written? Or maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention.
Then I played Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and really enjoyed that too, though maybe a little less than Ender Lilies in the end. I like in theory that it had such wide weapon and spell variety, but in practice I found a weapon I liked (Flying Edge, the throwing sword) partway through and never switched away from it except to upgrade it to the more powerful variant, because everything else felt too unwieldy and/or dangerous to use in comparison without being that much stronger. Similarly for spells, a lot of them felt kind of like filler. Like the "summon random enemy" ones weren't terrible, mechanically speaking, just...superfluous, especially once you get some of the elemental ones that can do multiple hits of higher damage (or the holy laser, which you can abuse the mp/sec mechanic because of how slowly the damage ticks by firing it only in short/instant bursts and never run out of mp). The exploration ended up being pretty fun and rewarding to backtrack over, though I think the traversal wasn't quite as satisfying as Ender Lilies'.
Just like the first one, I enjoyed Dragon's Dogma 2 through the fake ending, until the bullshit in the postgame put me off going for the real ending. Pretty good time, though.