Now I've beaten it myself. It's a damn good game. I dunno if I'm gonna hunt down the last handful of bots (I think I have 15-20 left?) in the time trials or challenge stages, or get the final puzzle pieces, but...I dunno, maybe I will...
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Beating Games
- Thread starter Octopus Prime
- Start date
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- Tags
- the end times
Finished off Eiyuden Chronicle, which is just an absolute masterclass of an RPG and more than lived up to the reputation of the first two Suikoden games.
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
This is good to hear - I've seen some reviews that say it's not as good, but getting word of mouth from folks that enjoyed it a lot gives me more impetus to dive into my recently-obtained copy.
I’m saying that despite the Switch port still having some pretty hearty load times in menus and occasionally soft locking!
Also finished off Chroma Squad, the SRPG about running your own TV studio that specializes in Sentai type shows.
Didn't quite live up to its full potential, and it was pretty janky, but the idea was really fun and it didn't overstay its welcome. Good time overall, and it means I've now eliminated two games from my 2025 Backlog Bingo Card
Didn't quite live up to its full potential, and it was pretty janky, but the idea was really fun and it didn't overstay its welcome. Good time overall, and it means I've now eliminated two games from my 2025 Backlog Bingo Card
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Ugh, I downloaded that forever ago on Gamepass and haven't touched it. I haven't heard about it being delisted anytime soon but it would be prudent to get on that.
Avowed is a fun action RPG. The story takes some time to get going, but there's a lot of depth to the world and intriguing choices to make.
Nine Sols Nine Sols Nine Sols! It gets you closer to bingo in two different lines AND is an incredible indie triumph!
Plsu I'm already, like, halfway through it
I finished Citizen Sleeper 2. While the first game was about learning a space and becoming part of a community, the sequel is about making your own community as you go from place to place. Cowbow Bebop with dice.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
It's so good. Personally I feel like the first game is needed before playing the second to understand the world and the impacts of things better. I'm curious if you feel the same?
I beat Tavern Talk recently, posted about it in the bartending game thread I made but it's really good so going to highlight it here too.
Anyway, Tavern Talk was amazing. Going to be one of my games of the year for sure. Looking through the achievements it does look like there are some pretty different paths and I'm curious how some things play out differently with different choices. Looks like some DLC just came out that's another 3 hours or so of content, I'll definitely pick that up. Should be a perfect plane ride thing for the Japan trip we're doing in May.
Also I never stopped liking this character, Caerlin. Incredibly cool design and great writing. Anyway, yeah, highly recommend this one.
(incidentally I don't think I ever saw this line from her in my playthrough)
I definitely think trying to play 2 without having played the first could be confusing. The first does a better job of explaining the setting and what Sleepers are, 2 seems to assume you already know. Also, I restarted the game after an hour because I failed the first major challenge, not realizing that time was passing normally while on jobs in the ship, so I just didn't have time to complete it after letting Juni have the core. I looked online and a few other people did the same thing. Not the friendliest introduction to the series.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Oh yeah, I felt like I failed a lot more in this one too, it feels like a higher difficulty level for sure. Or maybe more accurately you have to pick paths a little more carefully, trying everything doesn't quite pay off.
I finished Rift of the NecroDancer story mode.
The main gameplay is like guitar hero, but the notes are monsters that require different key combinations and there's only 3 keys corresponding to the arrow buttons. What I liked about that is the monsters can represent quarter notes or eighth notes or triplets in a single monster, which is a little easier for me to read quickly. Other monster types don't translate to a note type, but just move in a strange way to make it harder to know what button to hit next (zombies move down the track diagonally for example).
There's also 4 mini games that are right out of Rhythm Heaven and 5 boss fights that are i guess a little like Ouendan at Medium (hit markers only) or at Hard difficulty it reminds me of Punch Out!
The story is i think the minimum needed to get from one song to the next in a visual novel style. I liked the character art.
The main gameplay is like guitar hero, but the notes are monsters that require different key combinations and there's only 3 keys corresponding to the arrow buttons. What I liked about that is the monsters can represent quarter notes or eighth notes or triplets in a single monster, which is a little easier for me to read quickly. Other monster types don't translate to a note type, but just move in a strange way to make it harder to know what button to hit next (zombies move down the track diagonally for example).
There's also 4 mini games that are right out of Rhythm Heaven and 5 boss fights that are i guess a little like Ouendan at Medium (hit markers only) or at Hard difficulty it reminds me of Punch Out!
The story is i think the minimum needed to get from one song to the next in a visual novel style. I liked the character art.
Well, been a while since the last time I played Arkham Asylum, so I tore through that again.
Unsurprisingly, still amidst my favorite superhero games.
Unsurprisingly, still amidst my favorite superhero games.
Two down, and boy were they different games.
Mario Picross is the Gameboy Picross game. I missed some of the QoL features of later games, like autofilling a column when you got all the spots filled, but… can’t fault it. It does it job and it does it well.
Batman Arkham City was a replay, and it’s still really really, really good as a tactical espionage action game chock full of Batman characters. Every component of the writing varies between awful and idiotic, however.
the writers were being paid by the word, and that word was “bitch”.
Mario Picross is the Gameboy Picross game. I missed some of the QoL features of later games, like autofilling a column when you got all the spots filled, but… can’t fault it. It does it job and it does it well.
Batman Arkham City was a replay, and it’s still really really, really good as a tactical espionage action game chock full of Batman characters. Every component of the writing varies between awful and idiotic, however.
the writers were being paid by the word, and that word was “bitch”.
Fyonn
did their best!
I beat Monster Hunter 1!
I was planning on doing Low Rank and then switching to 1G, but it turns out the Village quests took me like 100 hours anyway, so I decided that my Monster Hunter 1 journey would end with the final Village quest monster, Diablos.
I played Monster Hunter 1 JP with the MHOldschool private server's English patch and also the Plus patch. The Plus patch adds the expanded Village quest list from Monster Hunter 1 US, camera speed options, widescreen support, and allows swapping between the right analog stick weapon controls and the PSP control layout. The PSP control layout is pretty much unchanged to this day, to the point that I can fairly seamlessly swap between playing MH1JP and MHWilds.
I had a lot of fun with the game. MH1 has a very limited inventory system, with only a single-page item storage box and no automatic sorting mechanics. So sorting that stuff, figuring out the layout of my standard set of items became a central element of the gameplay for me. The limitations meant that I had to sell most of my monster parts, which turns out to be by far the best way to make money in the game anyway. It also meant that I couldn't really keep more than one or two stacks of the stuff I used or the supplies to make the stuff I use. This led to this sort of relaxed pace where I would do a major hunt, then go back to easier quests to restock and resupply. The franchise leaned away from this, but an expected part of many Monster Hunter 1 fights is learning what items served as hard counters for certain monster behaviors. I would say the majority of my playtime was spent prepping for other hunts. Flash Bombs and Sonic Bombs have never been so vital to my success as in Monster Hunter 1. Heck, I even made frequent use of Pitfall Traps and Large Barrel Bombs as offensive options, something I practically never do in other Monster Hunter games. It also led to this really satisfying arc for each monster I fought multiple times. Every hunt, I'd come back with more and more of my supplies untouched. It made the otherwise intangible improvements between fights visible without doing something like a Devil May Cry ranking system. It always felt good to come home from a hunt and realize I did it so fast that I never stopped to use my trap or barrel bombs.
Where from here? I'm planning on tackling Monster Hunter Dos, one of the few other Monster Hunter games I've played (sort of) and haven't finished. I say sort of because Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite are both based on Dos, but I understand Dos has some stuff they don't.
I was planning on doing Low Rank and then switching to 1G, but it turns out the Village quests took me like 100 hours anyway, so I decided that my Monster Hunter 1 journey would end with the final Village quest monster, Diablos.
I played Monster Hunter 1 JP with the MHOldschool private server's English patch and also the Plus patch. The Plus patch adds the expanded Village quest list from Monster Hunter 1 US, camera speed options, widescreen support, and allows swapping between the right analog stick weapon controls and the PSP control layout. The PSP control layout is pretty much unchanged to this day, to the point that I can fairly seamlessly swap between playing MH1JP and MHWilds.
I had a lot of fun with the game. MH1 has a very limited inventory system, with only a single-page item storage box and no automatic sorting mechanics. So sorting that stuff, figuring out the layout of my standard set of items became a central element of the gameplay for me. The limitations meant that I had to sell most of my monster parts, which turns out to be by far the best way to make money in the game anyway. It also meant that I couldn't really keep more than one or two stacks of the stuff I used or the supplies to make the stuff I use. This led to this sort of relaxed pace where I would do a major hunt, then go back to easier quests to restock and resupply. The franchise leaned away from this, but an expected part of many Monster Hunter 1 fights is learning what items served as hard counters for certain monster behaviors. I would say the majority of my playtime was spent prepping for other hunts. Flash Bombs and Sonic Bombs have never been so vital to my success as in Monster Hunter 1. Heck, I even made frequent use of Pitfall Traps and Large Barrel Bombs as offensive options, something I practically never do in other Monster Hunter games. It also led to this really satisfying arc for each monster I fought multiple times. Every hunt, I'd come back with more and more of my supplies untouched. It made the otherwise intangible improvements between fights visible without doing something like a Devil May Cry ranking system. It always felt good to come home from a hunt and realize I did it so fast that I never stopped to use my trap or barrel bombs.
Where from here? I'm planning on tackling Monster Hunter Dos, one of the few other Monster Hunter games I've played (sort of) and haven't finished. I say sort of because Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite are both based on Dos, but I understand Dos has some stuff they don't.
4-So
Spicy
Finished South of Midnight. Gorgeous game, middling combat, a few crummy platforming parts, amazing voice work, maybe the best atmosphere in a game I've ever seen. But it's more than the sum of its parts; I have to imagine when we look back on the best games of the decade, SoM will be in the conversation.
I'm hoping this game comes to other platforms sooner rather than later, I'd really like to play it. Which is maybe the first Xbox game I've ever felt that way about!
Credits rolling on Final Fantasy X, this time I played through it with the Pro Sphere Grid, the primary change of which being that stat distribution was all messed up and so some bosses that were absolute cakewalks on a normal playthrough were nightmares this time, and vice versa. Except the final boss; who was very very difficult AND preceeded with a long unskippable cutscene and a weird chunk of dungeon. Did not enjoy that.
Clearing ante 8.
Eternal Strands is a delightful action game with a dash of Shadow of the Colossus, a dash of Monster Hunter, and a really fun physics engine, all wrapped up in a lovely, well-told story about found family. Extra points for non-binary representation, too. This is the studio’s first game, and I really hope they survive to build on this success.
If you do end up playing it, which I recommend, a tip for starting out: your weapons are a little underpowered to begin with, so make plenty of use of your abilities to encase enemies in ice or throw bits of the scenery at them (or just throw them into into the scenery).
If you do end up playing it, which I recommend, a tip for starting out: your weapons are a little underpowered to begin with, so make plenty of use of your abilities to encase enemies in ice or throw bits of the scenery at them (or just throw them into into the scenery).
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It was on my wishlist fsince it came out and it just went on sale so *now I am inspired*
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Yep. Once you do that you've beat the game. The rest is completionist stuff. Tons of fun and certainly where most people's hours are, but very much chasing small victories.
I hadn't heard of this game before but it looks pretty rad - gonna have to check this out soon.
Arco is a masterpiece. Absolutely baffling that this game isn't more popular. It's a melancholy tale of revenge with multiple POV protagonists, branching storylines with excellent writing, immaculate vibes, and an utterly unique and compelling combat system that freezes time every few seconds to issue new orders, but breaks its own rules when the ghosts of your past literally manifest and start stalking you outside the frozen time while you're deciding your next turn. Don't miss out!
(Also, there's a demo on Steam, if that's your bag.)
(Also, there's a demo on Steam, if that's your bag.)
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Promise Mascot Agency is less than the sum of its parts, it pains me to say. It's a fun-to-play little diversion dragged down by a thin story stretched beyond its breaking point into something extremely long-winded, wordy, and repetitive. The mystery and conspiracy just didn't really have anything that mysterious or interesting going on, in the end. The ending scene(s) were sooooo long and really belabored the point.
The pacing is also a bit off. I basically finished the sim aspect, unlocked and found everything well before the story was over, so the last quarter of the game was me fast-traveling around to do the story conversations with little to nothing to do in between. If you end up playing it, don't put off the main story quests as you get them; keep doing it as available, and that might help fix the pace. That'll probably also unlock some of the later moneymaking mechanics sooner when you actually still need them (there was one that was kinda superfluous to me by the time I got it).
It was fun when I had the sim and exploration aspects on the table, it was really just the story. Which is a big disappointment as a followup to Paradise Killer, sadly.
One more "before you play" tidbit - once you get the cannon you can unlock fast travel in the tunnel beneath Captain Sign; that might be something you want to find sooner than later (like I did) since you have to find and unlock the travel points after unlocking the feature.
I still think it's worth picking up if you're interested, just wait for a sale.
The pacing is also a bit off. I basically finished the sim aspect, unlocked and found everything well before the story was over, so the last quarter of the game was me fast-traveling around to do the story conversations with little to nothing to do in between. If you end up playing it, don't put off the main story quests as you get them; keep doing it as available, and that might help fix the pace. That'll probably also unlock some of the later moneymaking mechanics sooner when you actually still need them (there was one that was kinda superfluous to me by the time I got it).
It was fun when I had the sim and exploration aspects on the table, it was really just the story. Which is a big disappointment as a followup to Paradise Killer, sadly.
One more "before you play" tidbit - once you get the cannon you can unlock fast travel in the tunnel beneath Captain Sign; that might be something you want to find sooner than later (like I did) since you have to find and unlock the travel points after unlocking the feature.
I still think it's worth picking up if you're interested, just wait for a sale.