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Beat some more games recently including:
Epic Mickey (Wii)
Muramasa The Demon Blade (Wii)
Call of Duty 2 (Xbox 360)
Turok (Xbox 360)
Sonic Generations (Xbox 360)
Sly Cooper (PS2)

Wow, this is my second post in this topic. I've beaten a lot of games already haha!

1. Mortal Kombat (PS3)
2. The Ball (PC)
3. Tyrian 2000 (PC)
4. Shogo - Mobile Armor Division (PC)
5. Disney's Goof Troop (SNES)
6. Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
7. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SNES)

Hmm...Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was initially released for Squaresoft to advertise the RPG genre to those of us in the United States. It's meant to be an easy RPG for those with little experience in the genre. I wanted to play through it because it was the only one of the three US SNES Final Fantasies I had not beaten. I also had played through about 75% a decade ago over the course of a couple of weeks, thanks to a friend of mine, but had to return it before I got around to beating it. At the time I found it simplistic and boring compared to the other games I was borrowing from him, such as Lufia 2, Breath of Fire, etc.

So here I am, 10 years later, with this game finally beaten. And it definitely fit the idea Squaresoft wanted. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is incredibly easy, with very limited inventories, weapons, and spells, auto-equipped gear, and only a maximum of two players in the party at any time. It makes micromanaging the party very simple while also removing the need to worry about random encounters, as all enemies appear in their respective maps and are static, though the majority sit directly in the path of the player. I killed all but one enemy, and I only left him as a warning to the others not to mess with me....of course, considering he was one of the last enemies left in the entire game, and I had mercilessly murdered everything else in my path...well, there just isn't much left to warn.

But he knows not to fuck with me.

Anyway, FFMQ features the typical traditional FF storyline: elemental crystals, the end of the world, so on and so forth, though the game is sans an insane military commander, official, or ruler, as long as one isn't considering the final boss (who, like in FF8, is not mentioned until the final 10% of the game). But while simplistic, there are a few little touches that made FFMQ appeal to me. There's a touch of music here reminiscent of what Square would later do with the SNES sound chip, and visually the game reminded me of FF4, especially the final room. One of the most powerful images in the entire game happens to be the ending credits, which happens quite often for Square RPGs...at least for me. And enemies reflect how close to death they are by changing their sprites during battle: wail on a Goblin, and now his helmet's off and he has a bandage. He's close to death.

The game also manages to illustrate one of the biggest weaknesses of JRPGs: namely, status effects suck. Throughout the majority of the game, most enemies wield a status effect of some kind, and these can serve to absolutely cripple the player in an instant. The player can attack with status effects, but they are next to useless and only available on a single line of weaponry, the Claw, which also happens to be the weakest in the game. Status effects are far more deadly for the player than for the enemy, and the player does not become immune to the nastiest ones until the end of the game.

This has an interesting benefit though. To counter the difficulty of facing an enemy who uses the more deadly status effects, my battle strategies would change to take them out first, followed directly by enemy healers, and then mopping up whoever was left. In FFMQ, you kill the status effect givers first, especially those that drop the nasty triumvirate: petrify, paralyze, and confusion. Every battle features at least a little strategic planning because of how common these effects are. And even once the player is immune, the secondary character often is not, keeping the need up to kill the worst enemies first. Instant death attacks are also available to a few enemies, and while they will miss most of the time, they will hit eventually, and you will have to hastily change your plans to resurrect a fallen friend. This also reveals another secret about FFMQ: enemies don't follow the same fight schedule that the player does. You may think FFMQ is completely turn based, but the computer makes its decisions on the fly. That's why a group of enemies can have one attack and then have another target the character who was just healed or resurrected out of a fatal status. The player cannot do this. To make up for it, the player can change weapons between turns to further help with strategy, though after awhile this falls by the wayside.

Overall, it's simple and easy, but not a bad game. FFMQ teaches some basic skills necessary for those getting into JRPGs. It serves as a nice gateway, though it feels excessively limited by most JRPG standards. If you play all the big names but still want your 16-bit fix, it's not a bad choice...just don't expect the epic feelings you got from FFIV, FFVI, Lufia, Lufia 2, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, Breath of Fire 2, Terranigma, so on and so forth.

1/21 Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)
1/23 Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC)
1/31 Deus Ex: Human Revolution: The Missing Link (DLC)
2/5 Blood Stone: 007 (PS3)
2/19 Warhammer 40K: Space Marine (PC)
2/25 Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (NDS)
2/28 Bastion (PC)
3/3 Cave Story+ (PC)
3/5 Puzzle Agent 2 (PC)
3/5 Rochard (PC)
3/31 Journey (PS3)
4/6 Final Fantasy IV (PSP)
4/24 Half-Minute Hero (PSP)
5/6 Mass Effect 2 (360)
5/6 Mass Effect 2: Zaeed - The Price of Revenge (DLC)
5/6 Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory (DLC)
5/6 Mass Effect 2: Overlord (DLC)
5/6 Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker (DLC)
5/6 Mass Effect 2: Arrival (DLC)

Games Beaten = 14
DLC = 6

5/16 Rayman Origins (PSV)

I love this game, it's easily one of my favorite platformers of late. Simply gorgeous on the Vita's 5" OLED screen, this game was perfect for a handheld. No reason to re-write what I've said before here:

Stark wrote:This is one of the best platformers I've played in a while. And it really shines on the Vita. The complaints about collecting things to proceed is a lame one. This is a platformer, where the main gameplay element is to get the thing (electoons) you need to proceed. Just like most major platformers. You have to go out of your way to get Electoons sometimes, and save them when you hear "Help me!" But if you're not doing that, why are you playing? If you see a star that is a side quest in Mario Galaxy do you go get it or do you ignore it because it's not the main one? The argument just doesn't make any sense to me. Is there sometimes a requirement to have something before proceeding? Yes. Do you get these things through the course of normal play? Yes.

I will admit it, I freaking love a collect-a-thon, so I'm sure that colors my judgement a bit here. Let that temper my review.

Mother 3
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Rockman World
Kingdom Hearts 2

...all well worth the time!

Mortalrift wrote:Mother 3
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Rockman World
Kingdom Hearts 2

...all well worth the time!

Yay! Lords of Shadow. More people should play this game.

1. Sonic CD (PSN)
2. Golden Axe Warrior (PS3)
3. Ico (PS3)
4. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (PS3)
5. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
6. SoulBlade (PS1)
7. SoulCalibur II (PS2)
8. The Simpsons Arcade Game (PS3)
9. Sonic Sega All-Stars Racing (PS3)
10. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (PS3)
11. Ys I (PSP)
12. Heavy Rain (PS3)
13. Street Fighter x Tekken (PS3)
14. King of Fighters XIII (PS3)
15. Knights of the Round (PS2)
16. Journey (PSN)
17. Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (PS3)
18. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS1)
19. Skullgirls (PSN)
20. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2)
21. Abobo's Big Adventure (PC)

What a brilliant game! I'm sure many of you have played it, but just in case -- play it! Basically this is the most accomplished tribute to NES-era gaming I've ever seen. Forget Scott Pilgrim. Abobo's Big Adventure is way beyond that. The amount of references is staggering, but none of it feels shoe-horned. It's all very wink wink nudge nudge in such a way that shows a serious level of love for its source material. And it's also hilarious. I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a game before. Totally worth a free download. Play it. Now.

Duke Nukem Forever (PC Download)
An enjoyable romp that does enough to mix up the gameplay and keep things interesting.
There are some issues, but nothing that stopped me from enjoying the game.

Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me (PC Download)
The devs really listened when they made this DLC. It fixes a lot of the issues the base game had. They could have explained how and why Dr. Proton was back a bit better though.

Starhawk (PS3)
What do you get when you combine the wild west, space operas, dogfights, mechs, RTS, TPS and an amazing soundtrack? Well Starhawk of course! ANd holy shit do they ever pull it off. I haven't had this much fun with a modern game in ages. Even the single player, which many assumed would be tacked on was quite fleshed out and enjoyable. Its a damn shame we probably won't ever see any more single player content either because the universe the characters are in is quite interesting. It also has a black protaganist that isn't some steriotypical bullshit.

Halo 3 (x360)
I've played through this before, but now that I own my own copy I figured I'd run through it again. Its starting to show its age. Still enjoyable.

Halo Reach (x360)
Easily the best looking and best playing Halo since the original. If I was to rank them it would be Halo=Halo Reach>Halo 3>Halo 3: ODST>Halo2

I'll throw my list of games so far:

1-Kenka Badass Bancho PSP (PSP)
2-Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
3-God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
4-Castlevania Symphony of the night (PSX played on psp)
5-Castlevania (NES)
6-Dead Head Fred (PSP)
7-Star Fox 64 (N64) (2nd ending)
8-Demons Crest
9-Castlevania Rondo of Blood (PSP port)
10-Kingdom Hearts Birth By sleep FInal Mix (No secret ending)
11-Kingdom hearts 2 (again no secret ending)
12-Metal Slug XX (PSP)
13-Odins Sphere (PS2)
I really played a lot of this game 40+ hours into it, i'm wanna complete it on 100% eventually.
Amazing, beautifull 2D graphics with a addcting gameplay and a good story line made me enojy this game at the last second. It took me a few tries to get the happy ending but was well worth it.
I can see some people won't like this game forthe leveling up system, eating food, and for eating food you need ingredients, and for the ingredients you need to revisit early stages and of course you need MONEY a lot of it. Even with this system and some slowdown (i don't mind for slowdown in 2D games, actually i love when a 2D game has a slowdown , it's like slowmo in a movie). Really liked the ending, a lot of time put in to get every character in shape for the final battle (weapon at level 40+ and Hp level 40+ with a bag full of elixirs make's the boss fights more easy).
Loved the game, definetely a must buy if you like 2D.

Ys Seven. It was awesome.

2012 games beaten:
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)
Ys Book I & II (TCD)
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (SNES)
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PS2)
Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Lunar Legend (GBA)
Breath of Fire (GBA)
Ys Seven (PSP)

Just beat Prototype 2 in two days! Damn fun game!