Games Beaten 2018
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Nice writeup Sarge, that captures many of my experiences too.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 22
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (6 Games Beaten)
22. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - SNES - February 10
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is a bit of an aberration for the Final Fantasy series in more ways than one. It was the first in the series to be released in North America before it was released in Japan (and a full year before at that). It was the first in the series to do away with random encounters in favor of having enemies appear in the dungeons. It was the unusually short for the series, and its difficulty was unusually low for the series. Because of this, it's a bit of a black sheep among fans of the series, but it's for these reasons that I think it's a nice change of pace from the standard Final Fantasy game.
Putting aside the "Entry-Level" label on the front of the box, it's immediately apparent that this is a game designed to introduce new players to Final Fantasy, not provide a challenge for veteran players. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's for kids, but it's definitely designed for a novice. The game, for the most part, fairly linear. There's an overworld map with flashing arrows to tell you what directions you can travel in, the game is always pretty clear about where you need to go next, and healing is almost always extremely accessible. That's not to say that the game is completely devoid of any challenging moments, but the challenges are kept very basic, and all of them can be easily overcome with a little bit of stubbornness. The only things likely to outright defeat you in this game are not paying attention to your health between fights or unlucky RNG shenanigans.
Visually, I'd place Mystic Quest between Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV (despite coming out well into the Super Nintendo's life). That's going to be a matter of opinion, and some of this may be due to enemy and character perspective and design style, but it seemed to me like the sprites in IV had more detail than Mystic Quest. The soundtrack, however, is probably the best in any Final Fantasy game up through VI. That sound track - especially the background music that plays when you're in the volcano - is just fantastic. Some of the overworld tunes sound like standard, average RPG music, but when the music hits, it REALLY hits.
The game's weakest point (I'm not counting low difficulty as a flaw because it's not) is definitely the story, and that's a bit of a shame since Final Fantasy often tells great stories. At the very least, Final Fantasy games tend to do a really good job of telling so-so stories. The game's narrative follows this kid named Benjamin whose village was destroyed by an earthquake. He meets this creepy old man who says "Yer a hero, Benny!" and basically throws him to the wolves with monsters to prove that the kid's actually a hero. Once Benjamin decides "Okay, yeah, I can do this hero thing," he accepts the old man's quest to fulfill a prophecy and save the world. From there, your typical Final Fantasy stuff happens - you meet some character who are unfortunately flat and uninteresting, you save some magic crystals from evil monsters, you climb a huge tower, fight some dark king, and everybody celebrates your bravery. Then you LITERALLY sail off into the sunset to live happily ever after. It's not that it's bad, per se, but the story feels very lackluster and just tacked on for the sake of having some kind of a narrative.
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is the perfect game to introduce to a friend or relative whom you're trying to get into RPGs. It's low difficulty, short length, and low complexity approach to the JRPG formula makes it extremely approachable. Novices aren't the only ones who would enjoy it, though; I found it to be the perfect game to play while relaxing after a long day at work. Because of that low difficulty, it's a game that you can unwind while playing whereas more intense and difficult RPGs will do more to hype you up than chill you out. I can absolutely understand why a lot of more hardcore veteran Final Fantasy fans aren't crazy about Mystic Quest, but I found it to be a charming and laid back RPG. If you've been curious about the genre or just never given it a shot because the difficulty or length tends to be a barrier to entry, definitely give Mystic Quest a shot. If you want to play a fantasy RPG but also want to chill, then this might be a game worth looking to because I really enjoyed it.
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (6 Games Beaten)
22. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - SNES - February 10
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is a bit of an aberration for the Final Fantasy series in more ways than one. It was the first in the series to be released in North America before it was released in Japan (and a full year before at that). It was the first in the series to do away with random encounters in favor of having enemies appear in the dungeons. It was the unusually short for the series, and its difficulty was unusually low for the series. Because of this, it's a bit of a black sheep among fans of the series, but it's for these reasons that I think it's a nice change of pace from the standard Final Fantasy game.
Putting aside the "Entry-Level" label on the front of the box, it's immediately apparent that this is a game designed to introduce new players to Final Fantasy, not provide a challenge for veteran players. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's for kids, but it's definitely designed for a novice. The game, for the most part, fairly linear. There's an overworld map with flashing arrows to tell you what directions you can travel in, the game is always pretty clear about where you need to go next, and healing is almost always extremely accessible. That's not to say that the game is completely devoid of any challenging moments, but the challenges are kept very basic, and all of them can be easily overcome with a little bit of stubbornness. The only things likely to outright defeat you in this game are not paying attention to your health between fights or unlucky RNG shenanigans.
Visually, I'd place Mystic Quest between Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV (despite coming out well into the Super Nintendo's life). That's going to be a matter of opinion, and some of this may be due to enemy and character perspective and design style, but it seemed to me like the sprites in IV had more detail than Mystic Quest. The soundtrack, however, is probably the best in any Final Fantasy game up through VI. That sound track - especially the background music that plays when you're in the volcano - is just fantastic. Some of the overworld tunes sound like standard, average RPG music, but when the music hits, it REALLY hits.
The game's weakest point (I'm not counting low difficulty as a flaw because it's not) is definitely the story, and that's a bit of a shame since Final Fantasy often tells great stories. At the very least, Final Fantasy games tend to do a really good job of telling so-so stories. The game's narrative follows this kid named Benjamin whose village was destroyed by an earthquake. He meets this creepy old man who says "Yer a hero, Benny!" and basically throws him to the wolves with monsters to prove that the kid's actually a hero. Once Benjamin decides "Okay, yeah, I can do this hero thing," he accepts the old man's quest to fulfill a prophecy and save the world. From there, your typical Final Fantasy stuff happens - you meet some character who are unfortunately flat and uninteresting, you save some magic crystals from evil monsters, you climb a huge tower, fight some dark king, and everybody celebrates your bravery. Then you LITERALLY sail off into the sunset to live happily ever after. It's not that it's bad, per se, but the story feels very lackluster and just tacked on for the sake of having some kind of a narrative.
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is the perfect game to introduce to a friend or relative whom you're trying to get into RPGs. It's low difficulty, short length, and low complexity approach to the JRPG formula makes it extremely approachable. Novices aren't the only ones who would enjoy it, though; I found it to be the perfect game to play while relaxing after a long day at work. Because of that low difficulty, it's a game that you can unwind while playing whereas more intense and difficult RPGs will do more to hype you up than chill you out. I can absolutely understand why a lot of more hardcore veteran Final Fantasy fans aren't crazy about Mystic Quest, but I found it to be a charming and laid back RPG. If you've been curious about the genre or just never given it a shot because the difficulty or length tends to be a barrier to entry, definitely give Mystic Quest a shot. If you want to play a fantasy RPG but also want to chill, then this might be a game worth looking to because I really enjoyed it.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
dsheinem wrote:Nice writeup Sarge, that captures many of my experiences too.
Ditto. The only thing I'd disagree with is not running through it again; it may not be an AMAZING game, but I did find it to be the perfect game to play when you want to relax but also want something a bit more in depth than, say, Tetris or Puyo Puyo. In that sense, I could definitely see myself replaying it in a couple years.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
Partridge Senpai's 2018 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat
1. Tyranny (PC)
2. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PC)
3. SUPERHOT (PC)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)*
5. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC)
6. Mario X Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)
7. Nine Parchments (Switch)
8. X-com: UFO Defense (PC)
I've been watching Let's Play videos of the original X-com for years. I bought the game years ago on the thought that I might one day play it myself, although I was a bit too intimidated to ever give it a real try. However, my confidence increased when I started watching another series a few weeks ago and started getting so frustrated at their misplays that I thought "Surely I can do better than these idiots"
. They were playing The Final Modpack, to be fair, which make the game WAY harder. I tried that at first, but deduced after some more reading that it was way too hard for me. Already having Openxcom installed to play that mod-pack, I used it to play through the vanilla game mostly in tact, with most of alterations just being quality of life things.
Elkin gave me the idea to name all the soldiers after Racketboy peeps, so I did! Much hilarity was displayed in the RPG Progress Thread and the Slack chat about it over the past week or so. The mods I started the game with were very simple quality of life things like zooming out the camera for more visibility and letting you position all the buildings in your first base when you start the game. I made the mistake of playing the game with Openxcom's ironman mode enabled, so even though I did ironman this, I did end up turning on a mod near the end that forced a line-of-sight to do PSI-attacks, just because I REALLY wanted to finish the game and not have to totally restart. In the end, it took from the start of 1999 to September 23rd when we finally blew up the final alien stronghold.
The final "RPG Progress"-style report follows:
X-com is a bit of a grand SRPG. Managing bases all over the world, designing them, telling them what to manufacture and research, all on top of launching fighters to take down alien ships and ground teams to assault the survivors is a LOT to take on and it can be really intimidating. That said, it's not the most complex game out there in that space, and is far more easily taken on with the help of a wiki or some quality of life stuff like Openxcom's launcher provides (both of which I used extensively).
Verdict: Recommended. I'd definitely say that Openxcom makes it far more playable for modern tastes, if only because of that option to zoom out the camera on missions. Then using Openxcom's built in options and mods to make the game just as hard or easy as you want is a very nice way to ease into it for players of any seriousness. Xcom is definitely a game that rewards already knowing its systems going in, so going in blind isn't super recommended, but it will certainly give you some crazy war stories if that's the route you go
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat
1. Tyranny (PC)
2. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PC)
3. SUPERHOT (PC)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)*
5. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC)
6. Mario X Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)
7. Nine Parchments (Switch)
8. X-com: UFO Defense (PC)
I've been watching Let's Play videos of the original X-com for years. I bought the game years ago on the thought that I might one day play it myself, although I was a bit too intimidated to ever give it a real try. However, my confidence increased when I started watching another series a few weeks ago and started getting so frustrated at their misplays that I thought "Surely I can do better than these idiots"
. They were playing The Final Modpack, to be fair, which make the game WAY harder. I tried that at first, but deduced after some more reading that it was way too hard for me. Already having Openxcom installed to play that mod-pack, I used it to play through the vanilla game mostly in tact, with most of alterations just being quality of life things.Elkin gave me the idea to name all the soldiers after Racketboy peeps, so I did! Much hilarity was displayed in the RPG Progress Thread and the Slack chat about it over the past week or so. The mods I started the game with were very simple quality of life things like zooming out the camera for more visibility and letting you position all the buildings in your first base when you start the game. I made the mistake of playing the game with Openxcom's ironman mode enabled, so even though I did ironman this, I did end up turning on a mod near the end that forced a line-of-sight to do PSI-attacks, just because I REALLY wanted to finish the game and not have to totally restart. In the end, it took from the start of 1999 to September 23rd when we finally blew up the final alien stronghold.
The final "RPG Progress"-style report follows:
. However, that was enough to get us past the surface to take all those dead aliens' guns. We then got pretty lucky again in the actual Martian base, only ever running into one Ethereal, two Chryssilids, and two of the floaty blobs and two crawly blobs. We ran into a Sectopod, which was terrifying, but it never saw us! Prfsnl_Gamer5 blew it to pieces with a BB-launcher before it could even think. Finally, Ma3un and Keyglyfive cleared the way with plasma bolts through the Ethereals guarding the Brain chamber before Fourck (Ack 4) got the honors of blaster bombing the brain back to hell.
X-com is a bit of a grand SRPG. Managing bases all over the world, designing them, telling them what to manufacture and research, all on top of launching fighters to take down alien ships and ground teams to assault the survivors is a LOT to take on and it can be really intimidating. That said, it's not the most complex game out there in that space, and is far more easily taken on with the help of a wiki or some quality of life stuff like Openxcom's launcher provides (both of which I used extensively).
Verdict: Recommended. I'd definitely say that Openxcom makes it far more playable for modern tastes, if only because of that option to zoom out the camera on missions. Then using Openxcom's built in options and mods to make the game just as hard or easy as you want is a very nice way to ease into it for players of any seriousness. Xcom is definitely a game that rewards already knowing its systems going in, so going in blind isn't super recommended, but it will certainly give you some crazy war stories if that's the route you go
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
I dunno if I even wanna post about Mystic Quest now, y'all covered it so well.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
January:
February:
Roundabout (PS4)
Pocket Fighter (PSX)
Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
Batman Arkham VR(PSVR)
Very busy couple of days for Flake! In my quest to not only clear the backlog but also try to post one (just one) month where I beat Elkin's title count, I took the low road and knocked out 3 really quick games that have been in my backlog for awhile. In Double Dragon Neon's case, I first got a review code to download it back when I was a contributor to Sega Addicts and I quit that gig all the way back in 2012! And I've never finished it till now.
Quick Pro-Con blurb for all games so that I don't hit tl;dr in this post:
Pocket Fighter - clearly Capcom's answer to the Neo Geo Pocket games like Gal Fighters or SvC. Just like those games, it is amazing what you can do with a simplified, contextual input system and a whole lot of charm.
Pro - Drips 90's era Capcom charm. Really solid fighting system. Surprisingly funny depictions of the cast. I played as Ken who was tired of Eliza and wanted to go on a date with another girl. Like, really that is his plot in the game.
Con - Obviously a Direct from Arcade port. There are some QoL issues in menu navigation and difficult scaling. The 'Edit Fighter' mini game is almost incomprehensible.
Double Dragon Neon - A WayForward re-interpretation of the series that is funny, 80's AF, and just self-aware enough to make it work
Pro - Really solid fighting system, not too challenging, and an interesting take on leveling up. Great graphics and music with a lot of good humor mixed in.
Con - The PS3 version doesn't have online co-op which seriously damages replay value.
Batman Arkham VR - You get to BE the Batman! Wake up from a long night as Bruce Wayne! Wonder what amazing crime fighting you did to leave your knuckles so fucked up. Spend an hour getting more and more disturbed.
Pro - The graphics and integration of Batman lore were perfect. Costumes were accurate, sprinkles of trivia all around. The story goes from 0 to 60 crazy fast and given the VR setting, the ending actually had me breathing heavily and feeling intense.
Con - Obviously, it is short. The game has an interesting solutuion for the 'teleport' VR movement scheme but it ultimately serves to detach you from immersion. You don't really do much in the way of combat, which is sad.
February:
Roundabout (PS4)
Pocket Fighter (PSX)
Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
Batman Arkham VR(PSVR)
Very busy couple of days for Flake! In my quest to not only clear the backlog but also try to post one (just one) month where I beat Elkin's title count, I took the low road and knocked out 3 really quick games that have been in my backlog for awhile. In Double Dragon Neon's case, I first got a review code to download it back when I was a contributor to Sega Addicts and I quit that gig all the way back in 2012! And I've never finished it till now.
Quick Pro-Con blurb for all games so that I don't hit tl;dr in this post:
Pocket Fighter - clearly Capcom's answer to the Neo Geo Pocket games like Gal Fighters or SvC. Just like those games, it is amazing what you can do with a simplified, contextual input system and a whole lot of charm.
Pro - Drips 90's era Capcom charm. Really solid fighting system. Surprisingly funny depictions of the cast. I played as Ken who was tired of Eliza and wanted to go on a date with another girl. Like, really that is his plot in the game.
Con - Obviously a Direct from Arcade port. There are some QoL issues in menu navigation and difficult scaling. The 'Edit Fighter' mini game is almost incomprehensible.
Double Dragon Neon - A WayForward re-interpretation of the series that is funny, 80's AF, and just self-aware enough to make it work
Pro - Really solid fighting system, not too challenging, and an interesting take on leveling up. Great graphics and music with a lot of good humor mixed in.
Con - The PS3 version doesn't have online co-op which seriously damages replay value.
Batman Arkham VR - You get to BE the Batman! Wake up from a long night as Bruce Wayne! Wonder what amazing crime fighting you did to leave your knuckles so fucked up. Spend an hour getting more and more disturbed.
Pro - The graphics and integration of Batman lore were perfect. Costumes were accurate, sprinkles of trivia all around. The story goes from 0 to 60 crazy fast and given the VR setting, the ending actually had me breathing heavily and feeling intense.
Con - Obviously, it is short. The game has an interesting solutuion for the 'teleport' VR movement scheme but it ultimately serves to detach you from immersion. You don't really do much in the way of combat, which is sad.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Great to see another PSVR player. I feel like the system is like the Sega CD of the current day...
What else have you been playing on it?
What else have you been playing on it?
Re: Games Beaten 2018
dsheinem wrote:Great to see another PSVR player. I feel like the system is like the Sega CD of the current day...
What else have you been playing on it?
I've dabbled a bit at Skyrim and Stardust. I'm still kind of easing my way into the platform. It doesn't leave me with any of the negative side-effects that I have heard many have (nausea, dizziness) but I can only play it in bursts just because of how overwhelming the sensory inputs are. The visuals, head tracking, and shaped audio are so good that after about 30 minutes it can be too intense.
PSVR really is no joke as an addition to the platform.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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noiseredux
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
Ack wrote:Fourck yeah, Partridge! You have the Ack bloody seal of approval.
yeah that was legit. And of course I'd have to die right before Mars. Of course I would.
