Games Beaten 2019

[MrPopo]

1. Octopath Traveler - Switch
2. Dusk - PC
3. Forsaken Remastered - PC
4. Tales of Eternia - PS1
5. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - PC
6. Pokémon Trading Card Game - GBC
7. Metro Exodus - PC
8. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - PC
9. Project Warlock - PC
10. Magic: The Gathering - PC
11. Ghost 1.0 - PC
12. Call of Duty 2 - PC
13. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - PS4
14. Revelations: The Demon Slayer - GBC
15. Mechstermination Force - Switch
16. Shadow Warrior Classic Redux - PC
17. Lost Sphear - Switch
18. Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal - PC
19. Dragon Quest III - NES

DQIII on the GBC was the first DQ game I ever beat; I had tried the other NES titles on emulator and couldn't handle the grinding back when I was youthful and impatient. So when I got older and decided to beat the NES quadrology I left DQIII for last. And this morning I finally finished my playthrough on my NES (no save states here). And I have to say, this is the point where the franchise got good. Play DQ1 & 2 for historical reasons, but play DQIII because it's legit fun.

DQIII is set in a world that is modeled after Earth; the continents are all slightly distorted versions of the real continents and the various towns are based on cultures that are appropriate to the area; the castle of Romaly lives on the Italy-shaped peninsula and Jipang is on a small island just off the coast of the giant Asia landmass and the story requires you to defeat Orochi so girls can stop being sacrificed. The only addition not found in the real world is the starting island; it serves as a safe intro for you to the game, which requires you to get the Thief's Key in order to escape (and if you can do so you're ready for the rest of the game).

The basic plot is that you are the child of the hero Ortega, who set off to defeat the Archfiend Baramos and was never heard from again. Now that you've come of age you set off to do what he apparently could not. But you won't be alone; you can recruit up to three other party members of various classes. You have your Warrior, Martial Artist, Wizard, and Cleric as your main classes, and then two ancillary ones. The first is the Merchant, which finds extra gold after battles and has some unique equipment (but is generally not worth using), and the second is the Jester, who is completely uncontrollable in battle and has a bunch of random-ass effects they will do. Why would you ever want that? Well, the Jester can naturally change into the Sage class; to do so otherwise requires the single Book of Sartori located in a dungeon nearby to the class change area. And given that Sages are strictly better than Wizards and Clerics (aside from the fact that Wizards can use a slightly better piece of armor at the end of the game) you're going to want at least one of your casters to be a Sage. Class changing halves your stats and resets you to level 1, so you can use this in one of two different ways. The first is to just get an overall power boost; a physical class that changes to another physical class is going to be stronger thanks to the extra stats. The second is to do some customization; you keep spells when you class change, so you can have a budget Sage or have a physical class with some healing spells (though they won't learn any new ones or gain any more MP). It's an optional feature, but definitely worth using.

After you set out on your journey you travel the world, slowly acquiring the necessary key items to progress through each roadblock. To do so you will solve some localized problem for the various towns on your journey. So it plays out sort of like an episodic anime with an overarching plot; you deal with the monster of the week and slowly progress towards the climactic goal of defeating Baramos. And when you do so you are in for a shock.

You see, this game introduces the now staple plot twist of "there is actually an even bigger bad that was hiding behind the big bad". When you defeat Baramos the evil Zoma lets the world know that he's going to bring darkness. Given that you're totally a hero you won't stand for that. And you discover something that was quite revolutionary for the time; Zoma is the ruler of Alefgard, the world from DQ1. This game is actually the first of the trilogy of the first three NES games chronologically. And your journey to stop Zoma sets up various key items for DQ1, as well as give you insight into the history.

DQIII is also when they finally started to really hit upon balance. There is still some grinding required; the very start of the game you just can't go far without running out of HP, and once you get off the starting island you'll want to grind again to get the initial much stronger gear. But after that it pretty much fades off until right before Baramos. You might do a small amount to get a final piece of gear at a town, but the game is much better about not requiring you to replace all your stuff at every town. And the general monster balance is much better than we saw in DQ2. Baramos is the point where you might need to grind again; depending on if the game decided to give you BiKill or not (you have a 50% chance to learn it every starting at level 21 on your Wizard/Sage) you can defeat him at the level you reach him, or you need to grind some to get enough stats to kill him before he gets you. But after that I never needed to grind again. They also toned down the number of enemies with instant death spells, and reduced their frequency of casting. You'll get screwed now and then, but not to the hair pulling degree that DQ2 uses. Like I said, this is the first game that is fun by its own merits if you like old JRPGs.

[MrPopo]

1. Octopath Traveler - Switch
2. Dusk - PC
3. Forsaken Remastered - PC
4. Tales of Eternia - PS1
5. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - PC
6. Pokémon Trading Card Game - GBC
7. Metro Exodus - PC
8. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - PC
9. Project Warlock - PC
10. Magic: The Gathering - PC
11. Ghost 1.0 - PC
12. Call of Duty 2 - PC
13. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - PS4
14. Revelations: The Demon Slayer - GBC
15. Mechstermination Force - Switch
16. Shadow Warrior Classic Redux - PC
17. Lost Sphear - Switch
18. Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal - PC
19. Dragon Quest III - NES
20. Rage 2 - PC

I remember playing Rage back when it released; it was an average shooter that felt like Borderlands without the humor (to its detriment) and it ended just as the story picked up. For those who haven't played it, the basic plot is that an asteroid plowed into Earth, but a portion of humanity saved themselves in Arks (not too dissimilar to Fallout, except there weren't sociological experiments going on). You're one of those survivors who wakes up and finds the wasteland society formed by people who survived outside the Arks. There's an evil paramilitary group called the Authority who want to rule the wasteland. Standard post-apoc stuff. Your last mission is to break into an Authority facility and wake up all the other Arks. And then the game ends, right before the war with the Authority kicks in.

Rage 2 picks up a decade or two AFTER the end of that war. Yeah, rather than give us that conflict we skip straight to a world where the Authority has rebuilt underground and is trying to take over again. Basically, they tried to take a mulligan on the story (and it doesn't really work). You become the last Ranger after your base is wiped out in the intro and you get to travel the wasteland righting wrongs and working towards stopping the Authority.

The game is an open world shooter, and frankly all the open world stuff is just so bland. While there are a bunch of different activities to do, after you've done a given activity once or twice you're pretty much bored of that activity. Compare with Spider-Man, where the enemy and level configurations would make each combat interesting enough. Here there's just not enough variety in enemies, so once you've seen one pack you've seen them all.

What got me to pick up the game was preview videos that showed a bunch of interesting combats, and to be fair you have a lot of fun tools at your disposal. You still have the wingsticks of the first game (razor boomerangs), but now you get a series of powers. You can shoulder charge people, do a ground slam, throw out a gravity ball, and a power I never got because I never found where to get it. By mixing these up you can plow through enemies, and there's even a super meter which supercharges all your guns for a limited time that fills up faster the faster you kill dudes. Enemies also explode in minor health pickups, so you're best off rolling as hard as possible, rather than going tactical. The guns feel quite chunky, and nailing enemies in the head is quite satisfying. It actually feels like the latest Doom if there were only Imps and Zombies in it. And it's that lack of enemy variety that turns what was otherwise fun gunplay into a chore after a while.

I will say that the game does reward you for every bit of open world activity you do; no just checking stuff off the map or collectables for collectable's sake. You'll always get a good amount of the two currencies and some selection of the many skill points. And each one fills a reputation meter which also pumps out skill points for you (and you require a min rep with each faction to finish the game, but doing so is trivial). But, unfortunately, most of the skill points are on the side of "useful, but not essential", so once you've gotten a handful you'll stop caring about them.

Frankly, the biggest problem with the game is it just is so bland. It's near post apocalyptic played entirely straight, and it's just so humdrum. Fallout gives you all those insights into the world leading up to the bombs dropping and some goofiness in how the world was rebuilt, Borderlands is a comedy violence game, and Horizon: Zero Dawn is so blasted back that it's more of a primitive society that grows from the ashes of an old and unremembered world. Rage 2 is just a collapse of infrastructure. They just don't do anything engaging with the setting.

Immortan Joe sums up my thoughts on the game: mediocre.

[Jagosaurus]

I knocked out both Halo 3 ODST & Halo Reach.

Short thoughts on campaign from mobile:


ODST takes place during Halo 2/between Halo 2 and 3. It really goes into a future urban combat vibe, complete with Bladerunner ambient music and neon visor filter. The game has an overmap where you find items to trigger flashback gameplay sections. It's an interesting departure from the main series. You can definitely see that it started as an expansion/DLC before becoming a full fledged game. Nathan Fillion of Firefly & Castle fame voices Buck, the leader of the ODST team. He does a great job bringing up the production value.

Oh yeah, you're not a Spartan but a space paratrooper (UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). Get ready to get rocked as a more normal dude versus a super soldier. I hadn't played this one since release in 2009. It's better than I remembered, but different. It'll also run about 7 hours versus the typical 9-10 hours, as another indicator it was originally a DLC project.


This one is a prequel to the original Halo CE. Wow... the story telling, characters, and cinematic presentation in Reach are amazing. I've always enjoyed the Halo universe but this is a step up overall. I'd say the story itself is right there with Halo 2. You're part of Noble Team Six, a group of 6 Spartans fighting off the invasion of Planet Reach. Dang is it good to be a Spartan again, but you're not Master Chief/Petty Officer John 117. This team takes off their helmets and converses during cutscenes. It really adds to the story telling and character development. You'll be invested in each of the team members you're fighting alongside. They each hold a strategic, tactical role in the squad. My favorite was Emile, certified Bad A.

I can't put my finger on it, but the gameplay, and probably mostly level design, was serviceable compared to other Halo titles. Not as amazing as others, but still solid enough to get the job done. Stick in there to the story ending. You'll be glad you did!

This was my first time beating this one from start to finish. I experienced it some previously at friends, but I was newly married and cash strapped in 2010. Not sure why I waited so long!

This is the last Bungie Halo title. Thanks for all the memories as a teenager & college student Bungie!

Order and Controls
While these 2 are a spin off and prequel respectively, I recommend playing the games in order of release due to progression of controls and gameplay mechanics. Old school fans will want to change the controls to Recon in options for these. It's not identical but having melee at "B" is a must for me. Reload from X to R2 isn't too jarring. Recon scheme is also still present in Halo Anniversary (released after Reach) but they now offer Duke which matches the OG setup. Halo control evolution and preferences could be a dedicated thread.

[pook99]

@MrPopo: Thanks for the review, I picked up the first rage on a pretty deep discount and was amazed at just how boring and bland a game with such a visceral name was. I stopped playing a few hours in and based on your review it seems the sequel is more of the same.

@elkin: Nice review, I didn't know about that game and added it to my steam wishlist.

@prfsnlgamer: I appreciated your ranking of the fantasy zone games, I have never actually played a fantasy zone game in my life but have been meaning to for some time, especially given how much the hosts at game sack talk about those games. I didn't even know there was a fantasy zone on ps2 but it sounds like that will be the one I will check out if I ever get around to giving the series a shot.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Awesome! I love the series, obviously, and the PS2 game is both very, very solid and, because it’s a bit more forgiving, a great place to start. The arcade original is also an unlockable on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PS3 and Xbox 360; so, that might also be a good place to start too. (Warning: It’s hard.) If you have a 3DS, though, Fantasy Zone II W is a god-tier shmup that’s also welcoming to newcomers. Seriously, it’s one of the best ever made for any system, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

[MrPopo]

@MrPopo: Thanks for the review, I picked up the first rage on a pretty deep discount and was amazed at just how boring and bland a game with such a visceral name was. I stopped playing a few hours in and based on your review it seems the sequel is more of the same.

The sequel IS better, it's just not better enough. The gunplay is much more fun, it's just they forgot that the other half of the equation is a bunch of fun enemies.

[pierrot]

Xbox 369

That sounds like it could be a bit more fun than an Xbox 360. Was it made by NEC?
(Lil Jon and Eastside Boyz on the brain?)

[marurun]

@prfsnl_gmr

None of the 16-bit consoles could scale sprites. All Space Harrier style titles on consoles at the time just used sprites at different sizes to simulate scaling. If it is choppy on Space Fantasy Zone then they simply didn’t create enough art assets. Space Harrier on TG-16 “scales” just fine. Maybe that’s part of why Space Fantasy Zone never shipped.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Xbox 369

That sounds like it could be a bit more fun than an Xbox 360. Was it made by NEC?
(Lil Jon and Eastside Boyz on the brain?)

I’m typing on an iPad! Cut me some slack!

@prfsnl_gmr
None of the 16-bit consoles could scale sprites. All Space Harrier style titles on consoles at the time just used sprites at different sizes to simulate scaling. If it is choppy on Space Fantasy Zone then they simply didn’t create enough art assets. Space Harrier on TG-16 “scales” just fine. Maybe that’s part of why Space Fantasy Zone never shipped.

I could see that. Space Harrier 2 doesn’t actually look that much better; so, I’m not sure the Genesis would have done much better. (HyperZone, on the other hand, looks pretty great in comparison; so, maybe the game could have benefited from some SNES Mode 7 magic!) Don’t get me wrong. Space Fantasy Zone is still a fun game, and I think it should have shipped. My understanding, however, is that Sega was launching the Sega CD around the time Space Fantasy Zone would have launched, and they didn’t want a Sega game on a competitor’s CD console releasing about the same time.

[pierrot]

I know. It was just a most excellent typo, as Bill and Ted might say.