Completion Thread 2018: Lock & Load Then Rock & Roll

[A Robot Bit Me]

And also that they Working Designed it into a bad game.

[kingoffighters]

I was just looking at my GBA game and thinking of picking up FFT again. I don't think I actually liked it very much though.

[A Robot Bit Me]

I started FFTA2 and it's basically FFTA: GotY Edition. It loses nothing, improves the NES-tier weapon-shopping by giving you a "fitting room" where you can let your entire squad try on equipment to see what their stats and abilities would look like, looks even better, and adds a new tier of jobs to better differentiate one species or unit type from the next. So far, it feels like there's no reason to play FFTA when FFTA2 exists, which is something I wish I knew 68 hours ago. Plus there's a Hard Mode unlocked right from the start.

This series carves out a warm little space between Nippon Ichi algorithm porn/micro-management fetishization and actual video games.

[gameoverDude]

32) Lords of the Fallen (PC)
Used an Outlaw build (Rogue with Brawler magic). Took the final boss out with Quake.
Got the "sealed the fate of both realms & aligned with Adyr" ending (stick the rune of Adyr in your weapon for this one)

Had some trouble with game crashes on the Ancient Labyrinth's Keeper & last boss battles. I set the Nvidia power management mode to Optimal Performance (until now, it was set to Prefer Maximum) & was able to finish.

[Tain]

23. Hitman 2



Pretty much what you'd expect from a follow-up to the excellent 2016 game. A new handful of big, complicated locations with a whole lot to do inside of them. About a month after I initially beat the 2016 game using some self-imposed rules the developers added a higher difficulty that does what I wanted: altered item and guard locations, more on-edge AI, and strict mid-mission saving limits. Thankfully Hitman 2 launched with an equivalent to this mode, and I loved even just eeking through the main objectives with it. The challenges, like in the prior game, serve as good hints as to what's possible in a given location, and they do a good job of getting you to fully explore each area. And the head-to-head Ghost mode is shockingly fun.

[Tain]

24. Spider-Man



lol forgot I beat this earlier this year. It was pretty solid, kinda like Gravity Rush in that it was an okay game elevated a lot simply by having a gorgeous world and a very fun way to move through it. Combat was a little bit of a step up over the usual Arkham stuff, I think.

[Son of Bryce]

I haven't been keeping track but Yakuza 5 might be the first game I finished this year.

1) Yakuza 5 (April) - Meant to get into Yakuza games for a long time but never got around to them until the free Yakuza 4. That was an amazing game. I tried to get into 5 right after I finished 4 but I was Yakuza'd out and I just dropped it. I picked it back up in Feb. Yakuza 5 starts off kinda slow with the taxi missions and stuff. If you can get through the early part, it starts to pick up in gameplay and story. I try to run through them because the endless side missions make it hard to finish.

2) Yakuza 6 (Nov) - I waited a few months to jump into Yakuza 6. I was split between jumping back to Yakuza 0 but I really wanted to see how the story ended. I thought the graphics were amazing in this game but I think you can tell that they had to cut a bunch of corners with their budget. It's least amount of locations in what I've played so far, especially coming offa Yakuza 5. What's there's pretty awesome though. One of my favorite things about this series is seeing how Kamurocho changes over time, so much attention to detail.

I didn't really get a feel for the gameplay until like halfway through the game. Took me a while to really understand how the new Heat system worked. It seemed like it was harder to execute heat actions, I think I ended up idling until the prompt came up but often ended up getting hit in the process. But I didn't even start to understand the parrying/whatever until late in the game. I never had any problems beating any bosses and I feel like I wished there were more huge "Streets of Rage" feeling stages in this game.

I love what they did with the leveling/stats/food system. It's the right level of RPG-ness to me, I wanna play more games with a similar feel to this one.

3) Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Dec) - I felt like I needed to post here just because I finished this game! It's actually a similar feeling to when I first finished Xenogears like 15 years ago. "Wow, I actually finished it... The game has an ending..." Took me around 65 hours just running through after Chapter 4. Talkin 0 side quests. I'm really split on this game. It's like a constant deluge of menus, drowning in screens and sub screens and options on options. I think there's a great RPG system in there somewhere, but they should've cut some options out. This is one of those games that I never would've beaten without GameFaqs, for real.

I'm partially to blame but I didn't understand a lot of the battle system until I made it to bosses that served as gates. They push you through tons of tutorials but it always felt like too much info at once early in the game. So when I picked up the game later, I forgot all the details.

I thought the story was hit and miss but in the end I really loved where they took it. My main problem is just not understanding who the different kingdoms are until it becomes more clear later in the game. I like the anime look they adopted. I think that approach made more expressive characters, in my opinion it's probably because it's easier for characters' expressions to read on a handheld screen. Also probably something to do with making up for Switch being low powered, stylized graphics age better.

I liked the first Xenoblade because I felt like it was a really open world. There's parts in this game that are huge, but I think it's totally linear at least it always felt that way to me. By the end of the game, I got my fill of creative environments though. So in the end, I think it's a great world they created.

Also, by the end of the game I loved the soundtrack. Towards the end of the game I think they start leaning heavily into the theme song and it really started to stick to me. Each new area, the music is on point.

/endrant

I'm trying to focus on finishing up some portion of my backlog. I'm speeding through Monster World on Switch right now and think I got stuck so I'm gonna hit GameFaqs, lol. Don't like wasting times with these games no more. I'm something like halfway through Splatoon 2, I mostly play multiplayer. I guess the 1p mode is better than nothing but the only thing that really stands out is the boss battles.

I don't know why I bought FF10 and Kingdom Hearts Collection in some PSN sale. I love FF10 but it's a long game. Really, I just play for the battle music... I wanted to see what Kingdom Hearts was about because I didn't like it back in the day, and I still don't really like it. I'd like to learn more about the development of Kingdom Hearts bc I forget it came out within a year of FF10. I noticed that the AI teammates are sort of a primitive FF12 gambit system. There's a lot of nice touches but it's hard to get over how horrible the controls and camera are. I've never seen KH2 so I wanted to see if it was better in hopes of preparing me for 3.

I'm also playing Picross S2 on Switch. Does that count? I played Picross 3D on DS but never picross. This is a great puzzle game that's addicting to play. Think I'm about halfways thru the 150 main puzzles.

[gameoverDude]

33) Neo Mr. Do! (arcade/Neo-Geo MVS)
1CC with a score of 1.083.550 on MVS default setting (Level 4).

34) NFL Blitz '99 (arcade)
Played N.Y. Giants against Packers for the Super Bowl. 32-23.

Jaguars get BTFO by 23 points, thanks to my getting on fire late in the 2nd quarter (2 sacks in a row does it!) & holding it for the rest of the game. Fire doesn't time out like in NBA Jam/Hangtime. To cool you off, they need to sack your QB, cause a turnover on downs, or score against you.

[Tain]

25. 428: Shibuya Scramble



Death Mark was neat, but this was the better VN that I played this year. The way it makes you hop between the characters can be a bit arbitrary at times, but the cast has a lot of personality, the whole thing has a surprising amount of polish, and we couldn't really put it down. Wonder if I'll ever be able to play Machi in English.

[gameoverDude]

35) Mega Turrican (Genesis)
299730 on Normal difficulty. Got the secret room in stage 1. Chris Hulsbeck's soundtrack for this is one of my favorites on Genesis.
A good platformer with some challenge in later levels, but not too hard of a 1CC because of the obscene amount of 1ups you can find. Factor 5 should've added a remaining lives bonus at the end of the game.