Completion Thread 2018: Lock & Load Then Rock & Roll

[EvilMog]

I finished up Far Cry 5 last night. I now feel like I need to check into rehab for substance abuse, after going through the whole Bliss hallucinations and not knowing what is real, or just an illusion. The story is so wack, that I really don't know how I feel about this game. It's better than Primal (which also had those hallucination hunts), but nowhere as good as Far Cry 4 was. I hope that Ubisoft does not do any more of these goofy hallucination missions, because they are so off the wall and make the game feel silly. Also, Why would anyone waste a nuke on Montana?

I finished Far Cry 5 too. It was just ok. I love the setting but the story had me skipping the cutscenes constantly. All the hallucinations crap was just too much. I wish they would have kept the game more realistic. Cheeseburger and Peaches FTW though. That ending...WTF.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

1. Suikoden IV.


It's amazing how time changes us. I initially played both Suikoden 3 and 4 close to their launch dates. I LOVED Suiko 3. When they announced 4, I couldn't have been more excited. I've always had a thing for pirates, and now I get to play as one in one of my favorite rpg series. I won the stupid mini game thing Konami had on their website, and received an artbook, coin, and wall scroll (which hangs in my store today). So yeah, I was psyched for the game.

It finally launched. As soon as the shipment of new games arrived at work, I tore a copy open, plopped it into the demo PS2, and plopped myself in front of it. Seemed to have a slow start, but hey, most rpgs do. After a few hours my giddy excitement had turned into complete disappointment.
The party was cut from 6 to 4. That means even more grinding to keep all the characters relevant. Yuck.
The encounter rate was stupid high. Like, Vay high.
The boat controls were complete ass. There were invisible walls around the islands that would turn your ship every which way no matter how hard you fought against it. I'd try to aim the boat straight into a harbor and get shoved aside. With the encounter rate set so goddamn high, that meant at least 2-3 battles would have to be fought by the time I swung the boat around for another try.

I tried to stick with it, but couldn't. What a frickin' let down.

Fast forward to last Summer. I decided I'd play all the (main) Suikodens in a row so I could transfer my saves (which I'd never done before) and get the full experience. I plowed through 1 & 2. When it came time for 3, I was again enamored with certain elements, but by the time I got half way through I began to hate the game. I finished it, but it was a struggle to stick with it. What happened? I loved it when I first played it?

That put me off diving into 4 right away. If I hated the one I used to like, surely trying to play the one I hated would be even worse right? Well...
Whereas I couldn't wait to get 3 over with, I didn't want to stop playing 4.
My clear save has 70 hours on it. I could have beat it at 40 hours. But I was having fun dicking around, doing the treasure hunts, trying to gather materials to craft better armors, etc.
All the things that annoyed me when I first played it continued to hold true. But I kinda got used to things. I needed a fuckton of money and material drops. So the battles didn't grate too much because I needed them. The ship still controls like ass, but I learned it's better to try to graze by the islands, rather than approach them head on. I also found Viki earlier, so that eliminated a lot of the unnecessary boat travel. So yeah, this is worse than 3 in several ways. But it's a lot better in other ways too.

This has a better story. This has better graphics. This has more (and more interesting) locations. This has cat people instead of stupid looking duck people. Suikoden 3 has Aila, and no one in here was as charming as her, but there were a few characters that got close.

I originally had no intention of playing Suikoden Tactics due to its reputation and how little I seem to enjoyable tactic rpgs. But now I'm really considering it just to stay in this part of the Suikoden World a bit longer.
So anyway, the correct ordering of the five main Suikodens best to worst is 1,2,5,4,3. You can argue differently, but you'll be wrong.

[gameoverDude]

13) Super Street Fighter II (AC)
780800 pts. 1CC with Vega, on difficulty 5 (medium-hard).

[gameoverDude]

14) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (AC)
6050950 pts. Got the "Judgment Day is still possible" ending. No way in hell will anyone 1CC this (maybe the Genesis version... MAYBE, while it's easier, that's still a very hard 1CC). Just be sure to load up on shotgun shells for the last battle with the T-1000.

[A Robot Bit Me]

I originally had no intention of playing Suikoden Tactics due to its reputation and how little I seem to enjoyable tactic rpgs. But now I'm really considering it just to stay in this part of the Suikoden World a bit longer.

Have you played Tierkreis? I've had a copy forever but never got around to it...

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

i put 15 or so hours into it and lost interest. It’s not really a suikoden game.

[Pineapple]

5. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Had a really good time with this game. The parry mechanic was interesting if not a bit over emphasized, but when it was all flowing it felt great. Controls were very responsive and tight and things were generally pretty fun to shoot. Cool progression of the Metroids from Alphas to Omegas, but I didn't feel the dread when facing off against them like I did in AM2R. Still, some really memorable fights and great music and I'm ready to go back and give Hard mode a try. Although I've been told using an Amiibo to unlock Fusion mode is where the real challenge lies. 100% in almost exactly 15 hours.

[Tain]

9. God of War



Played on Hard. Pretty nice surprise. The camera feels claustrophobic at first, but I liked the novelty of it combined with all the heavy hits Kratos deals, and when you add how fun it is to throw and recall the axe I'd say it's pretty justified. I'm far less sold on the game being one continuous camera shot. There's wild visuals, really tense fights, decent puzzles that don't overstay their welcome, and a nice set of moves to toy around with between the weapons, but I think the game goes on a little bit too long in part due to the lack of enemy archetypes. Maybe the valkyries would be better as part of the main story, replacing a few trolls and/or ogres?

[Frogacuda]

9. God of War



Played on Hard. Pretty nice surprise. The camera feels claustrophobic at first, but I liked the novelty of it combined with all the heavy hits Kratos deals, and when you add how fun it is to throw and recall the axe I'd say it's pretty justified. I'm far less sold on the game being one continuous camera shot. There's wild visuals, really tense fights, decent puzzles that don't overstay their welcome, and a nice set of moves to toy around with between the weapons, but I think the game goes on a little bit too long in part due to the lack of enemy archetypes. Maybe the valkyries would be better as part of the main story, replacing a few trolls and/or ogres?

I just finished this tonight, I mostly agree, but I actually do think the single-shot gimmick pays off. It totally removes the line between cut-scene and gameplay, and makes the game hard to put down. Combat feels great, but you're right that the enemy variety is a bit lacking, and it also sometimes feels like a distraction from everything else, which is odd to say for a GoW game.

Still, it got its hooks in me, and I connected with it in a way I hadn't past games in the series. Some of the praise is hyperbolic, especially for the story (which has a lot of fetch quest filler, despite great writing), but it still a 9/10 by any measure.

[gameoverDude]

15) The Terminator (Sega CD)
Default settings/1,119,000 pts.

One of the best Sega CD releases. It's good that Virgin Games didn't just port the cartridge version over & add redbook BGM. Instead, they rebooted it with better graphics, new stages, & more levels. Tommy Tallarico's soundtrack for it is great, especially the Tech Noir nightclub theme.
OMG, the last couple of stages are tough. Hopefully you find a lot of 1-ups along the way, because you can't continue.