Rate the Last Game That You Played

[Dio]

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade 10/10

I didn't play the original FF7 as I was a purely Nintendo gamer at that time. I also don't care for that turn based gameplay style. However I enjoyed Advent Children and thought FF7s world had an interesting lore and considering how loved it is I wanted to experience it for myself. So when I heard a remake with modern gameplay was coming I was super excited.

Then I kind of forgot about it because they took so long. However eventually it came to the PC and my friend was enjoying it at the time. Not having anything else I wanted to play I downloaded it and started it up.

Honestly the game was an absolute joy from start to finish. The soundtrack is incredible from the get go. The graphics are beautiful. The characters are beautiful. It was just a wonderful game world to be in and immerse myself in. Every side character and NPC has unique dialogue and made the world feel alive and believable. There was nobody out of place just wandering there just to fill a space and no recycled voice clips like the NPCs of Cyberpunk or Skyrim.

There are two gameplay modes. Classic where the characters fight on their own and you just give commands or normal where you do the fighting yourself and give commands as well. I did the normal mode because I like to be in control of the action. The gameplay was fun with a good selection of items and spells to suit any players style.

The story was great with a perfect mix of seriousness, emotional moments and there was the downright hilarious and bizarre stuff too which I absolutely loved. I was grinning ear to ear with the fabulosity that took place around the midpoint of the game and if you've played it I think you can guess the bit I loved. I can't fault it really for a first play through I never thought any moment was dull.

Side quests were not tedious and like I said it was a joy to help side characters out and they enriched the experience and made the towns and things seem like places where real people live.

Voice acting was actually very good indeed. They sadly replaced the veteran voice cast due to dumb reasons. However almost all of the characters sounded wonderful anyway with the new cast doing a stellar job. I thought Cloud, Barrett, Tifa and Aerith were all great. One of them that really stood out for me was Professor Hojo, he was truly sickening onscreen and his voice actor really brought him to life. The only voice I didn't think was so great was Sephiroth. I think if you're gonna replace George Newburn it's some big boots to fill and I'm used to those deep seductive tones for Sephiroth but we didn't really get that for FF7 R. It didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game or anything like that but it was the only instance where I would say replacing the original voice actor was totally wrong to do. I know George would have loved to return as well.

Bonus point though for the fat barons belly physics! Jiggling better than the Skyward Sword Moblins.

I am amazed this game only covers and expands upon the first few hours of the original FF7 which means there is a while lot more to come. This one took me 40hrs to do so the prospect of two or three times more content on the way is an exciting one. If you haven't played it. It still feels like a very complete and fulfilling game rather than just there to set up a sequel.

This one is now firmly in my top games of all time list!

 

[Dapperchihiro123]

pokemon legends arceus, it is VER GOOD 5/5. i may just be in the starstruck phase when i first play a video game and i will deny any criticisms. the stealth mechanic is pretty good, but i wish you could sneak up on things without grass. people have been complaining about the amount of pokemon, of which there are 242. this does not seem like a lot with SwSh's 600, but it feels like more because you have to catch and research and give your attention to the majority of pokemon. mythical and legendary dex is auto filled when you catch them. this may be the best pokemon game yet, and if they don't continue this series, then ever. i don't normally like pokemon. i liked x and y loved. sun and moon i loved as well, but then SwSh made me fall out of love with pokemon, and gen 9 i am not going to get anywhere near its release. i will see if people say its like SwSh and if they do, i will not get it.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Ys 9: Monstrum Nox
great game albeit a step back from Ys 8, the setting is really drab and dull, it gives Liberty City a run for its money in drabness, but the characters are great and so is the gameplay so it has it where it counts, though it has pacing issues and in my opinion, the plot didn't intrigue me until way later, but all in all I'm glad I played it

 

[thePlinko]

Harmo Knight

The first of the digital only games I bought in preparation of the eShop closing, and one of 2 non-Pokémon games on the 3DS developed by Game Freak…. and it’s just ok.

Granted, I’m not too overly fond of rhythm games in general, I enjoyed CoH for what it’s worth, and I loved Donky Konga just for the absurdity of playing a video game through the controller that’s in the shape of bongos, but apart from that most are too stressful for me to enjoy.

Harmo Knight is similar to Crypt of the Necrodancer (and by extension CoH) in that it takes a popular pre-existing genre and adds elements of a rhythm game to it. However, unlike CotND, Harmo Knight feels less like the genre it’s trying to be and more like a rhythm game with shoehorned platformer elements. You’re still effectively just watching “notes” slowly move towards the point where you have to press the right button in time to “play” them, and it just makes me think that a platformer was not a good genre to mix with Rhythm. The entire point of a platformer is to have the player take as much time as he or she needs to plan each jump accordingly, which directly conflicts with the point of a rhythm game.


The reason CotND works so well is because it’s an action/adventure dungeon crawler at heart, but with a set tempo that everything moves towards, and a mechanic that rewards you for doing everything at said tempo. Neither of these aspects directly conflict with the core mechanics of either genre.

That’s not to say that there’s no fun to be had here, for what it’s worth there was quite a bit of the game I enjoyed, it’s just that every time I did the game would try to change things up with a gimmick in an attempt to make the game interesting without falling completely apart. The best example of this are the playable characters. In addition to “stereotypical vanilla white bread kid who finds magic item that sends him on a magic quest”, you also have “stereotypical elf girl with bow” and “stereotypical egotistical tough guy with animal companion.” None of the extra characters bring anything to the table. You can only play as them when the level forces you to (which also completely stops the music for a 2-second cutscene), and none of their “abilities” change the gameplay whatsoever. For instance, your main character has 2 actions: jump and attack. Both of them are effectively just ways to press the right button when enemies come up, as most enemies and obstacles can either be killed or evaded, not both. But when you switch to the drummer and his animal companion, one of them attacks high, the other attacks low. Neither can dodge. Now enemies and obstacles can either be attacked from up high or low. I don’t know how well I explained it, but the point is that having separate characters is completely superfluous. If anything, playing as anyone but the protagonist is a downgrade since at least he has the ability to charge up an attack for extra points when it hits an enemy.

There’s also no feedback when you miss an attack. Usually in a rhythm game you’ll get a message that says “early” or “late.” Not in this game, and it really becomes a pain not knowing why you missed the jump when you clearly hit the button on time. It’s also really frustrating when you die to a boss, because while the bosses can be decently fun, they also have super long cutscenes which really just make them a slog to have to repeat.

Also, when I heard that the bonus stages all had Pokémon songs I got really excited. Unfortunately there only 5 of them, and 1, maybe 2 are any good. Sure you have the Champion theme from Gen 1 and it’s remakes, and the trainer theme from Gen 5 is a pretty fun inclusion albeit not my first pick, but the others are just bad. The gym theme is just an underwhelming inclusion, Route 26 is fine but not exactly the most memorable track out there, and the last one is the bike theme from Gen 1. Who on earth listened to the bike theme and said “holy moly this ****’s fire, I sure hope it’s one of the only 5 tracks that represents the series in a mediocre Rhythm game”? This is absolutely a nitpick, but dammit it’s a disappointing one.

Harmo Knight is a decent romp that’s not even close to being worth the $15 price of admission. Unless you really want to fill your 3DS with digital only titles, just hope for a sale if you’re interested. Worst case scenario there isn’t one and you skip an ok at best rhythm platformer

5/10

Also yes I’m sure people were expecting me to rate earthbound, I’ll do that eventually.

 

[thePlinko]

Earthbound
I played mother 1 a while back, but I didn’t say anything about it here because I honestly didn’t have much too say apart from how you should never play the original when the fan translation of the far superior GBA port exits. Either way I started earthbound immediately afterwards, but got burnt out from too much Mother just before getting to the first sanctuary.

Anyway, I ended up “finishing” Earthbound (I say that with quotations because I actually overwrote my game with an old save state when I was at the final boss and it sent me back to when I was about 3/4s of the way through the game. I’m still pissed about that) just last night, and I gotta say…. It alright.

I’ve realized that I have the same general thoughts towards Earthbound that I do towards Paper Mario TTYD. Both are fan favorite titles in a Nintendo published RPG series that’s well passed it’s glory days. Likewise, I find both games to be firm upgrades from their predecessors in some areas, but huge downgrades in others. Earthbound specifically has a ton of areas that feel completely unnecessary or are just slogs to run through. Granted I’m 100% confident that the only reason I found Mother 1 to be less frustrating than Earthbound is because I had the GBA port exclusive easy ring equipped in the former. If that didn’t exist than I’d absolutely call Earthbound the better game. If I had to chose between Earthbound and TTYD, I think I’d have to go with TTYD for it’s more streamlined mechanics.

Despite having a pretty by the numbers story setup for an RPG, particularly one on the SNES, Earthbound manages to have a ton of really weird plot elements that made me wonder what they’d throw at me next, particularly towards the end. I wasn’t a particularly big fan of the“meta” aspect where the game asks specifically for the players name multiple times. It could’ve been really cool, but the way they follow through with it leaves something to be desired. Still, the entirety of Magicant and most of the other weird, almost acid trip moments really do give this game a personality that stands out.

If there’s any one major flaw I have with this game, it’s that the battle system doesn’t feel as fleshed out as it could be. Maybe it’s just a SNES RPG thing, but every battle feels like it’s won the same way. I never feel like I’m utilizing the battle system in a way that makes me think about what I’m doing, as ever grunt enemy is just “mash A until you win” and every boss is “Spam PSI freeze and PSI Memes until you win, unless they have a PSI shield, then mash A until you win.” There were only a handful of bosses I found difficult in the slightest, that would be the very first boss when I was underleveled, the final boss, and Starman Deluxe. Occasionally you’d use the “Rolling Meter” mechanic (where you don’t immediately take all damage and instead your HP slowly ticks down allowing you to move even after taking mortal damage) to your advantage, but that’s really only helpful when you only have one party member, because there’s never any guarantee otherwise that the first member of your party will even have any healing abilities or items.

Despite getting really frustrated with the game at times, there are aspects I truly did enjoy, and I completely understand why people love it, but it’s just too clunky for me to share the same feelings towards it. I’ll probably finish the trilogy eventually, but for now I think I’ll take another brake from Mother just to cool off from that damn save state mishap.

7/10

 

[Gorozoron]

I realized there were side modes in this game
I played them and 100%'d my file
I was confused the last time I played the game because I had collected all the Heart Star but my file was only 97% completed.
I rate this game a Good/10 because number ratings are dumb

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Persona 3 Portable

I love this game. The only complaint I had is that I found myself going through the days just waiting for something to happen, the next story sequence that is. Otherwise, I greatly enjoyed everything else that was going on. I much prefer Tartarus as a dungeon than the palaces in Persona 5. I know it's somewhat gimped compared to the console version, but that didn't at all get in the way of my enjoyment. I have very little negative to say about it, it's so good.

 

[Bloody Kun]

Finished the new Kirby on Switch…at 91%. Not sure whether I want to go back for the collectibles I missed, maybe if there’s DLC at some point, but I’m all Kirby’d out. I don’t understand the complaints that it’s short if you get everything…seems to be about regular length for these games.

Previously, both Adventure and 64 have been my favorites. I don’t like to jump the gun, but I’ve had a couple days now to think it over and I think this may take their place. It’s got the really cinematic camera angles and shots I missed from 64 but now with more freedom of movement and the tight control of Adventure mixed in, not to mention really good boss design, and the music and art direction are always good. I’d give it an 8/10 just because much of the later stuff is heavily recycled. Better than how most other games do it, but still.

 

[Chevywolf30]

Just completed a rousing game of BTD4 in all of its 4fps, early 2010s glory. 10/10 would recommend.

 

[Fraxinus]

I'll be nice and give Rune Factory 5 an 8/10, although it probably should be closer to a 7. Gameplay-wise, it's probably some of the nicest in the series, and there is a lot of ambition in the world design, although growing pains are apparent. Character design was very hit or miss, but the monster/creature design was excellent. Lots of new and already iconic additions to the monster varieties.

The story concept was mostly good, but the introduced elements to the established world lore feels mildly shaky and potentially upends the plots of Rune Factory 1, 2, and 4 if the writers don't tread cautiously going into the future--IF there is another game to follow this. Overall the story elements seemed to borrow most from Rune Factory Frontier, a spin-off, which was a really bizarre choice and while I like it, I wish they were a little more direct about it. Conclusion was overall pretty nice, but there are so many loose ends and I'm praying for a post-game.

Story pacing however, felt like a bus that kept stopping. While the introduced concepts themselves were very interesting, the way in which they chose to introduce them were so spontaneous and awkward, especially given the scale of the concepts they were working with, it shouldn't have been handled in just a "by the way, this is a thing, now go take care of it" way. A lot of the game was predictable from following such a tropey blueprint, but there were some pleasant surprises in the character cast's involvement. Problem is, there are so many unanswered questions about these characters and WHY they're actually connected to what's going on, and it sounds like they're gating off getting those answers unless you romance that character--which if the case, is an incredibly stupid choice.

Also. No story cutscenes. This is the first console Rune Factory game to not have any 'anime' story cutscenes, which is extremely disappointing, because they reserved all of their resources and budget on making the romance cutscenes which I'll probably never see.

Might write a more spoiler-y analysis about this later, but this isn't the place for it.

 

[thePlinko]

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
I’ve never been too big on the Kirby series. They’re not bad games per se, but most of them have incredibly similar level design to the point where I feel like I’m playing the same game every time, which is probably why I’ve only been able to finish 4 of them Forgotten Land included. As much as I hate to say it, it’s almost New Super Mario Bros levels of monotony to me. Even the ones that truly make the attempt to stray from the rest of the series like Epic Yarn and certain parts of Super Star left very little of an impression on me.

Enter Forgotten Land. A game that somehow manages to both succeed spectacularly and fail miserably in its attempt to stand out from the rest of the franchise. A lot of aspects of this game are ripped straight from the previous 4 games, but they’re implemented in ways that actually feel somewhat natural and fleshed out. For instance, 3 of those 4 games had some sort of major gimmick that usually just acted as a way to mix up gameplay, FL has something similar in “mouthful mode.” The difference is that mouthful mode feels less like one massive gimmick that they throw in to a level when they ran out of ideas and more like a part of the world that was specifically designed to incorporate the gimmick.

On the topic of mouthful mode, I’ve seen a lot of people compare it to Mario Odyssey’s capture mechanic, and to an extent it is very similar, however theres one main difference. In Mario Odyssey all of the captures are specific to the area you’re in. You are always going to find that one tree capture in that one specific area in the wooded kingdom. You are always going to find that pokey bird in Bowsers Kingdom. The only exceptions are when they’re generic enemies like goombas, or when they’re in sub worlds that don’t really fit into the rest of the games world to begin with and are just used as an excuse to have a random platforming challenge. The Mouthful mode in Kirby is the exact opposite. They’re thrown pretty much anywhere they’re needed, and while there’s an attempt to make them fit with the rest of the world, sometimes it falls flat. The example that comes to mind is the speaker system that they made traffic cone shaped just because they needed an in-context reason for Kirby to inhale something shaped like a traffic cone. It looks incredibly jarring. This could’ve been fixed if they had more things to inhale with mouthful mode, but as it stands there are about 9, 10 if you count the 18-wheeler that you inhale at the final boss and amounts to nothing more than a quick time event. Compare this again to the Capture mechanic in Odyssey, where there are about 50 different things to capture, and each feel completely in place where they are in relation to the world. You might say “well maybe that just means that more time is spent on each mouthful mode ability.” Again, not really. Once you’ve seen each ability once, you’ve pretty much seen everything that it can do. Sure the levels where you use them might get harder, but they’re almost never used in ways that feel more exciting. I don’t dislike the Mouthful Mode mechanic, like I said it’s easily the best gimmick we’ve seen in recent Kirby, but if you compare it directly to Mario Odyssey its clearly inferior.

There are other things introduced to the game that I think are nice changes. The main collectibles this time around are Waddle Dees, which unlike previous collectibles which just kinda unlocked random rooms or an extra level, actually expand the hub level. Now when you get a minigame from collecting X amount of things, it actually gives an in world reason for it. In addition to that, you can unlock shops and other buildings that actually do stuff. The item storage from Squeak Squad and the 3DS games returns, but now you actually have to buy the items with a newly introduced currency. This, in addition to the new stat buff items, makes the games combat feel more thoughtful than before, as now you have a reason to go out of your way to prepare before a fight. On the topic of that…

The copy ability system has actually had a slight overhaul to it. Ever since the copy ability mechanic was introduced in the 2nd Kirby game, they just kinda kept it the same without altering it too much. The most they ever did to evolve it in later titles was in Super Star and Crystal Shards, where they added full movesets to each ability and added the option to combine abilities, and even then both of these aspects would only occasionally be brought back in future titles (hell, the combo abilities have yet to be fully implemented in another game, only halfway implemented in Squeak Squad and Star Allies). Most other Kirby games have done absolutely nothing to change the way copy abilities work and instead opted to just add a ton of new ones, most of which add very little to the game. There are 28 copy abilities in Star Allies. 28. That’s a massive number of power ups that are almost never gonna be used by any given player. Forgotten Land, on the other hand, has 12. 10 returning, and 2 new. The thing that makes this so great is that Forgotten Land actually allows you to upgrade them all. 8 of them have 2 separate upgrades, 2 have 1, and the other 2 have 3. All of these you need to go out of your way to find the upgrades for. I can’t stress enough how much of an improvement this is over the previous system. Now each copy ability gets it’s due time in the spotlight, and while there are a few abilities that I miss (most notably, beam and spark are surprisingly missing despite both being staple abilities), if sacrificing them was necessary make these changes than so be it. My biggest complaint with the copy abilities in this game is that they don’t have anywhere near the same level of intricacy as they did in Super Star or Return to Dream Land, most likely because it would be a lot harder to implement them in a 3D space. Most of them have a normal attack pattern, an aerial attack, and a charge attack, with the sword abilities having a few extras. Most of the upgrades simply add an extra effect to the existing attacks, such as the ice ability creating little snow men on the ground where you’re attacking or the dragon fire ability having a super long attack range and a residual damage effect. Even without the extra attacks, the combat is still incredibly fun, though by the time you get to the final post game boss in the true arena, you’re most likely going to exclusively be using the Morpho Knight Sword upgrade, as it does massive damage and has a ton of special abilities like the charge attack buffing your sword damage and range for the next few seconds and your base attack having life steal. Yeah, it’s incredibly broken, and you can even buff it further. I managed to kill multiple bosses in exactly 2 hits, and it would’ve been 1 if the game didn’t keep them alive at one HP just because the cutscene for their 2nd phase hadnt played yet

All of these things are well and good, but at the end of the day most of the level design still feels exactly the same as the rest of the franchise, despite being in 3D. The only real difference is that there’s a lot less of an emphasis on flying, which I feel like is for the better. Apart from that it’s level design feels like any other Kirby game. But that’s just it, the game exists to be compared to other games. Nearly every aspect that stands out is something that can directly be compared to something else, and unfortunately, outside of a few select aspects like the copy abilities, Kirby and the Forgotten Land never feels like it goes above and beyond to push the envelope of what it could be. It’s an evolution of Kirby for sure, but one that should’ve happened over 20 years ago at the very least, and one that serves to play catch up to compete with other, far better 3D platformers.

For what it’s worth, I enjoyed this game. Hell, I enjoyed it enough to 100% it, so I clearly liked it. It’s definitely the most fun I’ve ever had with a Kirby game, but completely pales in comparison to some of the best platformers I’ve ever played, both 2D and 3D

7.5/10

 

[Ninja]

Persona 5 Royal - 10/10

This is my first Persona game, and I’m so mad that I haven’t played them sooner. Everything about this game was just incredible. The characters, the story, and the SOUNDTRACK, just sublime. This has to be top 3 all time for me, no exaggeration.

 

[Vanessa28]

Kirby Forgotten Land. 8/10.
My first Kirby game ever so everything is new to me. So far I really like it. Kirby and his bestie are cute as hell. I love how it looks, how it plays and stuff like that. However it gets repetitive after a while but still enjoying it tons!!

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

didn't plan to talk about them but eh, might as well since I played them back to back

Star Fox 64
Excellent still. Took me right back to 7th grade when I was really into it. Still can't believe I got all the gold medals in the 3ds version still can't in the 64 version.

Star Fox Adventures
There's a lot of awkward design choices and story beats. The dialogue is ok in some areas but really artificial in others. Like when Fox asks the King Earthwalker about the last Krazoa spirit, the dude tells you cryptic riddles like bro, just tell me what to do, its your planet that suffers if you don't. And Andross' involvement is the textbook definition of something getting shoehorned in. But all in all, the game is still solid and looks really stunning for an early GameCube title.

Star Fox Assault
By far the characters at their best and holy frick I love this soundtrack. I'll never not be bummed by how short it is, made worse by a couple annoying missions. If not for that, it'd be my favorite in the series, I really dig the Aparoid invasion plot. BRING THIS VOICE CAST BACK, NINTENDO

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

Star Fox Assault
By far the characters at their best and holy frick I love this soundtrack. I'll never not be bummed by how short it is, made worse by a couple annoying missions. If not for that, it'd be my favorite in the series, I really dig the Aparoid invasion plot. BRING THIS VOICE CAST BACK, NINTENDO

Genuinely great game if only for its well developed and endlessly playable pvp. This is one of the games that I NEED Nintendo to bring to the switch via classic just for the juicy online play no matter how bad the lag is. With friends it would just be funny