[:plant:] The Game Review Thread - No Posts By Skills Because He Never Finishes His 10000 Games

Originally Posted by SailorDaravon

I need to start abusing this thread,

Will I see Wipeout HD in here by you anytime soon or just more pussyfooting about?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'd love to see a SHIT review from anyone on Dragon Age II just to convince me NOT to get into the game. Please do so people. So far I only have seen a couple of one liners from Deni, Mo0, Jessykins, and a couple others in the chocojournals.

I also have beaten 3 other games... One of them is that 999 game but I'm going for completion so it'll be a while before it'll end up on here. Its not fair to really review that game based off on just one lame ending.

Golden Sun Dark Dawn:

I cannot believe I skipped this review. This game was utter piece of shit, I imagine that's why. I didn't feel like reviewing how I wasted my time with this game. I'll just let this summarize it for you.

And they had that stupid thing where whenever something happened, every single party member had to react to it, even though about half of them said absolutely nothing of importance (especially Himi, who could have been replaced by a sock puppet for all the personality she had).

oh my god yes

Kraden: So your parents were heroes...
Tyrell: :-)
Karis: :-)
Rief: :-)
Amiti: :-)
Eoleo: :-)
Sveta: :-)
Himi: :-)
Matthew: :-)
Kraden: ...and they went on this dangerous journey...
Tyrell: :-(
Karis: :-(
Rief: :-(
Amiti: :-(
Eoleo: :-(
Sveta: :-(
Himi: :-(
Matthew: :-(
Kraden: ...stop that, it's annoying and it takes time away from my long winded ramblings.
Tyrell: >:-|
Karis: >:-|
Rief: >:-|
Amiti: >:-|
Eoleo: >:-|
Sveta: >:-|
Himi: >:-|
Matthew: >:-|

*SPOILER ALERT*
I first played Golden Sun the year it came out, back in November/December '01 (Best Christmas present ever). I was swept into the fantastic, wonderful game that was a gaming staple in my life for a VERY long, hard time. Years later, I discovered Lost Age, and a new adventure began, an exciting sequel filled with difficult, challenging puzzles, familiar elements, etc. Playing as the 'bad guys' from the first game was one of the coolest plot twists of my childhood, and teaming up with both Isaac and Felix's parties was the epitome of GBA roleplaying games. You all remember.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across Dark Dawn in the game shop. Without hesitation i purchased and started playing it. And... yeahhhh...

1. This game was, well, very, very easy. I can say with complete honesty that I did not ever lose a fight, nor did I at any point spend time power leveling up. Money was never a serious problem, and you learn psyenergy at a quick enough rate that you are always one step ahead of the enemy. Again, with complete honesty, I can count on one hand the number of times I resorted to summoning Dijinn (Slapped together at the last second final boss was not on that list, fyi.) I felt this was a minor setback, as simply playing a Golden Sun-esque game made it seem...acceptable, and I felt smarter than I was.

2. This story was just... terrible. Really, it was god awful. I'm not trying to pick at it, really, I just could not find any enjoyment or care for this world or it's plight. For a very good portion of the game, you are hunting for a roc feather. Yeah, cool, Isaac and Garret trusted us with this awesome task. Oh, save the world on the side, just because we can? Because we're the children of Warriors of Vale? Okay, sure. It's on the way. Blados? Pink haired woman (Chalis? I beat the game twenty minutes ago and I already forget)? Who the devil are they? They kind of randomly appear, push me in the right direction, and then suddenly BAM, final bosses. I'm still not sure what exactly they were trying to accomplish (It's probably explained by one line of dialogue, or reading the mind of someone four destroyed towns ago).

3. Speaking of lines of vague dialogue, notice how frequently it says "the Warriors of Vale were a controversial group?" Name ONE person in Dark Dawn who finds them controversial, beyond Patcher's Place. Nearly everyone you meet is sure you'll help them, because "You're the children of the Warriors of Vale (admittedly, you DO look exactly like them), you must be here to help me!" Also, seriously; Kraden again? Now I understand the whole Golden USn anti-aging thing, but Isaac and Garret are SIGNIFICANTLY older than they were. I don't even think Kraden got new portrait. Also, we get to see him, Isaac, and Garret, but not the rest? Come on, not even Ivan? Karis has been bumming around with Matthew and Tyrell for God knows how long, and he doesn't even poke his head out the door to wish her farewell? Not to mention the lack of Piers, Mia, Sheeba, Jenna, and Felix (although Felix was explained away easily enough, not even cameos from the others who we KNOW exist in THIS WORLD annoyed me).

4. Another thing. The characters you get in this party. I have one in particular to gripe about... Who the BLAZES is Himi? I sneezed during a cutscene and suddenly I have a crappy Japense-themed member of the party. She has less dialogue then some of the Dijinn, I swear; deus ex machina with the whole reveal power. Guess we couldn't just shove it into Tyrell's head, needed to find an eighth character to fill that slot. Also, Amiti's parentage? remember that storyline? Yeah, I do. And Reif's sister! She's off with Piers? gee, that's sweet... Could we SEE that? Suddenly, right before one of the final sequences that girl who was important for one scene is off with a character we'd much rather be seeing than these fools (don't get me wrong, I'm a big Matthew, Amiti, and Eoleo fan). I was almost disgusted with the character choices. I think their mistake was trying to squeeze eight into one game; it just didn't work out. You get the last three almost forced upon you at the last possible second, it was frustrating and weak story.

5. I... I just couldn't get into it. The characters (NPC and otherwise) were annoying and trite, the combat was too easy, the Eclipse event (while admittedly I liked the concept at first) was very annoying to put up with and VERY cheap (I really, really missed the ability to travel back to old towns to use my powers on the objects there, or read the minds of those people awaiting the end of the world. The inability to get back to, say, the Lookout Cabin or eventually Belinsk really bothered me). The ending felt rushed, and... I really just didn't care. I never fully understood why the Blados' crew was doing what they were, the survival of Alex seemed very unecessary, the game simply dropped certain storylines and left things unresolved in the wake of your travels, and it seemed like all of a sudden a simple retrieval quest turned into a world saving quest at the drop of a hat. And why the BLOODY MUFFINS doesn't Isaac live with his wife?! Seriously?! Was it a fling, were they not meant to be, what?! We don't even SEE her in this, and she was an important part of the two first games! She wasn't even on the same continent as this game! Oh, but Piers (though awesome) is around in a ship somewhere, picking up stray water adepts for kicks (and we don't see him either, just know he's there, waiting to take our other cast off characters. Himi's coming your way soon, I promise). The final blow was being teased with old map, and being unable to access it. The Mercury lighthouse was a sad reminder of how fantastic the story was in the first games, and how sadly they've muddled it.

Well, that's it. I don't know if I can handle another Golden Sun game, now. It's going to have to be phenomenally better, because after this evening, my spirit has been broken. My apologies for the length of this rant, but it's being stewing to a slow boil since Konpa Cave. As a writer, I sincerely hope they get everything back on track for the hopefully next wonderful installment, and we can put this behind us.

He pretty much summarized why I hated this game. SO MUCH. So much sadness. Anyway avoid this unless you're a silly diehard GG fan. I also didn't bother with completion because really, just the mere idea of doing the same damn summon rushing Dullahan pisses me right off when I just beaten him in TLA not but mere months ago.

FFF Chocobo's Dungeon:

Very adorable dungeon crawl. The voice acting though is extremely atrocious though. The remixes in that game is awesome enough but still. The plot was interesting but embarrassing to watch. o.o' But the best part of it is doing the trial dungeons. They certainly challenge your skills at dungeon crawling. Thankfully I've played a much more difficult dungeon crawlers than this so those trials were nothing. Not even that 100 floor dungeon either. It was very easy imho and I went and completed it because it was that simple enough. Oh, you do need to catch those dumb romantic phrases to give to Romantic Hero X to get those optional trial dungeons from the replay dungeons menu (over in the church).

It was surprisingly convenient along with the ability to switch/take on jobs. You can be a white/black mage or you can be a knight/dragoon/ninja/dark knight. You can also be yourself or a dancer or a thief. Its nifty being able to dungeon crawl differently and be able to match yourself up to par with certain type of enemies you're not sure about killing. The jobs themselves has their own level abilities (up to 8 levels and have up to 12 abilities or less) that makes thing much more even between all classes so you won't screw yourself. AKA if you got surrounded as a white mage, you can cast teleport/escape to get out of that bind easy. If you got an enemy that is invulnerable to physical attacks while you're a knight, you can still use the knockback ability to postpone the attacks towards you while you work out another solution.

The traps aren't all that bad surprisingly. Some of them works FOR you like those green seals, if you were that low enough on hp, they can heal you instead. And most of the status effects can wear off within 10 steps and you're fine. Pretty much nulls the purpose of a ribbon if you ask me. The only effect that is dangerous is the silence because all job abilities are affected by this.

With all that aside, I did like the forging equipment deal. The equipment themselves can be forged with status effects themselves. AKA you can put on a silence protection on it. Or to boost item drops or to boost exp or attack. Or you can put poison on your attack (talons). Its pretty awesome and nifty to be able to do this. Besides the jobs and their abilities, being smart with your equipment goes a REAL long way too. Thankfully you can earn enough gil to pay for the upgrades easy. You just make sure not to sell those with +1 because they're CHEAPER to fuse instead of upgrading stand-alone.

And the reward for completing the 100 floor dungeon? Its the most adorable thing yet. Most adorable thing ever, nothing else mattered. <3 <3 <3

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Hee hee, got a few knocked down!

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors:

I got this as my xmas gift. I had no idea what to expect when I saw the cover. But apparently the genre was definitely for me. All about mystery, puzzles and a plot to follow from 8 (technically more) people. Not only that, it got 5 extra endings to boot.

So yeah I fired it up without knowing a clue what to expect going in. What I got a nifty intro and a lot of suspense going on. And what awesome sprite animations too.

First puzzle was easy enough but yet scary enough to get you started with a hint of being rushed as you noticed your own room is being flooded.

Without spoiling everything, the characters you meet are part of why you go through any door since they're assigned with specific numbered bracelets that allows them to form a digital root in pair of three to five people through one door. And yes, there's plenty of rooms and doors and puzzles.

And I went about to complete it too. I knew that first ending wasn't enough. I NEEDED MORE. That's the down/positive side of this game. The endings seemed... so abrupt and it just ends. But fortunately it throws you for the loop regarding the characters you have chosen to go with (or rather which doors you chosen to go through). It definitely kept the game fresh and interesting in several playthroughs. Not only that, you get the speedy text option where you can blitz through text that you've seen before and it'd stop at that you haven't read. Nifty, too bad they couldn't do the same for puzzles though. But its still so awesome enough for me to be able to solve on my own.

So it was truly worth to complete this at the very least to get the most enjoyment out of the game really. Highly recommend for mystery, puzzle and text adventure lovers.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:

Man yeah, this game rocked. The real reason why I took up the Wii to marathon on. I just finished the prequel to this a while ago. And that game had left me unsettled and wanting MORE for more plot and more awesome tactical endeavors with my favorite units again. And it fulfilled that promise with so much more.

This game was the biggest fire emblem yet I had ever played. With 72 characters to learn/love/converse with in 37 tactical segments to boot! I adore this game so much over the series thus far. It enabled you to take charge on very weak units while learning/adjusting to tactics again from other genres to take up powerful units and still own several chapters with. Really, this game gave you a real freedom to not be all that concerned with leveling all of your characters other besides your own favorites or the ones that you would have to level up with eventually anyway.

The plot was great and interesting, the characters were all great and interesting. ;D And yes, I went on EASY MODE. Apparently, easy mode US is actually normal for japanese version. :\ No idea why but personally that's what I recommend anyway just to enjoy the game and not worry too much about losing your favorite units to bullshit moves. Like I do thanks to my impatience... but thankfully greatly rewarded for finishing within 10 turns with lots of bonus exp that you can distribute inbetween chapters. Better yet you can save inbattle and you can definitely do a lot more stuff in this game like forging to checking out other stuff.

Anyway anyway, greatest fire emblem so far. I'm just now can only be let down with some later weak installments. (I'm looking at you Shadow Dragon) I'm so glad I took this up early after finishing the GCN marathon. It definitely made the Wii worthwhile playing on.

Last Window: The Secret of Cape West:

This was a b-day gift. Enjoyable text adventure with several stylus tricks in it. But not a whole lot. Like with Hotel Dusk you learn how to converse with a character and see through their weak talking points and get them to spill their guts to you in hyde fashion.

I loved Hotel Dusk for their pretentious dark overtones but really, I liked the conversations between characters more of all. And of course exploring and figuring out how to solve a puzzle by interacting with an object (Phoenix Wright style too).

Didn't think I could complete this without at least playing through 3 times for several different outcomes of a conversation with a character (and what to do with that 1000 dollar check). Great little gem imho. Not worth the price though, I'd suggest a rental. Its a real shame that this game was only available in PAL region, and could only imagine how much of a hassle it was to import it when its that small of a game.

I was speaking idiomatically.

What are you guys doing~! Christ, I dunno what happened but I'm a machine in the month of may. It helps that some of these are darn short. And due to that... I'll just leave at short reviews for now. I can rehash it in a pm/backloggery if you wish to know more.

Portal 2 - Awesomeness all around. Meets expectations and more.

Vagrant Story - Took a while to get into, but I played this a decade ago but lost 5 hours in (against a dragon SOB) and thanks to Q's challenge, I picked this up again and hacked my way through without a problem. o.o' If I didn't have the guide to help me find my ground (jesus), I'd had thought this game was a bit overrated.

Persona - PSP version, nifty barebones starter SMT or a sequel from the snes SMT games etc. I liked it for what it had, most definitely appreciate the additions that Atlus added to it to make it easier. The automap for instance is a god send. But yeah like I said, its very barebones rpg and there's not a whole lot of content other than just personas and dungeon crawling.

Rhapsody - PSX version, beaten it in the same day. If I have heard that this was THAT short, I'd have played it decade ago at least. Its adorable and incredibly easy jrpg with cute overload inside. What caught my attention was the detail to the dialog. <3 Atlus forever.

Astonishia Story - I thought the sprite work was incredible (along with Popolocrois) but the negative dialog along with digs at piracy, wonky battle system (and unnecessarily too at that) AND a shit rationale ending was putting this game at a negative. But I pushed it along anyway just to finish it for Crimson Gem Saga. Both games aren't that long anyway.

Etrain Odyssey - Incredible. SD got into this and was obsessed with the first two for a while and because of the singular save system, I didn't have access to it for a while. And we were considering to sell them, and because I haven't tried it, I'm glad we didn't right away! I enjoyed this because it made for an excellent time waster inbetween errands when you are mostly exploring and grinding. Reminds me again why I love Dark Spire and the like so much.

Lost in Shadow - A belated b-day present with knowing that its going to be neat in concept. What I got was a game born out of Limbo and Ico combined. I'm still unsure what to make of the game, other than that it is just neat to play but the ending and the repetitive floors (65 of them in total) will leave you a little jilted.

LEGO Star Wars - SD and I were co-oping this for a while. We picked it up again because we had a couple of reasons to do so, to beat it and to sell it. Turns out its rather messy at some parts and yet charming in others. I still didn't like how you should enter that part in free mode with a character to unlock a lot of things. But at least its out of the way now.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

You know me Philia, I need to give your thread a little love.

I haven't done one of these in a while:

Spoiler:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (from a completionist point of view)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV is a game that is often referred to one of the best beat'em ups to ever grace the super nintendo system. It was one of the few super nintendo games that I owned as a kid, but I had the liberty of playing this game at the arcade before I ever played it on the snes.

In order to complete this game, you don't really have to do much. It is actually very easy to complete and each play-through of the game can take you anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. You do have to play the game on every difficulty, but beating it on hard is the only way to get the true ending of the game. If you beat the game on any other difficulty besides hard you'll get a message from splinter telling you to play the game on a harder difficulty in order to be true ninja masters.

The only other bit of advice I can give you with regards to completing the game every time you defeat any of the enemies you get points all depending on how you defeat your enemies. For every two hundred points you earn, you get a free life. The best way to reach 200 point is to throw your enemy at the screen. Every time you do this, you get three points because any other way you defeat enemies you will most likely get two points. However the only enemies you can throw at the screen are foot soldiers. The only problem with throwing enemies at the screen is it doesn't work well when your surrounded by enemies. You leave yourself open to be attacked. Use it whenever you have a safe opportunity to do it.

Give this excellent beat'em up a try and it really doesn't require much effort to complete.

Spoiler:

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (from a completionist point of view)

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is yet another spin-off game from the widely popular kingdom hearts series, but this game is a prequel to the original Kingdom Hearts storyline. More than anything this game makes me understand why the Kingdom Hearts series annoys me. However I did make the time to actually complete this game. I will warn you to complete this game is not for the faint at heart. I managed to complete this game at 209 hours, and a hell of a lot of patience since this game actually had the liberty of having one of the most difficult boss fights I've ever had the liberty of fighting in my entire life.

With regards to completing the game you need to play each of the three story-lines and 100% each of them. However you need to beat all three of the story-lines on proud mode (which is the second highest difficulty on the game). The reason you need to do this is that this psp game has trophies. In order to get one of the eight trophies you need to beat all three story-lines on proud mode or higher. So if your a completionist like me you need to put the extra burden on yourself to complete the game on higher difficulty than normal. If you are curious what the rest of the trophies are, here they are:

Arena Sweeper Proof you have finished every quest.
Clockwork Proof you have played for 80 hours or more.
Dairy Devotee Proof you have activated Frozen Fortune 30 times.
In the Munny Proof you have amassed 33,333 munny.
Keyslinger Proof you have taken out 9,999 Unversed.
One Down Proof you have finished one character's story.
Power Walker Proof you have taken 99,999 steps.
Trinity Trophy Proof you have finished all the stories in Proud Mode or
above.

For the most part if you are going to attempt to complete the game, you will automatically get many of the trophies anyway since they are very straight forward to get. The only one that will probably give you a lot of difficulty is the arena sweeper because you need to complete every arena battle in the game which can be a little difficult. These trophies become available once you beat one of three story-lines. You then get an option on the opening screen called trinity archives. As far as I know, getting the trinity trophy is the only true missable in the entire game. When you play any of three story-lines you can go back to any of the levels at any time, so even if you miss a treasure chest, sticker or particular item you can always go back to get it. Once you actually beat each of the story-lines you will be given a report of the game to show how much you have actually completed.

Once you actually go through each of the story-lines after you pass the first level you'll gain access to the report log. This report log will give you the foundation to know if your game has been truly completed. The report log consists of the following.

Story (This is actually fairly easy to complete, once you've beaten the game you have pretty much done each part of the storyline for each specific character. Very easy to complete.)

Secret Reports (You can gain access to all the secret reports by playing through the game and getting every treasure chest. You can get one report by completing one of the arena battles as well. This part is actually not hard to complete.)

Game Records (This one can get a little tedious since you need to complete every mini game in disney town, every battle in the mirage arena, and every command board in the entire game. You also need to use the command link with every side character in the game and use their special attacks to make sure you get a hit count of every special attack in the game.)

Character Files (Character files get documented every time you meet a character from the disney or square enix universe. It is actually fairly easy to complete this section in each of the three story-lines. Since you have to associate with all the characters as you progress through the story. The secret bosses can also appear in the character file but as far as I know they don't contribute to the 100% completion.)

The Unversed (In order to get this section of the report log completed you have to defeat every variant of the unversed and you can't do it by simply completing the story aspect of the game. Some variants of the unversed can only be defeated in the mirage arena, so your going to have to beat every mission in the mirage arena just to make sure you get every type of unversed in the game.)

Ice Cream Guide (Throughout the entire game, in each of the world there are certain areas in which enemies known as prize pods will appear. When you hit these prize pods, you get items to make specific types of ice cream. You need to make every type of ice cream and each of characters story lines use different types of flavors. You won't find all the ingredients in all the worlds though. One ingredient you can only get in a certain arena battle in the mirage arena so keep that in mind.)


Command Collection (Commands are pretty much special attacks that each of your three characters can use. However you can only unlock them my meeting special requirements such as defeating a certain number of unversed, collecting a certain amount of money, or using a specific spell or skill. Each character as quite a few commands to unlock and in order to get the gold mickey mouse icon you need to unlock each and every one of them.)

Treasures (Each world that you visit will have a certain number of treasure chests you can acquire. The best thing about this aspect of the report log is that it will actually tell you how many treasure chests you need to find in each of the worlds. It won't tell you where they are, but just remember even if you miss a treasure chest you can go back to the worlds at any time to get them if you missed them. You need to grab all of them however if you want to get the gold mickey mouse icon for treasures in the report log. Also if your dedicated to getting every skill and spell in the game then you definitely need to grab every treasure chest.)


Sticker Album (Throughout each of the worlds, you will see gold icons in the shape of crowns. Some of them you can get right away, others you will need to get certain skills in order to get them. These gold crowns are stickers, that you can use to post in a photo album, which will give you certain items. The sticker album will also show you how many stickers are in each of the worlds so keep a close eye out. You to get every one of them and post them in the sticker album to get the the gold mickey mouse icon next to the sticker album.)

When you get a gold mickey mouse icon next to each of these in the report log then you've completed everything specific in each part of the report log. When you beat the game with everything in the report log labelled with a gold mickey mouse icon you will get an ending screen showing you have completed the game with that specific character to 100%. However don't let that fool you. If you get the trinity archives when you beat every characters story, it will show you that you haven't completed the game to 100% under records. You may of asked yourself what have you missed.

More than likely you will probably have missed the two secret bosses in the boss known as venitas lingering spirit and the mysterious figure. You will need to beat both them with all three character to get the keyblade they will give you after beating them. Also when you complete the mirage arena with all three characters, more mirage arena battles will appear that you need to complete for all three characters. When you do, you get another keyblade for that as well.

There is a lot to do when it comes to completing this game, but out of everything that i had to do for this game defeating the extra bosses was one of the toughest things I had to do, there is a lot of grinding in this game and its going to take a lot of patience to complete this game. At least for me this game is now officially retired for good.

FELIPE NO

I won't let this awesome thread die, I will bring it back from the brink of oblivion.

Spoiler:

Sonic Rush - DS (From a completionist point of view)

You know sonic has gotten a lot of abuse especially in the mid to late 2000's because it seems like every attempt sega tried to put sonic in a console game was very lackluster at best. However it has been such a long time since I played a sonic game, the last one I actually played and completed was sonic advance 3 for the GBA. I decided it was time to play another sonic game and since my 3DS was the only system I had while working away from home sonic rush was the next game I was going to complete and in all honesty this may not be the deepest or most complex sonic game out there but it was actually really good and most surprisingly I actually loved the music in this game and the level design was fairly half decent. There is one track I'm always listening to especially lately, this game added a few techno/house style tracks in the game and the music definitely made the levels a lot of fun to play.

I'm totally addicted to this track.

YouTube Video

With regards to completion the game is not really all that difficult to complete. It requires two playthroughs, but I do recommend playing it without worrying about missing anything and then eventually go back to get everything you missed most notably the chaos emeralds. As far as I know there are no permanent missables. I managed to complete this game in about 2.5 playthroughs.

When you start the game you have the choice of choosing one of two characters. The characters are Sonic the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat. It really makes no difference on who you want to play first. The bosses and levels are completely the same even though the order of the stages are different for each character and you do have an extra task to do in the sonic levels which is collecting all 7 chaos emeralds.

Both Sonics and Blazes story are a little different but they end with the same result.

Sonic Playthrough

Sonic goes through the stages in this order:

Leaf Storm
Water Palace
Mirage Road
Night Carnival
Huge Crisis
Altitude Limit
Dead Line
Final Zone

Each stage has three levels, the first two levels are standard platforming levels while the third level is the boss for that specified stage. While playing as sonic one thing you'll have to watch out for when playing the first two levels of each stage are devices called special gimmicks. Special gimmicks are rotational wheels which are moved by your tension gauge and if you spin it fast enough you'll be transported to the bonus level with an opportunity to get a chaos emerald for that specified stage if you get enough rings. Even if you don't get enough rings to get the chaos emerald you can still use the special gimmick just as long as you have enough energy for your tension meter which can be refilled by performing tricks, defeating enemies, and opening up specific item boxes. The bonus stages just like every sonic game will get progressively more difficult so you can't simply use the special gimmicks in the easiest stages to get all the chaos emeralds, There are a total of three special gimmicks in each level for the specified stage except the boss level. You have more than enough opportunities (a total of 6) to grab a chaos emerald for the specified stage.

When you defeat a level for the specified stage you get a rank anywhere from C to S which is based on your score all depending on how fast you finished the level, how many rings you accumulated, and how many tricks you have performed throughout the level. Thankfully getting s ranks does not get anything extra so its purely for bragging rights.

You keep doing that for each stage until you fight the final boss and get the regular ending.

Then its on to the second playthrough.

Blaze Playthrough

Blaze goes through the stages in this order:

Night Carnival
Leaf Storm
Mirage Road
Water Palace
Altitude Limit
Huge Crisis
Dead Line
Final Zone

Blaze's playthrough is far more simpler because you don't have to play any bonus stages. She will get a sol emerald every time she defeats the stage boss. So when you beat the game she'll have obtained all 7 sol emeralds. You'll get the normal ending for her playthrough.

Once you have beaten Blaze's story and Sonic's story (granted you have collected all 7 chaos emeralds) its time to fight the true boss of the game in order to get the best ending. A third option will come up when the character select screen comes up. You select the third option in order to fight the true final boss and get the best ending for the game. Using the power of the emeralds you turn into SuperSonic and SuperBlaze and alternate taking on Dr Eggman and Dr Eggman Nega. Once you have defeated the boss you have successfully completed story mode to 100%.

The only other thing you need to do is complete the time trials for all the levels and bosses. Once you have completed all the time trials and beat the story mode to 100% you have successfully completed the game.

It is definitely a solid sonic game and I really loved the music for this title.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Haha,I remember this thread. It's been a while since I finished any game to a completionist level but I've come close a few times since I last posted in here:

Final Fantasy XIII

Spoiler:

FF XIII was slated when it came out. Old school FF fans hated that you couldn't explore huge areas and there were no towns. Newcomers complained there was too much cutscene, not enough game and the combat was messy. Both those groups of people can suck a dick.

I actually really liked FF XIII. Sure, the levels are more or less tubes right up till near the end but all "exploring" has ever done in FF games is make you walk further to generate more random battles, there's never been any real sense of excitement in finding stuff for me and with no random battles, there's simply no point in making people walk further for no reason because if you don't want to fight you can swerve the monsters. Likewise with towns, all they've ever been is a long-winded, 3d menu. I prefer having everything laid out easy to find in one place.

I think the reason I like FF XIII and a lot of people don't is that I've always been one for playing rpgs for the system, not for the story. My focus is generally on working out how the system works and figuring the best way to maximise stats and so forth. The badly voiced chatty bits in between times kinda get in the way for me. With FF XIII you are battling down a series of corridors until you reach near the end when it opens up but when it does open up, it's a stat-maxers dream, primarily because of the monster hunts. Sent on a series of missions to take down various big monsters, these in some part represent a real challenge that take some careful planning to beat. Sure you can level up and bull your way past most of them but the fun for me was beating them as early as possible (And using the resulting loot to be hilariously over-powered). I didn't set out to unlock everything in the game but as a side-effect of hunting down all the monsters, I ended up getting most of the achievements anyway. The ones I didn't get are the ones that rely on a massive amount of boring grinding, to complete everyone's Crystarium and beat the last few monsters you'll never take without doing that.

As a FF game, most of you would probably hate it. As an interesting exercise in number crunching, it's worth a look!

XCOM - Enemy Unknown

Spoiler:

I'll admit I've not actually finished this yet but this is a cautionary tale as much as anything. Love the game, romped through, made a few dumb choices but toughed it out to end up with a team of xenos-murdering psychos, launched into the last mission, saved before I left just in case, fought my way easily enough through the base, accidentally rushed into the last room, got killed quickly, pressed retry, had a glitched save that would only let team members with flight packs into the last room (Meaning only 4 of my 6), got owned, reloaded, same thing happened, tried to entice the aliens out of the room, didn't work, went to reload my pre-last mission save, realised I'd saved over it with the glitched one by mistake, was sad.

My previous save is only a few hours before that but it's long enough to have disheartened me for a bit. I'll get back to it at some point.

Achievement-wise, there's nothing too taxing in here. The only one likely to cause problems is the one for completing a game on Classic Ironman. The game is pretty brutal in Classic mode and a wrong choice can easily lead to your whole team getting wiped out. I imagine beating the game on Impossible Ironman is an exercise in extreme frustration but it's not necessary for an achievement. If you find Impossible tough then you could always save and reload through the missions and slug it out that way.

Annoyingly for a long tp play game, you have to finish the whole thing five times for a full house but I'll manage that over the years I imagine.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

So I just got the secret ending of Final Fantasy XIII-2, which requires getting every single fragment in the game. I'll admit I used a guide for a lot of the fragments, some are stupidly well hidden. Also the chances of you seeing every single monster in the game for the last fragment without a guide are basically zero.

Whole thing took 75 hours but if you were rushing through you could do it in half that I reckon. Fun game all told, although the DLC is pretty pointless, a bunch of characters you're supposed to fight after the story, by which point you don't need them at all, plus their crystal drops are a really low percentage, I've still not got Lightning's crystal after beating her 15 times.

All in all, easier to get 1,000/1,000 than the first game, if only because filling the Crystarium is significantly quicker in this game, plus the bosses are all pretty easy. I can't recall one that took me more than a couple of attempts.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've beaten two games recently! It's quite an achievement considering that I don't have that much time to play games.

Bioshock - It's pretty overrated and the game didn't really live up to how great people say it is. It's still a good game overall. Story is ok, I didn't think it was anything "revolutionary". It was pretty straightforward with a twist near the end. Being a shooter, you won't be dragged into the story that much since you're too busy shooting stuff in front of you. Also, the fps element is a bit clunky. Shooting and aiming isn't as good as other FPS games, but it gets the job done. The ending was kind of underwhelming and short. I expected a good closing sequence, but all I got is a short cinematic ending.

3/5 - Good

Dead Space 2 - I loved it as much as I loved the first game. I like that they added more personality to Isaac and made him talk and interact with different characters in the game. Gameplay mechanics is basically the same, and the variety of weapons let you experiment which one suits your dismembering needs. The story is a lot more engaging this time, since Isaac has a lot of dialogue and conversation with the game's characters. It's still action packed while retaining the slow pace of a survival game. Although the difficulty can be a bit hard at some points, it's still well balanced so as you won't resort to button mashing. An entertaining game all the way through the end credits! Oh, this is probably one of the fastest games I've beaten. I was able to complete it in only a month's time!

5/5 - Great

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Ok so I've still not actually Caiught 'em all but I did finally hit 1,000 km on my Pokewalker so I've unlocked the last area and have a limitlkess supply of Feebas and Spiritombs at my fingertips meaning I can trade for any Pokemon I want more or less (Heartgold by the way). Closest I've ever come to catching all of them I reckon and I'm only two games behind the curve!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Here we go again!

Resident Evil 5
It's basically a more action packed RE4. The game mechanics are similar, with minor improvements. The addition of a 2nd character barely affects the gameplay in Single Player mode, although I haven't tried the multiplayer mode yet. Story-wise, it's still very cheesy Resident Evil, nothing you should take seriously. I had some difficulty in figuring out how to defeat a boss or two, and also the final form of the final boss. The game feels a lot more arcade-y, if that's even a word. In the older games, you try to avoid zombies/enemies and save ammo. Whereas in this version, you get graded as to how many enemies you've rounded up and killed. The ending sequence was a bit bland, but suited the game's overall arcade feel. I enjoyed it, but I probably won't be playing it again.

3/5 - Ok

I was speaking idiomatically.

Played through Darksiders on PS3 over the last few weeks, I didn't get all the trophies but they're certainly achievable if you're that way inclined. I got 70% without using a guide and just playing through it.

Pretty awesome game actually. More Zelda than God of War, nice balance of puzzles and fightan although suffers from the same issue as Zelda in that the new toy you unlock is how to solve every puzzle in the dungeon you find it in, rather than introducing new ways to use old items particularly. I found all the Abyssal Armour bits without looking anything up and two of the legendary upgrade thingies. Game could have benefitted from some optional bosses and making levelling up your weapons a touch quicker, I didn't get any to max level and I wasn't exactly rushing through it.

As for the trophies I didn't get, I couldn't be arsed to play through on the harder difficulty, although I did restart it to see how tricky it might be and with the Abyssal Armour already unlocked from the start, it's basically the same as normal mode. Picking up the one for killing things with scenery wouldn't take much effort and getting max level equipment would take forever and be exceedingly dull but wouldn't be actually difficult. I forget what else there was but there's nothing in there especially tricky, just time consuming.

Might pick up the second one at some point although I guess with THQ going tits up there's little danger of the series getting finished off.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Vemp

Here we go again!
Resident Evil 5

Holy shit, are you me. I just fucking pick this up too recently.

I've been a nice string of games lately!

Dishonored, Far Cry 3, The Walking Dead, annnd Resident Evil 5 in a span of 2 weeks lol.

Dishonored - Great stealth game, he rented it out for me knowing that I loved Deus Ex: HR very much, and I can tell you that my expectations were met with this game. I'm still sour on the game be very buggy with detection and its difficult to get Ghost (no detection). It'd appear to be meaty but after hearing that you could just murder everyone and finish it half of the time you could do it in stealth or not collect upgrades all that much for the stealth. I'm just glad I didn't roll that way. Stealth for life!

Far Cry 3 - Hyped to heck when I hear you can kill bears to komodo dragons lmao. But yeah, I got warned beforehand about its laughable plot. White boy going in and be a king of the natives yeah right. I ignored the story and just went for the gameplay. I really enjoyed exploring the islands for the 100% ingame progress. Collecting relics allows you to find hidden awesome passages that were created to reach these. Also, that Vaas character is so awesome.

The Walking Dead - James played this first and was all like OMG... OMG... I'm gonna be all depressed now ;___________; I just had to wonder lol. Of course I'm impressed with the wide array of choices and all but its misleadingly still on a linear path though. IE you'll end up with the same last 3 or 4 characters at the end. Anyway, because of THAT, I can feel that its mostly forced my hand to pick the choices I had to agree with best just because I want to see more extra scenes. It may not a big deal or whatever, but I hate the fact that these characters a little of a throw away type though. Save Clemetine though!

But at the end, it definitely got me hyped for Season 2 at least. The writing is quite decent. Just don't go in expecting "choose your adventure" type though.

Resident Evil 5 - After Far Cry 3 and TWD so close to each other, its only natural I just had to play this right away and beat it the next day lol. About time too, I think I was so turned off from 2-3 mission (where you fucking shoot down that stupid giant from the jeep) I just put it down the first time I played it. This time around obviously I've done better and saw the gem this game was. Its fun when hunting for treasures in mind because they're just everywhere in neat spots to find. But yeah after beating the game and attempting to do it again I kinda saw how "corridorish" this game was. :\ And then finding out that the points for unlimited ammo for ONE gun maxed upgraded is about the amount of one playthrough. So yeah I gave up on that. It was quite fun when it lasted however... even its only 12 hours worth.

Most amazing jew boots

Resident Evil 6

Just finished this yesterday. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I couldnt believe that THIS is the game everyone has been bitching about all this time.

All I heard and read about this game told me to not buy this game and stay the hell away from it, I really havent seen such a negative bandwagon in quite some time, nevertheless, my co-op partner told me to buy it, and I am glad I did. What was I thinking? Almost giving in to the damn metacritic generation!

Simply put, if you liked RE5, chances are high you'll enjoy this too, gameplay wise its almost 1:1, however, there are a few additions I cant really applaude, the overuse of Quick Time Events gets a bit boring at times, and the fixed camera at critical times will definitely get you killed more then once, but they are minor issues in the long run. It's a long exciting rollercoaster ride that is more action based then survival horror. Dramatic horror, I believe they officially call it.

Don't be a lemming and make up your own mind! Just give it a chance. And it goes without saying, that playing in Co-op adds a lot to the experience, the AI partner is pretty useless.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Tomb Raider (PS3)

This is my first Tomb Raider game since the original, and I can't really remember how that game went. I must say that it's a really good story-based action game. There's a good mix of exploration, QTEs, and fighting, at the same time allows the story to flow at a nice pace as you go along. You guide the character throughout of the game, pushing forward while continuing the narrative. So it's half story time, and half pushing buttons. Which isn't really a bad thing because it's leaning more on telling a story, and if you approach it from that perspective you won't be that disappointed. Graphics is amazing, everything is crisp, the environment and character models are very well done. The music adds a bit of tension to the game, although nothing memorable. Voice acting is also pretty good, although It's nowhere near FFXII good (which I still believe has an AMAZING voice acting).

Overall it's a fun game, great story, enjoyable gameplay. Will probably replay for the trophies.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It's me again!

Max Payne 3 / PS3

Recently finished this game a few of weeks ago. Compared to the first 2 games, the gameplay didn't change that much except for the addition of being able to cover and do "melee" attacks. Storywise, the first person narrative made it feel like it's still a Max Payne game, but I do miss the comicbook-style they used in the first two games. The plot is okay, a bit predictable at times but it does work with the character. The pacing of the story got a bit dragging sometimes, where gunfights lasting a bit longer than I expected and the story unfolding a bit too slow. These were the parts where the game felt like a chore and I just wanted to get through it and finish the game. Graphics are really as good as expected of games in present-day standard. The environments were well done, especially the outdoor locations. Some interior locations look a bit plain, especially the walls, but that's just probably me. Personally, it wasn't worth the hype. It's still Max Payne, but not the Max Payne I remember. Like that cool uncle you have who've become older and a bit grumpy, but he's still cool.

It was an ok game, and beating it once should be ok. I don't really care about the trophies. Don't care about the multiplayer either.

Score: Good. But short of what I expected.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Today I finished Ni No Kuni and by finished I mean beat the Guardian of Worlds. 85 hours total play time, Oliver at level 95, massively over-powered. Great game but a weirdly easy post-game, especially given the monster amount of grinding you need to do to level up your monsters and alchemise the best gear. At no point did I specifically grind for levels, just for ingredients for quests really and I waltzed through the optional bosses with no real planning or setup. It does make me laugh to see the idiots on GameFAQS banging on about needing to be level 95 and have fully trained your monsters and need a tank, striker and healer on each team member to beat the endgame bosses because that's complete bullshit. Pick any monster you like, give them decent gear and so long as their defence is in the 200's, you can't lose.

I'm missing a few trophies but only the ones aimed at OCD weirdoes with no life who are happy to spend hundreds of hours grinding to get the "Every monster" and "All the alchemy" type achievements. Fuck that shit.

But yeah, great game but far too easy and I wish they'd not made the main character the only person in the whole game without a British accent (And an annoying American one at that).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'll definitely buy Ni No Kuni after I finish some of my games. My wife won't let me buy more games because I still have a few unfinished ones. And speaking of finished games!

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Ninja Cyborg Fighting Bonanza with a hint of War Philospohy from Robo-Dog!

I borrowed this from my co-worker because I don't want to shell out money for such a short game, and would rather save it for Last of Us. Anyway, I haven't played Bayonetta or Vanquish so this is my first game from the guys at Platinum.

I will say that it is a very fun action game. The gameplay flows smoothly, and the actions are very fluid. I had some difficulty on the first boss as I was figuring out how the controls work. The game has a very detailed guide on the controls and also a command list of Raiden's actions. The camera was a bit tricky, and it was kinda hard to focus on enemies until I figured out how to lock on to a target. Most of the game was a breeze up until the final boss, which I spent an hour of frustrated attempts to defeat him. After resting for a bit and trying it the second time, I figured out the pattern and was actually not that difficult to beat him.

The story was nothing serious and although it happened after MGS4, it felt more like a spin-off rather than a sequel. A bit short, but I did enjoy playing it. 5hrs+ of game time.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The thing with most Platinum games is that you get better at them and will want to replay them several times on several difficulties. So a single playthrough is never indicative of the amount of enjoyment or value for money you get out of their titles.

If you enjoyed the combat, do look into Bayonetta. I'd say it is the finest action game in the last decade, and just an absolute joy to play and play again. If you can, the 360 version runs at a better framerate but the PS3 version will do if you don't have a 360.

Vanquish is a fantastic and hilariously fast paced third person shooter. I made a thread for it too.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yeah, I'm thinking of picking up Bayonetta for the 360 since Q you recommended that to me a few months ago.

I purchased Vanquish from PSN because it was free with PS+ last month, but I haven't downloaded it because PSN downloads are sooooooooo slow.

Edit: WTF I DON'T KNOW WHO IS WHO ANYMORE.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Been late but just finished The Bourne Conspiracy. Aside from the additional stuff added from the first movie, it's.. fair. The combat however is absolutely horrid, special mention to the hand to hand section where it becomes a nightmare to handle. Bought it for cheap, never replaying again.

FELIPE NO

Just finished Deadpool and man, it got pretty unfair at the end of the game. All in all, was it worth 40 bucks? Not really, maybe more like 20 or 25. The gameplay is pretty average but the script was hilarious. There were a few unexpected things that kept getting thrown at you to keep it fresh but the whole hack and slash got boring pretty quick. So overall with the character it's based off of, the whole thing works rather well. After playing through the game once though, I don't feel like playing through it again. On to the next game.

Most amazing jew boots

Man this poor thread, time to bring it back to life for a bit I guess! Tails has too much time/money on his hands so I decided I'd try Project X Zone and Mighty Switch Force! 2 because why the fuck not.





ProjectXZone.jpg

For the unfamiliar, PXZ is the spiritual sequel to 2005's Namco X Capcom, the TRPG that never got ported to the west because fuck you that's why.

The game itself is pure fanservice, in both the literal and figurative sense. There's nothing deep or particularly engaging about it, it's just an excuse to get characters from multiple franchises in one big beat-em-up game. Bandai-Namco, Capcom, and Sega all contributed a bunch of characters new and old to team up for crazy fights. From OG Dante from DMC and Dimitri Maximoff from Darkstalkers (Team 2Edgy4U), to Frank West from Dead Rising and Hsien-ko from Darkstalkers (Team WACKY HIJINKS) to the more traditional pairings like Ryu/Ken (Team HADOKEN), Chris Redfield/Jill Valentine (Team JILL SANDWICH) and X/Zero (Team WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOORRR).

The game itself is pretty simple. You navigate across a battlefield (think the battle fields from FFT) and go into battles against minions and bosses alike. The attacks are all simple one button commands that revolve around not letting the enemy hit the ground during combos. You can also call in nearby friendlies for support or if you've got a solo unit attached to a pair you can use them too. Solo units come in all varities, from Devilotte from Cyberbots (Jin Saotome BLODIA PUNCH) to Heihachi from Tekken and Imca from Valkyria Chronicles 3.

Given that the game itself is pretty simple, most of the effort was spent on the sprite animations which are all pretty amazing, and the character dialogue, because why else would they bother getting all these characters together. There's lines for every possible Pair/Solo Unit combination and it's really entertaining if you're at all familiar with the characters themselves.

The only downside to the game is that the final 1/3 suffers from Banpresto Syndrome, where instead of upping the difficulty they just throw more enemies at you, turning the last ten or so stages into a slow churn. It's kind of a shame really because up until that point the game is a blast. Random things of note:

-The dub is in Japanese. This leads for funny shit like Dante suddenly becoming 100% engrish. SHOWTIME. TORICKUSTA. LET'S ROCK BABIES. Dante is the best.

-Pairing Juri up with just about anyone results in massive laughs. Juri best evil girl.

-NO ONE CARES ABOUT .hack, SKILLS

-As mentioned above , the actual fanservice really is off the charts, particularly in the special attack animations. Japan.

Onto things that don't make Skills mad, I tried Mighty Virt Force! 2 and really loved it.

It's more or less the same game as the first, but the new fire hose mechanic (Patty is now a firefighter rescuing the reformed Hooligan sisters) actually makes the puzzles much more interesting. The first MSF! didn't really feel difficult until the last couple of stages, whereas here it feels like they really upped the challenge level.

But let's be honest. The only reason I bought this was because of Mr. Jake Kaufman. Seriously. Soak Patrol Alpha (virt dubstep loool it owns), Rainbow Love Zone, The Afterblaze. Fucking case closed, this man is never going to stop being incredible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Tails

Project X Zone

Re: difficulty. I felt that it always remained the same. Oh, more enemies than the last. It's not a terribly hard game to boot, but I love it.

Special mention to Oros Phlox. What kind of a name is that.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Tails

-NO ONE CARES ABOUT .hack, SKILLS

EVERYONE CARES ABOUT .HACK, SHUT YOUR FACE

I liked X Zone's demo, but I've been holding off on it because of all the other big releases lately. The only thing I wasn't fond of in the demo was how all the enemies were complete pushovers, but then the boss had a stupidly powerful counter attack that made it tough.

How ya doing, buddy?