Madbuk's List of Unfinished Games

[madbuk]

10 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

Wow that is more than I thought you played. Looks like I should play Steins;Gate which I've heard nothing but good things about, but also heard that I should watch some of the anime first? Seeing World End Syndrome below Root Letter is a little discouraging, not to say I didn't enjoy Root Letter, but so far its probably my least favorite. 428 for me now is probably at the top, such a great way to tell a story, it was like watching a season of 24.

 

I actually liked Zero Time Dilemma, it was so weird, but that's what made it great. Actually played that before The Nonary Games so it made even less sense.

 

I've had Psycho-Pass on my Wishlist for a while, but after reading reviews, it didn't sound good. I also have Our World is Ended on my Wishlist, curious if that is any good. Also waiting for Root Film to go on sale.

The anime is just an adaption of the game so you'd just be spoiling the early chapters for yourself really. The anime is indeed very good though and if you enjoy the VN I'd say it's worth watching after.

 

WES and RL felt very similar to me in terms of structure and pacing which is why they're so close together, I liked both and they're pretty interchangeable tbh, WES could definitely go above RL.

 

Psycho-Pass is easily the worst game on the list for me - Amnesia was terrible, but it was so messed up that it was at least memorable. Wintertide was terrible, but at least it had good characters. Psycho-Pass just had nothing going for it, on top of a pretty broken "skip already read" function, which is a massive sin for a VN imo. Having to fully re-read scenes I've already read because the skip function doesn't recognize I've read them... it was just miserable. Maybe if I had seen the anime I could appreciate it a little, but as someone who knew nothing about Psycho-Pass I got 0 enjoyment out of the VN, and that hasn't been a problem for other anime-based games I know nothing about.

[Grotz99]

16 minutes ago, madbuk said:

The anime is just an adaption of the game so you'd just be spoiling the early chapters for yourself really. The anime is indeed very good though and if you enjoy the VN I'd say it's worth watching after.

Ah, looks like Steins;Gate is on the PS3, which I might want to pick up sooner rather than later, unless I watch some of the anime then play Steins;Gate 0? Seems like there is a strange order for those VNs as well, does it matter if you skip around between Steins, Robotics or Chaos?

[madbuk]

23 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

Ah, looks like Steins;Gate is on the PS3, which I might want to pick up sooner rather than later, unless I watch some of the anime then play Steins;Gate 0? Seems like there is a strange order for those VNs as well, does it matter if you skip around between Steins, Robotics or Chaos?

There's a remake of Steins;Gate on PS4 called Steins;Gate Elite. Elite also comes with a spin-off, Linear Bounded Phenogram, which is a collection of 11 short stories but has no trophies.

Chaos can be played whenever, it has a few nods to S;G but is mostly standalone. Robotics should be played after Steins and Chaos.

 

My recommended order would be:
Steins;Gate

Steins;Gate 0

Chaos;Child

Robotics;Notes Elite

Robotics;Notes DaSH

 

Steins;Gate Linear Bounded Phenogram and Steins;Gate My Darling's Embrace are both non-canon and can be played any time after the first game tbh.

[MMDE]

9 hours ago, madbuk said:

As with all my rankings, they'll probably be slightly different every time you were to ask me, but:
 

1. Steins;Gate

2. Steins;Gate 0

3. Steins;Gate Linear Bounded Phenogram

4. 428 Shibuya Scramble

5. Chaos;Child

6. WILL

7. Danganronpa 1

8. Danganronpa V3

9. Danganronpa 2

10. Zero Time Dilemma (this one is actually bad, but it's the entertaining kind of bad so it's high up for me)

11. Tears of Themis (would probably be higher if it weren't gacha)

12. AI: The Somnium Files

13. Steins;Gate My Darling's Embrace

14. Great Ace Attorney

15. Ace Attorney Trilogy

16. Robotics;Notes Elite

17. Robotics;Notes DaSH

18. Hatoful Boyfriend

19. Zero Escape: The Nonary Games

20. Code: Realize - Guardian of Rebirth

21. Root Letter

22. World End Syndrome

23. Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star

24. Code: Realize - Future Blessings

25. NORN9 Var Commons

26. Amnesia: Memories

27. Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles

28. Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness

 

Having now made this ranking list (which again is subject to change), I'm actually quite surprised at how consistently enjoyable VNs are. It's not until NORN9 that I'd say the games here become flat out unenjoyable.

 

Still not played Raging Loop?

[madbuk]

5 hours ago, MMDE said:

 

Still not played Raging Loop?

Nope, not yet. It’s the only VN I have left though I think so it should be the next one I do… whenever that is.

[MMDE]

2 hours ago, madbuk said:

Nope, not yet. It’s the only VN I have left though I think so it should be the next one I do… whenever that is.

 

It's super linear, nothing missable, no point even looking at any guide. There's some choices etc, and while they make a huge difference, you'll want to go down all paths eventually and can easily do so ("chapter" select + skip read text + branching tree). It's just enjoy the story, and there's multiple "playthroughs" of the story, in order (very linear). Hard to explain, but those extra playthroughs are not a "chore", they are good, completely new take on the story etc, and honestly, the latter ones are better. 

Edited January 28, 2022 by MMDE

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #449 - A Plague Tale: Innocence

What a shocking game - I went into this with pretty low expectations because I had seen brief samples of gameplay and it had reminded me heavily of The Last of Us, a game I really didn't enjoy. But enough have been raving about this and it was free on PS+ so I decided there would be no harm in at least giving it a try. I'm so glad I did, because I loved this - the story was definitely the highlight but the stealth gameplay and puzzles were pretty fun too, the game is only let down by its forced combat encounters imo, but thankfully those are few and far between.

 

From start to finish I was completely engrossed in this story and that was something I definitely hadnt anticipated, and it was a bit of a refreshing change of pace from most of what I've been playing recently. If you're like me and initially just glanced at this and wrote it off (I had always intended to try it once it was 'free' tbf, just definitely not as soon as this), I'd say it's worth taking another look at. Even if you don't enjoy it, it's a very short plat anyway so it's not like you'll be having a miserable time for long.

 

I can definitely see myself stacking this in the future if the PS4 version is ever cheap enough, although I'm a little more hesitant about whether or not I'll be playing the sequel. This game definitely didn't feel like it needed a sequel and I'm waiting to see if it brings anything new to the table or whether it'll just be a generic retread because this one was so popular.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

A Plague Tale: Innocence [+36] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #450 - Darksiders III

As a Darksiders fan, I was so excited for this game that I pre-ordered it... considering it has taken me 3 years to actually finish it, I think it's safe to say my excitement wasn't warranted. It's not really a bad game, it's just not what I look for in Darksiders at all. It's very Souls-like, and the lack of direction + unforgiving combat + unforgiving death penalty just combined to make it not very fun for me. If the combat was identical to how it is now, but with less punishing consequences for dying (respawning enemies, last checkpoint being miles back (due to copying the campfire system from Souls), losing all your souls upon death and having to reclaim them before you die again), I might have enjoyed this a lot more. But the annoyances of dying + having absolutely no clue where to go next ultimately had me resorting to a guide and just following that for the rest of the game. The game does give you a compass to tell you where to go next, but it really doesn't help whatsoever.

 

Once I began following a guide, I did enjoy it more. It's still easily my least favourite Darksiders, but it wasnt as bad as my first impressions had made it out to be. The platforming and puzzles were fun (swinging is very satisfying in this game despite being very simple and easy to perform), the different hollows you get change things up a bit, and the fact enemies don't respawn if you don't die is much appreciated after having played more FF13 recently where your path is constantly blocked by respawning enemies every time you leave and re-enter a zone.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Darksiders III [+48] {+84%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection [101] {Physical}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #451 - Kingdom Hearts III

There was once a time where someone asked me if I would stack KH3 if I could. I immediately replied that yes I would, because (plot pacing aside), it's a fun game. And then, shortly after that... an asian stack appeared. I never would have expected that, but it made me kinda salty, because I had done every other KH including stacks and now seemingly that would never happen again, due to both the language barrier and not really knowing how to get my hands on a copy.

 

Thankfully the latter problem was solved, and I took that opportunity immediately despite being a bit concerned about not being able to understand any of the text. Thankfully, that didn't prove to be much of a hurdle and this was a pretty painless experience overall. I still have to do the DLC, which is where it truly gets hard, but I'm sure I can manage... I hope. I loved playing this again and would happily do so a third time if it gets a PS5 stack too... but please be in English next time lol. Can't wait to see what's next for KH, it very rarely disappoints me and the latest one (Melody of Memory) was arguably even one of my favourites. It'll be nice to have my series completion back once the DLC is finished because I honestly never imagined I'd get it back after the asia stack appeared out of nowhere. Also, as a side note, Let It Go in Japanese is actually quite good.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

The Binding of isaac: Rebirth [+1] {+1%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Kingdom Hearts III [+47] {+85%}

Persona 5 Royal [+43] {+76%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Hitman [69] {PS+}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #452 - Persona 5 Royal

I played the original Persona 5 almost 2 years ago, and enjoyed it a lot. I wasn't sure I'd ever play Royal, but it was cheap enough in a sale that I thought I'd give it a chance. Overall, my experience with it... is rather lackluster. Persona 5 itself was a good game, so this, by default, is a good game too, but... it just really isn't anything else. For the vast majority of my time playing this, I just felt like I was stacking Persona 5, the new content was way too few and far between. The extra month was by far the best content in the game as far as Royal additions are concerned, but you have to replay the entirety of P5 to get to it, and P5 is a long game. As I have found out while doing this, P5 isn't particularly replayable, a lot of scenes really dragged on this time when they hadn't during my first playthrough. One particularly noteworthy aspect that grated on me was every character having to take turns to say the exact same thing. This was especially bad when doing Mementos stuff, particularly when confirming requests.

 

I'm happy I got to experience the new content, but I don't think it was really worth going through base P5 again to do so. For any newcomers, just start with Royal tbh, ignore base Persona 5 entirely. I'll also be kinda hesitant to get Persona 6 now, that'll probably get some extra bonus addition too that makes the original redundant anyway.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Ghostrunner [+0] {-16%}

Kingdom Hearts [+5] {+24%} (COMPLETE!)

Persona 5 Royal [+10] {+24%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

 

Progress Update: #453 - Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink

This is certainly an Artifex Mundi game. The setting looked interesting enough so I decided to try it out before my Now sub ends in a few days, and it was a decent time. Once again though, Artifex have copied the same puzzles from Nightmares From the Deep and put them into this with a new coat of paint. I'm begging for some variety, they're easy enough without having them repeat themselves over and over with each new game. This just left me feeling whelmed, and somewhat sad that Artifex have a monopoly on the console HOG market, because PC has so much variety on offer in this genre that console just doesn't - although, if it were a choice between none at all or an endless supply of Artifex games, I'd rather at least have the Artifex ones.

 

I'll probably play more in the future and the cycle of being whelmed will continue anew.

Spoiler

PS Now

NEW GAME: Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink [+19] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Ghostrunner [+11] {+16%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #454 - Crysis

I've been vaguely interested in Crysis for quite a while, typically I don't tend to play FPS games but I do enjoy an occasional one here and there, and Crysis seems to be relatively popular so it had always been something I intended to try out in a deep, deep sale some day. I was browsing PS Now to see what I could get done in my last month of membership with it, and saw Crysis had recently been added, so I took the opportunity. I'm glad I waited so long for it lol, patience does pay off.

 

My opinions overall on it are... it was okay. I somehow have avoided spoilers entirely for this whole series so I wasn't expecting some of the late-game enemies at all, and that does make me interested in trying out the sequels some day to see where they go with it narrative wise, but gameplay wise the combat in this felt a bit unbalanced. Early game enemies have pinpoint precision, spot you from miles away, kill you in a single hit, and basically force you to use stealth or just die immediately. Which means every time the game forces you into combat it became a slog for me, because a lot of the time it felt somewhat luck based. The stealth was definitely the highlight of early-game gameplay. But then around the halfway point, the enemies... get worse? Their aim gets less accurate, they start dealing less damage, and overall you can just run and gun and be fine. It felt like such a strange shift when games typically are supposed to get harder as they go on.

 

The wide-open progression of this I wasn't a huge fan of, at times it felt like I was playing a Far Cry game but a less fun one. The linear levels were far more enjoyable for me, so I hope that the next two games don't try and be a weird blend of open world and linear again and just stick to linear entirely. I won't be playing the sequels any time in the near future because they never seem to go particularly cheap, but I do want to eventually.

Spoiler

PS Now

NEW GAME: Crysis [+41] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #455 - Chicken Police

Pretty bland and disappointing game tbh. Much like my last plat, Crysis, this was me trying to get some extra mileage out of my Now sub before it ends, and since it was one of the featured games this month and I had heard from other people that it's a decent game, I figured I'd go ahead and give it a try. Nothing in it really ended up engaging me, the plot was pretty generic and predictable, and the characters were all pretty one dimensional. If it weren't for the game's core gimmick of every character being an animal with a human body, I have to wonder how much attention this game would really have gotten.

 

I don't regret having played it, because I wouldn't necessarily say it's outright bad, but it's certainly not one I'll remember well in the future, nor would I give a sequel a chance.

Spoiler

PS Now

NEW GAME: Chicken Police [+32] {+100%} (COMPLETED!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #456 - Hob

I had this game recommended to me a very long time ago, but unfortunately the developers have gone bankrupt and as such the game seemed doomed to never go on sale again. Remarkably though, it did go on sale again recently for the first time in years, so I decided to take that opportunity and finally try it out. It's a pretty decent experience for the most part - the platforming, whilst very basic, is enjoyable and the Knack-like combat is fun when you're not doing a no upgrades playthrough and can actually do damage - but I wasn't a huge fan of the design of the open world. The dungeons were great (don't expect anything like Zelda though, they're much more linear), and having the world change and move around as you completed objectives was a nifty idea but it was just such a slog of a maze to try and figure out how to get from dungeon A to dungeon B, to the point where I just started using a guide tbh. 

 

World design aside though, there's not really much else I dislike about this game. Likewise there's not much I feel truly stands out against other indies, but not everything has to be amazing, sometimes a nice average experience like this is refreshing.

Spoiler

Retail

Sackboy: A Big Adventure [+38] {+85%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Hob [+37] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection [+50] {+45%}

 

[madbuk]

Bonus Post #2: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

After playing the Trails of Cold Steel saga late 2020/early 2021, I have been eagerly waiting on the edge of my seat for any form of announcement for a console port of the Sky trilogy. Unfortunately... that announcement never came. I decided I had finally had enough of waiting, and opted to set aside my general distaste of PC gaming in favor of finally playing these games via Steam. I was a little worried that these games would seem outdated or would be lacking in QoL features considering how much older they are compared to the Cold Steel games, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

The version of the game on Steam has turbo mode, it lets you retry fights after you die, it lets you save anywhere, it has autosaves, hundreds of save slots... really, the main thing this game was lacking in comparison to the CS saga was the voice acting. Sky has none whatsoever, which is fine, but it would definitely have been nicer with at least some. The NPC interactions in this also weren't quite as good as they are in the Cold Steel games because CS typically confines you to one area with NPCs per chapter so it's a lot easier to talk to them all as their dialogue updates (which is one of the biggest draws of Trails as a series compared to other JRPGs - the dynamic NPCs who update their dialogue as the games progress to reflect events in the story), whereas in Sky you often have to travel back through long fields of monsters to get from one area to the other just for new NPC dialogue lines. As a result, I eventually started ignoring any NPCs that I didn't encounter on my natural path doing the story/side quests.

 

Plot wise, this was definitely a slow burn, which means it isn't going to be for everyone, but I absolutely loved the small moments between characters where they just have some heart to heart conversations and further develop their relationships with each other. That's something Cold Steel does very well too, but certain ones here felt like they held more impact than certain ones in CS for... spoilery reasons I won't get into. The two main characters, Joshua and Estelle, have such a compelling dynamic and, whilst I do love Rean from Cold Steel as a protagonist, the brother/sister dynamic that the two main characters had in this is just as strong as Rean's character and story, if not more so (I'd be hard pressed to say which I like more tbh), and seeing them grow across the course of the game was an absolute pleasure. The other party members are also very good as well and I'm interested to see what the next 2 games do with them all. Characters aside, the main narrative itself was also compelling, especially towards the end when things really start heating up. I have had some things 'spoiled' for me thanks to playing Cold Steel first, but I lack any kind of context to it and it didn't hinder my enjoyment in any way at all.

 

As for gameplay and graphics, both of those have aged perfectly too imo, the visuals in this game are beautiful despite being from 2004, and the combat arguably has more depth to it than Cold Steel due to how the quartz system works. I absolutely adored my time with this game, and whilst it is upsetting that it had to be via Steam because that caused me to run into unique problems I wouldn't have had to deal with on consoles (it began randomly crashing at one point until a few people on Discord helped me troubleshoot the issue, and even after that it acted stuttery at times, particularly in the final town which had a lot of NPCs roaming around), I do not regret this purchase at all and would definitely do it again on PS for the plat should the opportunity ever present itself.

 

My ultimate goal is to get all 3 Sky games done before Zero releases late this year, but I'm not sure how viable that'll be, because I still mainly play on PS and treat these as a sort of side project. We'll see though. If nothing else this just makes me even more excited for Zero because now I know that the old style of gameplay (compared to CS) isn't going to be a turnoff at all, because this was still thoroughly enjoyable. I cannot recommend this series enough to JRPG fans.

Edited March 30, 2022 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #457 - Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

What a strange collection. On one hand, you have one of, if not the, best Uncharted game in the series, and on the other... you have the worst. Never before have I seen a videogame collection that consisted of 2 games of such wildly different quality, and putting these two games together to begin with whilst ignoring the others feels completely random too. I also noticed some graphical problems here that didn't exist (from what I remember at least) in the original PS4 versions, but they were very minor and didn't really hold back the game at all. Another oddity about this collection is requiring all DLC trophies to be earned in order to pop the plat. Just all around a bizarre release.

 

Uncharted 4 remains a pretty high quality experience - it's the only game in the series where it felt like the writers actually put effort into developing the characters, and the balance between combat, climbing and puzzles is also a lot better here than in any of the other games in the series (apart from perhaps Golden Abyss). Crushing is pretty bad, because the game heavily encourages stealth whilst also making it so that it's practically impossible in some encounters to avoid detection because the AI is hyper alert on the high difficulties. It felt like a weird middle ground between crushing on Uncharted 1-3 and brutal on 1-3 - not quite as bad as the latter, but definitely much harder than the former.

 

Lost Legacy... it's a prime example of utterly wasted potential. You have one of the worst characters in the franchise as the main lead, so you finally have a chance to actually give her a personality, and for the most part the game does do a good job of making her an actual character in this unlike in Uncharted 2 and 3, but it also doesn't really do a whole lot, 2 and 3 just set a very very low bar for her. The game also features the worst chapter in any Uncharted game - chapter 4 - I could go on about how much this chapter is absolutely awful but I shall restrain myself. It also features some of the worst designed combat encounters in the series as well, the main one being the fight in chapter 6, but chapter 8 also had a pretty terrible one too. It's a shame that the game has some decent puzzles, because they get completely lost within all the garbage surrounding them.

 

Overall this collection was a very mixed bag for me, but I was expecting that going in. My opinions on the games haven't really changed much at all, other than I perhaps like Lost Legacy even less now than I did before. It was worth revisiting these games for £10 though, and it's nice to have my series completion back too.

Spoiler

Retail

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection [+51] {+55%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #458 - Shadow Warrior 3

After seeing a few people recently platting this, I decided to look into it more and discovered that it was a first person shooter with a lot of platforming. That was enough for me, so I took a brief look at the trophy guide for missables and then jumped right in. Overall, it was pretty average. The gunplay didn't feel particularly satisfying because every enemy was just a bullet sponge and the only feedback you get for hitting them is a spurt of blood, but otherwise they all act like they haven't even been hit. A steady stream of blood might be enough for some people but it just made every gun feel weak to me. The story was pretty throwaway, though I'm going to assume that's because I didn't play 1 and 2 first and thus didn't have the full context. I also found the humour pretty juvenile and bland, and the platforming was far more basic than I was hoping and never at any point offers even a little challenge. This is certainly no Ghostrunner or Mirror's Edge.

 

I still don't regret playing it, considering it was "free" and is something different to what I usually play - unique experiences are special in their own way even if the game itself is mediocre - but it's definitely not a series I'm going to be delving into again if I ever get access to 1 and 2. I've seen comparisons between this and Doom and if the gunplay of Doom is similar and the platforming is just as basic... can't say I have much interest in trying that series either.

Spoiler

PS Now

Shadow Warrior 3 [+39] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #459 - LEGO Movie: The Videogame

Seeing so many people be excited about the newest LEGO Star Wars game, I began craving a LEGO game, and yet I didn't want to pay full price for one. So I compromised by stacking this, since it was available to me for "free" via Now. My first LEGO game since 2020 (which by coincidence happened to be Movie 2 lol), and it was pleasant to play one again. Not much else to really say about it though other than I appreciate the way this game handles its hubs/open world. They're relatively small and avoid feeling bloated at all like a lot of recent LEGO games do.

Spoiler

PS Now

NEW GAME: LEGO Movie: The Videogame [+49] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #460 - Arcania

Well I did have a post about this but as I pressed the submit button, everything got wiped. Cba to type everything out again, but long story short is this was a mediocre game I got at a very cheap price that ended up being strangely enjoyable to play despite its mediocrity. I appreciated the linearity, because that's partly why I enjoy JRPGs more often than WRPGs, and I appreciated the unlimited inventory too. Combat was janky and hitboxes were questionable a lot of the time, but it did its job well enough. The leveling system and skill tree were basic but serviceable. I know nothing about the story due to a bug that auto-skipped every cutscene for some reason, and the environments were nice and diverse. They look like PS2 era environments (maybe that's being generous actually), but that didn't matter to me tbh.

Spoiler

PS Now

NEW GAME: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 2 - The Tomb of Sammun-Mak [+12] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

NEW GAME: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 3 - They Stole Max's Brain! [+10] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

NEW GAME: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 4 - Beyond the Alley of the Dolls [+11] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

NEW GAME: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 5 - The City That Dares Not Sleep [+12] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Arcania [+27] {+69%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #461 - Final Fantasy XIII

I have finally conquered another of the Final Fantasy games that has been sat on my profile unfinished for years. It's a shame that this game falls so short since it seemed so promising at first glance - I honestly wish that it truly was the hallway simulator that everyone made it out to be, because it gets significantly worse once you reach the open world-esque portion of the game. The story and characters are pretty bland as I have come to expect from FF games, with the only real standouts being Lightning and Fang. And even they weren't that special either tbh.

 

The combat was alright - I like it more than VII's and I think I like it more than X's too. The Crystarium was much better than X's overcomplicated and overly grindy sphere grid - in this, all you have to do is beat enemies, get CP, and advance through the nodes. No praying for RNG drops to let you level up like X has you do. The game is also very pretty, especially considering how early in the PS3's lifespan it was released.

 

What ultimately killed the game for me was the absolutely dire running speed and backtracking involved in doing everything the plat requires. You have mission stones scattered all across the world, with fast travel options being frustratingly limited that makes getting to each one a chore as you run at 1mph through corridors that have enemies blocking your way that you're forced to fight. And then you run back through that corridor again, and again, and again, with the enemies back in your way each time. It's way too tedious - especially after having played 5 Trails games and gotten used to having a turbo mode for travelling with. It's hard going back after that.

 

I hear XIII-2 is more linear with less boring backtracking involved, and that sounds more to my tastes so I'm still interested in giving it a try, especially since I already own it. That won't be any time soon though.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones [+7] {+75%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Retail

Final Fantasy XIII [+18] {+58%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Need for Speed Payback [+6] {+16%}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #462 - Shadow of the Colossus

After playing and loving ICO, this game was a big disappointment to me. There's the foundations for greatness here for sure, but overall it just feels like wasted potential. The empty, barren open world at first was repetitive to traverse through every time you defeated a colossus, but I eventually began appreciating it because it does set the tone and atmosphere of the game very well. It's a shame, then, that the game sabotages that barren wasteland feel by inserting 200 or so collectibles to gather up, that don't even really do anything to help you. On the PS4 version you can apparently ignore them completely, I didn't have that luxury since this is the PS3 version, but even so... why even have them? It's just so unnecessary.

 

As for the colossi themselves, I went into this with the expectations I was about to play a platforming game where you climb up giant beasts to try and find their weak spots to ultimately take them down. The first colossus, and to an extent the second one, reinforced this belief before it quickly devolved into obscure - and occasionally nonsense - environmental puzzles instead that weren't as fun. #11 for example tasks you with getting the colossus to ram into a brazier, which then, for no apparent reason, causes a wooden stick to spawn in the level that you can then pick up and light on fire to scare it. But there is absolutely 0 indications or hints for any of this, and I will be eternally wondering where on earth that stick came from.

 

As for the actual act of climbing the colossi, that in itself brought its own frustrations with how a lot of colossi just would not stop shaking whatsoever, so you'd grab onto them and have control completely taken away from you for so long that your stamina has ran out and you've fallen off. The shaking was just anti-fun, and apparently dialed down a lot in the PS4 remake, and made fighting these things a chore a lot of the time.

 

This definitely didn't even come close to ICO for me at all, and I don't plan on ever playing the remake (despite owning it via PS+), but it's not all bad. There's a solid blueprint here and it was an interesting and fresh idea, just executed very poorly. And I'd rather have that than a game that is bad and generic.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Shadow of the Colossus [+22] {+85%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #463 - Final Fantasy XIII-2

After playing Final Fantasy XIII and being... pretty underwhelmed, I wasn't sure what to expect from this really. XIII wasn't bad - I liked it more than VII and X - but the story was quite generic, the characters were mostly forgettable, and the backtracking was horrendous. A solid 5 or 6/10. I had heard that this one had much less backtracking involved and was a more streamlined experience, which appealed, so I decided to give it a try despite my lackluster reception of the first game. I'm glad I did, it might be my new favourite FF (it's either this or Type-0, but I played T-0 so long ago now idk how trustworthy my memories of it really are) although it still didn't strike me as anything particularly special. I liked that the game focused on two main characters - a lot of this was very reminiscent of Trails in the Sky, and I've raved enough about that franchise in this thread already so I shall refrain from turning this into another Trails shilling post. The most I'll say is I don't think this game quite achieves the same heights that Sky managed to.

 

There were some subtle changes to gameplay in this that were pretty nice - paradigm shifting no longer being a gameplay-interrupting cutscene is much appreciated for example - but also introduced some not so nice things as well (Pokemon? Really? Why?) Overall I'd say it was a noticeable improvement compared to XIII. It's also a much prettier game graphically than XIII was, which is impressive since XIII was already gorgeous. The OST is better too overall I'd say.

 

As far as the story is concerned, I was not expecting this game to be anything even close to what it was after playing XIII. The complete shift in narrative was honestly pretty nifty, caught me off guard quite well. Makes me interested in seeing what Lightning Returns will do, because I have no idea. I definitely intend to play it in the future because this game rekindled some speck of hope in this series, but will I play any others (besides X, because I already started that) after Lightning Returns? ...Doubtful. I think I'm probably going to call it quits after this trilogy, end on a high note because if the other FF's I've played have taught me anything, it's that it's probably not a series I'm going to enjoy most of the time lol.

Spoiler

Retail

Final Fantasy XIII-2 [+32] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #464 - 3D Dot Game Heroes

Another game on the PS3 backlog finally completed. This was almost a contender for the slowest completion I've ever gotten (8 years, 4 months), but it falls just short of Gran Turismo 5 (8 years, 6 months). Which was quite surprising to see, it really doesn't feel like it has been that long since I first began this. It's also the final physical PS3 game I own that I hadn't completed, so from now on my backlog (for PS3, at least) is entirely digital.

 

Backlog details aside, as for the actual game itself... disappointing really. Zelda has always been very hit or miss for me, I absolutely adore Ocarina of Time and like aspects of the other games too, but I always stop playing before finishing any of them (apart from OoT, which I have played to completion multiple times). This game definitely falls short of Zelda in general though - the way the game ties all your weapon upgrades to being at full health is pretty dumb, it means as soon as you get hit, the game becomes miserable to play because your sword no longer has pierce (which is practically essential in some dungeon rooms), is extremely short, and deals far less damage. The lower damage input isn't so bad, but the other aspects are just annoying for the sake of being annoying. It actually made the difficulty where you die in one hit one of the most fun parts of the experience, because at least your sword is always at full power there.

 

A big part of any Zelda game is the exploration - finding items, heart pieces, magic upgrades, etc., and 3DDGH is no different, but where 3DDGH fails with this that Zelda doesn't is the world is often pretty annoying to navigate, and isn't very fun to explore when you're in your weakened not-full-health state because certain enemies feel designed for you to have the max potential of your swords available. And sure, just don't get hit lol, but it's just tedious to deal with if you do get hit and as a result I never really enjoyed the exploration aspect. Another thing in this game that is different to the Zelda games I've played is that there are a lot of missable events, some with very short availability windows. This also kinda discouraged guideless exploration for me, because if I couldn't max everything and get a "perfect" save naturally due to the sheer number of missables, why do any of it at all? That's one of my favourite aspects of Zelda, finding all the heart pieces and maxing out your health meter.

 

The minigames are also pretty terrible, due to the hitboxes being pretty bad (a problem the entire game exhibits but is exceptionally noticeable in the minigames) and due to the stiff controls despite requiring extreme accuracy. The requirements did get nerfed in a patch... but we never received that patch in EU, so I had to suffer with the original requirements instead.

 

I can't say it's a terrible game - the dungeon design is pretty good, which is perhaps the most important part of a Zelda game - but it just wasn't fun to be so underpowered most of the time with not much you can really do about it unless you're willing to waste your red potions and heal immediately after getting hit. Definitely doesn't come anywhere close to something like OoT.

Spoiler

Retail

3D Dot Game Heroes [+39] {+83%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #465 - Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Out of all the games in the XIII trilogy, this was the one I had the lowest expectations for and also simultaneously the most interest in. It just seemed so different, which if nothing else can at least result in an interesting experience even if it is bad. The time mechanics were the most off-putting aspects at first glance, but having now played it... I kind of liked it? Every NPC acting on a schedule and things showing up within certain timeframes is something that's not very original in gaming but the added layer of an actual time limit in this made it all the more pressing that you showed up on time for these things instead of procrastinating on them for a few in-game days until you feel like it.

 

I don't enjoy the stress of min-maxing schedules, so I used a guide for this just like I do for Persona games, so I can hardly say I got the "full experience", but I still appreciate what they were going for and commend it for how different and unique it felt despite being the third game in a trilogy (which itself is only 3 games in a massive franchise) - as someone with no particularly strong feelings towards Final Fantasy, the evolution of the XIII trilogy has been interesting to behold and I've really enjoyed how different each game in the trilogy has managed to feel, not only from a story perspective but also from a gameplay perspective as well. It has been one of my favourite aspects of the trilogy really.

 

Another thing I appreciate about this game is the way it made fighting optional. You don't get XP, and it's much easier to run from fights than XIII-2 and especially XIII. It may sound odd, since this is a JRPG and thus combat should probably be one of the main attractions, but... sometimes you just want to focus on the quest you're doing, and fighting everything you encounter can really pad the playtime, something the first XIII was very guilty of. That doesn't mean fighting was pointless - you get drops (necessary for quests), gil, and a resource called EP which can be used on various powerful abilities (for both inside and outside of combat scenarios), but it definitely didn't feel like each missed fight was making me more underpowered.

 

I also liked this new combat system a lot, it retains the XIII auto-battle DNA whilst also offering a lot of freedom, even moreso than the paradigm systems of prior games because you can fully customize which abilities are available in which "paradigms" of this game, which can lead to some pretty in-depth strategizing as you try and match up the abilities you want to use with the passive benefits of the new paradigm system.

 

Honestly the biggest setback of the gameplay for me is purely cosmetic based, considering I heavily mitigated the scheduling with a guide so that didn't bother me at all - this game has a heavy emphasis on outfits, to the point where each outfit has its own gameplay benefit and use. The problem lies in that some of the outfits are... not that great to look at, one of the ones I liked using was an outfit called Dragon's Blood, but it's also arguably "fanservice"ly designed, which usually just disgusts me. It wasn't terrible, certainly better than a lot of JRPG costuming can get, but you'd think with a game that ties stats to its outfits they'd at least let you transmog it so that outfit A looks like outfit B but still has the stats/abilities of outfit A.

 

Plot wise... probably the weakest of the trilogy. Which is a shame because the core concept of it is very interesting, and the ovearcing narrative has its moments, but most of the main quests just weren't engaging at all and the sidequests even less so, they're certainly not Yakuza substory-tier, they're more on par with generic NPC western RPG quests. There are a couple memorable standouts, but most of them are just forgettable filler.

 

Overall I enjoyed this game, more than the first XIII but arguably not as much as XIII-2, but it's a close call. The trilogy as a whole isn't anything amazing, but it's better than I expect Final Fantasy to be and I'm glad I took the time to play them all.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII [+43] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Devil May Cry [34] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Devil May Cry 2 [34] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Devil May Cry 3 [34] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Devil May Cry 4 [43] {Digital}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #466 - Port Royale 3

Another game off the ever decreasing PS3 backlog. I began this one over 5 years ago when PS+ gave me it - having never played a city building/economics simulator before I was interested in trying something new. I do not think this game was friendly for a newcomer, however, A lot of the explanations for systems are very vague and even after getting the plat I still don't fully understand how peaceful takeovers of towns work, and I have no idea what you're supposed to do during "special events" like famines, plagues, fires, etc. because by the time you've sailed back to the country having trouble, the event is already over. It just seemed like it didn't matter at all?

 

I have come to the conclusion that this is not a genre for me. Maybe I should try another one some day before writing off the genre entirely, but this really didn't leave a strong first impression on me. It was bland, vague and needlessly convoluted, and I'm very glad it's over.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Port Royale 3 [+57] {+96%} (COMPLETE!)