Games Beaten 2015

[isiolia]

It has some amazing set pieces and it still feels like a Platinum game. It's far and away their worst game though.

You haven't played Legend of Korra, have you? >.>

[J T]

It's been great to see your thoughts on these great Natsume games, and I look forward to seeing you complete your tour!

Thanks! I'm glad to know others enjoy following along from outside. I pay attention to what others post in the 'Games Beaten' threads and I decided that the lists I like to see are ones that mix in a lot of older titles with some newer titles, especially hard games or lesser known gems. I especially like watching BoneSnapDeez go through a series, like Ys, or playing multiple ports of a classic title like Donkey Kong or Jungle Hunt. It's also been fun to see Sarge knocking off some of the great white whales of the NES era that most people never see the credits roll for. MrPopo also kills it in the RPG arena with games that I find intimidating because of their required time commitment.

I decided my own list typically doesn't look like the ones I like reading, so I decided to do something about that and Natsume seemed like a good starting place. I think I'm going to take a short break and play through Never Alone before getting into more Natsume, but then Power Blade will be up next. I remember playing it as a rental long ago and I liked it quite a bit. I may have even beaten it back then, but I'm not 100% certain. It should be fun to play again, either way.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ys

Stay tuned. There will be more of this.

Or maybe I should say "more of thys."

[BogusMeatFactory]

many people say, "Wise," most people say, "Ease," but how many people say, "is?"

[RyaNtheSlayA]

It has some amazing set pieces and it still feels like a Platinum game. It's far and away their worst game though.

You haven't played Legend of Korra, have you? >.>

Forgot it even existed.

[BoneSnapDeez]

many people say, "Wise," most people say, "Ease," but how many people say, "is?"

I used to pronounce it Y.S. ("why-ess") like it was an acronym.

I was a weird kid.

It's supposed to be "eese." French people have confirmed it for me.

[emwearz]

many people say, "Wise," most people say, "Ease," but how many people say, "is?"

I used to pronounce it Y.S. ("why-ess") like it was an acronym.

I was a weird kid.

It's supposed to be "eese." French people have confirmed it for me.

I feel most people, pre-internet, would have pronounced it "why-ess".

[Key-Glyph]

This is my first post in a "games beaten" thread! I saw a bunch of you discussing how much you enjoyed this tradition in some other section of the forum, as well as how it was suspected that the topic might accidentally intimidate folks who weren't aware it was just good times all the times in here. This intrigued me, as I was one of the intimidated. So, give your PR department a raise!

I don't know how much I'll be able to keep up with this, but I enjoyed reading the past forty-or-so pages of people's gaming experiences.

1. Pokémon SoulSilver (DS):

I'd already played and beaten HeartGold some years ago, but I wanted to see the subtle differences in this version. I also wanted to try for a shiny Lugia, which I wound up nabbing a few days into the new year.

HG/SS are absolutely my favorite pokémon games; they take Gold and Silver and manage to make them even better. Having your lead pokémon trot behind you and react to everything from the weather to nearby NPCs is such a whimsical touch, and I love the concept of the pokéwalker. It's very amusing to be sitting in your campus library and imagining that the twelve-foot legendary phoenix you have in the pedometer clipped to your pocket is hovering around your shoulder, freaking out the bystanders.

I also really enjoyed that they were creative with the old tunes. They didn't port them over note-for-note -- they used some interesting instrumentation and even changed up time signatures, tempos, and in one case even switched an entire composition from minor to major chords, for the remake. Really fun.

2. Sushi Academy (DS):

I have a weird weakness for sushi games, and I picked this one up for about $7. It's quite interesting -- it actually includes information on the history of sushi, etiquette, and other random optional reads -- and the steps you learn for each dish seem to be based in a certain amount of realism (more than I expected, anyway). The story is that you're a chef training under a sushi master, and that perhaps in time, if you learn the dishes properly and pass your exams, you'll be a master, too.

The game has some cute touches, like the changing of seasons outside a window as you complete your exams, and some Japanese voice samples ("HAJIME!!"). As for the main aspect of the title, the cooking mini-games are addictive and mostly enjoyable. The problem, though, is that it isn't always completely clear how you're supposed to execute a particular technique, and if you get anything less than a "PERFECT" rating on any individual step, you are kept from receiving anything above a final grade of "VERY GOOD" for the entire dish.

Example: One step reads, "Spread the sushi rice evenly. Don't go outside the lines!" Well, the rice is a pile of several indistinguishable white globs, and it's impossible to gauge how many there are, much less if too many are on top of one another, especially when you only have about ten seconds to get things done. I've had the game for two years, and I literally only realized last month that my "VERY GOOD"s on that step were almost definitely due to a "stack" of rice in the middle of my nori sheet that I had never directly perceived was there.

3. Alcahest (S.Famicom):

This was a gift from a friend who'd picked up some Super Famicom-only releases on a trip to Japan; he wanted to get me my own copy of this because I was familiar with some of the music and he thought it would be fun for me. It's in Japanese, of course, so I thought I'd take advantage of that and have a fun little experiment with trying to get through the game blind, without translation help.

Luckily, the game was super forgiving of my illiteracy in a lot of ways. It's basically Link to the Past Lite: an action RPG with Mega Man-esque powers, no equipping/dequipping of items... you don't even have to check NPCs with A for them to start talking to you! You just walk by close enough and they force information and/or items on you. Very helpful, since I was perpetually in the situation of, for example, not knowing I needed a key from somebody until I was stepping over what I thought was a background-only dead soldier whose dying breaths coincided with my sudden ability to open some new doors. Awesome! I owe you one, extroverted dying soldier!

I think people tend to love or hate bossfights, and I love them. This is good, because Alcahest has bossfights up the wazoo. Pretty much every stage (there are eight) have a mid-boss, a final boss, and then the final boss's final form. Some of them took a bit of skill/persistence, and that was really fun for me. You earn different powers and summons as you go, as well, so there's no "one way" to beat anything. The final final boss and the final final form were drawn-out but not crushingly-difficult affairs, and I really love that kind of thing.

After I beat it, I watched a long play of a fan translation on YouTube so I could understand the story, and among other things learned that my shield would block projectiles if I stood still. Whoops! I was dodging everything. And I mean everything. Playing on hard mode!

[J T]

Very helpful, since I was perpetually in the situation of, for example, not knowing I needed a key from somebody until I was stepping over what I thought was a background-only dead soldier whose dying breaths coincided with my sudden ability to open some new doors. Awesome! I owe you one, extroverted dying soldier!

[BoneSnapDeez]

Whoa. Surprised to see Alcahest on your list, let alone anyone's!

A copy is actually on the way to my house as we speak.

Nice work!