172 replies to this topic

[bblues]

Hah, I was like that with The Last of Us, started, did the first two areas, didn't touch for about 8 months.

[Fire Blazer]

waiting on the PS4 version for that game

[bblues]

Ys: Memories of Celceta, Vita, 29/05/14

[Whitewolf8]

damn you...

I HAVE started up on Ys Seven, though, so far I LOVE the hell out of it.

[bblues]

Haha, it's pretty good. First Ys I've played though.

[Fire Blazer]

<3 I beat Celceta twice, which says a LOT about the game and how much I love the Ys series, haha. (I rarely beat games more than once unless they're very good)

[bblues]

I could definitely give it a second run, but I'll give it a bit.

[Fire Blazer]

Yeah that's a good idea

Try taking a slightly different path/using different characters, there's not a TON of options in the game but there's at least a few choices to spice your second playthrough up a tiny bit XD

[bblues]

Yeah, I barely touched Ozma the first time round.

[Swordsalmon]

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ May 20 2014, 09:36 PM)

Keriku, haha, been a while since I've been called that. Though I like it, it's nostalgic, and only you call me it, haha <3 I need to get back to Tactics ogre... freaking backlogs btw, this is sort of random but are you or were you in the army? I just happened to be talking Seraph about old members and such and then I saw this thread and was like "yeah I'm really happy people like Swordsalmon still post once in a while" and then Seraph was like "was he the dude in the army" or something haha

That's how I remember you back from FEA. You'll always be my Keriku.

I'm in the Army Guard. I work and go to school in addition to drill, so I really don't have much in the way of free time. I wish I had more time to bother ya'll.

[Fire Blazer]

Ahaha, Fire Emblem Anthology, was it? Man, that takes me back... XD

And ah, okay, cool beans... and I feel you/totally understand, hopefully things lighten up eventually and you can take some real time off XP

[Voffie]

Civilization V as Brazil with a Cultural Victory, PC, May 31st 2014.
Civilization V as Brazil with a Time Victory, PC, May 29th, 2014
I was serious when I said I would post each win of this game.
Highlight from Cultural Victory: Caesar the Prick http://i.imgur.com/Pie4fJf.png
If you are wondering what you are looking at, Caesar took over Montezuma's land using Great General buildings.

[Fire Blazer]

Seems like it's been a while since I've actually contributed an entry to this thing:

Scribblenauts Unlimited, Wii U, April 20th, 2014
Yoshi's New island, 3DS, May 23rd, 2014
Mario Kart 8, Wii U, May 31st, 2014

Yeah I sorta forgot to update this thread, though I log (or try to log) everything in a text file.

Scribblenauts was fun but I probably won't be picking up another game from the series--I get what it's about and it's cool but I don't really see a point. I've pretty much experienced the game and future entries will mostly have the same gameplay, and the gameplay wasn't fun enough that I'm excited for more or anything, and there's no story to drive me on either. Glad I can say I beat one game in the series though!

Yoshi's New Island was pretty fun albeit easy and occasionally a little upsetting. I think the lives system and relatively infrequent checkpoints are things that should kinda be done away with, which is something that applies to platformers in general I've been feeling since Rayman Legends. The gameplay in this game could also use a bit more... refinement and execution, I think--it's got some solid ideas and such and it was definitely entertaining and yet it was missing something(s) in the level design that prevented it from being a masterpiece or anything close to it.

In short, it's a very good game but not a great one, despite the fact that I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Lastly, Mario Kart 8 is one of those games where it's mostly about unlocking stuff/the multiplayer, but I like to record everything so yeah. Definitely going to keep enjoying this game, it's most certainly one of the better Wii U titles and a game to be remembered, IMO... see the MK8 thread for more of my thoughts. Naturally, the criteria for completing this was just reaching the credits, which is something that could probably be done in like, an hour, lol.

[Fire Blazer]

Senran Kagura Burst, 3DS, June 1st, 2014

Okay, here's my review for/thoughts on this game:

So this game might be known as one of those "out-there" games that's kind of perverted and full of fanservice and it certainly is LOL.

However, hidden behind that facade to draw people in is an actual decent game with simple but fun hack-and-slash-like gameplay (though I made a point to not always use the same combos and play in short spurts as to not get bored... ), a solid cast of characters that goes beyond what you might expect (each one either has a personality, backstory, or both and develop a little throughout the story--I didn't expect crap), and awesome music.

The gameplay is pretty much "rapidly press buttons and combo the heck out of lots of enemies", until you fight a string of boss battles in the final chapter. You can develop two types of battle styles: yin or yang, each with their own bonuses/perks as well as drawbacks. Doing so nets you new attacks which keeps things somewhat fresh--the animations can get... flashy and over the top (like, unrealistic amounts of slashing and kicking and stuff) but I personally like it. It's exciting and how a game like this should be, IMO--you use the attacks over and over, so if they don't look a little cool, it's a bit disappointing.

You develop yang by battling while in "shinobi mode" (i.e. after using shinobi transformation). You develop yin by battling in frantic mode, which makes you very powerful but also VERY susceptible to attacks--you can die *extremely* fast and it's actually pretty hard albeit somewhat rewarding (not to mention it's easier to get high ranks for missions this way). After mastering both, you get a new mode, Flash, which pretty much takes good parts of both and combines them into one OP mode.

There are some side features besides this, extras and the such, and you can choose from different costumes for your characters, but I pretty much ignored this and it didn't hurt me at all, I died a few times but as long as I focused and tried I didn't have a super hard time winning the fights.

The main missions are told in a sort of... novel-esque format, with characters taking turns narrating the story from their point of view. It's simple, but it works, and dialog lines are voiced as to keep things somewhat alive. There are a few CG images (think FE7), but not enough to be noteworthy, IMO. There's also actual dialog scenes which typically happen before/after a battle where characters converse with each other. These are in 3D and while the models/graphics aren't amazing from a general graphical standpoint the style is fine IMO and I never felt like I was looking at something super outdated or anything. These 3D models are also animated so characters have their own expressions and such, unlike say, a 2D visual novel one.

The only other time you'll really see 3D is right before a battle starts and when using super ninja arts, which are essentially just special powerful moves that you've probably seen in other games (they're OP). That being said I didn't really miss the 3D in the actual gameplay, it probably would've been rough too.

In terms of problems... the sidequests seem to be somewhat pointless and just excuses for grinding/adding more content. I did them at first but when I realized they were somewhat useless, I decided to skip them. I was happy to learn I didn't really need them, lol.

There's also small framerate dips here and there, but it's usually only during things like the 3D animation of super ninja arts, meaning you won't be doing anything so while it *is* somewhat lame, it doesn't affect the gameplay that much (if at all), at least.

The overall story is simple but good enough to keep you going/somewhat interested. Not like "oh, I *have* to know what happens next", but I actually read the story and found myself caring about the characters a little bit (again, I was expecting nothing, so I was easy to impress). The voices and some other dumb things (like a certain character by the name of "Kat"'s little... "hobby") do prevent it from being even better, but considering I didn't expect anything except for boobs, boobs, and more boobs, I was surprised.

Overall, the game is for someone who likes action-packed games with exciting music. The story is nothing to brag about but not bad enough to puke or hate on, IMO, you can just skip it if you find the walls of text boring. The main drawback or draw-in, depending on your personality, is the fan-service. Personally I don't play games for that but I have a saying "I will try anything almost once" (and the proof is that I even played Call of Duty and Titanfall, lol). As for what I really thought on it, you can tell from my overall rating:

Ratings:

Graphics: 6.5/10 - Acceptable, but not stunning in any way. The 3D effect is very well implemented (as in, it actually looks 3D, unlike some games where the sense of depth or things popping out sucks), but it's limited in scope. The style is very... skewed and not really impressive.

Gameplay: 7.5/10 - It doesn't do a great job of explaining the benefits of mechanics or techniques on how to fight well, IMO. It can also be a bit repetitive, though because this is common in this genre, I didn't dock much off for this. However, the gameplay is generally exciting if you don't force yourself to play for long periods of time or use the same combos over and over, and while battles can be one-sided due to you being invincible during aerial raves (AKA "comboing in the air", another physics-defying element of the game... as if the jiggle physics weren't enough), it's still fun to rack up HUGE combos on people and keep things alive. It can also be challenging under certain circumstances.

Story: 7/10 - Decent characters and character development, decent overall plot, but nothing ever earth-shattering or amazing. Did manage to get me worked up with the feelings a bit, and it does actually take the fact that its about shinobis seriously sometimes, albeit many things about the setting being weird (you never fight a male shinobi IIRC and yet they definitely exist in the realm of the game, and sometimes things just weren't explained well and were just like "uh, okay, that was kinda random"). Don't expect anything from the side-quests though.

Music: 8.5/10 - I was so busy hearing the sound of slashing/kicking/whatever and hearing the screams of chicks (...well, they ARE getting slashed up like mad) that I sometimes couldn't hear it, but from what I did hear it was generally awesome, with solid theme songs and some nice shinobi/ninja/Japanese vibes coming from it. I took a look at the soundtrack online and indeed, the songs are actually pretty good. I was surprised.

Overall: 6.8/10 - The game is good, and it was enjoyable, but it's missing... quite a bit, and it's got multiple drawbacks. It's not an absolutely terrible game, but it's never really impressive either. A solid pick-up if you're looking for a fun action game though. It's also got two different stories so the replayability is there and it gets bonus points for that. I realize the scores of the components would indicate an overall higher score, but the truth is it's just not all put together as well as it could be, I guess. The fate of certain characters and some plot elements, as well as the fact that I like the music and the animations, would make my personal rating go closer to a 7.3, but objectively, there are games with much better stories, gameplay, and graphics, so a 6.8 is... pretty fair, IMO.

See http://www.metacriti...an-kagura-burst - 62 general, 75 user. As you can see, people tend to like the game better than the reviews. A part of this is that critics tend to look down on things like fan service whereas people who play it just care that they like the game. The actual numbers are whatever, because you can't put much weight on Metacritic, but I just wanted to point out the discrepancy between critics reviews and user reviews. 62 general is probably pretty fitting for this game, to be honest--I'd expect between a 65 and 70 (ala my 6.8) but yeah.

I realize I normally don't post such long comments/reviews but this is a more obscure game where people might not know what to expect, and it's the first game in this series I've played (and very possibly the last one), so I felt like sharing my experience with it.

[Voffie]

Mario Kart 8, Wii U, June 6th.
Since I finally beat the final cup on mirror mode, I'm done with single player. Moving on to messing around on online.
Civilization V as Rome with a Domination Victory, PC, June 6th.
And thus I post my forth Civ game on this site. All that is left is a science victory, which should be easy if I stay peaceful/get a good starting spot where I am by myself and can't easily be attacked.

[bblues]

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Vita, 08/06/14

This was pretty damn fun.

[Fire Blazer]

Don't think I've even heard of this, but a part of me says "no Blazer, don't even START to take interest, you have enough video games you want to play as it is" >_>

[bblues]

It's a stealth/platformer. Nothing complex or difficult.

[Fire Blazer]

Not difficult? Sounds cool... *googles how long to beat* 15 hours or so? Kinda long for a platformer, haha. I'll have to keep it in mind, I won't add it to my list yet though since I'm not sold on actually trying it XD

[bblues]

Tomb Raider, PS3, 11/06/14
Journey, PS3, 11/06/14