@LtSarge Congrats on a beast of a completion. I really want to play Persona and Trails series but haven’t found the time to get into either yet. I have a Vita with an overpriced physical of the first Trails of Cold Steel as well as a digital Persona 4 but yea… need a couple hundred hours for them. My Series X just gets more playtime so if they ever came to Xbox I may find more time to play them (wierd I know, but i’m just usually browsing Xbox).
I just completed Last Stop today. I actually really enjoyed it, more than recent Raji and Onno. Its telltale-lite but the story was just interesting. Especially as it was mainly in London. Would recommend checking it out while it is on Gamepass. Its 19 chapters plus a prologue, split over 3 storylines, that all link in some way. It’s not going to blow anyones mind and it has a few graphical glitches but was fun to play through. Xbox timer says 7hrs 1minute for me with the full 1000 gamerscore.
I should add that it’s not very involved and your choices don’t really matter too much outside of achievements (until the very end). It’s more an interactive movie.
@K1LLEGAL Thanks mate! Yeah I'm actually shocked at how long P5R is. I think this has to be the longest game I've ever played in terms of pure story mode. Persona 4 Golden wasn't that long at all, I think it took me around 90 hours to complete it. But yeah, that's still a long time. However, you're in a very good position that you own a Vita as well as games like Persona and Trails on there because I found it easier to play those games on a handheld system. Like right before I go to sleep, I can lay down in my bed and play a game for a couple of hours every night. It just feels more relaxing rather than having to sit in front of my TV and play P5R.
Do know that games like Persona and Trails are perfect games to play whenever you feel down or just stressed out because of life. So it could be a good idea to save them for such a time if you're not in any rush to play them.
Regarding Last Stop, I really need to get around to playing through that game. I played it for about 20-30 minutes and thought it was interesting but sadly I haven't been in a "Telltale" mood lately ever since having finished two Telltale games in a row. But I really should play it now that there aren't many games coming out on Game Pass and Psychonauts 2 is coming out in just 10 days so I should play some games before then. Glad to hear that you enjoyed Last Stop though!
@LtSarge I know I really should start Trails on my Vita, or Persona 4. But so far I have only ever used the Vita for smaller games. Something is putting me off playing a big game on it and I don’t know what it is. Would feel much more comfortable playing on Switch. I get what you mean about handhelds in bed though I used to plan to spend 10-15mins or so on my 3DS back in the day when I got into bed and it quickly turned into hours.
Just finished Halo 2 and started 3. Gotta say i enjoyed 2 more than CE. Both were good but 2 took it the story to another level and the anniversary edition cutscenes made it movie like. Trying to get ready for infinite so i want to get through all the campaigns before then and hopefully through both Halo Wars as well.
I just beat Far Cry 3 (Classic Edition) on my Series X. It's the first time I've played the game, and it was an absolute blast. In fact, I think I might consider it a masterpiece. I'm now focusing my time on Hades!
@Nerdfather1 Far Cry 3 was absolutely amazing and so much fun. I played through it earlier this year after having finished Far Cry Instincts Predator and Far Cry 2 and I came to appreciate FC3 so much more because I had played the previous games. It's easy to forget how much the third game pushed the series forward in terms of story, open world and the fun factor. Definitely looking forward to playing through the rest of the series eventually!
Not sure I beat the game as there's still a lot to do but I just got my first clear run in Hades. Took me exactly 50 attempts. I've no idea if that's good or bad but I'll take it!
Of course, it's hard to call it a loss. But the last game I played. It was Windbound. It's a little difficult for me. And I can't get through it one more time. I've been looking at reviews on the game site here - https://cost.games/games/windbound/ . But I didn't think it would be that hard for me.
I am one of the people who jumped on the train very late and started playing Gears game this August (I had played 4 and 5 before when I bought my Xbox as I was looking for graphically good-looking demo games, but I replayed them). So here is my take in the order of release of the games. Warning for spoilers if you haven't played the games.
Gears of War :UE
This one is a complex mix for me. It is definitely a classic and the one who started it all. But I have to admit the horror and tactical aspects were a bit too in the foreground. It is still a very cool, enjoyable and fun game. The establishment of locust as the bad guys is done very well and gameplay is fantastic. Special mention of the soundtrack which I think is perhaps the series's best and a timeless masterpiece. The remastered game looks a bit weird as while the brightness of it doesn't annoy me. I feel like it looks wrong for other reasons. For example how the character faces look to smooth and nice and clean. or how Anya looks different from both her Gear 2 and Gears 3 faces for some reason.
Rating: 8.5
Gears of War 2
This game is probably my favourite of all time in the franchise. In my opinion it is the peak Gears experience and the reference for how it should be done. It has just the right amount of everything. It still looks very beautiful today and the art design is impeccable (specially as you get closer to Nexus). The music is bombastic and beautiful and the gameplay is as enjoyable as possible. Also Skorge and the Riftworm (both the idea of it and the mission inside it) were incredibly cool. Dom and Maria's moment is a big emotional highlight. Gradually realising the plot of the lambent and realising why locust are so desparate was also a cool reveal. I also prefer the face and model of Locust queen in this game to her look later in Gears 3, but it is a minor thing.
Rating: 9.5
Gears of War 3
This one felt a bit hard to judge and summarise for me. I think it is the first time the franchise tried to shake things up and the different color tone and pallette and art design shows. The other problem is that off the back of 2 it is hard to go bigger, better,more badass. However Gears 3 still manages to bring lots of positive things. The new lambent enemies are cool and different. Jace and Sam are great and the mission in the Ash city was visually very striking and memorable. Dom's moment in this game is unforgettable and the conclusion of the franchise is big, fitting and satisfying. Same as how Gears 2 was the perfect sequel. This game is a perfect wrap-up to the trilogy.
Rating: 9.5
Gears of War: Judgement
This one was particularly exciting for me due to the changes it made. The whole court thing changes up the story telling of the game. The gameplay is also more streamlined and I think less cover-shooter-y or at least that's how I felt. I was mostly surprised by how fun and good the game was. The final boss was a letdown for me however. The aftermath section was also a good idea. It gave a sort of "Crysis:Warhead" style story of seeing what was going in parallel to Gears 3. I don't have anything very negative to say about it. The fate of Sofia Hendrick is something the franchise needs to address in some form.
Rating: 7.5
Gears 4
This one is a tough one for me. It is overall a great game and it does a decent job of setting up the new Gears world ( all the new things like DeeBees, Outsiders,Windflares,...). The return of Marcus is a treasure and his interactions with the younger generation are always witty and funny. He is still carrying the franchise. But sadly JD and the rest fall too deeply into the Uncharted games territory for my taste.
The gameplay is great (generally all games in the franchise have great gameplay) but enemy variety is not very good and the game is obsessed with Juvies too much. Graphics look very good. The environments could have been better (the rainy at night castle/museum section goes on for a bit too long. Even though it is very beautiful). The campaign ending is also very very abrupt in a way. So the whole game feels a bit like a teaser for what's next rather than something standing on its ow
Rating: 7.5
Gears 5
This is probably the most divisive one on the list. It has amazing graphics. A wide variety of environments. The enemy variety felt better. Its plot is also bigger and more daring. The campaign nicely builds up towards its ending. Open world spaces are big enough to feel open world but not so big that the game isn't Gears anymore. There are things in the game that could have been much better however. Completely missing JD for a large part of the game is a missed opportunity. Kait's character needs a richer and more layered approach beyond what she is now. And once again the game's ending is on a huge cliffhanger and uneven.In older Gears games the ending felt semi-conclusive yet open enough as you know this battle is won but the war continues. Sadly, Gears 5 pulls off a Halo 2 style "We gotta finish this fight" which hurts the game a bit.
Rating: 8.5
Gears 5 : Hivebusters
This DLC was a positive surprise for me as I really liked its environment,gameplay, generall vibe and also the boss fight with Wakatu. It feels very "back to basics" after some of the more experimental bits in Gears 5. But the problem with it was how it heavily pushed the arguments and disagreements between Keegan and Mac and then at the same time pushed for these people to bond as a team. I also don't get it but did it end in a cliffhanger? They put on the masks and they were taken by snatchers but well probably they just do "Escape" and then rinse and repeat. However it again felt a bit abrupt in its ending.
Rating: 8.5
@ZeD Agreed - the last few bits actually made me feel invested in the story, which until then I'd pretty much ignored.
Loved the jamming bits and the riffs that play as you're just walking along are pretty cool (as was the reaction of everything around you - a really pretty game too) - and it was forgiving if you messed up which really helped
(Thought I'd tag you guys here since we talked about Tales of Vesperia some time ago @SplooshDmg@NEStalgia)
Just finished Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition on Switch after roughly 47 hours of playtime. For the first 15 hours, the game was so unappealing to me due to numerous things but over time it became better and in the end, I really enjoyed my time with the game so I'm glad that I stuck with it. I wouldn't say that it's one of the best JRPGs ever made, but it's still a good one that's worth experiencing (as long as it's not your first JRPG that is).
When it comes to the story, I thought it was interesting once you got past the first 20 hours or so because of the characters. The protagonist Yuri is actually quite dark, which surprised me as JRPGs tend to have "good guys" as the protagonists. Once I realised that, the story and the characters started becoming more appealing to me. But it honestly shouldn't have taken that long for that to happen. I think my main issue with the story is that they use all these made-up terms like blastia, aer crene, apatheia and so on, and it's really hard to follow along, not to mention be interested when it gets so heavy on the exposition. Furthermore, the story is all over the place for the first 20 hours and that makes it even more difficult to follow along. Like in one moment you have this objective, but then you run into another objective, and then another one, and you keep getting side-tracked. This is less of an issue during the second half of the game as you always have one clear goal at a given time, which is good.
In terms of the characters, what is fundamentally there is good but the problem is the awful execution of these characters through poor voice acting as well as poor writing. Whenever something serious happened, it was hard for me to sympathise because these moments weren't executed well at all. On top of that, the game has very stiff animations and so it makes it even harder to care about the characters when they're not expressed in the best way possible. However, I'll admit that when you play a game for almost 50 hours, you can't help but grow attached to these characters. There were even some moments towards the end of the game that genuinely made me smile (Flynn is definitely best boy! Gotta love his relationship with Yuri).
With regards to gameplay, it was hard for me to find it enjoyable due to the stiff movement in battles. The battles take place in real time on a 3D area but you only move in a 2D plane and while there is an option to move in 3D, you can't attack while doing so. My problem is that whenever you attack and finish a combo, the character just stands there for a whole second and it leaves you open for attacks. There's also no dodge button (there is guarding however), and overall the combat just feels incredibly clunky and not smooth at all. Moreover, there are a lot of difficulty spikes with the boss battles and after a certain point, I had to lower the difficulty from normal to easy just because I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. But once I did that, the combat became more fun because the stiff movement was a non-issue when you barely took any damage from normal enemies at that difficulty level (boss fights were still challenging though).
Now that I've talked about most of the stuff that I didn't like about the game, I'm going to mention the things that I did like. For starters, the soundtrack for this game is phenomenal. There are so many different tracks for each area and whenever you explore a new dungeon, there will always be a new tune to listen to and they were all fitting for that place. Not to mention that as you progress through the game, the battle theme will actually change over time to a completely new one and I thought that was really cool, I don't think I've ever seen a JRPG do that before. And the battle themes were great as well!
Secondly, I absolutely loved the variety in dungeons. There are so many different environments that these dungeons take place in, such as castles, ruins, sewers, forests, deserts, snowy places, cavern, crystallised caverns and so on. It was a sheer joy to arrive to a new area and explore the new environment there. Consequently, I loved that the dungeons weren't too long. Typically when you play a JRPG, dungeons tend to last for a long time and are confusing to navigate. However, in this game the dungeons are very brief and are mostly linear except for a few instances. Because the dungeons were short, there are tons of them in this game and I like that. As some already know this about me, I just love variety in all kinds of things and this game had a huge amount of that. That's something that I'll definitely commend the developers for.
So all in all, this game was an enjoyable experience once you get past a certain point (which I'm sure will differ from person to person) and I'm glad that I played through it. This was my first Tales of game and honestly, I think this title was a good starting point for me since it's on the Switch and it felt easy to pick up and play. I don't recommend it to people who are new to JRPGs since there are much better alternatives, but if you haven't played this series before and you're curious about it, then I'd recommend Tales of Vesperia.
Ratchet and clank rift apart. Excellent game and loads of fun. Working through tales of arise on series x now. 8 hours in and it's starting to get excellent.
I cleared Tales of Arise (Steam) the other day, and it was pretty fantastic. It's more an evolution of the series rather than a table upturning revolution, but the many small changes made make it the best Tales game in a long time.
World structure isn't all that much removed from Berseria (in fact, it's probably more linear), so this definitely isn't some sort of open world transformation, however combat is much easier to grasp than the past couple games and your party will be performing fun, slick, & flashy combos of death in no time. That's not to say it's an easier game though, as I found that it was prudent to have cooking buffs active whenever entering new areas/fighting bosses to stay competitive (which isn't something I really had to do in past Tales games), and at the very start (with just 1 or 2 party members) even basic enemies could KO me with 2-3 hits. This MAY be part of a balancing push to get the player to buy the various buff/boost DLCs (of which I didn't partake), but to be honest I never once felt the need to grind for story purposes, and managed to beat bosses 3-4 levels higher than myself without much trouble. I only had one grinding session (maybe an hour long), and it was for the strongest optional boss (strongest before post game anyhow, which I haven't fully explored). The only other slight bugbear in the combat in my mind is that in late game your spellcasters get flashy screen filling attacks that can make it difficult to see the action at times.
There's a lot of other small changes that really add to the experience too (in addition to the lush modern graphical presentation). With the exception of the side quest dialogue nearly everything is fully voice acted, including EVRY skit, which by the way are now fully animated affairs (like living manga panels), and your different costume/weapon choices are reflected in all skits & cutscenes (except for the few anime cutscenes, naturally). The reintroduction of sci-fi elements to the series (in fact, I'd say the most sci-fi premise I've experienced from the series, though it's still full of fantasy too) makes the world building much more interesting than Zestiria or Berseria, and while I could see some coming, there were quite a few twists in the story & lore that were very interesting. I almost want to say it seems Xenoblade inspired (with dual low tech & high tech planets), but it still feels very much it's own thing. Character designs are generally pretty good, and their personalities play off each other nicely. Finally, while it may seem a bit heavier narrative wise than past games (honestly, I think Berseria may be just as heavy, though Arise's updated graphical presentation just makes it hit home a bit more), it still remembers to have a lighter side, in fact, I like to call it Tales of Owl-rise, lol.
For full disclosure, I did buy the Swimsuit DLC for the female party members, which does come with an extra branch to each of their skill trees. I don't believe these offer unique skills though, just further boosts to skills they learn in-game.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
I have finished mass effect Andromeda last night and had a blast with it. It is my second favourite in the series after the original one. The setting is awesome, the team mates really cool, the dialogue well written and I even preffered kett to reapers as antagonists. The animations are still off if not meme worth it by now but that is something I can live with. Definitely worth a try for someone that looked at the ***** show on launch and passed on it
@Balta666 Mass Effect 2 is one of my all-time favorite games, so saying you like Andromeda better than it means you are dead to me before I even got to know you....
I've actually never played Andromeda, so I can't give an actual opinion on it anyways. I do look forward to playing it at some point after I finish the series via the Legendary Edition. I played them back on the 360, but I'm purposely taking my time with it to spread the series out over the year. I'm actually looking forward to trying Andromeda via Game Pass at some point down the road.
@KilloWertz I know that ranking is controversial .
The thing is I am not a fan of both the illusive man and the team members on ME2. It is a good game but not my favourite by far
P.S: it is also not due to nostalgia as I started the series in 2020
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