Topic: Last Game You Beat

@LtSarge I don't disagree with anything else as I loved the game as well, but I will say I found it funny to be listening to a song that felt so out of place during a big battle.

Has anyone played that Greedfall? I finished it at the weekend. I have unintentionally played some RPGs this year 😅

It was good though, I enjoyed it. I think my favourite companion was Petrus even though I initially thought I'd hate him. He had a great voice and other members of his faction were so much worse that I think it made him look like a saint 😅

Finished as dusk falls during the weekend and somehow managed pretty much the best ending. I loved this game (altough it does not have much gameplay ) including the artstyle. The story is compelling and the outcomes hard to antecipate. A plus is that I had to be outside on saturday morning but had access to good WiFi and it works like a charm on cloud! The only bad part is that one major storypoint is very poorly explained and the internet is still trying to figure out, not sure if the idea is for a sequel or DLC or just for the fun of having a cliffhanger (which I am not a fan in the slighthest)

@ralphdibny It's one of those games which was on my play later list , but didn't get around to play before it left. That's always the problem with having so much stuff to play and so few time. It's on Ps plus extra now (which i also have) so i might give it a go there. I've heard good stories about it.

@Balta666 That game was so amazing. Everyone that has gamepass and likes narrative games should try it. I think the art style, which is criticized by some, actually makes it feel like some sort of visual novel and i love that style for this game.
I know which story part you mean. When it ended i had one question mark about that specific part and immediately looked it up if i missed something or that a DLC was announced. But as you said everyone one the internet is as flabbergasted as we were about that specific story line. Who know if we get a Prequel or maybe DLC. I hope we do and its as good as the base game

@Lavalera I actually started it before it left game pass but when it became clear that I wasn't going to finish it in time, I moved on to mass effect and bought Greedfall for around £11 and then also it's DLC for like £3 or 4 on sale

Do you play a lot of these RPG style games? I can't say I do and I think I've found, playing them back to back, the easiest way for me to actually play these sorts of games is to explore everything that I can first and then move on to the story and sidequests. That way I can fast travel between places to keep the story moving. I know it probably sounds like heresy lol. The exploration part is tedious but when I get to the actual game, it makes it a bit easier. I feel like I'd bounce off the game quickly if every story mission took hours because I was exploring.

@ralphdibny I kinda do. Besides having played a lot of MMORPG on pc for years, my favorite type of game is basically a story driven action/adventure/RPG open world style of game. To be fair, there is no good way or bad way for it to be played, everyone has their own way to play a game. That for me is the whole charm of the open world style of action rpgs. I personally don't like to explore to much since that mostly opens up to many quests and sidestuff for me to do so i usually try to clean up what was already opened on the map and then do it part of the map at a time. That means that i switch between main and side quests all the time, but for me personally that isnt really a problem. I still remember most of the story playing it that way and still have a lot of variation in gameplay. But yeah if you prefer to first explore everything (which i think only will work in smaller games that have no fixed level zones) then thats a perfectly fine way to play. Imo these kind of games are kinda build to craft your own experience but in a semi linear way, since the story is usually fixed on the map.

@Lavalera fair enough, that's good to know! I kind of figured I may have been playing it atypically but probably more typical is my desire to do all sidequests before the main story.

Greedfall isn't proper open world, I have limited experience with comparable games but Greedfall is made up of lots of areas you can access from an on screen map.

I think the only thing I didn't like about both Greedfall and Mass Effect is the inventory management. Just really tedious to go through it, constantly trying to equip the best gear for yourself and every party member before selling the worse and boxing the stuff you can't wear yet. I can't remember if Mass Effect had some sort of penalty for having too much in your inventory or if I just kept it tidy for my own sanity. Greedfall stops the character from being able to run fast if the gear is too heavy so basically have to do some inventory juggling every few times you stop off in a "travel pause" between areas.

I guess these are both Western RPGs and they were quite different from the Yakuza games I played earlier in the year (both the back end of the original series and Like A Dragon which were different from eachother too). It's quite unlike me to play long RPGs but I feel like I've played a lot this year! 😅

@ralphdibny ah check didnt know Greedfall was more instanced zones than open world. That's also the more traditional rpg kind of world building before open world became a huge thing. I consider it more semi open world, since within zones you still usually have the freedom to move wherever you want.

The inventory management and weight limit are both things that have been in rpgs for ages and if you play the more traditional Western rpg games like Elder scrolls, Dragon age etc you will encounter that stuff more. The whole idea about rpgs is usually get strong enough to defeat evil boss x that wants to destroy the world. For that to happen you usually start out as a nobody and by gaining new gear and training you get stronger so you can defeat the boss. That's why you ways keep getting new gear and change your build to whatever suits your playstyle. The weight limit always sounded to me to be a keep it realistic thing. If you fight in the wild with a backpack on the heavier it is the harder it will be to fight. And since people use to play rpg to role play so pretend to be someone else they want some things to be more realistic.

As you said there is a clear difference between Western style rpgs, which tend to be more like dungeons and dragon type realistic, fantasy or magic medieval sim type of games, Japanese games are totally different. Yakuza games generally have few rpg elements but are more action adventure type than pure rpg, well except like a dragon of course. Like a dragon is a jrpg and one in the purest form. It kinda is the same as latest dragon quest game in all rpg element ways. Like different jobs, some grinding parts in between. But Lad also still is a yakuza game with its side stuff and all. Good thing is I like both those styles and differentiate between them a lot. Sometimes I go for a more action adventure packed title with fewer rpg elements like ac origins which im playing now and then I follow up with a jrpg or a western style rpg. But yeah most of those games are a time sink, just like the Yakuza games you can easily spend 100 hours in some (j) rpgs without seeing everything in the game, so it is something you got to have the dedication and motivation to play for

@Lavalera yeah that sounds about right. You can fast travel from camps but only discover new areas if you go to a travel market at certain points on the map. so I sort of sneaked around each area at first, hit X on each travel marker to see what areas I could travel to which meant I was allowed to fast travel there from camps and other travel markers. If that makes sense, it's a bit hard to explain😅

Yeah, I would have struggled to classify Yakuza 1-6 into any genre but RPG is the closest thing it fits. The only thing I can tell is different from a traditional RPG is the combat which is presented more like a 3D fighting game rather than RNG/dice roll based mechanics. And like a dragon does away with the combat for something more traditionally RPG so I think it hits home how much of an RPG the originals were.

I think before I started the Yakuza series in 2020 (I think?), The longest games I'd played were MGS Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain, both games I've played twice with at least 100 hours per playthrough on average and also Breath of the Wild which I probably sunk over a hundred hours into. It's not a habit I'm in to but all 3 of those games were so good that it was worth the time investment! I did about 100+ hours in Yakuza 0 too which was my first Yakuza game. I'm so glad that Kiwami 1&2 and Yakuza 3 were much shorter 😅

@ralphdibny @Lavalera Will have to check out Greedfall at some point. I have it through PS+.

I started and finished Escape Academy over the weekend. It's short at 3-6 hours but I loved every minute of it and really want more. Initially the cursor settings were a little too sensitive and I had to tweak them in the menu but after that it was smooth sailing.

I've played escape room games on phone. Things like The Room series (which is great) House of Da Vinci or Escape room:The game and while they all have some merits none of them actually feel like real Escape rooms. This does. It was designed by a team who actually creates and runs escape rooms in real life and it shows. A wide variety of puzzles all tied together with a simple but interesting enough plot.

I felt the puzzles and times given were perfectly balanced. Though your mileage may vary. It was rare I needed extra time to finish a puzzle but the time was always ticking which gave some good tension, and sometimes I cut it close and my blood was pumping. There's also supposed to be a pretty robust hints system, though I didn't really use it much, except by accident that was another small flaw. All you have to do is press X to get a hint and you can easily do that by accident. I felt this needed a confirmation prompt.

Considering how short and unique it is i'd highly recommend it to anyone interested. 8/10.

Yeah, might be better to hold off on ME3 so you don't feel like you are rushing it! Nice one on the XC3 arrival. I haven't played any of them but I do have the first one on 3DS and X on Wii U, just never got around to them! It's funny, I barely play any switch games handheld because I always feel like I am missing out by not playing them on the big tele. Not that I play the Switch a huge amount anyway but handheld time is mostly either dedicated to touch screen games/certain types of puzzle games or stuff where it's like filler content in a game rather than the main story.

I think I avoided RPGs for so long because of a brief and unenjoyable soiree with Final Fantasy 7 when I was a kid and my excuse for later life is that I literally have no time. Somehow I've managed to be ill and off work in order to finish Like a Dragon (can't remember what I was ill with, maybe it was the train strikes) and covid for Greedfall.

I played all the non remake Pokémon games from Blue up until Black when they came out for some reason though. I pretty much gave up on the series after playing X for a little while. I did get about half way through Let's Go Pikachu which I really need to go back and finish. I think I over complicated it by taking Pokémon out in the pokeball plus thing to level up and playing Pokémon Go at the same time. Whenever I get back to it, I'm Gona take my Growlithe out of the pokeball (poor boy has been stuck in there for almost 4 years now 😅) and completely forego the Pokémon Go aspect of it because it really bogged it down for me.

I've never done an Escape Room in real life so I have no idea what they are like really! My only knowledge of them comes from that episode of Not Going Out with Lee Mack 😅

@ralphdibny I have an external 15” 1080p USB-C monitor (basically the size of a large tablet) that I use for both second work screen and for Switch. It’s a game changer. Wasn’t too expensive either about £125. Like you not a huge fan of playing on the small, low res portable screen, at least for AAA.

Give Escape Academy a go, it’s on Game Pass and super short! (Unlike Xenoblade a lot of reviews mentioning 120-150+ hours) 😭

@themightyant yeah I heard good stories about that one. Might give it a go if I want to start a short game in between, which I should do more often. I finished As dusk falls last weekend in between playing ac Origins and it was a welcome change. So I'll add that one to my list

@ralphdibny Funny thing is back when I was younger I only played shooters and Rts games, I didn't like rpg games at all, let alone jrpg games. And see several years later I play mostly games with rpg elements and jrpg especially have become my favorite. As you say the downside is the time investment there aren't many short rpg out there, most are at least 40 hour plus and some even longer. Even Lost Judgment I spent 160 hours in and still don't have enough with it just to name a game. So yeah I understand you don't play that many normally

@themightyant oooo nice! Sounds decent! I do have a couple 24 inch monitors I can lug around with me. I took my One X + a monitor down to Cornwall with me a year or two ago. Was well worth doing to keep me busy!

@Lavalera I think when I was a kid, I was mainly into the classics like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Mario, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Command and Conquer, Sim City 2000, Theme Hospital, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and later on, Crash Bandicoot, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell and even later on when I was an adult, things like Uncharted. So at various times when I have got back into gaming, I've stuck to the franchise's I know and or games by the same/similar developers.

While I've tried a few things outside of my comfort zone over the years, I would say that Game Pass and to an extent PS Plus, have broadened my choice of game. Mainly because there's not a lot to lose money wise if I'm already subbed. Even though I could lose a lot of time 😅

One game (and RPG) I actually hated but still played for about 100 hours last year because I'm super stubborn and like to finish games, was the first Borderlands. I think I missed the point by playing it alone but I found the game sooo boring!

Stray (Steam)

• One day four cats are chillin' around exploring & living their best life, however an orange kitty (that's you) slips off a pipe and falls into a facility known as "Walled City 99". It's a post apocalyptic affair, with sentient robots struggling to survive, and hints of a human population that's long since vanished.
  
  "Hey, where you going?"
• Determined to find a path back to the outside world, you'll lead your kitty through a largely linear adventure largely involving some sort puzzle platforming, though there are a couple of open areas as well (these tend to be safe zones of sorts, where you'll interact with the robotic denizens & take on tasks, some optional, to help them out in your quest to escape).
  
  Metal Gear Cuddly (you even get to hide in boxes!)
• Early on in the adventure you'll team up with a mysterious drone who has many uses (he acts as translator when reading signs/talking to robots, has a flashlight for dark areas, is your inventory, can interact with computer terminals, and also has one or two other temporary uses which I won't spoil).
• There isn't much in terms of side content, with the largest activity being the acquisition of "Memories", which reveal more about the world & what happened to it. 5 of them you'll get automatically just by playing through it, though there are usually 2 or 3 hidden off path during each linear segment, and a whole bunch hidden in out of the way locations in the open segments (the vast majority). You don't need to worry about them until the drone joins up with you though, as only he can access them (I obtained all but two). Otherwise there are some optional activities you can undertake to help out the robots, like collecting music sheets for a musician, though other than adding a little color to the world these serve no purpose (though I think you get pins, which are added to your kitty's vest, as you complete them).
• It does go out of it's way to make you feel like a cat, whether it be the controversial jumping system (where you can only make precise, calculated jumps to areas the cat knows it can reach) which I didn't have issue with, the ability to meow, and designated areas where you can nap, scratch furniture, nudge a robot's legs, and knock stuff off surfaces (some of which are used to solve problems).
  
  "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
• The kitty stuff absolutely can be cute at the right times, but I am quite surprised at how wholesome & cute the game's reputation as a whole is. Don't get me wrong, the world is absolutely interesting & there is some humor peppered here & there, though it's dour & sombre more often than not, & there are even a couple areas that nearly go all in on a zombie apocalypse like vibe (not gory, but would still be nightmare inducing for younger players I'd imagine, but I don't want to get too detailed for fears of spoiling).
  
  
  
  Not so warm & fuzzy (it gets worse).
• It's an absolutely gorgeous game graphically too, with a presentation that stands alongside some of the best looking AAA titles I've played. I've heard it can be a bit glitchy, but I really didn't have that experience myself (just one instance where I could jump to a platform that no longer existed, which was more funny than anything).
  
  
  
  
  
  Various shots, ending with a pretty glitchy kitty.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge; great fun with a friend and a real love letter to the Turtles and the old arcade games.

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope. Third time through, still love it.

It took me a while to find something post-Elden Ring but I recently beat Nier: Automata and Tales of Arise.

I thought Nier: Automata lived up to the hype in terms of atmosphere, sound and storytelling. But I've got to admit that I changed the difficulty to Easy during the final stages. I just found the combat a bit tedious towards the finale. That was pretty much my only criticism though – and I still enjoyed most of the combat!. I was genuinely moved by the game's ending, and if you still haven't played it I'd try and go in with as few spoilers as possible!

I also beat Tales of Arise, which was a mixed bag for me. In terms of presentation, the entire game felt spectacular. The OST, the crisp visuals, the imaginative and vibrant world design, the outfits and weapons and the main character designs all really impressed me. The combat was snappy and fun, and it felt like a real high quality product for the first 80% of the game.

However, without going into spoilers, the story shifts for the last 20% of the game's runtime and I thought it was pretty terrible – especially as I'd really enjoyed the story before, trope-y as it was. Obviously subjective but, yeah, it really left me sour on the whole experience by the time credits rolled.

Onto The Evil Within for me, now! Happy gaming all.

@voxshrapnel Nier Automata and Tales of arise for me both are some of my favorite games, with Tales of Arise personally being my favorite game i played last year. You are certainly not alone in the criticism on the last part of the game. I hear that criticism from a lot of players who like the game as a whole but dont like that last 20/25 % of the game. I agree the last part isn't as good as the first part, but for me personally it didn't went so far down that i didn't enjoy it anymore. But yeah as you said for some people it's fine and for some it can ruin the game. To bad that last part kinda ruined the rest of the experience for you.

@voxshrapnel just to make sure when you say you're moved by the game's ending you mean on ending E, right?