Last game you DIDN'T finish and your thoughts

Gravity Rush 2 is a masterpiece (but I really love Gravity Rush too).

Can't say I understand the visual complaints about 1, but 2 is really a stunner!

My copy of Gravity Rush Remastered has been a bawhair away from getting traded in so many times now, but I still hold onto it because I get the feeling that I should give it a proper go someday. I think I played it two or three times when it was new on PS4, never since then, but I've always had that sense that it was “a PS2 game dressed up with an interesting gimmick”.

That's not a bad thing though

Was gonna say, that sounds perfect!

Tell you what's not perfect:



Shin Megami Tensei V is not perfect!  Which isn't to say it's not good in places, but it certainly wasn't for me.  You're dropped immediately into an empty depressing desert version of Tokyo, populated by largely unprepossessing monsters to capture, and a generic-feeling battle system to use them in.  There are some characters introduced at the start, but then there are large swathes of struggling to the next checkpoint through a whole load of nothing but monster encounters.  

You may say that I should have known all this going in, and honestly I knew some of it.  It was a game I asked for as a Christmas present while short on ideas, not a game I would've rushed out to buy on my own.  As a 'suck it and see' game, Nintendo Life made it sound like it had more character than previous titles in the series, and there are hints of that - from the schoolmates you barely meet, to the little fairy thing that follows you, to the green skeletal shopkeeper.  I can see why RPG fans would like this game.  For me, it lacks that lighter, more human touch.  In a world where at least three types of grim apocalypse have loomed during the past few years, the last thing I want to do is play through another in my escapism time.

I can't say I'm shocked, as I did find it pretty lacking a lot of areas and only really finished it because I said I would.

Oh, huh. I thought you quite liked it Mas?

Think you got that from me putting it 5th of my Nintendo games in 2021. Which it was but the gap between it and 4th was pretty big, then feel got it at like 24 of my Top 30 Switch games.

Which just due to how little I've played on Switch.

SMT is certainly not an optimistic series. It does have some great monster designs though!

If I were ever to give a SMT a bash, should it be this one or that remake of III?

I would say SMTV as SMTIII is just a remaster of a PS2 game, so from what I've seen it's got grey hallways etc and then SMTV might have some QoL things over it.

Yep, I think SMTV is meant to be the most accessible, open, user-friendly version of the series so far... which doesn't say much for its predecessors.

DISCO ELYSIUM - THE FINAL CUT:

Balladeer wrote:

Yep, I think SMTV is meant to be the most accessible, open, user-friendly version of the series so far... which doesn't say much for its predecessors.

I don't care about that. Does it have cool monsters?

Yeah it has cool monsters, you could though just play Persona 5 on your PS4 which also has the cool monsters and being a banger of a game.

It has monsters anyway.  I thought most of the ones I found were... their designs are not to my tastes, let's say.  Although the one that looked like Oogie-Boogie Jr. was alright.  They'd probably go down better with Buska.

NAIRI - TOWER OF SHIRIN:

Valkyria Chronicles

After sinking 52 hours into this strategy RPG, I've conceded that I can't be dealing with it any more. Valkyria Chronicles is a beautiful, absorbing RPG that benefits from a great set of quirky characters and a satisfying turn-based battle system that takes mastery, but it's essentially a flawed masterpiece. It has so much going for it, but just when you swear it's the best thing since sliced bread, it will do something stupid. There's an infamous boss battle with horrible insta-kills, another one in chapter 16 with the Marmota, and a horrible level with a No Man's Land trench battle involving an enemy with instant kills. The final chapter also has the dreaded Marmota with crazy design decisions that made me quit and delete the game - spawning enemies from anywhere (in my case, a Lancer Elite right behind my tank, which then blows it up in one shot - Game Over).

For much of Valkyria Chronicles, battles are fun and far from easy. The difficulty spikes feel unnecessary because this is a challenging game anyway, and there's a nice array of scenarios that require you to make use of all the different character types. You've got your regular soldiers (Scouts) that can move far but are fairly weak, your stronger soldiers (Shocktroopers) that are strong and inflict high damage, but can't move much; then there's Snipers, Lancers (anti-tank) and Engineers (that fix tanks). I like it, because it's not too complicated but you often have to manipulate your tank and protect certain characters. There's a block-based street level that feels like a game of chess as you try to block a tank from progressing. There's stealth-driven jungles where some characters get hayfever. Desert battle fields where some characters get home sick. One bloke is obsessed with vegetables. There are chatterboxes that enjoy company on the battlefield, but give away their position. Social misfits that prefer being on their own. It's frequently barmy, shifting from serious warfare where you can lose team members permanently if you don't recover them on the battlefield, to talking to a flying pig. It's deserving of its cult classic status, but it's ultimately got too many frustrating difficulty spikes and cheap moves to truly fulfill its potential as an all-timer.

8/10

What a (tempered) recommendation! Especially as I imagine you're not much of a JRPG fan GJones. Not one for me I don't think, I can't stand RPG difficulty spikes. Shame, it looks lovely and there are some ideas that Kojima might have come up with in your write-up there.

I think I'm ready to call it quits with Eastward, went back to it after a while yesterday and played a bit more today and it just feels like a load of disjointed stories and fetch quests with the occasional spell of good gameplay. It probably didn't help with my time away but I can't say the story had me hooked at any point anyway, I have read that it picks in the next chapter but feels like a case of too little too late, I don't feel like I wanna sit through anymore long strings of nothing dialogue to get to the good stuff.

Edit: I literally went straight back on it after this post and had a decent time with it before reaching the end of the chapter, maybe there's some life in it yet.

Hmm, this is why I've waited for the physical version as if I was to post in here at least I can trade it in compared to it being in my digital library forever.

That must be the quickest turnaround this thread's had. I'm glad you picked it back up Smurf: it's definitely heavily flawed, but it's so interesting that I felt I had to give it enough rope to hang itself, even if it almost did near the end of the game. What chapter're you on?

I actually went back through the forum and read your review and it made me think I should push on a bit more just to see what happens, given that you had a similar opinion on a few things then surely the good stuff will shine through for me too.

Just started chapter 4, it was chapter 3 that just dragged on and on but it feels like it might actually be focusing on the story again so I'm hopeful it'll stick with it now.

Aw, I reckon that's one of the nicest things somebody can say on here! Really glad it helped, and hopefully the rest of the game flows better for you.  Chapter 3 definitely takes a more traditional RPG direction for a bit, because Eastward likes throwing things at a wall and seeing if they stick.  Don't worry, there's no other chapter like that.

I’ve traded in WWE 2K22 while it’s value was still high. I got all the way through it’s Showcase and GM modes, and I tried the Universe and MyRise modes for a bit too. I didn’t finish the whole game or anything, but I played enough of it to feel that I can share some thoughts.

I’m coming off of a really long break from 2K’s WWE games, having only bothered with 2020’s mediocre WWE Battlegrounds in the last decade. I’d played others, but I thought they were thoroughly miserable, just the total antithesis of what made everybody’s favourite WWE games – I’m talking about WWF No Mercy, WWE SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain, and those sorts of classics – the classics that they truly are.

For me to suddenly return to series that I had abandoned a long time ago, the timing had to be right, the price had to be right and crucially the intent had to be right. By skipping WWE 2K21 altogether and focusing on resetting the series, previews made it sound like the developer’s genuinely wanted to craft as good a WWE game as they possibly could. While not totally successful, I feel that they’ve given it a good go.

The most important thing is that the gameplay and the matches are fairly good fun. It’s one of the speedier modern wrestling games, with a button set-up that feels fresh if still a bit overly complicated. The game’s engine has potential, it’s a solid platform on which they can develop 2K23. The Showcase mode for Rey Mysterio is very good, but short and full of odd match choices. MyGM is a big disappointment though, far too limited in scope and somehow even more restrictive than the first ever GM Mode in SmackDown Vs. Raw 2006. The roster causes it’s own problems, being months and months out of date with loads of wrestlers who have long left the WWE.

It is actually all right though. I don’t think we’ll be talking about WWE 2K22 as one of the great wrestling games in even a few years’ time (I hope not anyway), but there’s enough for a wrestling fan to enjoy if they’ve been starved for a good-quality WWE game like I have. I'd be confident about picking it up in a sale if I were you.

Wow Rob Conway's theme is a deep cut

2K22 sounds like it does everything it needs to and stops there, sounds good though, I could definitely see myself picking it up in the next few months, recent price drops have tempted me but still hovering a little too high for now.

Three kinda unimportant games to contribute to the thread.

VOEZ:

DIGIMON STORY - CYBER SLEUTH - HACKER'S MEMORY:

MOON: