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Games You've Beat in 2013


TheMightyEthan
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I haven't finished Golden Abyss yet (though I'm getting very close) and I would also agree with that ranking, with U3 being more of a distant second in my case. GA obviously can't compare with the bigger console outings but it's surprisingly good for a portable entry into a series mostly famous for its story and production values.

 

Back on topic: I did it! It took me like four fucking years but I finally beat Persona 3!

 

I kind of figured i was 10 hours or so from the ending, at most. Turns out it was closer to 30, including a bit of grinding. And man, that final boss. Not insanely difficult but so fucking long. Took me four tries before I beat him, with attempt number 2 and 3 both lasting almost an hour and failing literally a few turns from victory. 2 was caused by a ill-timed status ailment but 3 was entirely my fault. Through inattention, I pretty much did the one thing I shouldn't have done and killed my main character which is instant game over. Not my proudest moment...

 

That's only the original campaign, though. Haven't touched the extra "The Answer" chapter and don't think I will. At least not anytime soon. Now it's time for Persona 4!

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Killzone Shadow Fall

Starts out pretty cool, until chapter 6 rolls in and that one's boring as hell since it goes from some semi-open world to just a bunch of corridors, chapter 8 was frustrating with both the free fall section and the last stand thing. :P Also on chapter 9, after the dude shoots you the game crashed and I had to replay that entire section :P Chapter 10 was cool, took me a ton of tries but it was still cool. :P

 

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Dust: An Elysian Tail and Gone Home. Both were great, Gone Home took me by surprise since I went in mostly blind except for hearing positive stuff here and there.  The journal stuff came off pretty sincere.  Dust was what I was expecting in a good way.  I was worried Fidget would be kinda annoying but, she grew on me.

Edited by CrowKnow
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Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

 

Like I already said a few posts up, it's surprisingly good for what it is. Not as good as U2 or even U3, but still a worthy entry into the series. It was nice coming back to the series after so long. I hadn't played any of them since U3 first came out, so it had been kind of a while.

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Dust: An Elysian Tail and Gone Home. Both were great, Gone Home took me by surprise since I went in mostly blind except for hearing positive stuff here and there.  The journal stuff came of pretty sincere.  Dust was what I was expecting in a good way.  I was worried Fidget would be kinda annoying but, she grew on me.

I just couldn't get into Dust. I think it was the art style, it looked nice..i guess? I found the combat quite boring too, that might be less of the games fault and more of my preference though.

 

Gone Home is great though.

I honestly thought i was going to find the sister hanging from the ceiling in that final room.

 

 

Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

 

Like I already said a few posts up, it's surprisingly good for what it is. Not as good as U2 or even U3, but still a worthy entry into the series. It was nice coming back to the series after so long. I hadn't played any of them since U3 first came out, so it had been kind of a while.

My first Vita game (and first experience of Uncharted), and i enjoyed it no end. I think i completed it in 2-3 sessions and whilst the bullet sponging is a little annoying at times, i couldn't put it down after half way. Wouldn't say no to another Vita title in this series, maybe with less touch screen though.

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maybe with less touch screen though.

Oh, man. I can't believe I forgot to mention that. Yeah, the touch controls were all over the place. Some of them I liked: the charcoal rubbings were fitting and added to my immersion. Those were fun. But rubbing dirt off of objects got old after the second time and then it was just kinda stupid. The back touchpad stuff for climbing and paddling was okay but the enjoyment mostly came from the novelty of it, I think. I didn't mind the melee combos but when you have two boss fights that are essentially touch-controlled QTE, that's a bit much. Puzzles were fun, though. But that might just be me, I love puzzles. Oh and physically moving the Vita around to aim with the sniper rifle? That was insanely more fun than I would've ever expected it to be.

 

 

Other than that, I was up till 5AM last night getting the true ending in 999. That... went on a bit longer than I expected it to. Unfortunately, The big reveal was kinda diminished because, after all the build up to it and the info given in the game, it was easy to figure out considering I had heard that the game "could only work on two screens". But still, it was a really cool idea and a great story, so I can't complain. Can't wait for my copy of Virtue's Last Reward to get here.

Edited by FLD
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Oh and physically moving the Vita around to aim with the sniper rifle? That was insanely more fun than I would've ever expected it to be.

Something that I loved in Killzone 2 was that you could do gross aiming with the stick and then fine aiming with the sixaxis. That was amazing because sticks really aren't good for precision aiming, but they work fine for big quick movements, while tilting the controller works great for small adjustments but not really large ones.  They complement perfectly.  I was so upset that they didn't have that feature in Killzone 3 (and now that I think about it I wish they'd had it in Shadow Fall, but the DS4's sticks are enough better that I didn't mind it nearly so much).

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Ys I.

It's a decent, although painfully archaic, old-school action JRPG. I knew it was supposed to be short but I expected it to be a bit longer than ~6 hours. That's the in-game timer, though. It doesn't count deaths and reloads, so it might have been closer to 8 hours overall. Still short for a JRPG but considering it's a dual pack with Ys II, it's not that bad.

The combat is very simplistic. There's no attack button, you just run into the enemies. It works for the most part, but early on it can be kinda frustrating when your max HP is still fairly low and you can't regen yet. There's also a level cap of 10, for some reason. It's cool that they wanted to make the last few boss fights skill-based. You can't just grind and brute force your way through them. But the problem here is what's essentially my biggest issue with the game: it is infuriatingly cryptic at times.

There were times where I'd get stuck only to look up a walkthrough and find out I had to do the most random fucking shit with no in-game hints whatsoever. Can't get your first sword until you've spoken to everyone in the first town. This area instakills you but you can disable that by using that hammer you just picked up on this specific pillar on this specific floor of this huge-ass tower you're in right now. And so on.

So back to the boss fights. There was one where, even though I was max level, I still couldn't imagine ever defeating him considering how little damage I was dealing him. Looked it up and "oh yeah, you totally need silver gear for this boss. especially the silver sword". So there was this harmonica I'd picked up. I needed to return it to this girl in town, who would then play a song, which would do something to this giant tree way the fuck in the forest. Then I would need to eat this random fruit I found and go talk to the fucking tree. Then the tree gives you the silver sword.

Yeah, sure. Might as well have a link to gamefaqs in the tutorial or something...

Edited by FLD
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Replayed Guacamelee on Vita. I already loved the game but man does it play great on the system. Well, except for the occasional room where everything is so small I couldn't tell what the fuck was going on. Anyway, I initially started it just to see how the Vita version was, without really intending to play it all the way through. But it sucked me right back in pretty much instantly and it actually managed to make me ignore Persona 4 for the past couple days.

 

It hasn't been that long since I played it on PC so I played on hard thinking it would be an easy platinum. I'm not sure what I was thinking because there were a few parts that made me rage so hard last time. I wasn't too rusty, though, so it was actually quite a bit easier this time. Took me about 7 hours to get the platinum, which is probably the fastest one I've ever done. I'm almost tempted to get the DLC now, so I can get it to 100% but man, I'm not sure I want to go through those challenge rooms again. Besides, I'm kind of amazed I managed to not smash my Vita during some of the most annoying parts so I should probably quit while I still have an undamaged system...

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Replayed Guacamelee on Vita. I already loved the game but man does it play great on the system. Well, except for the occasional room where everything is so small I couldn't tell what the fuck was going on. Anyway, I initially started it just to see how the Vita version was, without really intending to play it all the way through. But it sucked me right back in pretty much instantly and it actually managed to make me ignore Persona 4 for the past couple days.

 

It hasn't been that long since I played it on PC so I played on hard thinking it would be an easy platinum. I'm not sure what I was thinking because there were a few parts that made me rage so hard last time. I wasn't too rusty, though, so it was actually quite a bit easier this time. Took me about 7 hours to get the platinum, which is probably the fastest one I've ever done. I'm almost tempted to get the DLC now, so I can get it to 100% but man, I'm not sure I want to go through those challenge rooms again. Besides, I'm kind of amazed I managed to not smash my Vita during some of the most annoying parts so I should probably quit while I still have an undamaged system...

 

You've got my respect. I really enjoyed my time with the game, but when i finally beat the end game boss, i was happy to call it quits. I just didn't enjoy the combat enough to warrant a second play-through, and some battles flat out left me fuming. It's not that i don't enjoy a difficult game, but at times i felt like the bad guy's had an unfair advantage for the sake of having an unfair advantage (namely the dimension switching stuff). 

 

That being said, i can see why you'd want to go through again. The stuff it does well, it does really well. I love the PS3/Vita save transfer/cross-buy too. 

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Walking Dead: 400 days. Great little experiment.

 

 

Not sure if I beat it, as only Bonnie wanted to go off to the 'safe' settlement.

I had Shel kill Stephanie, Russel walk away from Nate when Nate asked him if he wanted to kill the old couple, the stoner got out of the car after losing RPS and then tried to drag the cop to the car, and Vince chose Danny over the white collar criminal, whose leg he blasted off to get free.

 

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You've got my respect. I really enjoyed my time with the game, but when i finally beat the end game boss, i was happy to call it quits. I just didn't enjoy the combat enough to warrant a second play-through, and some battles flat out left me fuming. It's not that i don't enjoy a difficult game, but at times i felt like the bad guy's had an unfair advantage for the sake of having an unfair advantage (namely the dimension switching stuff). 

 

That being said, i can see why you'd want to go through again. The stuff it does well, it does really well. I love the PS3/Vita save transfer/cross-buy too.

Yeah, I get what you mean. But I find the combat to be 100% skill-based in that game, which is something I'm really into. It can be infuriating at first, but once an encounter clicks it becomes fairly easy to deal with, and that's just so very satisfying for me. When I played hard on PC, the Jaguar Javier fight was the most infuriating part of the entire experience. It took me two days before I managed to beat him and it almost made me give up entirely. But this time I almost got him on my very first try and then it only took me about 20mins or so to finally get him.

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  1. The Last Story
  2. Hotel Dusk: Room 215
  3. Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch
  4. Resident Evil 6
  5. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
  6. BioShock Infinite
  7. Pandora's Tower
  8. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
  9. Tomb Raider
  10. *Earthbound (replay to celebrate release in Europe)
  11. Phoenix Wright: Justice For All
  12. Double Dragon Neon
  13. Mirror's Edge
  14. Rain
  15. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
  16. Guacamelee
  17. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
  18. Dragon's Crown
  19. Fire Emblem: Awakening

That is my list thus far. I finally platinumed Dragon's Crown last night. I don't foresee myself finishing any of my remaining games before the end of the year, but will update this list if I do.

Edited by Pojodin
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It's an interesting game. It works with a fascinating concept (it's a pretty big spoiler, so I won't elaborate) that is used to develop what felt like a pretty engrossing story. You play as Seto and you start the game in what is essentially a desolate world. Your only companion, an old man, has just died and you are left all alone. With nothing left to keep you where you are, you embark on a journey in search of any other survivors who might be out there.

The game's world really does feel abandoned. This really aids in creating a sense of connection with each of the characters you meet. The characters are developed quite nicely. The world and its various environments were beautiful. The soundtrack was really good and did a great job of setting the various moods in the game. The story was nicely done. And the flashlight mechanics you use in the game were on par with Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (a game that I felt was very similar in gameplay style, as well as overall strengths and weaknesses).

Gameplay wise, it really struggles. For the most part it is a really easy game, but it has some brief difficulty spikes. It has some JRPG leveling mechanics, but they feel almost pointless and I would almost suggest skipping most battles as the levels didn't make enough of a difference to fight for. Weapons break too easily in the game, which only furthers the point to skip unnecessary combat. Besides combat, they use a lot of redundant 'search for a key-item' quests that require a lot of thorough searching and backtracking. While this does help you to see most of the gorgeous environments, it is overdone to the point where it artificially inflates the playtime and makes playing through it really feel like a chore.

If you can find a way to fight through the frustration, you are left with what really is an intriguing game that just didn't quite develop into a complete game. It's cute/gorgeous and packs some emotion, but they definitely needed to put a lot more time and thought into developing the combat and quests. It really feels similar to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but a fair bit more tedious.

Edited by Pojodin
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