Games You've Beaten in 2018

[Mister Jack]

I finally, FINALLY finished Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.  I started this game all the way back when it first came out on the Wii, but good god it is so long.  There are also huge difficulty spikes at certain parts that required me to go back and level grind for a while, which is something I hadn't done in an RPG in ages.  This is an extremely complicated RPG, perhaps too complicated.  There were some features like the affinity skill links that I didn't even realize were a thing until I was already past level 60.  The game just throws so much stuff at you that it's easy to overlook some of the mechanics entirely if you're not careful.  Even after I started using everything the way I was supposed to, the game still wasn't easy.  It also places a pretty huge importance on your level.  Being a mere 3 or 4 levels below an enemy ensures that many of your attacks won't even hit them at all, whereas being a mere 2 levels above a boss can turn it into a complete cakewalk.  I didn't want to grind a whole lot, so I ended up being within 2 levels of most of the endgame bosses.  The game as a whole was overwhelming, but it was pretty damn good when it finally clicked.  Of course, I ended up going back and finishing it so I can move on to Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I own but never started.  After I beat that, I can finally sell my Wii U and get a Switch.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

wow. I still have that with a vague intention of giving it a go, and I'm glad you got through it but I think I'll be giving it a miss after reading that.

[Mr. GOH!]

 Night in the Woods. GOTY 2017.

[Mal]

Bastion

 

Quite easy but there are idols that you can activate to make the game harder. Not sure why they did it that way. Overall though I do like this game. Got quite a bit of style to say the least. 

2018 is the year of the backlog. 

[Mister Jack]

Xenoblade Chronicles X

 

This game is a mess. Where do I begin? While I appreciate the open world, the super high jump, and the removal of that bullshit where higher level enemies are nearly impossible to hit, everything else feels like a step back. The decision to remove some of the most basic QoL features from the last game is utterly baffling to me.  Why do I have to physically track down my party members now if I want to change them? There's like twenty of those fuckers I have to remember! Why am I forced to take three of the same party members on every story mission? It makes leveling up anyone else almost pointless, especially when the fourth spot is also reserved for specific characters during story missions. Why is healing a quicktime event? WHY IS HEALING A FUCKING QUICKTIME EVENT?! What's worse is that it appears without warning, so it's very easy to miss your chance to heal and fuck yourself over. The story has some neat themes in it. Too bad they don't get explored until the last hour. There's only twelve story missions in the game. The plot is an afterthought, and it's just as well because the characters mostly suck. With only a few exceptions, everyone is either completely generic or annoying. The plot introduces a few cool characters with potential, but then they disappear completely and are never mentioned again. There's also a running gag about eating one of your teammates that gets repeated constantly. It's only mildly amusing the first time and it's pure torture the other fifty times.

 

Also, it's far too easy to get one-shotted by enemies thirty levels or more above you out in the field. The first game had elite enemies roaming around too, but in this one they're everywhere! No matter how careful you are, you are guaranteed to be killed by these things several times just because they're too numerous to avoid. Hell, some of them can even fly. If you aggro them, and you will, it's almost impossible to run away. They chase you for way too long, even over water and THROUGH MOUNTAINS. I seriously had an enemy throw a boulder at me through a fucking mountain. The only reliable way to run away is with a mech, and even then the only way to guarantee your escape is if it can fly. I get that the game was trying to convey that you're not the dominant species on the planet, but they went way overboard.

 

So did I hate it? You bet your ass I did...at first. The thing is, once you get your giant mech the game becomes a lot more fun, even with its flaws. You are finally able to hold your own against the giant wildlife in the world. You can even do a mission to give it the ability to fly. It's just too bad it takes TWENTY FIVE HOURS to get it. You only get one mech for free too. After that you have to buy the rest yourself and you'll be paying out the ass, which means grinding for money. There's a really cool mech game buried here, but it often felt like the rest of the game was actively fighting to keep me away from it.

 

Would I recommend it? Ehhh, your mileage may vary. Obviously I liked the first game more, but if you want something completely different you might like it more than I did. If you don't care about stories in JRPGs and you just want Monster Hunter with giant robots, I could even see you really enjoying it. Just be prepared for a merciless grind. I'm not sorry I played it, but I never intend to play it again.

 

That was the last Wii U game on my backlog, so now I can finally get a Switch guilt free.

Edited January 9, 2018 by Mister Jack

[TheMightyEthan]

Opus Magnum

 

I beat this a couple of days ago.  I agree with people that it's not as hard as SpaceChem (the other Zachtronics game I've played) but I think that's a good thing, I was never able to finish SpaceChem.  I really loved it, although I wish it were a little longer.  There's plenty of bonus puzzles after the main game though, so I think I'll keep playing it for a while to come.

[Mister Jack]

Mario Odyssey

 

What can I say that hasn't been said? Fantastic platformer. Probably my favorite Mario game since 64 and likely my number two game from 2017.

[CorgiShinobi]

Super Mario Odyssey

 

Not 100% yet, but the "main" story I finished last night. In my opinion, this game is Top Tier in the Super Mario series. I would even say I like it more than Galaxy, but maybe just a little more. The only frustration I had was the 100 jump rope challenge and to a lesser extent the 100 volleyball challenge. (I ended up naturally getting 281 on jump rope, but I used the Cappy method on volleyball.)

 

I feel like, if you've played the game, you get how amazing the platforming is along with the visuals of all the stages. I also enjoyed collecting the different outfits and combined different pieces, i.e. Caveman hat with Scientist outfit for a mad scientist. Sure Power Moons can be dirt easy to obtain, but eventually you'll find hidden ones and ones that take creative platforming. Easily my number two pick for 2017!

 

**sees notification of Jack's post**

 

Well whadya know...

 

I love the SM64 outfit! When I took the portrait shortcut to the Mushroom Kingdom (Yoshi's House) from Luncheon Kingdom, I was like, "Hey, this is a place!"

[TheMightyEthan]

I enjoyed that game, but not as much as you guys. After I beat it I went on to go the bonus Broodal boss thing, but since finishing that I haven't had any desire to go back.

 

I felt like the easy moons really hurt the game. It makes it anticlimactic even when you do get one of the harder ones because all you get is another moon, which are littering the ground everywhere so it doesn't feel like much of a reward. I wish they had done more multiple tiers of collectibles, like how you get multimoons for beating the bosses.  Maybe like giving you a 3-moon multimoon for what are now some of the harder/more hidden regular moons, and up the boss reward to a 5-moon multimoon.

 

I also think the platforming is held back by the fact that so many of the moves are locked behind motion controls that are impossible or almost impossible to execute in mobile mode.  Because of that I played through the whole game basically only using jump, Cappy jump, Cappy throw, and that Cappy dive jump thing.  All the rest were impossible to execute in my main mode of play (mobile), so even when I was playing on the TV I didn't remember to use them because I wasn't in the habit.

 

Where the game really shines, imo, is in the taking over enemies. There was such a variety, and it was so much fun in each new world figuring out what they were and how to use them.  That's the only thing that saves it from being an actually kind of disappointing Mario game.

[Mal]

You shake your entire Switch and like it!

[Mister Jack]

@TheMightyEthan

I actually agree with you about the moons and the controls, but I realized that the number of moons is ultimately an arbitrary distinction. If you got three moons from a challenge, that's just three more moons you have to get. I actually would have lowered the number of total moons and made the easy ones into moon pieces a la the heart pieces from Zelda.

 

Totally agree about the controls though. That's just bullshit, but the rest of the game is strong enough to make up for it in my opinion.

[CorgiShinobi]

I said it before in the Odyssey thread, but I didn't feel hindered in my move set. In fact, I felt like I had a lot of maneuverability thanks to Cappy alongside the traditional combos. It would have been nice to have an easier method for the circle attack, but I never felt like I needed the homing attack or that there was ever a time I should be climbing a tree or vine faster. Even the circle attack only has a few uses in the game, whereas Cappy jumping practically breaks the game. For example, there's a Power Moon in the Sand Kingdom where an NPC tells you there's a creature that can survive the poison lake. So yeah, I could get a Jaxi to run across the poison, or what I could do (and did do) is a single Cappy jump to the Power Moon.

 

I believe that's the reason why the game doesn't give you that tutorial until after you've beaten the story. It's located in...

 

The Super Mario 64 courtyard you can access in the Mushroom Kingdom if you have the whole SM64 costume.

 

I do agree on the Power Moons, but for another reason. Turns out you can purchase an infinite amount of Power Moons at the Shop. I say infinite because what I learned after getting 31 Power Moons from a single Shop is that as long as you have the Coins, you can keep buying Power Moons. It does cost 1000 Coins for 10 Power Moons, but to me it artificially inflates your progression. I regret experimenting with it now because currently I'm at 426 when really I should be 395.

 

But then it made me think that the Power Moons serve more of a reward just for messing with the game. They're not the same feeling as getting a Star, where there was an objective and you completed it. Here, it rewards you for exploring or experimenting with the game. Granted, there are still easy Power Moons that ultimately break the flow of the game. There were times I could have just left a Kingdom without resolving the Kingdom's conflict. In fact, I forgot to finish the Luncheon Kingdom boss battle so I didn't get the...

 

World Peace objective completed with Toadette until last night.

[TheMightyEthan]

@Mister Jack yeah, a moon pieces thing would have worked too, just anything to make more of a difference in reward between various activities.

[toxicitizen]

Factorio.

 

I guess? Doesn't really feel like I've "beaten" it or that I'm anywhere near done with my base but I launched a rocket with a satellite into space, which is the current victory condition. No idea if it's final or if they'll add more to it before it leaves Early Access but I think I'll use this as an excuse to step away from the game for a while because holy shit.

 

 

To call it a time sink would be a massive understatement. At one point in the late game it started feeling a little tedious maintaining everything and fixing all the problems that came up as I was upgrading my factory. Then I said fuck it and built a goddamn train to more quickly traverse my gigantic base and just like that I was hooked again. I technically "won" the game but I can still think of a bunch of shit I could do to improve or expand my setup.

 

Starting all over again on a new map is also very tempting. I'm actually looking forward to doing a new run eventually (maybe once it leaves EA) because my save file's actual playtime was closer to 50 hours (~15h was spent on the "campaign", which is basically a glorified tutorial, and I also restarted my proper game once because I realized my map was shit) but there is an achievement for beating it in under 8 hours and some people have it. So it's definitely doable and that just blows my fucking mind. I wasted a lot of time just fucking around or redoing things, so I can definitely see how you could shave off 20 hours or so, especially now that I have a better understanding of how everything works. But 8 hours is just pure madness to me. There's also different kinds of runs I'd like to try. Rushing to robots, never upgrading to solar power, trying that one map seed where you start on a huge island cut off from all the enemy bases, etc..

 

I said I'd take a break for now but just talking about it makes me wanna fire it up right now. This game is fucking crack. 10/10. Game of the Year. All years. 12/10.

Edited January 17, 2018 by FLD

[Mal]

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

 

It's pretty short but it's a great metroidvania. Not sure why I stop last time I played by a sitting or two got it done.

[Mister Jack]

Super Ghouls and Ghosts

 

Yeah, the SNES game.  I know it's old but god damn it, I'm proud of this one.  It was sitting on my SNES Classic, taunting me as a game I could never beat, so I took it upon myself as a personal challenge to beat that son of a bitch.  I did not use the rewind feature on the system to erase my mistakes, and I only used one save state slot at the beginning of certain levels so that I could take breaks and come back later without having to just pause the game and leave it on forever like in the old days.  Aside from that one small convenience, I beat this game legit, and it was a real son of a bitch.  What finally helped me get through was when I realized that Ghouls and Ghosts is not a platformer.  Oh, it wants you to think it is, but it's actually a puzzle game.  Enemies and obstacles occur on predetermined patterns for the most part, and once you figure out how to work your way around those patterns it's just a matter of following the right steps to make it from point A to point B because this is a very slow-paced game that isn't really based on reflexes.  It's about memorization and problem solving.  Even once I started treating the game with this mindset it still wasn't easy.  It took me a grand total of four days off and on to get though to the end.  And just as a side note, I really fucking hate that it's some kind of tradition in this series that you have to beat the game twice in order to see the ending.  That's one of the worst gaming gimmicks I've ever seen.

[Mal]

For a second I thought you beaten XC2. Like damn you are fast but what you actually beaten is more amazing. It still vexed me to this day. And you did it legit and twice. 

[Mister Jack]

Ghouls and Ghosts 

 

Since I beat the SNES one, I figured I'd load the Genesis one onto the SNES Classic and try to beat it since it's a completely different game.  This one was significantly easier for a number of reasons.  For starters, it's shorter.  It also wasn't designed around a stiff and finicky double jump.  You can shoot in four directions rather than two, the weapon you're forced to use in the second playthrough to see the ending doesn't suck ass, and most importantly the checkpoints are more generous.  This one only took me two days off and on to beat rather than four.  That's not to say it wasn't still a total bastard because it was, but after beating the SNES one it didn't feel nearly as insurmountable as it did when I was a kid.  I had to use a level select code at one point because my progress mysteriously got erased somehow, but other than that I beat this one legit too.  I plan on trying to get the NES Classic when it re-releases this summer, and when I do the first thing I plan to do with it is beat Ghosts and Goblins.  Then I can finally end this chapter of my life.  This chapter of...not beating Ghosts and Goblins.

[TheMightyEthan]

Blue Reflection

 

I actually platted it, which isn't hard to do in one playthrough (I got all but 1 trophy naturally, and I did look that one up once I realized it was the only one I wasn't going to get on my own).  I liked it, but it's nothing spectacular.  Kind of a Baby's First Persona, with everything SUPER simplified but still kind of recognizable.

[toxicitizen]

Obduction

 

This is a Myst spiritual successor by the original devs. I went into it expecting something similar to The Witness but it turns out they're not as similar as I thought they would be. At first, I thought I liked The Witness more but now that I'm done with it I'm actually not sure. The obvious difference is that Obduction actually has a story. Well, more of a backstory, really. You're pretty much just piecing together what happened from reading notes and diaries. I never really felt like The Witness needed a story but having that context made exploring Obduction's alien worlds way more interesting. But there's also a core difference in how you interact with the game in general.

 

I never really played any of the Myst games. I mostly just messed around with Myst and Riven back when I was way too young to understand how to actually play them. So, I didn't entirely know what to expect and ended up wandering around aimlessly for a while in the first half of the game. In The Witness, when you get stuck you know exactly where you're stuck. You can go check out something else and come back later with a fresh mind. Here, I had no idea what I should even be looking for, let alone where, and it got a little boring and frustrating. But at one point I had my first "Holy shit, wait!" moment and figured out something fundamental about the internal logic of Obduction's world. Suddenly a few things fell into place and I was able to make fairly steady progress for a while. These moments kept happening throughout the game and they more than made up for those aimless first few hours.

 

There was this one area that I had no idea how to reach and I kept waiting for a passage to open or to end up there somehow and it never happened. Then in the last 15mins of the game I'm told to actually go there to do something and I'm still clueless about how to even get there. So I go look at the map in one of the houses, because what else am I gonna do? This time I actually noticed a small detail that I had missed and had the final "holy shit" moment. Suddenly, I understood the underlying logic behind this game mechanic I'd been using all along and relying on memorization to navigate. I instantly knew exactly where I needed to go to reach that area and it was the most fucking satisfying thing ever. 

 

You can beat The Witness without ever understanding anything outside of the puzzle panels and it's still a fantastic game. But these "holy shit" moments that kept happening in Obduction were way more satisfying than line puzzles could ever hope to be. I think The Witness is stronger as a puzzle game because of its laser focus (edit: pun not intended  -__-) but the story and the need to understand the internal logic of the world made exploring and solving Obduction's mysteries ultimately feel much more rewarding and engaging.

 

I'm kinda tempted to grab Myst and Riven and give them another shot but I have a feeling their age is gonna make it difficult for me to really get into them. Plus, it doesn't look like Myst 3 and 4 are available anywhere, so I'm probably better off waiting and hoping for an Obduction sequel.

Edited January 22, 2018 by FLD

[Thursday Next]

Opus Magnum (thanks Ethan)

 

At least I finished the story. Still have the post mission puzzles to do. Really enjoy watching the machines build things. Very cathartic.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, sometimes after I beat a level I would hit "continue modifying" and stare at it as it operated for a while.

[toxicitizen]

Tacoma

 

It's Gone Home but IN SPAAAAAAAACE! Well, kind of. I thought the way you interact with the environment and uncover the plot was way more interesting here. You're basically watching glorified audiologs but they're in this AR format that plays in 3D space and include multiple characters. So, you have to follow them as they walk around and if they split up you need to rewind and follow them individually to get the full scene. The game is actually a neat little subversion of typical 0451 game tropes in a few ways (0451 games as in Deus Ex, ___Shock, Dishonored, etc.), so that alone made it worth my time.

 

Also, did I mention it's set in space? Anything is better in space.

 

 

Human Resource Machine

 

I played the first few levels of this a while back and kinda lost interest but for some reason I felt like going back to it this week. I still have some optional levels and optimization challenges to complete but I got to the end of the main path. Out of all the programming games I've played, this has to be the most simplistic by far. Even though it's technically actual assembly, it's abstracted into this really easy to understand visual programming system that I think even non-programmers should have no trouble with.

 

Also, I think I'm some kind of oracle or something because the devs just announced a follow-up today.

 

 

[Thursday Next]

"They will be the best jobs, huge"... ISWYDT.

[Bogie 2.0]

TEKKEN 7
 

I’ve been playing this all month and heck it’s painfully average.

It added special attacks (appropriately named Rage Arts, this being the same game that keeps throwing at me a Majin Vegeta every 5 minutes), an underage Japanese idol and a slowmo thingy to please the stream-howling crowds.
 

Screw this Rage Arts™. Not only it rewards players for playing badly, it completely brakes the flow of the game by having the character strike a pose not unlike America’s Next Topmodel. It sours the TEKKEN experience which, like the deep af Virtua Fighter series, was keeping its own flavour. There are also bizarre omissions like Lei and Zafina—probably too old for Harada—and the new characters did nothing for me, although Geese looks indeed tasty but alas it’s DLC.

All in all, this franchise has seen better days. As the great philosopher JC Denton once said: “it’s a shame.”

Edited January 26, 2018 by Bogie 2.0