Super Games You Beat in 2024 Turbo Thread: Arcade Edition

[toxicitizen]

Metaphor: ReFantazio

 

I suppose there's some irony in finishing the game this week in particular. Having the selection of a leader end well is a nice escape from reality right now... 

 

Overall, this is a pretty solid offering from Atlus. While it is basically Fantasy Persona (to a shocking degree, honestly), I found that its main differences from Persona were its biggest strengths. The story doesn't quite reaches the same heights as P5R but the press-turn combat system and the Archetypes job system both felt like a huge improvement over the more repetitive and limited One More combat from Persona. Press-turn felt way more strategic to me. If you play your cards right, you can dispatch enemies without taking any damage and get a boost to your combat rewards. If you don't, an encounter that could've been trivial can end up kicking your ass.

 

The way archetypes work together also adds another neat strategic layer. It clicked for me early on in the first real dungeon. I unlocked a new archetype and equipped it on a character immediately. Then I proceeded to get my ass kicked the very next fight. I thought about it for a bit and considered how my current archetypes could work together and came up with a strategy that carried me through the rest of the dungeon. That was way more satisfying than I ever found the combat in Persona to be.

 

Being able to use every archetype with any character is also great. Need a second healer? Just level up the Healer tree on any character you like. Want that character to still keep its original role? No problem, switch back and use skill inheritance to re-equip the healing spells you want. It's a level of freedom and customization that just isn't present in Persona/Demon fusion. I know I always end up feeling like I have to compromise and lose useful abilities. Here, though, you can build your party members pretty much exactly how you want them. It's great!

 

So yeah, while the game feels very similar to Persona in terms of structure, the combat is the one thing I felt was an upgrade. The story, not so much. it's fine, really, and there's a few cool twists along the way but ultimately it felt pretty basic. It's the one aspect of the game that made me feel like it could benefit from a Royal-style rerelease with added content.

 

Oh and the game is way less strict than Persona as far as time management goes. I didn't quite manage to do everything because I'm dumb and suck at time management but the last month gives you enough free time that I still managed to complete all the requests and max out all the followers' ranks. And that's despite me wasting a bunch of days traveling to places I wasn't ready to tackle on more than one occasion... If you plan things out a little better, there's a ton of breathing room here.

 

So yeah, overall this was pretty damn good. The fantasy setting was a nice change from the usual Atlus fare although I wouldn't necessarily say i preferred it. It was just a nice change of pace.

 

But now that this and P3R are out of the way, I really need you to reveal Persona 6 already, Atlus! And don't you fucking dare go back to launching as a timed PlayStation exclusive, I swear to God...

[MetalCaveman]

The Evil Within 2

 

Brief but accurate summary:

 

 

This one definitively felt better to play, it is overall the better game, but the first one is the better survival horror. Not to say this one isn't scary, it does have some really creepy parts, but the general atmosphere and feel of this one doesn't quite reach the same heights.

 

The story was pretty cool

Spoiler

Starting around chapter 12 it does feel like everything goes to hell (more than usual lol):

Liam goes all "Burnice at home".

Torres' sacrifice led to an unintentionally funny moment with Sebastian going from "I'm free of my guilt!" to "Oh god this is all my fault, what have I done!" real quick.

Sykes thinks he found a way out but there's a 75% chance he's just gone.

Hoffman realizes that coming with us on a journey to hell tower was not the best idea.

 

Then there's the whole ending sequence with Myra.

 

Quite the ride. I was expecting Sebastian to be toast as well, leaving Kidman to take care of Lily.

 

Overall, this is a game I would totally recommend to anyone interested in the series, there's plenty of QoL and gameplay improvements, although at the cost of some of the horror, still pretty creepy though.

 

Grade: A

[toxicitizen]

11 minutes ago, MetalCaveman said:

The Evil Within 2

 

Brief but accurate summary:

 

 

This one definitively felt better to play, it is overall the better game, but the first one is the better survival horror. Not to say this one isn't scary, it does have some really creepy parts, but the general atmosphere and feel of this one doesn't quite reach the same heights.

 

The story was pretty cool

  Hide contents

Starting around chapter 12 it does feel like everything goes to hell (more than usual lol):

Liam goes all "Burnice at home".

Torres' sacrifice led to an unintentionally funny moment with Sebastian going from "I'm free of my guilt!" to "Oh god this is all my fault, what have I done!" real quick.

Sykes thinks he found a way out but there's a 75% chance he's just gone.

Hoffman realizes that coming with us on a journey to hell tower was not the best idea.

 

Then there's the whole ending sequence with Myra.

 

Quite the ride. I was expecting Sebastian to be toast as well, leaving Kidman to take care of Lily.

 

Overall, this is a game I would totally recommend to anyone interested in the series, there's plenty of QoL and gameplay improvements, although at the cost of some of the horror, still pretty creepy though.

 

Grade: A

 

There's also this really important scene you can get if you backtrack all the way to the beginning.

 

 

[Mister Jack]

Metro Awakening 

 

At the risk of sounding weird I'd call this more of a horror game than a first person shooter. A very effective one, too. Oh sure, you use guns and you shoot people and they'll shoot back at you and that's all fine, but the parts of this game that really stood out to me are the segments where you're not fighting against other humans. The mutated animals of the Metro have tunnels all over the place that they use to flank and ambush you, and I'd say at least 50% of the time you'll discover a monster when you hear it skittering in your blind spot and then turn around to find it suddenly jumping at your face. It's extremely tense and it's not a bunch of cheap shots either. The monsters can't just teleport behind you. They have to physically run through their tunnels to set up their ambushes so if you listen closely and have good situational awareness you can make a reasonable guess as to which hole they're going to emerge from. These bastards are quick though, so even if you see them coming you have only a split second to shoot them before they leap at you. Backing yourself into a corner to minimize your blind spots is ironically a good survival tactic when it's available.

 

This is a Metro game so you'll be doing things like using a portable generator to power devices and keep your flashlight lit along with looking for air filters for your gas mask when moving through radioactive zones. There's not a whole lot of VR interactivity outside of your weapons and inventory, but considering this is a world that's been blown to shit by nukes it's not like there's a whole lot to interact with besides rubble and cabinets in your search for ammo. Ammo is scarce too so you best get in the habit of emptying out the guns of everyone you kill. Don't throw away your empty magazines, either. You'll need them to hold whatever spare bullets you find.

 

There's a decent plot here and several segments where you're not shooting anything at all but merely walking through haunted areas and absorbing the story, so if you want constant action this is not the game for you. Traveling through pitch black tunnels while hearing the wails of the dead all around you is pretty damn creepy though. 

 

I do have a few small criticisms. If you want a Russian dub, you're not getting it here. I don't know if the Ukraine situation has anything to do with this decision but it is what it is. Several maps also get recycled. They're different on return visits, owing to the supernatural nature of the metro, but the fact remains that you'll be seeing certain locations multiple times. Lastly, there's one too many turret sections for my liking. Still, this is a very solid VR title and if you've been looking for an excuse to bust out your headset again you could do a lot worse.

 

By the way, I don't have arachnophobia but if you do this game is going to be your personal hell. Giant spiders not only creep all around the walls and jump directly onto your face but they'll also crawl all over your body, forcing you to grab around your shoulders to catch them and yank them off. Sometimes you'll even go to grab ammo or your backpack only to discover that a spider the size of a small dog has clamped itself onto your hand. There's no arachnophobia setting either so you best be mentally prepared for that.