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Games You Have Beaten Recently?


Nightowljrm

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  • 2 weeks later...
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After putting it off for many years, I finally played through Prince of Persia for SNES.  I had the misfortune of having previously only played the NES version, which was not very good.  This was a much better experience!

Are there any other versions of the original game worth playing?  I checked online and most people picked the SNES version as the best one, even though it's a bit different (20 levels instead of original 12, etc).

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Harmony of Dissonance - I can't remember if I've already beaten this before.  I think I've gotten pretty far at least a couple of times and then lost interest.  Got all 4 endings this time though and collected all of the furniture for Juste's room.  I actually like how OP you can become towards the end, especially with the Cross + Wind spellbook.  Movement is pretty fluid and you can bust through the castle fairly quickly.  Most of the criticism about it seems pretty fair though ( uninspired bosses, clunky castle layout, copy/paste of SOTN's story, low quality music, etc ).  It's basically just SOTN-lite for the GBA and lacks a real sense of identity that the other handheld 'Vanias have.

Doom 64 - Playing/played the new re-release on the Xbox 1.  They did a good job with the amped up creepiness and "survival horror" sort of take on the original Doom formula.  It's pretty easy, but the last boss is fairly challenging.  I actually pulled a Rocky II double KO the first time I beat it.  I'm going to go back through and play the newly-added Lost Levels and also get the rest of the achievements like getting the 3 upgrades for the Unmaker weapon.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished up Jed: Fallen Order last week and should knock out Ori and the Will of the Wisps today. I wrote some extensive thoughts on Jedi in the thread dedicated to the game. Ori is just fantastic and better than the original in every way. If you like Metroidvanias with an emphasis on movement, you really need to try it.

Next up: Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I've been waiting for this one for like 15 years. 😁

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Graphics Team · Posted

I finished Kid Icarus (NES) for the first time without using turbo-fire. I didn't realize there was a bad ending, though, and Palutena turned me into a farmer. Does anyone know what the in-game criteria is for the different endings?

-CasualCart

782182768_KidIcarusFarmer.jpg.25a4db8e288baeda9ffd33fff385c6c6.jpg

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On 5/3/2020 at 5:58 PM, CasualCart said:

I finished Kid Icarus (NES) for the first time without using turbo-fire. I didn't realize there was a bad ending, though, and Palutena turned me into a farmer. Does anyone know what the in-game criteria is for the different endings?

-CasualCart

782182768_KidIcarusFarmer.jpg.25a4db8e288baeda9ffd33fff385c6c6.jpg

It has to do with how much you power up and how much stuff you collect. You basically have to 100% the game to get the best ending.

https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Kid_Icarus/Endings

I never found it worthwhile to go for the best ending, myself. Farming for hearts can get pretty tedious, the requirement for getting the arrows is somewhat obtuse, and those damn enemies that can steal your weapons 😤

Edited by cj_robot
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Graphics Team · Posted
13 hours ago, cj_robot said:

It has to do with how much you power up and how much stuff you collect. You basically have to 100% the game to get the best ending.

https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Kid_Icarus/Endings

I never found it worthwhile to go for the best ending, myself. Farming for hearts can get pretty tedious, the requirement for getting the arrows is somewhat obtuse, and those damn enemies that can steal your weapons 😤

Thanks for the info. Yeah, getting the best ending sounds like way more trouble than it's worth.

-CasualCart

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River City Girls on Switch. The game has a bit of a learning curve, and many folks suggest it's better with two players because the early game is just too hard. I'm not sure I agree, though. I made it 75% of the way through with a buddy on local co-op on my first run... then the lockdown hit, so I started over on a solo run. Verdict: It's a different experience, not necessarily better or worse either way. It's true that with co-op play you have extra coverage that can come in handy, especially with bosses. When flying solo, however, you don't have to share money and item drops with a second player, so the occasional grinding you may need to do to level up your character goes faster and doesn't seem as awkward.

Early difficulty aside, by mid-game my character was an absolute beast. Once you understand how the stats system works (shop items permanently boost stats, but only the first time you use them) you can strategize how to level up efficiently, and after filling out your moveset at the dojo (and learning how to use it) you can easily clear an entire screen of enemies in a few seconds while feeling like a total badass. Each of the four PCs play somewhat differently so you'll need to adjust your play style depending on who you use. I'm already ripping through a New Game + run, having a blast learning how to use one of the new unlocked characters.

Overall, a great game. If there's a downside, it's that the story is quite dumb. Hopefully the secret ending available the second time through will be an improvement.

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Strider (the Ps1 port of the original game)

Not a particular hard game overall, expect for a middle section at the last stage, where the gravity inverts. That section alone is harder than all the rest of the game combined. Thankfully this version has unlimited continues, and that's why Ive chosen it.  

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On 4/10/2020 at 12:06 AM, rdrunner said:

Are there any other versions of the original game worth playing?  I checked online and most people picked the SNES version as the best one, even though it's a bit different (20 levels instead of original 12, etc).

I'd play the MS-DOS or Amiga version for the "original experience" (the two are basically identical). Most other ports either changed things around a lot, or are somewhat broken. In that family there's no doubt that the SNES version is the absolute winner. It adds a lot of bells an whistles on top of the original game, but still feels very much in line with Jordan Mechner's original vision, and the feeling of being in an adventure out of arabian nights (the game's sequel continues in this vein, but stay away from the SNES version of that one).

But there's definitely something to be said for the more modest, low-key original incarnation of the game, which is more focused on doing one thing well. And the notably shorter game (and with it, a shorter time limit of one hour) makes it more well suited for multiple playthroughs until you grasp the game and stages well enough to complete it within the limit.
But even though the game was originally for the Apple II, I feel like said versions (MS-DOS + Amiga) represent what the original was going for better.

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Battle Princess Madelyn

Kinda baffled by this one. At best it seems really solid, and at worst it's inexplicably amateurishly designed. As if different people with wildly different skillsets and experiences had their hands on it. My best bet is that someone made a really well functional engine for a (Super) Ghouls n Ghosts clone, but never used it for anything. Then someone else with a similar love of that series (and obviously Black Tiger, also), yet no understanding of what makes it good, took over and made their own game with their daughter as the main character. Unfortunately said person had no idea about neither game design nor programming.

battle-princess-madelyn-screenshot-01-ps4-us-27nov2018?$native_xxl_nt$

The game plays extremely well in its basics. You move around smoothly, enemies work in creative ways, and are able to scale the environment with ease as they follow you. Meanwhile going to certain areas just breaks the game, and entering a new locations just freezes up the game inexplicably for several seconds as it's loading the next one. The menu is a complete mess, typically dropping at least half your inputs, and allowing some in-game movements while it's up, despite the game being "paused". The warp menu especially is insane. Incredibly laggy, yet buffering inputs, and you get no feedback for whether your input was registered. I refuse to believe these different aspects of the game were programmed by the same person.

Also, the game feels like it's designed for super hardcore, tight action gameplay. Yet, you're just plowing through everything in the game - and dying has literally NO consequence. There is no healing in the game, but any time you run out of life you just respawn immediately, exactly where you die. My problem here isn't so much that the game is way too easy, but there is literally no way to fail, and no reason to ever care about avoiding damage, which reduces the entire gameplay to inconsequential. The only way you can get set back, is in areas with bottomless pits (which are hilariously well telegraphed like 10% of the time, and completely impossible to tell the rest of the time).
The game is designed around having a big arsenal of weapons, but outside the fact that most of them are pretty much the same, you start the game getting one extra weapon, and don't find any of the rest until the very tail end of the game. And one of them especially (and it's not a hidden weapon or anything) is so overpowered that it takes out the final boss in less than 10 seconds, barely giving her the time to do anything.

In general so many aspects of the game just feel completely lazy. Which is fair in the context of a dad just wanting to make a fun game for his daughter with her as the main character. But then, so much work has been put into other aspects - The artwork is great, the game is huge, and the music is fantastic. Why take it so far, and then not drive it all the way home? This has to be one of the most schizophrenic things I've ever played.

Despite how fascinating this all sounds, all I can say to anyone else who were considering picking up this one: Don't bother.

Edited by Sumez
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