Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Jimmer-jammer you’ve cleared some games lately mate fair play

@colonelkilgore Man, I’ve got a few games that are right near the end. Hoping to wrap them all up before Shadow of the Erdtree drops!

Games I recently beat? Yakuza and Ratchet and Clank for the ps2, oh and Rift Apart as well!

Just finished The Rising Tides DLC for Final Fantasy XVI. Honestly quite disappointed with both this DLC and Echoes of the Fallen. The new abilities in The Rising Tides are so uninspiring, they are just similar to other abilities. So I decided to not even utilise them. The story was good but it honestly felt like it should've been part of the main game. The boss fight against Leviathan was awesome but it was absolutely brutal. I died more times during this fight than throughout the entire base game. There's this one part in the fight where you have to prevent Leviathan from using Tsunami and you only have a certain amount of time to do so. I came close so many times but the game wants you to do a perfect run and it's so stupid because it ruined the flow of that fight.

I also can't believe how few times you level up throughout the DLC. With the expansion, the level cap is raised from 50 to 60. At the end of the DLC, I was at level 52 and I started it at level 50.

I enjoyed being back in the world of FFXVI because this game is phenomenal. But the DLCs were simply not that good.

I recently beat Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s probably my favorite RPG of all time, and one of the most immersive games I’ve ever played.

I am kinda bummed about the game though. I got the true ending (the unmoored world), evacuated everyone and completed all trials, but didn’t get the trophy for evacuation despite only spending two days in this place and resting only once. I got the trophy for doing all trials in the place, so it should have coincided with the other, but alas it did not. It makes me not want to do a NG+ to get the platinum trophy.

The Rising Tide FF mode - Excellent dlc! As epic as anything in the main game, if not more so. Extremely challenging final boss (especially the “press the attack” bit) but very satisfying to get right. I just love this game 😂

@Kraven Congrats! I’m very much looking forward to eventually playing this. Sounds like a heck of a good time!

Right now watching the credits roll on Sea of Stars after just short of 30 hours in the game, it's been pretty good. Not as great as the reviews and hype had led me to expect but a solid old school style RPG experience. Enjoyable story, good cast of characters, gorgeous pixel art style and some funky tunes.
Main complaints were that it seemed to drag towards the end and that the gameplay never really evolves, you're pretty much doing the same thing in battles in the thirtieth hour as in the third.
Still glad I got to play it through PS+ and will probably spend some more time on it picking up a few more trophies.

@sorteddan I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment on Sea of Stars. It’s a great game, but it had its flaws. The combat system was awesome but it never evolved, unfortunately. And the game dragged near the end. If there was maybe 5 hours less of the end game, then my praises would be much higher for it.

Yakuza Kiwami 2. A little underwhelmed by the experience, I'm not gonna lie. Total downgrade from Kiwami 1 in terms of the story. Parts of the game felt like padding to lengthen an otherwise thin narrative. Wasn't really a fan of the changes to combat. Majima was relegated to some lame minigame in a construction site.

Oh, and I hate with a passion whoever thought it was a good idea to put an insta-death QTE in the final boss battle. I was playing with Xbox controller prompts, which always confuse me, because they're mirrored Nintendo ones, so I probably did that last fight ten times before accidentally getting the QTE right. In retrospect, I should've added Playstation button prompts.

The ending is a butt-pull fake out. Ryuji Goda had good screen presence, but the game did very little of interest with him.

It's Yakuza, so I still liked it, but... eh. After Kiwami 1 and what I played of 0, it was a letdown, I won't lie.

Also, this action combat system sucks for bosses. Can't wait to get to the turn-based games.

@Ralizah surprised to hear that actually, as I’d always heard that Yakuza Kiwami 2 was a high point for the series. I’ve still only played the original Kiwami myself but am looking forward to playing 2 in the next 6 months or so. Doesn’t hurt at all to have my expectations put in check though.

@colonelkilgore I had too. Plenty of people list it alongside 0 and LAD as one of the best entries in the series.

I don't get it.

There's a really bad shark-jumping bit halfway through where the game just starts tossing in random stuff that doesn't make sense. And chapters where it feels like all you do is babysit Haruka, or are forced to walk around helping meaningless side characters before the plot is allowed to progress (I like substories, but not when they're used to pad out main plot progression).

It all feels like a build-up to the ending, which is heavily reliant on a series of heavily telegraphed twists.

That said, it is a very attractive game. Dragon Engine puts in the work.

@Ralizah Kiwami 2’s combat I feel slightly lets it down for me. And yeah, the plot’s insane by the end. I’d probably pick 5 as my favourite after 0 and 7, it’s absolutely off the wall bonkers and the most stuffed game I’ve ever played but personally I’ve never subscribed to anything being too much of a good thing. There’s plenty wrong or janky with it but it gives so many more great moments that I think it outweighs the crazy.

@nessisonett I'm okay with crazy when it's somewhat grounded in reality. Yakuza has a lot of crazy in a 'Florida Man' sense. But in Kiwami 2, when you have magic castles rising out of the ground and have to beat up ninjas and tigers with your bare hands, the suspension of disbelief goes away.

5 seems to be incredibly polarizing. I've frequently heard it quoted as being both among the best and the worst entries in the series by various people. Should be interesting when I eventually get to it.

Unfortunately, Y3 is up next, canonically, and nobody seems too sweet on that one.

@Ralizah The tiger fight is probably a bit too ‘zany’ for me too but 5 does flirt with the silliness in a similar vein to that, although I do think it’s handled slightly better as it suits the environment, if that makes sense in a spoiler-free way!

I love Yakuza 3’s setting and the vibes are sweet but it starts very slowly and never really gets going. And the enemies loooove to block. It does have the best Engrish on PS3 though! I have positive memories of it as I usually just remember how much I loved running around Okinawa. But then I watched my brother play it (he’s on 5 in the space of not even a month) and he was struggling a lot with the combat. All I’ll say is let us know your reaction the very first second you gain control of Kiryu in that game and start moving 😂

@nessisonett I guess I'll have to decide for myself.

Blocking? Ugh. Please tell me I can at least Heat Action the bosses to death like I could in the previous two games.

Also please tell me the enemies that stunlock you with bazookas don't return.

@Ralizah I think basically every game has that one boss who stunlocks you with guns but 4 has the worst offender so you’re a while away from that! And heat actions are ok in this game but you do have to engage with the side content to make yourself powerful enough to not be completely screwed by some of the bosses.

@nessisonett :/

I pray you mean substories and not the inane cabaret club stuff.

@Ralizah Just substories! They give you a decent amount of EXP that really comes in handy. Plus there’s the trainers to give you moves as well. You’ll really need all the help you can get.

@nessisonett Sounds good. I try to do all of the non-annoying substories I can anyway, since they comprise the majority of the funny writing in these games.