What are you playing/what have you purchased?

[LesserChozo]

Yeah, 17 hours is pretty surprising. Isn't that by the same folks who did Final Fantasy, or no?

[HYRUL3]

From what I understand, it's by the original creator of the Final Fantasy series.

[SLtheFMA]

I didn't do any sidequests, so theres probably more hours you add to it.

Yes the head director of The Last Story is Hironobu Sakaguchi (yes he did Final Fantasy).

[doc O. Mire]

I'm also playing The Last Story (doing every sidequest I can find). Oh, and don't forget Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for the game as well as the Final Fantasy series.

Unfortunately, The Last Story has left me with a pretty major dilemma... which has better packaging, The Last Story's low-relief bookcover or MP: Trilogy's metal-plated box?

[Emperor Ing]

Playing some Gradius III.

Much to my surprise, I made it past the first two levels without dying. Died at the stage 2 boss however, and everything went downhill from there.

Also been playing a lot of MAME.

Rastan is a pretty damn good game. I recommend you guys play it if you wanna be hardcore. Like me. Because I'm hardcore.


That looks pretty fucking hardcore doesn't it?
This game kicks my ASS but I keep on coming back for more.

[HYRUL3]

I'm also playing The Last Story (doing every sidequest I can find). Oh, and don't forget Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for the game as well as the Final Fantasy series.

Unfortunately, The Last Story has left me with a pretty major dilemma... which has better packaging, The Last Story's low-relief bookcover or MP: Trilogy's metal-plated box?

It's still MPT for me.

Played some Darksiders II last night, and tonight my girlfriend and I got to World 7 in NSMBWii. Getting close...

[SLtheFMA]

Got Conduit on Wii, playing it now.

[HYRUL3]

Tonight I'll wrap up item collection in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and then hopefully either make a dent in Darksiders II or go back to playing Okami on the Wii, now that I own my own version of it.

[fox mulder]

I guess it's just me then, because I'm having a hard time REALLY enjoying Last Story.
It's all right, but that's about it (except for the music, the music's awesome).

Still have nothing to play on my Vita, but I will pick up FFVII for it when the time comes.

[HYRUL3]

I haven't even put the disc for Last Story in the Wii yet, but I hope that I'll enjoy it. The quality of the box and the music have set high expectations. Did you take auto attack off? I know that someone said one reviewer had a miserable time with it because they didn't know you could take auto attack off, or something to that end.

Today I finished collecting all the blueprints and audio files in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Then I played about an hour of Darksiders II while I waited for my girlfriend to wake up. We ended up playing a few levels in NSMBWii, but we're still stuck in World 7 for now.

GameFly sent my Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, so I'll probably try that out this weekend to decide whether to send it back or play through it by Tuesday. I know several members here said it was deplorable, so I'll judge for myself soon...

I'm still bummed that they sent me Castlevania, when the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS3) was next in my GameQ. I've never played a Metal Gear Solid game, so I was going to start with MGS3 since from what I understand that occurs first in the timeline; and I've heard nothing but good things about the series.

[fox mulder]

I suppose you could say I don't quite see where all the praise comes from. The art and soundtrack are without a doubt amazing, and the battle system is fun, but the cutscenes are really choppy, and the characters are kinda flat (but I also haven't finished it, so maybe something changes, I dunno). I certainly like them, but there isn't much to them that grabs me.
I'll probably finish it, and I might have fun, but once it winds up on the shelf, I don't really see it coming back down.

[HYRUL3]

Hmm. That's disappointing. I had heard that the characters were awesome and not cliche, etc, etc, breaks the JRPG mold.

Meh.

[fox mulder]

Still play it, maybe it's just me.

[doc O. Mire]

Just finished The Last Story, and it was great. Well executed plot, interesting characters (they get more depth the further and further you go, especially if you try and complete every side-quest available), entertaining combat, etc. Overall, a game that should definitely be rented at the very least (although I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to buy it, what with its awesome cover and artbook).


If I wanted to be critical however: The frame-rate. Watching the game run is at times like watching a film from the mid-1900s, and you may find yourself worrying that the film stock might catch fire. Then, while the plot's good and all, one of the big twists is visible from a mile away; I managed to figure it out a good 20 hours before it happened. And then there's the occasional poorly-written or melodramatic line (example: "I'm sick of it... sick of all the pain!" [dramatic camera pan]), and the fact that that tiger thing? You know, the one so important it made in onto the boxart? Yeah, [spoiler]it plays almost no role in the actual story[/spoiler]. Also there's one painfully annoying but thankfully short-lived mandatory-stealth section.

Then, besides that, the only major issue I had was probably the ending. Not the ending itself, but more of the fact that the game doesn't make it clear where the ending is. There were a good half-dozen spots where it hinted the game would end at, and I accidentally ended up ended it before I got to tie up all the loose ends ... (Yes, I know, the repetitive repetitiveness is most repetitive.)


But that's just nitpicking. Again, great game overall. Three thumbs up. Presented the Golden Chocobo award. Stamp of approval. 10/0. Play it.

[HYRUL3]

Confused how you have three thumbs, but if its that good, it'll jump to the top of my backlog queue!

Just fought the first really, really epic boss in Darksiders II. Very reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus.

Come to think of it, this series doesn't seem to have any original ideas, besides the core story concept (the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War bringing the end of the world to Earth early and being framed as doing it purposefully, Death trying to clear his name, etc).

It uses the exploration and dungeon crawling of Zelda, the combat of God of War, the wall-running and climbing of Prince of Persia, it flat out stole the Portal guns (colors included) in the first Darksiders, uses Shadow of the Colossus-esque bosses, and more.

It's a great series, but you can see where it "borrowed inspiration" from at every turn.