Review The Last Game You Beat

[Thief]

I just beat Soul Blazer. It was amazing. I stayed up all night playing it and it's now 6 am and I have work in a couple hours. :P

Great gameplay, loved the town building aspect (it reminded me of my favorite part of Dark Cloud). Also, the story/characters really got to me at times. This game really got me thinking about life. It's hard to explain but this game managed to be really profound with very few words. It really moved me... :/

Anyway, I might do a more detailed review later but I need to get some sleep. My thanks goes out to Ryudo for suggesting the game. I never would have guessed it would be so great.

[OL]

I remember when I first got an SNES (only a few years ago, not when I was a kid), Soul Blazer was the second game I played through, right after Actraiser. And something about it really does feel unlike anything else. Something about the vagueness of it (as you said, there's little in the way of extensive dialogue) and the way the initially empty environments slowly grow and gain more life as the game goes on...
Yeah, it's a pretty special game to me. Illusion of Gaia (the semi-followup to Soul Blazer) is great as well, but feels completely different overall. Recommended though, if you haven't played it.

[Thief]

I'm actually playing through Illusion of Gaia now. Luckily my brother owned a copy of both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, so I was able to borrow them from him. Unfortunately he doesn't have Terranigma. I think I might just go ahead and buy the reproduction cart because I don't want to play it on an emulator and finding an English Pal copy is impossible...

[Kenny]

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Awesome game. I'm not sure which recent SC game is better, this or Double Agent. Both were definitely worth the price of admission.

[Who Really Cares?]

CT is still the best in the series for me. As for DA it depends which version you played? Because i thought the XBox version was a lot better than the XBox 360/PS3 version in every area apart from graphics.

Conviction left a sour taste in my mouth and i quickly sold it.

[Kenny]

I haven't played CT yet. I think I have that and PT. And of course, the original.

I played DA on the 360 and never experienced any game breaking problems. I just remember how awesome it was.

[Spokane]

Chaos Theory is a must. The only one I don't own is the latest one.

[OL]

I haven't played CT yet. I think I have that and PT. And of course, the original.

I played DA on the 360 and never experienced any game breaking problems. I just remember how awesome it was.

I'd like to play through DA one day, but on PS3 it was unplayable. The game itself seemed good, but there was so much frameskipping going on during certain levels, it just killed the whole thing. Couldn't bring myself to keep on with it.

[Who Really Cares?]

I haven't played CT yet. I think I have that and PT. And of course, the original.

I played DA on the 360 and never experienced any game breaking problems. I just remember how awesome it was.

The xbox version has missions missing from the current gen versions and longer missions in some areas[the 360 version is missing half the prison level] and you dont have to do any of the dull stuff around the hideout.

[Luvly KM]

Catherine

7/10

great establishment of theme but altogether turns too 'anime' shall we say. Too Kitsch. The guy with the eyes was silly and artistically repugnant which i felt really made the game feel like the Persona 4 side project it was.

However i am being a bit mean because i still really liked it, just sitting around the bar chatting to people, imbuing them with a bit of hope or releasing your personal woes. Moreso, the characters are rather well developed and i felt that your buddies (esp Jonny) had the potential to be actual 'main characters' on their own accord. Team Persona really shine with the 'unsaid' of characters.

The music was great and the block puzzles were surprisingly rather refreshing but in total it just wasn't the neorealistic watershed I was hoping or expecting. Like i say it devolved a little too much into kitcsh/typical anime territory. A perfect 7 out of 10 in many respects

[Luvly KM]

I haven't played CT yet. I think I have that and PT. And of course, the original.

I played DA on the 360 and never experienced any game breaking problems. I just remember how awesome it was.

I'd like to play through DA one day, but on PS3 it was unplayable. The game itself seemed good, but there was so much frameskipping going on during certain levels, it just killed the whole thing. Couldn't bring myself to keep on with it.

DA and CT are superb games. DA probably more so but it does suffer from performance drops meaning it will have aged badly. On paper however, the game design is excellent in trying to balance your objectives between both allegiances. Do too much 'good' and the terrorists suspect you; too much 'bad' and the agency think you've gone rogue. I felt the balance was never overly signposted either.

I also loved the contrast of action in Double Agent where you had missions where you just walked about base making mines, profiling people etc. these scenes made the traditional field missions that ever more pertinent. hats off to Ubisoft Shanghai, DA was always underrated in my book

For the purest form of splinter cell though (and arguably espionage stealth), CT is where it is at. And no, don't get me started on conviction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mue 26]

The music was great and the block puzzles were surprisingly rather refreshing but in total it just wasn't the neorealistic watershed I was hoping or expecting. Like i say it devolved a little too much into kitcsh/typical anime territory. A perfect 7 out of 10 in many respects

Mmm, I can't argue with this. But then I was always expecting it to end up somewhat in anime-ish territory at some point, to be honest. Though with that said, I still think it's a commendably bold game, and a lot more subversive in much of it's writing and general content than Persona 3 or 4. It didn't totally go the way I would have liked to go towards the end, but the characters were so well written on the whole that I can forgive it of most things. I don't think I ever reviewed it here, but it would be a close call between a 7 or an 8 for me, I think I'd probably go for an 8 in the end.

[Luvly KM]

yeah i never mentioned it initially but for me Catherine is one of those games which gets better after you've put it down: as it sinks into your psyche. I completed it in about a week and wish i was still climbing those blocks...


And even though the metaphor of block climbing is all together in your face, i still actually enjoyed it because the game wilfully recognises it as a metaphor and not rather that Vincent is actually doing it. Of course, It does actively suggest that witchcraft/cosmic mysticism is at hand (that he may actually be doing it), but then the game purports that the witchcraft itself is a central manifestation of his toil. It kinda double backs on itself to critically underline the metaphor.

The epilogue explanation from the 'Midnight Venus' rmade me cringe though!

[Spokane]

Talking about Splinter Cell DA one of the nice things about that game is it has high replay value just based on the fact that you have two ways to roll. I know I beat it 3-4 times myself at least. Same for every other game in the series.

I'd say the hardest one is the original on normal settings.

[Vyse Hazuky]

The epilogue explanation from the 'Midnight Venus' rmade me cringe though!

I hate it when developers feel (or are forced to) they have to explain everything.