I just beat __

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

After going through a good deal of grinding to maximise the affinities of every character (to be able to view all the Heart-to-Hearts) and completing the available quests, I decided to continue on with the final battle, which consists of a final round of plot revelations and twists! The cutscenes play out as though the battles are tough, but because I overlevelled, the final battles came and gone quickly. It almost feels anticlimatic mainly because there are some nice tunes that didn't get to fully play out.

I found the story to be rather intriguing. Really liked how each element plays out where the big picture isn't revealed until every thing comes into place. Alvis' identity is really well-played, because he's mysterious and his allegiance isn't clear, but good to know that he's the good guy only because I get the sense that he helped out Shulk and the gang in the most genuine fashion. In retrospect, it's hard to know how much of genuine help Dickson actually did, only because it can feel like his actions are basically to resurrect Zanza.

It's also crazy how the final area of the game is travelling through space, and meeting some of the people (in spirit) that were defeated along the way, with their identities shown. Mumkhar, Xord and Gadolt are on the way, along with some random Telethia? I get the sense that they are there because it's based on Zanza's memories of them. I do wonder why Egil isn't part of this, but I guess Zanza isn't too keen on Egil?

And then, there's the final battle, where the True Monado is revealed to be Alvis all along, which basically makes Alvis like the true god and not Zanza,
despite the latter being pretty powerful. Somehow, learning about the genesis of the world of Xenoblade makes the whole thing seem like an illusion,
because having the universe destroyed and then having the world developed into two titans (based on two scientists) made me feel like our world is not that big. Basically I am in awe at how the world of Xenoblade is being created.

With the game done, I feel better because it's a long game, and completing a long game is an accomplishment itself. Too bad picking stuff for New Game Plus is an incredibly tedious process (basically you have to individually choose the items to be carried over).

Now, I shall focus on Team Kirby: Clash Deluxe, where I unlocked the final battle, and all I need to do is to finish it before declaring that game complete. The best part is, I never spent any money on this game, and yet I got the Platinum Beam gear, which I found to be the most desirable because its time-stopping abilities are unparalleled in a game where completion time determines the Platinum rank. So far I got Platinum on 36 levels, 1 bronze and the rest are gold, not counting the final battle.

Thank you for reading.
 
I got all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy as Mario! After all this time.
The post-credits scene is great, I teared up a little.
 
Breath of the Wild

6 months this took (although not had the chance to play that often), did all 120 shrines and got all memories loved but honestly reliefed it's over.
 
Miitopia

God this game and it's sound track was so good I hope we get a sequel!
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The requirements to unlock World Crown in SM3DW

I never have to light those goddamn torches in Flower-3 again... you have no idea how good that feels. Now for Champion's Road.... after I'm done with the other 2 challenges in World Crown that is.
 
The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki

Damn, what a final chapter. So many good moments, some really damn tough fights, amazing final boss music to go with the hardest final boss in all seven of the games so far.
Really got myself in a jam with the final boss, it does something similar to CS2's final boss where it powers up and ohko's your party if you don't nuke the last portion of its health bar, and I really wasn't prepared for it because I would always get stuck with very little HP/CP by the time that moment came around and I'd get fucked. But I did it on the third try, I gave up on trying to recover health and just went nuts with my strongest and most expensive arts and crafts while in Burst. I made Lloyd and Rixia into evasion tanks but the final boss itself just ignores evasion, the mooks don't but they ignore it when draining CP, which is my most important resource.

Also I still have to laugh at the Aion fight which I rocked by having Arts Reflect and just bouncing back its ultimate laser beam to have it kill itself. It's also pretty similar looking to Divine Knights, I wonder how early they had the gundam mech fight thing planned since the appearance of the Aion coincides with the awakening of Valimar timeline-wise.

I guess now that I've played them all, they're hard to rank and honestly they're all pretty much 7+/10 games but I guess it'd be something like;

Sky FC > Ao = Cold Steel = Sky 3rd = Zero > Sky SC = Cold Steel II

Still enjoyed FC the most, maybe because it was the first one I played or because it's the only one I've replayed fully.
 
Rayman 2: The Great Escape (Nintendo 64 Version)

My first exposure to this game was through the 3DS port but that was well over six years ago, the N64's grittier visuals fits the tone and atmosphere a little better IMO. I was originally going to do a 100% run but got kinda bored hunting for cages and lums halfway through and decided just to get the mandatory amount required to press on.

Also the second phase of the RazorBeard fight kinda frustrated me a bit because if you so much as scrape up against a wall and explode, all damage that you have done to him is negated. Honestly instead of a flying shell segment I kinda wish this fight was more like the Gruntilda fight from Banjo-Kazooie or Toc-Man from Pac-Man World in that it would be a battle that would make effective use out of all the abilities that you have learned throughout your adventure.
 
Metroid: Samus Returns
Well hi Meta Ridley, wasn't expecting to see you here
 
jsut beat and at the same time 100% samus returns
wow i wasnt expecting ridley, that was a good fight
baby was really mvp, he killed all the ice and during the fight with ridley he gave me health, i love the baby

and also i was talking to perch about this but holy shit the gallery stuff was super cool, evil chozos seem like a really unique piece to add to the metroid timeline
i want to play the next metroid now
 
Pokemon Black

Decided to revisit Unova since a couple of years ago I wiped all my saves on the Pokemon DS titles that I had at the time, of course something that makes me a little mad the more that I think about it is that I apparently didn't realize that I also wiped my Celebi that I got as a GameStop pre-order bonus which means I wasn't able to get Zorua during this run. Real talk: GameFreak for the love of Arceus please either consider using a multiple save file system like any other RPG or stop doing event-only Pokemon altogether.

Gripes aside, I forgot just how awe-inspiring Unova was with unique landmarks like the Skyarrow bridge and Chargestone Cave. The music is great too with many memorable and fantastic tracks like Team Plasma's battle theme, Opelucid City, Gym Leaders' Last Pokemon, Accumula City with Piano and Drums, Rival Theme that totally not at all reminds me of M&L: BIS's battle theme and countless others. I don't think I'm going to do any of the post game stuff this time around since I just wanted to do a casual playthrough and a national dex of 649 is kind of a tall order for me right now since I kinda wanna get back to some 'Sploon 2, but there will be a point where I do return to take care of that stuff in the future.

My end game team consisted of Samurott, Zebstrika, Leavanny, Simisear, Unfezant and Golett which got swapped out with Reshiram during the last battle. Everybody but Samurott were a little under leveled since I kept Samurott at the head of the team the most but would occasionally swap him out with Zebstrika or Leavanny if I knew I was coming up on a area where a water type would've be less than ideal. I had Boldore that also played a big role in the party for a good chunk of this run but swapped it out for Golett when I got the chance. Somehow I ended up with two EXP Shares (I don't remember how that happened) so that helped keep a balance.
 
Super Castlevania IV

I forgot I was in the middle of it, so I finished it off. Aside from the music, the graphics, and being able to whip in eight directions, there wasn't much about it that I actually enjoyed. That may partly be due to its return to the progression structure of the first and third games (I know it's a partial remake of the first), but the bosses didn't help, either. Dracula in particular was a letdown (2nd-worst fight I've encountered so far). I can understand the acclaim it got as one of the first SNES games, but it's not going to end up on any "greatest games of all time" list of mine.
 
As usual, another catch-up of games beaten since my last post in this thread:

Borderlands
Borderlands: Claptrap's Robot Revolution
Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Half-Life
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
LEGO City Undercover
LYNE
Mario Kart 8
(all cups 3-starred, including 200cc, and all stamps obtained)
Portal 2
(both story and co-op)
Super Mario 3D World
Zup!
 
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

first time I've beaten a game since Bravel Second came out lol
 
Took me a while because I wanted it to last but Samus Returns with around 60% completion. Will go back and finish it later.

Also, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire after not touching it for the better part of a year or so.

Squad:
Mienshao (duh)
Sceptile
Excadrill
Banette
Skarmory
Manectric

i had today off
 
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Finished the game normally, lost the motivation to do the 102% run.

--edit--

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (PS1)

Uh... wow. This game is a LOT shorter than I remember it being, when I was younger it took me at least six hours to finish it but now it was only two. There are seven levels in the game total which are broken up into two segments and a boss stage, each individual level is very straight forward and linear... but as far as licensed games based on Scooby-Doo goes it's a pretty decent game.
 
Splatoon 2's Octo Canyon

That was pretty intense, but I feel that the final boss is easier than the first game's, likely because unlike this game, the first game's boss takes place across a series of platforms, and he can summon Octo enemies. Here: it's not as climatic, but at least the final phase is one of the best.

I've got the Hero Shot Replica, but someday I should get the Slosher, Blaster, Dualies and Roller, because I am more familiar with those weapons.

Thank you for reading.
 
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Powered through it in one sitting and did another casual run, I don't know why but I haven't really been all that motivated to do 100% runs lately. I'm going through both my PlayStation and PlayStation 2's libraries to revisit games that I haven't played in several years.

Thinking about maybe doing Crash Twinsanity next.

--Edit--

Crash Twinsanity

... Looks like I just did. xD
 
Super Mario Sunshine

Well... that was a pretty weird ending. It just went by so fast. Final boss fight was nice, although it was kind of easy and it lagged a little for some reason. I'll probably try to get the last 36 shines in the future.
 
The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
and
Splatoon 2

First time I've beaten two games in one day, plus I just beat SMS a few days ago as mentioned above. I guess I just happened to be near the end of those games at around the same time!
 
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