forum user 3254
Power Star
I haven't really played many story-heavy games but...the ending of Kirby's Return to Dream Land just shocked me. Kirby's Adventure ending too.
30 questions (a question a day) challenge
- Thread starter Biddybud
- Start date
zel
probably quit [see about for info]
- Pronouns
- she/her
same for not really playing any story heavy games also this thread is making me realise the type of games i play is extremely limited
i think mario odyssey has a neat one with how bowser keeps affecting everything! though its basic. rayman 3s story is nothnig special either but its pretty funny at least
i think mario odyssey has a neat one with how bowser keeps affecting everything! though its basic. rayman 3s story is nothnig special either but its pretty funny at least
Marceline
The Vampire Queen
- Pronouns
- She/her
- MarioWiki
- MiracleDinner
yay you get to keep the money
Well I am simply shocked.
Anyway, ahem...
As I had just clarified very recently in the "I just beat_" thread, I feel like Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, while not my favorite game in the series, and believe me I wanna like it more but there's issues that kinda get in the way, but nonetheless, this game easily has THE strongest story I've ever seen this series pull off. Very early in its days and Kaga was already making the series take the riskiest of moves with its story, and the writing is just amazing, down to the characters, the world itself, and mainly that one event in the game that everyone knows about. It really seemed like Kaga went all out with this one.
Outside of Fire Emblem, some Mario stories have managed to... entertain, but it's never anything on the level of actually being something I could compare to a "best story" in any video game, or even within the franchise itself. I do like Metroid's stories, tho. I haven't played all that much of the series so far, only being about halfway through Super Metroid, but one thing I am noticing is how the world itself tells the story. It's a perfect example of show, not tell. Just laying eyes on the desolate, parasite-filled areas, the corpses being eaten away by space maggots, the natural repopulation of a land that clearly used to be brimming with civilization... if feel like playing Super Metroid is just like reading its story.
I have started playing Tales of Symphonia a while back but I haven't been playing it for some time now, but something tells me I may find a good story in there too, based on BLoF's observation.
- Pronouns
- She/her He/him
That's telling story by lore, and Metroid isn't the only game that does this well, I've mentioned Metro in my post as well. I love games that tell story through environment rather than exposition, Luigi's Mansion 3 does this too when you see the remains of your friends' rooms and it tells you what kind of characters they are!
You should find time to play it again at some point. My memory's very rusty on story details but I think the game provides you with a story summary (and also a guidance of where to go next) in its menus.
zel
probably quit [see about for info]
- Pronouns
- she/her
day 22 - a game sequel which disappointed you! ok i will use this opportunity to write a HUGE callout post on harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban on pc. i loved it the most out of the hp games as a kid but i had bad taste i guess. took me a bit til i realised chamber of secrets, the previous game, was just better!
well that was rambly
|poa is just kinda sad. apparently it was rushed out the door and that actually explains a lot about this game dangit ea!
|the spell challenges in poa dont seem to be as cool as in cos and also the spells themselves that you learn are insanely specific! past their challenges theyre only used in a few story missions And That Is It.. cos had a nice sense of progression if that makes sense? as you unlock each of the four new spells you get access to more secrets within hogwarts itself and its just so COOL and i love it SO MUCH. poa doesnt do that sadly you can get all the secrets as Soon as you even get to explore hogwarts
|speaking of which the game wont even let you do that for a while! after the intro sequence you are punted straight into some cutscenes and immediately start the first challenge without letting you explore hogwarts at all. lemme get to it myself like cos let you ughhh!!! sure ill keep putting it off to find more secrets or play the minigames or whatever but please!
|the secrets themselves are just sorta. eh? theres one in the castle grounds thats pretty neat, mostly because i never could get it as a kid but i did manage to do it on my recent playthroughs, but thats about it. its a sort of little minigame where you gotta memorize each buttons placement and then push whatever the sign shows you
|speaking of the minigames.. cos had quiddich and duels which are super cool but poa has an entirely different set.. just shoving quiddich into a cutscene unlike the previous two games. even as a kid i found that weird. anyway the minigames in poa include the hippogriff one which is kinda neat but doesnt let you have any freedom, the pixies one where you gotta defeat an increasing amount of pixies and it just gets super tedious, and the monster book of monsters one which is pretty much exactly like the pixies one (and also reuses the fight from the book in the intro sequence).. Yea
|worse yet. you thought they were optional so you could just skip the tedious parts? well TOO BAD cause theyre mandatory for beating the game!!! Wow i almost forgot about that one but this really stinks! the game has this lil checklist where you gotta complete every task before it lets you view the ending cutscene and now that im remembering about it. i think you gotta do good in every challenge too and the only thing that isnt required is getting all the cards? so basically near 100% the game for it to clarify as you beating it! cos doesnt do that! even if you do awful in all challenges, miss every house point ceremony, and completely skip all duels and quidditch matches (besides the ones that the story forces you into) it still lets you beat the game!
|also this is a somewhat minor complaint but it still upsets me. after beating the game poa just saves right there and renders the save file useless besides making it for viewing the ending cutscene, and i love returning to my completed savefiles so i really dont like that! cos doesnt do that, the file tecnically remains in the "i should go to the final ceremony" state even after actually going there if that makes any sense
|also its just not as pretty. poa can be pretty at times and seems pretty good at making overcast weather enviroments but its so dull in comparison..
|i will admit it still has good things about it though! like the shop system is kinda neat and the portraits you unlock with passwords are pretty neat too even if they all amount to just. getting even MORE collectables. and the new music is pretty good too!
|ok so basically poa is just average on its own but cos is SO GOOD
|the spell challenges in poa dont seem to be as cool as in cos and also the spells themselves that you learn are insanely specific! past their challenges theyre only used in a few story missions And That Is It.. cos had a nice sense of progression if that makes sense? as you unlock each of the four new spells you get access to more secrets within hogwarts itself and its just so COOL and i love it SO MUCH. poa doesnt do that sadly you can get all the secrets as Soon as you even get to explore hogwarts
|speaking of which the game wont even let you do that for a while! after the intro sequence you are punted straight into some cutscenes and immediately start the first challenge without letting you explore hogwarts at all. lemme get to it myself like cos let you ughhh!!! sure ill keep putting it off to find more secrets or play the minigames or whatever but please!
|the secrets themselves are just sorta. eh? theres one in the castle grounds thats pretty neat, mostly because i never could get it as a kid but i did manage to do it on my recent playthroughs, but thats about it. its a sort of little minigame where you gotta memorize each buttons placement and then push whatever the sign shows you
|speaking of the minigames.. cos had quiddich and duels which are super cool but poa has an entirely different set.. just shoving quiddich into a cutscene unlike the previous two games. even as a kid i found that weird. anyway the minigames in poa include the hippogriff one which is kinda neat but doesnt let you have any freedom, the pixies one where you gotta defeat an increasing amount of pixies and it just gets super tedious, and the monster book of monsters one which is pretty much exactly like the pixies one (and also reuses the fight from the book in the intro sequence).. Yea
|worse yet. you thought they were optional so you could just skip the tedious parts? well TOO BAD cause theyre mandatory for beating the game!!! Wow i almost forgot about that one but this really stinks! the game has this lil checklist where you gotta complete every task before it lets you view the ending cutscene and now that im remembering about it. i think you gotta do good in every challenge too and the only thing that isnt required is getting all the cards? so basically near 100% the game for it to clarify as you beating it! cos doesnt do that! even if you do awful in all challenges, miss every house point ceremony, and completely skip all duels and quidditch matches (besides the ones that the story forces you into) it still lets you beat the game!
|also this is a somewhat minor complaint but it still upsets me. after beating the game poa just saves right there and renders the save file useless besides making it for viewing the ending cutscene, and i love returning to my completed savefiles so i really dont like that! cos doesnt do that, the file tecnically remains in the "i should go to the final ceremony" state even after actually going there if that makes any sense
|also its just not as pretty. poa can be pretty at times and seems pretty good at making overcast weather enviroments but its so dull in comparison..
|i will admit it still has good things about it though! like the shop system is kinda neat and the portraits you unlock with passwords are pretty neat too even if they all amount to just. getting even MORE collectables. and the new music is pretty good too!
|ok so basically poa is just average on its own but cos is SO GOOD
forum user 3254
Power Star
A disappointing game sequel? First ones that come to mind:
-Super Mario USA
-Super Paper Mario
-Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
-Mario Party: The Top 100
-Mario Kart Tour (if it counts)
-Super Mario USA
-Super Paper Mario
-Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
-Mario Party: The Top 100
-Mario Kart Tour (if it counts)
- Pronouns
- She/her He/him
Super Mario Galaxy 2
All 3D Mario games up to this game have been rather imaginative and took chances to deliver something new and exciting to their audiences. Super Mario 64 was revolutionary and kick-started an era of 3D platformers, and all 3D Mario games past it took cues from it. Even Super Mario Sunshine, however unpolished it was, at least had some inspiration and passion behind the scenes and the developers actually wanted to make a great game that stood out compared to other titles. Super Mario Galaxy was phenomenal, filled with so many fresh ideas and a unique setting, space, filled with planet-hopping and a fun soundtrack.
So, what did we get after Super Mario Galaxy? A sequel that isn't inspirational, nor creative, nor effortful. It serves as a pointless retread of the first game, and while it does have some clever new ideas dotted here and there, a lot of its success of level design is merely bunny-hopped off the first one. Like, the first boss? A dinosaur that requires you to hit its ass end. It has two levels that mix fire and ice together, both Shiverburn and the frozen lake galaxy being far less memorable than FreezeFlame Galaxy, even just ripping music off of it. Fluffy Bluff Galaxy? Pretty much a rip-off of Gusty Garden, including its music, which is again, a worse version and therefore forgettable due to how derivative it is. The game also shed a good chunk of its spacey theme in favor of sky, which makes it seem like a space adventure and just another game with nonsequitur floating worlds. Many of the galaxies in World Star are either rip-offs of galaxies from the first one (Stone Cyclone Galaxy, Mario Squared Galaxy) or are wholly uninspired levels (two galaxies are just enemy gauntlets, why...? It's like they ran out of ideas in the end of the game, and the game barely even has a reason to exist to begin with). It also has a bunch of 2.5D levels, sometimes forgetting what kind of game it is. And its power-ups aside from the Cloud Flower are under-utilized, and Yoshi is through and through, an extremely mediocre power-up that deservedly doesn't get much appearances in the game, for something that's overhyped. And worst of it all, is, the game retains much of the flaws the first game has. You've got your repetitive chore missions from Gearmo or the Chimp's mediocre challenges. The game has lackluster filler star content with an annoying alarm. You've got your gimmicky motion control bs (like the rolling ball and Fluzzard levels). The bosses in this game are pathetic and unmemorable, especially with how they return the mandibug stack as a boss and just returned old bosses from the first that had no business of returning. And then, the power-ups that were fun to use and were under-utilized from the first didn't return here (Red Star, Ice Flower).
People who didn't play the first game may enjoy this game as a lot of my critiques are based off someone who has played the first one first. But, this is Mario we're talking about. The series that refined platforming. The series that is the king of 3D platformers. The series with a lot of imagination, and it shows with the first Galaxy, as it was bursting with creativity. Super Mario Galaxy 2? It's a stagnant, indolent, tepid effort from the game developers that we've come to expect much from. This game is certainly not their best work, being forgettable and will forever be overshadowed by the first game (much references in future Mario games refer to the first Galaxy for a reason), and it shouldn't be the standard of what they're capable of, which thankfully, we eventually got Odyssey, which served as an excellent display of the capability of the developers.
All 3D Mario games up to this game have been rather imaginative and took chances to deliver something new and exciting to their audiences. Super Mario 64 was revolutionary and kick-started an era of 3D platformers, and all 3D Mario games past it took cues from it. Even Super Mario Sunshine, however unpolished it was, at least had some inspiration and passion behind the scenes and the developers actually wanted to make a great game that stood out compared to other titles. Super Mario Galaxy was phenomenal, filled with so many fresh ideas and a unique setting, space, filled with planet-hopping and a fun soundtrack.
So, what did we get after Super Mario Galaxy? A sequel that isn't inspirational, nor creative, nor effortful. It serves as a pointless retread of the first game, and while it does have some clever new ideas dotted here and there, a lot of its success of level design is merely bunny-hopped off the first one. Like, the first boss? A dinosaur that requires you to hit its ass end. It has two levels that mix fire and ice together, both Shiverburn and the frozen lake galaxy being far less memorable than FreezeFlame Galaxy, even just ripping music off of it. Fluffy Bluff Galaxy? Pretty much a rip-off of Gusty Garden, including its music, which is again, a worse version and therefore forgettable due to how derivative it is. The game also shed a good chunk of its spacey theme in favor of sky, which makes it seem like a space adventure and just another game with nonsequitur floating worlds. Many of the galaxies in World Star are either rip-offs of galaxies from the first one (Stone Cyclone Galaxy, Mario Squared Galaxy) or are wholly uninspired levels (two galaxies are just enemy gauntlets, why...? It's like they ran out of ideas in the end of the game, and the game barely even has a reason to exist to begin with). It also has a bunch of 2.5D levels, sometimes forgetting what kind of game it is. And its power-ups aside from the Cloud Flower are under-utilized, and Yoshi is through and through, an extremely mediocre power-up that deservedly doesn't get much appearances in the game, for something that's overhyped. And worst of it all, is, the game retains much of the flaws the first game has. You've got your repetitive chore missions from Gearmo or the Chimp's mediocre challenges. The game has lackluster filler star content with an annoying alarm. You've got your gimmicky motion control bs (like the rolling ball and Fluzzard levels). The bosses in this game are pathetic and unmemorable, especially with how they return the mandibug stack as a boss and just returned old bosses from the first that had no business of returning. And then, the power-ups that were fun to use and were under-utilized from the first didn't return here (Red Star, Ice Flower).
People who didn't play the first game may enjoy this game as a lot of my critiques are based off someone who has played the first one first. But, this is Mario we're talking about. The series that refined platforming. The series that is the king of 3D platformers. The series with a lot of imagination, and it shows with the first Galaxy, as it was bursting with creativity. Super Mario Galaxy 2? It's a stagnant, indolent, tepid effort from the game developers that we've come to expect much from. This game is certainly not their best work, being forgettable and will forever be overshadowed by the first game (much references in future Mario games refer to the first Galaxy for a reason), and it shouldn't be the standard of what they're capable of, which thankfully, we eventually got Odyssey, which served as an excellent display of the capability of the developers.