finished finished Pokémon Heart Gold after a lot of tedious training, and I thought you know what, let me finish off my save of Pokémon Crystal from a few years ago. it was a lot easier, didn’t even grind at all
shot is of the (final) final battle. went down to literally the last hit and last pixel of health. much more thrilling fight
Spent the last month and a half finishing this, got the true final boss and best ending. Incredibly unique jrpg and one of the most interesting games I’ve ever played.
I’ve beaten Kileak: The DNA Imperative!
Kileak is a launch PS1 FPS by Genki and the first in a loose trilogy of mech FPS with its sequel Epidemic and the better-regarded Brahma Force. You play as the captain of a mech-piloting special forces team who’s been sent to a remote base in Antarctica to apprehend Dr. Kim, a pretty bad dude who excavated the progenitor of all life on Earth and used it to make an army of freaky mutants. Go in, shoot robots, flip switches, listen to cheesy FMVs. Such is the life of the spec op.
It’s not a well-regarded game. Even at the time, reviews were mediocre and retrospective of the PS1 launch universally poo-poo it, with complaints about narrow hallways that don’t allow you to avoid enemy attacks and uninspired enemies. And this is where I allow myself to be slightly pretentious because I think Kileak is, infact, a pretty good game, and often misunderstood. It’s not a hIdDeN gEm (it does suffer from early 3D clunk like how you can’t strafe and aim at elevated targets at the same time, and gives you no reason to replay it after beating it), but it is a game that can provide a good time if you play it on its own term.
Kileak is categorized as a FPS because… it’s in first person… and you shoot things… but I find that sets false expectation because if you go in wanting challenging enemies or fast-paced combat, yeah it sucks. But Kileak makes much more sense if you view it as a dungeon crawler, or even as a survival horror. You’re mean to methodically clear out hallways, check your corners, and alternate between your regular guns and the weapons that draw their power from your mech’s energy reserves. Be conservative with the later until you can secure a power recharge station, and be sure to check your map once you read the end-of-stage elevator to see if you skipped over any missables. It’s a game that rewards patience and a thoughtful approach.
Kero Kero King PS1
Used save states in the final third of the game just so I could complete it in a reasonable amount of time. The final boss opponent required no miss-hits(!) plus difficult chip-ins from some distance away. Doable, but I don’t want to be here for another 6 years, so I used save states after every hole and regular game save after each opponent.
I had thought maybe I had finished it and lost my save and started from an earlier point, but I had not seen the last few opponents and definitely not the final boss, ending, or credits.
Loved it.
Finished Fallout (1997) on PC last week.
First time playing this one, finally getting around to it felt really good. I adore this game holy shit… it’s so good.
Amazing characters, writing, villains, and setting. I can’t praise it enough, and it’s incredible how they fit so much choice and consequence into a game this old. So much of the stuff in modern fallout games are here from the enemy types, vaults, computers, weapons, etc etc… it’s so damned good…
Just finished Grandia on the Saturn. Total time just under 35 hours! That’s quite fast I beleive.
After the credits theres a nice additional bit of story set 10 years later.
Worth playing? Been thinking about this one for a while. I’ve heard great things
It’s good but you will really need to grind to complete it.
I kind of cheeted by giving the main character max power with an action replay code. But even with that I still had to grind to build up all supporting characters.
If grinding is not your thing, you’d probably not enjoy Grandia that much.
I don’t mind grinding. I find it relaxing at times.
Congrats! What did you make of it? I really enjoyed X, but after hearing they get progressively worse (supposedly) I haven’t gotten round to X2. I did go on a Zero binge after X though, but still have Zero 4 to play.
I really enjoyed it. X1 is a classic and all time one of my fav games, so I was expecting a sharp drop off to X2. it was nothing of the sort. I really enjoyed the actual Maverick stages a lot more, the level design is much better
the only place it falters is the item collection (if you’re into that) is kind of obtuse, but it makes up for it in that the routing once you know where everything is, is really open-ended and fun to formulate for future playthroughs. the music is also a step down from X1 as are the weapons, but overall the experience is very close to X1
I’ve been through the games through X5 before but never actually beating them, always stop at the final stages as they were really difficult. But from my experience X4 was right up there with X1, you really need to try that one at least, it’s absolutely brilliant. the first 4 games are awesome, it’s only starting from X5 that they truly started to falter
X3 done now. I’d say probably the weakest of the 3 SNES games, but still really good. Next time I’ll play it’ll be the Zero project fan hack which fixes most of the issues I have with it anyway
Wow, that’s really interesting! X1 is a classic to me and probably the best game I played after 3 and 4, so I really should get round to tackling X2.
How would you compare the latter X series games to the Zero series? For me Zero peaked at 2, though 3 seems to be a fan favourites. Haven’t played Zero 4 yet and the DS game seemed like diminishing returns.
I’ve been sinking my teeth into X4, and it is a pretty much perfect game. Rivals X1 for sure. X2 is just below them
I’ve never played the Zero series properly yet. Funnily enough I’ve started playing Zero 1 on the side on my GBA whenever I had a bit of downtime and I got so hooked I transferred my save to the Mister lol. My plan is to play the series on the big screen as I have the Zero/ZX collection so I’ll play the DS games that way
As an aside, MMZ looks pretty nice with scanlines
X4 and X5 done. What a contrast between the 2. X4 is a distillation of everything that made X1 and X2 so good, with a new 32 bit coat of paint and an awesome new soundtrack.
X5 for whatever reason deviates from this and is a convoluted mess and somehow a step down visually (though the soundtrack is still great). Tell me how I did everything I was supposed to, in the allotted time, and I still ended up with the bad ending due to RNG? I didn’t even bother to reset, I want to experience these games as they were originally. There is an Improvement hack that fixes most of my issues with the game and I’m looking forward to playing that
Sounds like I seriously need to check out X4. Maybe I’ll look for a Japanese or North American PS1 disc - originally had it downloaded to my PSP but never really played it seriously due to the choice paralysis associated with having a library of games.
I’m still not sure what to make of the presentation in X4 though. It’s a pretty game, but the mismatch in asset quality and asset style (prerendered vs proper pixel art) did stick out to me coming from the earlier games and the Zero series.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the Zero games! I’ll refrain in giving mine for now so it doesn’t change your expectations going in.
