New Year’s Resolution 2015

Metroid Prime

Beat: June 25

Time: 12 Hours

Loved it compared to when I first played it. The Wii controls do a wonderful job at mimicking what the game would be like with two analog sticks. The story is interesting enough, but I’m still not a fan of Phazon in general. The last boss fight was stupid repetitive and didn’t offer any challenge. Still, I found myself enjoying the game and could see myself playing through it again in the future, but not as often as I play through the 2D games.

The Legend of Dragoon

Beat: July 7

Time: 41 Hours

The bottom of the barrel when it comes to JRPGs. Sorry fans of this cult classic. Combat was boring. Story was boring. Voice acting was sparse and that was good because it was horrible. The game is basically one large cutscene with a lot of quick-time evens in it. The game doesn’t actually let the player level at their own pace. Instead, minimal experience that would take legit hours to level once is handed out for normal monsters and major experience for bosses will almost always level the characters up. It’s a dumb system. I don’t think I could be paid to play this game again. The game also has no right being as long as it is.

Darksiders II

Beat: July 23

Time: 18 Hours

Improves on everything from Darksiders. Running on walls is a cool new feature and it reminded me a lot of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Death is a much more interesting character than his brother. New armor and weapon system allows players to really customize how they play the game. There’s lots of random loot for players to collect and different pieces can work well together to make for a play style that suits the player. The “fetch these two or three things to progress forward” style of quest were used way too often and it made the last quarter of the game feel like a grind.

Assassin’s Creed II

Beat: August 7

Time: 20 Hours

The gameplay still feels really good, even if combat is way too freaking easy. Free running still has its problems and Ezio is way too prone to jump in the complete opposite direction that the player tells him to go. Didn’t really care about Ezio as a character. Two games in I can confirm that the story is indeed interesting, but it’s not really my thing. My lack of care for Ezio means I don’t want to play others in the series. Also, hearing that Desmond takes a much minor role and that the present-day events in the series get less focus in later games makes me hesitant to continue it.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue

Beat: August 15

Time: 27 Hours

It’s a really good sequel to the first Lunar game. The story itself isn’t all that grand, but the enjoyable characters make up for that. I was a bit miffed about the ending, but then there was a complete other epilogue section after the credits. Wasn’t expecting it, but it made for a better ending after I beat it. Combat was entertaining as well. Don’t think it’s as good as Lunar 1, but it does make me wish the series had gotten a real sequel. Also, graphics weren’t as good as I was expecting for a PS1 game. Still the anime cutscenes helped make up for this. I’ll probably pick up Dragon Song someday, even though its a prequel to the first game.