New Year’s Resolution 2015

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Beat: August 29

Time: 18 Hours

I liked this one more than Phantom Hourglass. This probably has to do with the fact that there isn’t one dungeon that I had to run through over and over again. I enjoyed the train for the most part (even if I still think it’s a dumb concept), but it did wear on me after awhile. The dungeons were really fun to fight through and there were a lot of interesting puzzles. I found it weird that the final fight literally just reused elements from Ganon fights in previous Zelda games. I still hate touch controls. If this game had normal controls, I’d say it was really good, but for me, touch controls made it only an “okay” game.

Final Fantasy IX

Beat: September 17

Time: 37 Hours

After finally beating it, I can still say that I don’t really care for this game. It’s not as bad as Final Fantasy XIII, but I couldn’t help but feel like it had some major problems. For example, the ending wasn’t exactly clear and I felt like there was a lot left unanswered. I actually have a theory as to how it all panned out, but it would be a bit long to put here. Maybe I’ll post it as an editorial at some point. This game probably deserves a sequel to answer all these questions and I would play it, if they used a whole new cast of characters. Didn’t really care much about the characters in this game. I really only liked Steiner, Freya and Vivi. Also, what a sad ending with Vivi dying. I get it and it makes sense, but way to kick the player in the gut right at the end of the game. I also didn’t enjoy a lot of the minigames it kept throwing at me and the art style just wasn’t to my liking. However, I did love the lore and history behind Terra and Gaia. This was my third or forth time playing through the game and I decided to stick with my most recent save from my attempt to beat it back in 2014. I was a little before the halfway point when I started it this year.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Beat: September 29

Time: 16 Hours

Man, talk about a flip. I really enjoyed the first Metroid Prime after playing the Wii version of it, but this one just fell flat for me. Running back and forth between the Light and Dark worlds made this game drag out way too long in my opinion. I felt like I did way more backtracking in this game then I’ve ever done in a Metroidvania style game and it was way too much. Also, I’ve never liked the whole Light world Dark World concept. It’s just never appealed to me. It also doesn’t help that the first fourth of the game I had to sit around and wait to regain health in the safe zones in the dark world because it hurt me. My dislike for light vs. dark also bleeds over to characters as well, which means I find Dark Samus to be incredibly lame.

Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia

Beat: October 17

Time: 32 Hours

Of all the games on my list, this is the one that I feel the best about beating. I got it for Christmas the year it came out and started playing it immediately, but I never finished it. I started from scratch this time and made it all the way through the game. I liked that it had multiple endings and I put in the extra time to get the best one. It’s got a great combat system and a really interesting world. I will say that the sheer amount of sexual innuendos were a bit much for me and even took away from the experience a bit. Some were just so forced I couldn’t help but cringe. Still, it really was a good experience and it had quite a bit of dating sim thrown into it as well. I’d advise it to fans of JRPGs as one of the better ones out there.

Legend of Grimrock

Beat: October 27

Time: 32 Hours

Dang was this good. I had so much fun with it, but also a lot of frustration. Most of that was my fault for forgetting to save and losing up to an hour of progress a couple of times. However, there were other things in the game that bothered me a little bit, like Level 9. Still, I’d easily advise this game to anyone and already have. It’s so solid. It’s filled with combat that requires lots of strategy and loads of challenging puzzles. For those who have played the game I have this to say; wasn’t that a really strange final boss?