Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Thanks to the recent fan-translation, I was able to push my way through the Famicom/NES RPG Lagrange Point. Has some neat ideas, others not so much (don't rely on robots), but is kind of an odd duck, as there really aren't that many "pure" sci-fi RPGs out there. The VRC7-backed audio does give it a really distinct sound, too, more like a Genesis game than a Famicom/NES one.

Just beat Final Fantasy VII for the first time. Fun game, really neat to have played it so many years after it came out. I didn't care for the music as much as I thought I would, though, I actually liked FF VIII's music more.

I randomly decided to revisit some games this weekend that I hadn't totally finished. So I put in LEGO Harry Potter years 1-4 to get 100% of the collectibles and all achievements. Now doing the same for LEGO Lord of the Rings.

Just finished Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut for PC. It's a rather shaky port of a game whose creator's ambition significantly outstripped his available resources and clout, and I could not put it down.

Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God, for PS Vita. The game is fun as a Roguelike, an underappreciated genre in consoles and handhelds. However, the plot is a bit bonkers and characters are mostly useless of annoying. Luckily the gameplay is enough to make the game enjoyable.

I got 100% in LEGO Lord of the Rings over the weekend. Pretty fun to find all the secrets.

Remember Me.

I got this game as a PS Plus freebie earlier this year. By far, BY FAR, the best game I've gotten from that so far. I started it a little while back, but this weekend, basically went through the entire second half of the game and got the platinum trophy.

Whoa.

So much done so well here. Not flawless, but so much that was creative, well done, and felt new. Really refreshing to see a strong female protagonist who's not grossly sexualized, and DontNod Entertainment apparently had to battle with Capcom over that, and Capcom nearly canceled the game over it. Good story, good characters, and played out in a way I did not expect at all (not giving spoilers). Combat, great...not that hard to do, but rewarded skill without being inaccessible without it. Plus, with the different effects attached to your attacks, put in an element of strategy to maximize effects, but also let you alter your tactics if something was giving you a lot of trouble by simply changing around your combos.

Whoa.

Soundtrack was amazing. I loved how it responded to combat, would really get going as you fought, unless you got hit. Then it would start over again. It helped to add an element of tension and adrenalin to the combat sequences. Outside combat, added great atmosphere, almost cinematic flair, on par with The Last of Us. After beating the game I went and purchased/downloaded the soundtrack as I loved it so much.

And then memory remixes.

Whoa. WHOA WHOA WHOA. And in case it's not clear yet, WHOA.

This was one of the coolest, most innovative things I've seen in a game in a long time. Apparently one thing this game was criticized for was not using this enough, which is probably the best kind of criticism to receive..."hey, this mechanic is so awesome, why didn't you use it more?!?!" I can sort of agree with that (after all, who wouldn't want more of a great, creative mechanic?), but all the same, I'm not sure more was necessary given that the game wasn't too terribly long.

Bottom line - get this game and play it.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls: Ultimate Evil Edition for the PS4.

By god what a game that was! It got a bit repetitive here and there, but I expected that and set my expectations accordingly. As it stands the game was MASSIVELY fun and the various dungeons were fun to explore & all.

I played as a male wizard, and killing various undead, demons, and beasts with my ice bean, electro shock, or a fricken GALAXY was just SO fun! I never played any previous Diablo games, so I suppose this was a good introduction!

Finished Colony Wars 3: Red Sun. Now I never have to play it again, thankfully.

Late last night before going to bed, I officially completed Digital Devil Saga part 2 for the PS2. I still had one optional boss to beat and I had to work on my characters for weeks to achieve that. So I beat the last boss yesterday which was a silly pushover considering that my characters were set to beat the last optional boss.

So I spent months playing DDS part 1 and 2. The story was incredible, I have seldom seen such a complete, entrancing story in a RPG. The ending? Not so much.

"WE SAVED THE WORLD YAY! LOVE AND STUFF!" the end. No explanation, no true epilogue.

Oh well, at least there are 4 novels to read.