The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#573 - 580)

#573 Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Playstation 3) - Summer 2015

In some ways, more like a Chrono Trigger sequel than Chrono Cross is. A game where you travel through time to various eras of the planet's history to solve problems and put right things that once went wrong. While Lightning is featured heavily in the game's artwork, cases, etc, she takes a backseat to Serah in this one. Serah was more or less the "8th main character" that was never actually playable in FF13, so it makes sense that they'd bring her out for the sequel and make her the focal point.

This game is very, very solid. I liked FF13 more than most people already, but I admit it has numerous flaws. This game managed to fix most of them, and was a rare instance of a developer actually listening to player criticisms. Not many people played it, but the ones who did generally sung its praises.

Lightning sticks around enough to steal some of Serah's thunder, since Lightning has ascended to valkyrie status. She has a few DBZ fights with the bad guy in an apocalyptic future, then sods off for the rest of the game to let Serah be the MC.

The time-travel aspects of the game were the most interesting parts. Going to the far-future and seeing how things turned out (really good), and going to the distant past to see the early beginnings of civilization, were all really noteworthy sections of the game.

This game was good at actually making me feel something, and I'd love to play it again if they ever remaster the 13 trilogy. Surprised they haven't already. This game would easily be the high point of such a collection, if we get it.

This might be the best-looking game on the entire PS3, at least that I ever played. The environments are far more open than FFXIII (no more hallways) and look incredible. Especially that one zone where the weather rotates (perhaps a nod to the Hunting Grounds in Chrono Trigger) and you get intermittent thunderstorms. One of the many times when this game actually felt kind of magical, which is something the series hadn't really managed for me since I played FFX more than a decade earlier.

As for the gameplay, it's a little bit like World of Final Fantasy: Two main characters, their ally Mog (non-playable, just helps out, scans foes, etc), and various monsters they can recruit and add to the party as the third member. Actually the third party member is more like Lufia 2's capsule monster. That was the fifth party member and tended to just be extra DPS, but here it's carrying one-third of the weight of the group so you have to choose wisely. There are lots of interesting choices here that run the gamut of Final Fantasy creatures. I think I tended to mostly stick with healer-focused monsters so I'd be free to all-out attack with the two leads. There are also some guest characters that fill in as your third, like the extra-spicy Lebreau (who I wish had stuck around as the permanent third).

Check it out, a dungeon map that looks like an actual dungeon. Not a hallway, not a series of straight lines, but a real, normal, dungeon. Yeah, this game was actually pretty fantastic, and I look forward to how the internet is going to react to it if the trilogy ever gets remastered. The response is going to be interesting, and there'll be a ton of "there was a gem hidden in this trilogy" and "ok I had no idea FFXIII's sequel was awesome" type commentary going on.

Favorite Tune: Augusta Tower. This one is a slow burn that takes a while to get going, changing as it goes (much like the area it plays in). Put on some headphones and give it some time. It helps that I played this area while it was pouring raining outside, and they went together pretty well.

Favorite Character: Lebreau, obviously

Favorite Outfit: Steel and Style

Post?: I've got no plans to do posts on the Final Fantasy main series (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth might go on the list though) before I wrap up with this site, and the main focus, as far as massive endeavors go, is on finishing Dragon Quest and Highlander. The Final Fantasy series would be another massive endeavor. HOWEVER... if Square-Enix gives us FFXIII Trilogy Remaster, and the entire series is playable on modern systems (i.e. easily screenshotted)... then the FF main series might be a possibility.

Not going to run the series and leave a gaping hole where this trilogy is. Unfortunately I'll probably have to do that with Dragon Quest X. I've been waiting for them to give us some form of DQX for years, and I've dragged out that series in hopes that we get one before I get to it. But, it seems, no dice. Which is whack, considering they made a special single-player version of DQX years ago and could easily just get that translated and release it. I think people in the fan community took it upon themselves to work on a translated ROM of DQX, so one of these days I'll go see how that's going.

Favorite Area: Bresha Ruins, Year 300. Wish I had a higher-res shot of this. This game is noteworthy just for having a zone where the scantily-clad main character actually gets cold.

The DLCs deserve mention: Most of them add a superboss fight (by this point Square-Enix was all in with adding optional superbosses to their games, where in the past they were more of a curiosity than a focus). The DLC superbosses tend to be the toughest fights in the game, giving your endgame party something to do, and they also tend to be villains from other Final Fantasy games that you meet by crossing timelines. It's really cool stuff. Unlike FFXII, it actually gives the postgame bosses personality, so when you fight Ultros (who is a postgame superboss in both games) he actually looks and acts like Ultros here.

Toughest Part: The fight with Gilgamesh, which is one of the several postgame uberbosses that were added as individual DLCs. I bought 'em all (think they were like a dollar each) and defeated 'em all. Gilgamesh was the one that gave me fits, out of the whole lot. Not only is he super strong (he has 10 million HP, which I believe puts him in the top five bosses in the game for HP), but he has the power to charge up a FULL HEAL. I think it's possible to disrupt it but I'm not sure. Basically you have to try and defeat him between his full heals and good luck with that. I think he has his legendary music, at least.

#574 Zelda Warriors (Wii U) - Summer 2015

It's Dynasty Warriors, with Zelda characters and elements. You run around and beat up Moblins and other minions of darkness, using iconic weapons like the Master Sword and Bombs. This was a fun time, just like the Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem offshoots of Warriors. I liked this a lot more than the "Age of..." sequels, probably because it dipped more into retro Zelda lore rather than the lore of the new games.

#575 Destiny (Playstation 4) - Summer 2015

A game that I mocked incessantly for its fantasy naming scheme, as I fought nondescript robots called "Ogre Mage" and nondescript robots called "Warlock" and nondescript robots called "Goblin Raider" and you get the idea.

Favorite Class: Hunter, with the subclass Bladedancer. This was a lot of fun played as a stealth character and using the knife for most of my kills. Guessing it's a coincidence that two of their moves are called "Showstopper" and "Razor's Edge", unless the creators of the game were huge WWF New Generation fans?

Post HERE. I don't condone anything in it, I'm sure the game is fine.

#576 Front Mission Evolved (Playstation 3) - Summer 2015

An action game that I barely remember. I think they tried to make an Armored Core style game here and it didn't really work out. Played it because it was short. Noteworthy for being "the time Square-Enix made Armored Core" and...well...that's it. It's alright, but I'd stick with the Fromsoft series.

#577 Metro 2033 Redux (Playstation 4) – Summer 2015

The prequel to Metro: Last Light and something I'd been wanting to check out for months. It got a PS4 HD re-master so it was time to give it a whirl. I'm not as crazy about this as Last Light, but it's still a fascinating game full of deadly creatures created by the apocalyptic events of the past. The environments and traversing them are probably the most interesting this side of Metroid Prime; I was similarly impressed with the way raindrops gathered on your visor in this game.

This is far more than "Fallout in Russia" and it tells a great story that speaks to the adaptability and resilience of Russians and their long-running civilization. Based on a book, written by Russians, drawn from experience. If I were to pick a game in this post that is the spotlighted "game of the post" and worth a look, this is the one that would win that coveted seal for this post.

I believe Last Light also eventually got a remaster, so this entire trilogy is on PS4 now. The one that impacted me the least was the third one, Metro Exodus, which is still a ways down the line. All three are tremendous, regardless, and I think I was just less blown-away by Exodus because I'd seen it all by then.

#578 Batman: Arkham Knight (Playstation 4) – Summer 2015

The fourth and final Arkham game. This was notable for being an extremely rare "impulse buy". As someone who always only got things I really wanted up to now, this was a situation where I had some money to burn, so I went into Best Buy and walked out with Batman: Arkham Knight, WWE 2k14 (or whatever the latest one was), and Alien: Isolation. Just totally unplanned purchases. Didn't do much with the WWE game before it got sold on eBay, but I played the other two all the way through.

Given how great the first 3 Arkham games are, I had high hopes for this. It's visually a lot nicer due to being on the new system, but unfortunately it falls short in a lot of other areas and just wasn't nearly as enjoyable as its predecessors. The main issue with it is way too much Batmobile combat with tank-drones that have an obnoxious amount of HP. You spend so much time doing this and it's the very definition of filler.

The Arkham series, in general, consists of the best Batman video games ever made and it isn't even close. They're some of the best games of the circa-2010 console era, period. At the end of the day, it's one great game, one incredible game, one good game, and one kinda mediocre but good looking game that had the distinction of being the only one on modern consoles for a while. Now? I'd play Arkham City Remastered before this one, no doubt. It's a victim of the "fourth game curse" that has befallen many great series.

#579 Alien: Isolation (Playstation 4) – Summer 2015

Creepy game that might be the best Alien game ever (notice I didn't say Aliens). I played it at the wrong time though. At this point in 2015 it was just another thing to check off the list. If I'd played it in 2012 when I was hugely into the series, it would have been better off. Or recently, after seeing Alien: Romulus, which is in the same timeframe as the game. Yeah, in 2012 this game would have been MEGA over with me when I was devouring all things Xenomorph-related. In any case, I plowed through it once and moved on.

As for the game itself, it's okay, but it's a victim of being way longer than it needed to be. The first several hours are GREAT, as you evade the pursuing Xeno that's hunting you and learn the ins and outs of the station. It's as close as you can get to playing out the second half of Alien, where the characters dealt with being stalked by the fully-grown menace while they looked for ways to stop it...or at least scare it away temporarily. That sense of "nowhere to hide" was pretty great.

Unfortunately, by hour five or so you've seen everything the game has to offer a couple times over and it's all beginning to wear thin...yet, you have about 15 hours left to go. Seriously. Pretty much everyone I know who played this game said the same things: It was amazing early on, petered out after a while, didn't finish the game. Matter of fact I don't think I know anyone else who actually beat this game. It's a perpetual resident of "the backlog", it seems.

#580 Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Playstation 4) – Summer 2015

A DLC to The New Order that is functionally its own game and can be bought separately. It's a tough call on what to include when it comes to things like this. Do great DLCs like Minerva's Den (Bioshock 2) and Freedom Cry (Assassin's Creed 4) count as their own games? Hard to say... probably. I'll mull over that later. If it's completely standalone like this or Blood Dragon I'm definitely okay with counting it. I have to be consistent though. If I counted all DLCs, Dark Souls 2 would have counted as four games because it has three very robust DLCs.

But yeah, I'm gonna say the criteria for counting a DLC as a game is A) If it gets a standalone release and can be played without playing the main game, or B) If it's really, really big, like 30 hours long, or C) If it's functionally a sequel to the main game, like MK11: Aftermath or MK1: Khaos Reigns. Like "could this have been released as a sequel or prequel?" and if yes, it counts.

In any case, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is basically just a straightforward mission pack with very little story and a lot of action. This is a full-fledged prequel, about half the size of The New Order. It takes place in alternate-universe 1946, where WW2 is dragging on (rather than over) and the Axis successfully invaded Britain. It's a really interesting game to play if one wants to see what led up to the beginning of Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Next: Some Street Fighter 2, some Fallout: New Vegas.