I'm baaaaaack.

Woke up on Saturday morning only to discover my internet was acting up. Whenever I'd try and browse a website, it would automatically send me to a generic ISP website. After spending two days with both the ISP and modem manufacturer pointing fingers, it came out that my account had been flagged for 'abusive emails'. I was supposed to be online on yesterday, but they forgot to lodge appeal and had to wait another 24 hours...

But here I am and I see I haven't missed out on a whole lot.

Without the net, I had to find other ways to kill time, so this is what I managed to get through...

Phantasy Star Online Episode III (Sonic Team; 2003) - I bought this game on release thinking it was a now or never proposition. I found Episode I and II so difficult to come across in person that I thought I'd be making a wise investment buying PSOIII first thing. Fast forward 13 years and the game usually goes for $30-50 AUD, so it wasn't the wisest investment I've ever made.

Episode III is a huge departure from the original, going from a hack n slash to a card game. SEGA obviously wanted to board the Pokemon TCG train and try their hand, leaving us with a fairly solid card game. It's sort of a board game/card game hybrid where you move characters around the field and use cards to attack. It can get pretty gripping when you get the hang of it, the only problem is the game is way too easy. There were so many times where my opponent had me in serious trouble and instead of using all it's attacks, it would let me off the hook. As far as I can tell, there isn't a difficulty setting either, so the AI is frustratingly soft.

An enjoyable game, but it's weird that this was made into a mainline sequel. Clearly SEGA wasn't confident it would sell unless it had the sequel tag added to it.

Wave Race 64 (Nintendo; 1996) - BONZAIIII! Haven't played Wave Race since the N64 made it's way here in early '97. It blew my mind at the time and all these years later I can see why. It's a top tier arcade game in the privacy of your own living room, what's not to love? It's a shame Nintendo didn't release a proper sequel on the N64 and instead gave the license away for Blue Storm. The early 00's attitude aesthetic is a massive turn off.

Lylat Wars (Nintendo; 1997) - It's one of those games I must have seen others play through at least a dozen times, but whenever I've had a go at it I'm just trash. It's still enjoyable but I really need to hit a guide if I want to play through any of the harder stages. Still one of my favourite games on the N64, a Top 10 for sure.

Finished up Dawn Guard and am on the last leg of Solstheim, Bethesda is definitely well earning it's reputation for bugs, the final boss of the MAIN Dragonborn DLC line was glitched to high hell, and thankfully there was a solve, or it would have been entirely unbeatable. Only thing more mind boggling than THE main quest line in a DLC having a major glitch like that, is that it's remained unresolved for the better part of a decade, persisting on even the newest releases of the game. I've also got 2 minor missions which won't register as complete, but none of the main quests until there.

Finished up Skyrim with just under 200 hours, I definitely missed some nooks and crannies, didn't clear all locations or collect all shouts...I'd say I cleared upwards of 90% though cleared most locations, all of Solstheim, and every sub-mission I stumbled over (talking to everyone in the major cities. I probably would have pushed the last little bit to clear everything, but a single glitch left a mission unbeatable, so why bother? All in all it was a fantastic game though, some pretty serious bugs in there, a couple absolutely inexcusable, but it's got some fantastic lore, and extremely fun gameplay. I'd give it an 8 all around, those few issues knocking it down a peg. I'll revisit in a year or two.

One minor thing though, since left and right on the D-pad served literally 0 purpose, they should have given a secondary favorite list, my one was stocked pretty deep, and it would have been nice to be able to separate some things.

Next up, Steamworld Dig 2.

Nioh- I always find myself coming back to this game. There's just something so satisfying in building up a character and laying waste to enemies who used to tear me a new one when I first started. Currently I'm looking to collect all the trophies. I've just about got them all, unfortunately the last two are difficult to get. One requires me to beat all the Twilight Missions which rotate every 24 hours, if I've already beaten the mission, or if it's a DLC mission, too bad. The other trophy requires me to spend 20 million gold at the Blacksmith. There's absolutely no reason to spend that amount of money, so it's clearly just there for completionists.

Team Fortress 2 - I can't believe the state of pub right now. Just about every server has at least one obvious aim-bot dominating the games and ruining the fun for everyone else.

Dragon Quest VIII
Not played this much recently, and not much to report. Grinding for Dhoulmagus. Still a long way to go to the recommended levels, and I've already done all the exploring that can be done. I cheated and used an Alchemy Guide to get the best equipment available to me. Found a bunch of ship-accessible world map locations with treasure and monster arena creatures. Now there's nothing left but to grind it out. I've tried killing metal slimes but so far had no luck.

Pokemon FireRed
My memory of Pokemon Red is worse than I thought because I did a lot of this game out of order. I'm not entirely sure what the correct order is, but I ended up in Saffron City mostly fighting Pokemon that were at or slightly higher than my level, which never happens on the proper route. Sabrina's Alakazam spammed Psychic and OHKO'd my team in my first attempt. I came into the second battle with a better gameplan but only beat her by luck: she used Calm Mind instead of Psychic for one turn and that gave me the opening I needed to take him out. I think you're supposed to do Fuchsia City gym first, because Koga was far easier than Sabrina. I've just defeated the Cinnabar Island guy and found myself being whisked off to a random set of islands that was certainly not in the original game. A welcome addition in my eyes. The gap in skill between the final gym and the Elite Four was tremendous and required substantial grinding. These extra dungeons should alleviate some of that.

My plan is to ditch part of my original team after the eighth gym and bring in the legendaries to fight the Elite Four. Because I've never used legendaries in battle before. I'm thinking Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, Venusaur, Mr. Mime (decided to get him in a NPC trade early on, realised he's super powerful, no regrets). Not sure about my sixth Pokemon yet. Maybe one of the fossil Pokemon. FYI, I'm ditching Gyarados, Arcanine and one or both of Primeape and Nidoking. Already caught Zapdos. It was very tough not using the Master Ball. The other two will be equally challenging I'm sure.

I believe the gym order is Brock, Misty, Lt. Surge, Ericka (Celadon), Sabrina (Saffron), Koga (Fuscia), Blaine (Cinnebar) & Giovanni (Viridian). I could be mixing up Sabrina and Koga, but otherwise I had that info ingrained as much as my ABCs. I always thought that was a strong-point of the original generation. After Lt. Surge you could do the gyms in whatever order you wanted. That meant, if you started with a Water starter, you could just skip Ericka and make your way to Blaine, level up and then just steam-roll her with your OP team. For an 8-bit system, it was nice to have that level of freedom.

This was my team from my 2015 playthrough:

Snorlax Lv. 51
Magneton Lv. 55
Lapras Lv. 51
Kadabra Lv. 48
Dragonite Lv. 56
Aerodactyl Lv. 48

I always thought the gym order was forced, with HMs and Saffron City being blocked from all entrances. I guess not. Thought about bringing Lapras into my team but didn't want to replace Gyarados. Although I will be replacing him with Articuno. Eh.

Not too far out, so I'm going to be replaying Red Dead Redemption for the very first time, despite my love, it's a game I've only beaten once...right when it came out. Can't wait to experience it again.

After spending 2 hours on my least favorite part of RDR, the 6 disarms without reloading I came to realize 2 things, 1) disarming is a dysfunctional bitch as I did what should have been a dozen times over (including the VERY first try), and 2) Deadeye doesn't count as reloading (even though it reloads to max), and it's actually not that hard of an achievement. I do take some satisfaction that I never figured that out my first play through and perfectly disarmed 6 men on a single dead eye. But fuck, so much wasted time and frustration.

Just found out Battle For Azeroth came out early today, so I picked that up. (Servers aren’t live until tomorrow)

Been praying SFV and dropped down rank 😭. Though I got the Platinum Trophy, which is considered one of the hardest platinums to get so I’m happy (0.1 %) 😂.

Well, Hell. I finished Undead Nightmare, but experienced a glitch that left 100% completion impossible, Hunter Mission 3 wouldn't register as complete no matter how many different ways I tried to work it. Disappointing, all that time, to come up just short of fully completing both. Oh well, on to Demon's Souls, been meaning to get to it for ages, I also own all 3 Dark Souls despite only playing parts of 2, so those'll be some point in the near but not immediate future (since Shenmue and Yakuza drop at the end of the month).

EDIT: Not finishing RDR:UN wasn't sitting right with me, I did some digging, and managed to find a work around that made the Hunter 3 mission register, for some reason only the Tomahawk made it trigger right. So, I'll start Dark Souls next, as I finished 100%'ing Undead Nightmare today.

Finished up with Demon's Souls, gotta say, with the exception of the False King Allant and the Man-Eaters, the bosses were much easier than I had excepted. Only really have Bloodborne to compare it off of, but pretty simple across the board on this one. I guess they weren't quite sure how gamers would react to difficulty yet, so only gave a half-measure. Even Allant wasn't all that hard once I came back with a properly leveled sword (only took me as long as it did, because he kept stealing my magic levels, and I'd have to grind them back between showdowns to use the spells I had). The Man-Eaters is the only one I'd classify as outright difficult (because the arena was incredibly small, and you have a habit of flying off; and need to beat the one fast enough before the second comes out and you're proper fucked). I kind of just breezed through all 3 of the last worlds (aside from the aforementioned Man-Eaters). Now I've got that out of the way, I'll eventually start Dark Souls remastered, but with the next couple months being relatively booked with new releasese, it'll have to wait.

Dragon Quest VIII
Found a neat way to efficiently kill metal slimes. Gained a few levels. Beat Dhoulmagus with my party ranging from level 26-28. The first form was tricky but I beat him first time. Then he unleashes a second form on me. Beat my weakened party pretty effortlessly. To my great relief, when I returned to the cave, his first form is still defeated, so you don't have to run the gauntlet again. Despite that, it still took me a few attempts to beat his second form. Now I'm moving steadily forwards with the story.

I had a similar experience with Dhoulmagus. I barely scraped by the first form, before his second form quickly picked off the pieces. I came back and was so relieved it was just his second form, and took care of it pretty quickly.

Shenmue (SEGA; 1999)

As I mentioned in the Movie thread, I recently got my hands in Shenmue and have found myself really immersed in the game. I'd liken it to Majora's Mask if it was a Point & Click adventure game with a few Yakuza-style SEGA homages & distractions. I'm slowly making progress through the game, only having just made my first major breakthrough about 3 hours into the game. If I had have known what I was doing, I'm sure it wouldn't have taken anywhere near as long. However, I couldn't find the right bar (it was hidden down a set of stairs) and then I was too late on two separate days to find the right NPC (Charlie) who's hiding out at a secret tattoo parlor hidden away in an apartment block. Last time I checked, I had to wait a day before we could meet up, so I put the game on hold for a bit.

Shenmue was really something else for it's time, honestly, even now some open worlds fail to be as fully realized as the Shenmues. They're just fantastic, slow paced, methodical adventure games punctuated with a few fights for good measure. But the fights aren't thrown in all willy nilly like Yakuza, but the few that are in there feel deliberately paced. QTE wise it might feel a bit dated because of how played out the mechanic is, but Shenmue was the original that paved the way, and had some of the best usage. And it certainly wasn't a game to hold your hand, you had to ask around and figure shit out; and when you had to work a job, it felt like work. That's all my nostalgia speaking right now though, have too see how it holds up when I get around to it, I picked up Shenmue 1 and 2 on PS4 day one, but am putting it off until at least after Tomb Raider; I'll only be renting Yakuza Kiwami 2 for the time being, so that gets priority in a week when it comes out.

Yakuza Kiwami II has been ordered, it's set to arrive at the end of the week so I have a few days to beat Shenmue.

Had a big session with Shenmue in the early hours of Saturday morning. I'm not sure if it's supposed to go down this way, but instead of seeing Charlie outside the arcade, I received a letter with Chinese characters. I then got jumped by Charlie and his thugs which inadvertently led me to someone who could translate the letter for me. Or at least that's what I think was going down, the HD port is buggy so certain times the cut-scenes will freeze up and all you can hear and see is the dialogue. It eventually led me to the harbor where I had to sneak into warehouse #8. I thought I was making good progress, but after getting caught by guards 4 or 5 times, I realised I'd be penalised an entire day of progress.

So I lost about an hours worth of progress. Fortunately it didn't take that long to get back to that point and I made sure to save before I went ahead. I still got captured a further 4-5 times, which led to a lot of frustrating resets, but I figured out where to go. It was one of those annoying situations where I was on the right path, but you have to do this one specific action for the game to let you proceed. In this case, I had to shine the torch on the number 8 instead of just sneaking through the door.

Last I checked, I had to find another insignia to presumably get the phoenix mirror that's stored away in the dojo.

I'm insanely jealous of your experience Mike. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to have played this game back in the day. It feels like a game that's at least a generation ahead of it's time and while it plays like a King's Quest, I'm enthralled by the experience.

I'm thinking the rest of the year will go...

Shenmue
Yakuza Kiwami II
Shenmue II
Red Dead Redemption II

With December being taken up by Zelda: Minish Cap.

I've completed most of my traditions this year, all I need to do is beat a Final Fantasy game and I'll be set.

Started in on Kiwami 2, thankfully did sharpen the system from the lackluster showing in the 6th, but still falls short of the 0/Kiwami engine for me. Still, quickly being reminded why it's my favorite Yakuza story, Ryuji Goda is such a good ass villain, I just wish it saved your fight with him until the very end, does take away from the mystique of a badass when you have to beat him up multiple times throughout.

Shenmue (SEGA; 1999)

I finished this the other night.

I was surprised how much the game changed a few hours in. One moment you're going around town trying to squeeze whatever information you can out of all the NPCs, to working a 9-5 where random cut-scenes trigger. It made for an interesting change of pace, but I'm not sure if I liked it. I enjoyed visiting the town more and wanted to interact more with the locals, while learning more about the Hazukis and the assassination. Instead it felt like half the game happened at the docks where it felt like I had little control over Ryo's fate. By simply doing the job, cut-scenes would trigger that would ultimately move the story along.

It's a shame, because one small tweak would have made all the difference. Instead of the game holding your hand, it would have been interesting if you'd happen to recognise sailors who attacked you walking around while on shift and had to sought them out during your breaks. Failure to recognise this opportunity would case you to take a longer route, costing you time where you could have learned a new move, earned more money or learn more about your surroundings. In essence, living a more fulfill life in a 'life simulator'.

While I was disappointed with the way events unfolded, I did enjoy the structure of the harbor section. The 9-5 job gave Ryo a direction he didn't have and made him a more relatable character. During the first half of the game, you're free to roam the streets through out the entire day without fear of any punishment. Ryo doesn't attend school, doesn't have a job so the player spends a fair portion of time trying to stave off boredom. Had Ryo been a regular high school student who could only perform his personal investigation on the side, it would have given that early section a much needed dose of strategy. With limited hours, you had to manage your time more efficiently. This would mean talking to the right people, while also maintaining your training and studies. I believe that decision would have only made the game more immersive which is it's biggest strength.

Unfortunately the HD remaster does have bugs which need attention. A fair few of the cut-scenes glitched out where all I could see was clouds and a bunch of subtitles. I could live with that, although it's a shame to miss out on the cut-scenes SEGA were so proud to put together. No, the biggest disappointment was during the harbor where the game wasted an entire day on me. It was my last day on the job and all I had to do was drive by Warehouse #18 at a specific time. No big deal and I seemed to be making good money on the side. That was until the forklift got stuck and the game refused to let me reverse or place the crate down so I could reposition myself. I had to wait another 24 hours of in-game time (basically an hour) to get to the same position again. I'm still not sure how the game managed it and it really put a damper on my experience. Also it's extremely easy to skip over the Cleared Save Data section of the post-game, which is a pain because all of it transfers over to Shenmue 2. I pressed X twice and found none of my progress was saved, meaning I had to play through the last day all over again. I'm sure over time these issues won't exist, but it's a word of caution. Be extra careful when moving crates and don't bother skipping the credit sequence.

I appreciate the ambition of the game and love the attention to detail in terms of the environment. I just wish they had have used the environment better and done more things to make Ryo feel like a real person. I hear the sequel is a much bigger game that fixes a few issues from Shenmue 1, so I'm looking forward to playing it.

Of all the things Kiwami 2 could have brought back, it had to be Clan Creator, which they've made so I like even less. I'm not a big RTS fan as is, but it was tolerable in Yakuza 6 where you just had to generate forces and activate abilities while they took each other out; now, you have to reposition characters and guard objects (that's right, escort missions). Your character seem like they have to be personally directed, as they don't seem to care if the enemies are even a short distance away from them, and it's disorienting keeping track of who's where so you don't pull a person off of protecting one thing to go to the other. Y6 had a fantastic baseball questline, and we get this. Just...the worst. 

Yakuza Kiwami II (SEGA; 2017)

The Yakuza series has grown significant traction over the west, thanks in large part to the success of Yakuza 0. Ever since we had the opportunity to play as Kiryu and Majima when they were young men, we've seen a steady flow of releases, with Kiwami II being the most recent. Ordinarily I would touch on all the different side-quests and additional content on offer, but I thought it'd be worthwhile taking a different approach. Instead, I'll be looking at the game's main campaign and how well it stacks up.

It's been one year since the events of Kiwami have unfolded. Kiryu is an ordinary civilian trying his best to parent the incredibly bright Haruka. For all intents and purposes, Kiryu's criminal past is behind him and he's free to live out the rest of his life. Unfortunately fate intervenes and Kiryu finds himself in the middle of a war involving four separate factions. In a world where discourse has little meaning and differences are resolved through shirtless brawls, Kiryu embarks on another lengthy quest filled with dramatic plot twists and conspiracies.

Utilising the Dragon Engine that was first introduced in 6, combat packs more of a punch than ever. The enhanced physics engine allows players to interact with the environment more fluidly and the way Kiryu sends his opponents flying after a heavy attack is incredibly satisfying. Heat actions return and there's plenty you'll come across in your travels. Unfortunately for me, a lot of them were locked behind side-missions, but there appeared to be plenty of new additions since Kiwami. The only complaint with the combat system is the simplicity. The style system that made 0 and Kiwami engaging is nowhere to be seen, so at least from my experience, combat wasn't as varied as those editions.

Maybe it's because it's based on a 10-year old game, but the main campaign itself suffered from same old same old which became monotonous rather quickly. When Kiryu wasn't beating up crooks he was usually being sent on a wild goose chase around Sotenbori or Kamurocho. These sections of the game grow tiring, especially when you're constantly going backwards and forwards between two locations.

Similarly the combat scenarios follow a similar trend to 0 and Kiwami. Either you fight enemies in large open environments, you fight them in buildings where you're constantly going from room to room with a fat guy holding a sofa checking you at each door-way. You fight in small bars or offices where you can use the furniture to wipe out everyone quickly. Or you get into one on one fights with either significant characters or recurring enemies who keep popping up during the segment. In a lot of ways, it just comes with the beat 'em up territory, but usually those games tend to mix up the environments better. In Kiwami II's case, the only level that stood out to me was the Osaka Castle where Kiryu has to duke it out with ninjas, samurais and tigers. If there had have been more levels like that, it would have improved the game significantly in my eyes.

As far as the story is concerned, I found it unfocused and convoluted. After Kiryu gets roped into the Tojo & Omi war, the story introduces a lot of characters, with most of them having little to do with what's going on. It wouldn't surprise me if these were introduced for gameplay purposes, as there would be a lot of down-time otherwise. While it's a crime drama, it's also a story about nature vs. nurture and what can happen if children aren't raised properly.

If I was to make a suggestion for the game, I believe it would have been worthwhile to make Kaoru a playable character. The game expects you to care a lot about the character and while she has a sympathetic background, she comes off as a tsundere stereotype. If the players could have gotten to know her better outside of Kiryu's perspective, it would have made the emotionally climatic sequences that much better. I would have loved a mission early on where you play as her, bring down a rinky dink operation, go back to hq where you're ostracised by your fellow police and find yourself spending nights alone in a quiet apartment.

In truth, I found the story and campaigns of 0 & Kiwami more satisfying and found myself wanting more. I still have the Majima chapters to play through, so hopefully Goro lays on the charm. I found his segments were usually the best in 0.

Spider Man as expected might be my GOTY, better than God of War for me. So much damn fun, I don't think there will be a better game than this for me all year.

Unlike God of War which I felt dragged on way too long and I felt was a chore to navigate around, this is just fun as shit to collect things and do just roam around the city.

Dadburnit, I still have to finish Kiwami 2 to get to Spider-Man...on that note, I'm not fucking with the night club thing, I just don't feel like that grind, I've got most other things completed, so now I just have to focus on quests and side quests, mainly this Haruka tourism thing right now, then just on to the final stretch, then the Majima content. Don't think I'll beat the final Majima Construction thing either, since I'm not going for completion (I think I've only ever completed one Yakuza game, there's always something that loses me, like that Puyo Puyo bullshit in 6). I want to get to Spider-Man so badly, why must these games all be so clumped together?

I hear ya, I would love to finish Spider Man in a ideal world ahead of Shadow of the Tomb Raider which I am excited about this Friday but like I don't think I have it in me to take it down by Friday. I am off today and tomorrow so maybe I will give it a shot.

Still have Devil May Cry collection, Red Dead Redemption and Kingdom Hearts 2 and the others to tackle and I would hate to leave these games so clamped together with their later installments coming out later.

Yeah, new releases are my immediate future, if we're talking backlog, I've got all 3 Dark Souls games (of which I've never played, except a short bit of the first, Darksiders 1 and 2 hopefully squeeze them in before part 3, the Kindgom Hearts collection, Fallout 4, Devil May Cry 1-4, Shenmue 1 and 2, plus DLC for Bioshock Infinite (Burial at Sea) and Horizon Zero Dawn (Frozen Wilds). I also haven't played Dying Light, Odin Sphere, and Sleeping Dogs since I bought them. And that's just PS4, got quite a bit of PS3 I bought and haven't got to yet either.

Playing World of Warcraft again now BFA is out, though not much to do except pointlessly grind reps now I’m at max level.

Finished up Kiwami 2 (more or less), still one of my favorite stories of the bunch, the twists that come at least feel like they have groundwork, unlike some twists later in the series. And Ryuji Goda is definitely my favorite antagonist, after him and Nikishi, the rest sort of blend together as characters. Even Yakuza 0, which is the only story I might put above it, honestly can't remember who was the the villain. I'm still really disappointed it wasn't made on the same engine as 0/Kiwami though, the dragon engine just feels shallow in comparison, yeah, there's a little more heft to the striking, but at the cost of stripped down combat. So many options just aren't there anymore. Even Majima isn't near as fun, as he only has a select few moves in general, but especially compared to the depth of 0. So, while it may or may not have overtaken 0 on the same engine, it simply couldn't with the dragon engine. And while I have Yakuza 2 (well) above Yakuza 1, I'd put Kiwami 1 above Kiwami 2 for the same reason. It also loses points because I fucking hate RTS, and the very last Majima Construction mission is beyond ridiculous, maybe my least favorite thing in the franchise.


Started in on Spider-Man, while I think I still have Dad of Boy as my Game of the Year, easily the best Spider-Man game of all time already. Only took 15 years to finally knock Spider-Man 2 down a spot.

Why must these games always have annoying timed challenges? In Spider-Man, they're not particularly difficult, they just take damn near literal perfection to gold, and the game's mechanics don't offer that level of perfection. When you HAVE to use the point launch it either A) latches onto some distant mark throwing you completely off course (as marks are littered abundantly in close proximity) B) refuses to launch when you do hit it (coming to a halt on the point), and/or C) refuses to even trigger any launch points despite the aforementioned abundance. Those are the consistent issues, there's also refusing to run up a building (instead only going side to side), and the webzip sometimes deciding to send you downwards rather than straight, but those are less annoying. These flaws are vastly less noticeable throughout regular missions, but frustrating as all hell the second precision comes into play. And only because the strict time constraint for gold, literally one error means silver, and when you have to move fast, there's usually at least one error (the most persistent being refusing to find any or the appropriate latch point, despite them being directly fucking in front of you).

But, all in all, a really minor grievance in an otherwise spectacular (no pun intended) game. I hadn't had any real issues until the challenge missions.

Finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider, while still fun, honestly, my least favorite of the trilogy. Rise was a step up from the first in every way, this has a couple tweaks and additions, but nothing exceptionally new. I think the world was a bit more tedious to traverse than before, could be a bit confusing sometimes, having to frequently check the map, just not as intuitively designed as before. Also the story was just...meh. Never a strong point for the franchise, but Rise was a step in the right direction, Shadow wasn't really memorable on any front. Really disappointed they didn't do anything to improve the melee, which is still a total chore. Also the gunplay just doesn't quite feel tight for me, stealth was great, but when it broke into a firefight it took a downward turn in enjoyment. Also, it feels like there's much less men, not helped by them never respawning (unlike the first 2, where when you returned to certain areas, there'd be more combat). Maybe I'm just remembering wrong, but I felt like there were more confrontations int 1 and 2. I did like the costumes, and the stealth was top notch. Worst of the trilogy still makes it about a 7.5 for me.

One annoyance, they'd have battle sections that would take your guns from you. I don't care if they're chucking spears at me, they're trying to kill me, I should be able to murder them with an auto-shotty.

Finished Pokemon FireRed. Switched to a legendary team to do Victory Road and the Elite Four. Didn't have to grind that much. Ended up beating them all with a team that averaged at level 52, albeit after a few resets.

The toughest Pokemon to handle was Lance's Aerodactyl, which is funny because my Aerodactyl was by far the least useful Pokemon in my team. Lance ripped through everything with Ancient Power, a Rock type move, so super effective against four of my party. It even one shot my Articuno which I didn't expect at all. Eventually took him down with Venusaur. Wing Attack hurt, but I got off a Sleep Powder and spammed Giga Drain until he died. During that time I took a turn to revive Articuno, which one shot his remaining three Pokemon (Dragonite, Dragonair x2).

The rival battle was almost as tough, but I beat him first time. Alakazam scared me because I figured he'd one shot everything with Psychic, but Aerodactyl's insane speed stat came to the rescue. Got off a Fly which surprisingly took him out, no crit. I know Alakazam has very low defense but that was a surprise nonetheless. It was down to four on one, but Charizard wiped almost almost my entire party with Fire Blast. Aerodactyl once again saved the day. He tanked the fuck out of Charizard, but couldn't do any real damage, so I used the time to revive and heal Zapdos. The fucker used three Full Restores during the fight so I deemed it appropriate. Zapdos managed to finish him off with Thunder. Boom. Game completed.

Not going to bother with the post-game because apparently my meager 26 Pokedex entries isn't enough to unlock whatever it is that's unlocked. Just the Mewtwo cave I think.

Sept 29, 2018 15:32:16 GMT Emperor said:

Finished Pokemon FireRed. Switched to a legendary team to do Victory Road and the Elite Four. Didn't have to grind that much. Ended up beating them all with a team that averaged at level 52, albeit after a few resets.

The toughest Pokemon to handle was Lance's Aerodactyl, which is funny because my Aerodactyl was by far the least useful Pokemon in my team. Lance ripped through everything with Ancient Power, a Rock type move, so super effective against four of my party. It even one shot my Articuno which I didn't expect at all. Eventually took him down with Venusaur. Wing Attack hurt, but I got off a Sleep Powder and spammed Giga Drain until he died. During that time I took a turn to revive Articuno, which one shot his remaining three Pokemon (Dragonite, Dragonair x2).

The rival battle was almost as tough, but I beat him first time. Alakazam scared me because I figured he'd one shot everything with Psychic, but Aerodactyl's insane speed stat came to the rescue. Got off a Fly which surprisingly took him out, no crit. I know Alakazam has very low defense but that was a surprise nonetheless. It was down to four on one, but Charizard wiped almost almost my entire party with Fire Blast. Aerodactyl once again saved the day. He tanked the fuck out of Charizard, but couldn't do any real damage, so I used the time to revive and heal Zapdos. The fucker used three Full Restores during the fight so I deemed it appropriate. Zapdos managed to finish him off with Thunder. Boom. Game completed.

Not going to bother with the post-game because apparently my meager 26 Pokedex entries isn't enough to unlock whatever it is that's unlocked. Just the Mewtwo cave I think.

As an Ice/Flying type, Articuno is doubly weak to Rock type attacks, so that is why Ancient Power took it out easily, double weakness is also how your Articuno managed to sink Dragonite easily, since it is doubly weak to Ice, and Charizard itself was doubly weak to Rock too, did your Aerodactyl not have Rock Slide or similar?

The post game is just an extended trip to the Sevii Islands (that new area you went to after Cinnabar Island), there is really not a whole lot to do there, to be honest, so it's no big loss.