Pierre42

I saw you needed advice and saw it was for FFXIII...

I'm disappointed you didn't want recommendations on the most satisfying way to destroy your copy (public ritual, smashing followed by burning FYI).

On topic: 10 hours in? Go ahead, don't start again, you'll suffer less that way and the game does a terrible job of explaining itself without digging into the optional Codex anyway so that "out of the loop" feeling won't go away anyway.

Metal Gear Solid 3

Asura's Wrath

Golden Sun 1 and 2

XIII is still terrible in my opinion, much like the state of UK politics lately.

Still on the bright side SNP did great and they've got less aggressive immigration policies.

@damodar:

Yeah but man...you didn't get any of Wolf's especially cool moves, you essentially played like the computer controlled downgraded clones of him you fight later in the story.

And the story was paper thin, it was like downloadable extra trials at best. Sam's campaign now that was REAL dlc.

@damodar:

The Blade Wolf one was really disappointing though, except for the unique song for Khamsin's boss fight which is one of my favourite on the album.

@vikingdeath1:

Yeah Yasha was an absolutely amazing character. While he played functionally the same as Asura, the style applied to his character and the spectacle of a full-blown anime rival just made him super appealing

Plus dat theme:

The PS3 version plays like trash, that's the biggest downside I've seen so far.

So I had a free morning and figured I would finish this game from long in my backlog while my little brother watched. Had the DLC from a long while and went to play the Street Fighter stuff but never actually went on to finish the game.

Replayed the final non-DLC episode to refresh myself then went on an amazing intense ride through one of the best ending sequences I've seen. There's few games I remember that make me actively very sad to have finished them entirely but the end game of Asura's Wrath leaves me sorely wanting more.

The Yasha stuff in the finale is just heartbreakingly wonderful, even if he only got to fight some mooks, the follow up fight to end the rivalry was just amazing.

They also did some amazingly tricky things with the UI at the end. When Chakravartin offers you the chance to rule at the end and you get the option to "extend arm" I was actively holding back. I wanted to see if anything could happen, I didn't want to make peace. Sure enough the outcome of extending my hand was as satisfying as I could have hoped.

I was a little disappointed I never got to see the full extent of the cutscenes in battle. The attack where the Creator stops time and goes to combo the crap out of you I always kept dropping at one point of it which had it's own reward in a way as he would quite hilariously teleport beside me and laugh but that's my own weakness I guess.

One criticism I guess I'd have is a lot of the end seemed to be hopping around just building power before going unlimited and unleashing a string of Strong attacks on the boss. It always felt like i was doing it a bit wrong in the end but eh it was great anyway.

The little post-credit scene where everyone was reincarnated was a nice touch as well. It's such a shame it wraps up so neatly I doubt we'll ever see another one again. Best I think we can hope for is Asura for an Marvel VS Capcom game or something similar.

@damodar:

Eh people need to stop thinking of it as part of the standard Metal Gear formula. It's clearly a spin off, hence it doesn't bear the "Solid" trademark. If you approach it as part of the Solid series, yeah you'll be disappointed because it's not trying to be that.

I love both the standard "Solid" games and the Rising game a lot but in different ways.

While people are talking about the music, I love Collective Consciousness most of all I think:

Live in Ignorance, and Purchase your happiness

With blood and sweat, it's the real cost!

Thinking ceases the truth is lost.

Don't you worry, you'll be told exactly what to do!

I give my people the lives they need.

The Righteous will succeed!

I could quite happily quote the rest of the song, the lyrics fit the villain so well at that point in time, it's perfect.

@dudeglove:

I played on Normal then stepped up onto harder difficulties for a few "Don't take damage while fighting X boss" trophies. I never had much trouble with the Parry. Thing is, the Parry itself? That requires some good timing however if you are slightly off then you still pull off an effective block. Plus it's so satisfying once you master it and you get into big "parry duels" with the huge longsword mercs before slicing and dicing them effectively.

Still overall I really liked Revengeance, I liked how the story was designed to custom fit to Raiden's backstory while still having some small ties to the greater lore about the Patriots and the War Economy. The characters were by-and-large quite enjoyable I found. I especially liked Doktor as a good source of comic relief and fictional technical wizardry. The boss characters could be hit an miss at times but their FIGHTS are amazing. Honestly I loved the idea of Monsoon's fight so much, they better have another character implement that tech somewhere down the line. The soundtrack and gameplay were pretty excellent as well, with the soundtrack adjusting to support the gameplay. Just opened up the enemy's weakpoint? Time for some thrilling vocals to emphasis how you are DESTROYING this fool. It all just kind of worked for me. Amazingly it kept me interested in Metal Gear's 'World' and eager to know more. Though I suppose with Konami going to ground this franchise won't reappear the same again neither.

Biggest drawback for me was Raiden's "Jack the Ripper" moments, the dialogue just gets absurd at that point.

For the record I don't remember any instant-fail conditions in the last fight. I think maybe the things he throws at you can take off 100% health...but if you've been upgrading your health at all that's not an instant kill (you go beyond 100% health in this game). Then you've also got rations to keep you going anyway. Also...don't quote me on this as my memory is funny...while the game absolutely sets you up to cut those things into tiny pieces. I think you can just ignore that and ninja run underneath them at the start, avoiding the whole scene.