Board 8 > Leonhart Ranks 100 Games with Writeups!

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#72. Fire Emblem: Three Houses


This was my first Fire Emblem game. I had never really been too interested in the series before. There was a time I thought about trying to play the Ike games because hes cool in Smash, but those games are absurdly expensive online (Path of Radiance is currently going for 275 on Amazon, and even used copies are 135+, so no thanks), so that never materialized. With Three Houses, the more I learned about it and the more Board 8 hyped it, the more interested I became. A slice of life school days type of video game? Sign me up!

As I write this, I have not played either Black Eagles scenario. I picked Blue Lions first, and then I did a Golden Deer run afterwards. I dont know if this was the ideal way to play, but I do intend to go back to do the Black Eagles eventually, probably after this DLC episode drops. Im honestly glad I did Blue Lions first because they wound up being my favorite house in terms of the characters. I really liked everyone except for Sylvain, who is just a poor mans Zelos. Felix is probably my favorite character in the game, and Dedues up there with him. Of course, this can change once I actually get some in-depth time with Edelgard and Hubert (since you cant really do that when playing as the other houses), but still, its a great cast. I didnt care for the Golden Deer cast as much, but they also provide a lot of answers to the plots mysteries. Blue Lions is almost its own isolated thing where its way more concerned with Faerghus than the rest of Fodlan.

As for the actual gameplay, I enjoyed it. Ive heard people say its pretty easy, and Id tend to agree, at least on normal. I didnt really struggle at all once I got used to it, which is probably for the best with this being my first Fire Emblem game. I'd say if you've never played a game in the series before, it's a good entry point. Its cool being able to link up with other party members to enhance your attacks, and the presentation is top notch. I love the battle cries, too, highlighted by Byleths, Here is something to believe in! Battles just look and feel so good.

The highlight of Three Houses for me are the Support conversations, which are almost like Fire Emblems version of S. Links, except its expanded to include more than just the main protagonist with other characters. The party members themselves could interact that way, too. Unfortunately, you cant have everyone interact with everyone in Support conversations, so speaking selfishly, I only wish we could have had that. Those things are the main reason I love Felix the most because his are almost always great, no matter who hes paired with. His mindset is just so different from everyone elses, so seeing them all learn how to adjust to it and how to handle him is a lot of fun.

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bunch of bitter Black Eagles imhotbqh

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#71. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice


Out of all the Ace Attorney games, Spirit of Justice is probably the most difficult for me to rank properly. It has very high peaks, but it also has some pretty glaring flaws. This game basically puts all of its eggs into two baskets. Not to say the other four cases in the game are bad, but Id say theyre all average at best, although they certainly have their moments, as every Ace Attorney case does. Spirit of Justice also feels a bit bloated. Its the longest game in the series by a decent margin, and the pacing suffers a bit as a result, I think. It probably has the weakest set of breakdowns in the series, which is disappointing because I thought theyd use the new animations to craft some creative ones. Nahyuta is probably the worst prosecutor in the series, and Im not sure its particularly close. I dont think they used him well at all, aside from 6-3. There are three playable attorneys, but it feels like Athena kinda gets the short end of the stick. To be fair, I think Dual Destinies had the same problem, only with Apollo being the one to get shortchanged that time, so I hope future Ace Attorney games (should there be any) limit it to two at most.

But when Spirit of Justice is good, its really good. I loved the new Khurain court system with the Sance Vision and all that comes with it. This was really the only way to challenge Phoenix at this point in the series, so Im glad they went with it. Spirit of Justice touted the grand return of Maya, and while it was a bit predictable, I still really enjoyed it. They also introduce some really good new characters, Dhurke and Rayfa being my personal favorites of the bunch. The soundtrack is fantastic. I think Id only rank it behind the first Ace Attorney Investigations in that department. More than anything, this is the game where Apollo earned and solidified his place in the series. Dont get me wrong. I really liked Apollo in the previous two games, but it felt like they didnt totally know what to do with him with Phoenix around. They let him shine in this game, and hes so good.

Its hard to talk about what makes an Ace Attorney case great without spoilers, but the two best cases in Spirit of Justice are 6-3 and 6-5. I think the main thing I like about 6-3 is that this is probably the first time since 2-4 that the deck feels this stacked against Phoenix. It also bears a lot of resemblance to 3-5, so they combine aspects of two of the best cases here to make one really good case! I dont want to get into the specifics of 6-5 at all, but suffice it to say that its such a good surprise in so many ways. It completely defied my expectations, and it might deserve the moniker epic case more than any other in the series. The scale and the stakes are unprecedented for Ace Attorney, and Id say its easily the best case weve seen since the original trilogy.

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It's been a while, did you rank Nahyuta below the Paynes?
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

It's been a while, did you rank Nahyuta below the Paynes?

I still have the list saved. Let me check.

*checks*

I actually ranked him just ahead of them, but this was right after I beat the game. I'm not sure I even agree with that anymore!

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The Paynes are definitely better than Nahyuta

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LeonhartFour posted...

bunch of bitter Black Eagles imhotbqh

you know it

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It's okay! The DLC is soon!

Although who knows when I'll actually feel up to it. I probably need a break, especially since Black Eagles is two separate routes!

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I don't blame you! I'm feeling a bit of fatigue on my Silver Snow playthrough right now. I'm definitely going to need a nice break myself before going to Blue Lions/Golden Deer.

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I'm definitely doing Crimson Flower first since I heard Silver Snow winds up being fairly similar to Golden Deer.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Nahyuta is probably the worst prosecutor in the series, and Im not sure its particularly close.

i have klavier easily worse!
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Eh, I'll still take Klavier over Nahyuta. He's at least pleasant to be around! They're both kinda wasted in their respective games though.

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after mario kart 64, i never bothered getting playing SMK enough to get any good at it. i feel like multiplayer games, if you don't get a crew for them and it's past their release date, it's just unlikely you'll get into it. i liked uniracers more.

mega man 2... i think a game like that has a high dependence on replay. i always hear about how fun it is to use whatever weapon, but i just focused on beating the game and didn't really experiment much with weapons. (i'm also a huge ammo-hoarder.) so there's little that's super-memorable about it, and that makes me kind of sad.

majora's mask is the greatest, yeah. bomber's notebook great, dungeons great, and i really liked the parts that lead up to the dungeons, specifically. it's rare that the world-building/sidequests/grind-y parts/adventure-y parts come together so perfectly in a game for me.
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I tried playing Uniracers once. It just wasn't for me.

You definitely shouldn't hoard ammo in Mega Man games, at least for the bosses! Figuring out the A-B-C-D order of which Robot Master is weak to what weapon is part of the fun! Also, I think it's almost impossible to run out of ammo for the Metal Blade unless your goal is specifically to run out of ammo.

Seriously, the GOAT weapon.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Eh, I'll still take Klavier over Nahyuta. He's at least pleasant to be around! They're both kinda wasted in their respective games though.

i mean, nahyuta's hardly "wasted" given how much he appears. he might not be the most enjoyable, though.

also thought about it, and i like him more than franziska, too. his theme is the chillest. that said, he/franziska/klavier are all clearly lower than von karma/edgeworth/godot. it's been long enough that maybe a replay of the post-AA3 games is due.
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I mean, just because he shows up a lot doesn't mean he wasn't wasted! Not going to get into specifics here, but yeah, his role just wasn't satisfying. I also might take Guilty Love over Nahyuta's theme!

Franziska I've kinda softened on over the years. Don't get me wrong. She's firmly a mid-tier character at best, but I think she comes off better in her post-JFA appearances.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Franziska I've kinda softened on over the years. Don't get me wrong. She's firmly a mid-tier character at best, but I think she comes off better in her post-JFA appearances.

Full series spoilers: AAI Franziska is the best Franziska

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I agree with Nahyuta being the worst prosecutor in the series. He might be along my least favorite AA characters period.

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Nah, I wouldn't go that far! He's not even close to the worst character introduced in Spirit of Justice!

That would be Bucky.

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actually I should probably do one of those sorters for the Ace Attorney series to see how they'd fall out now

that list is almost 3 and a half years old!

AA7 when

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LeonhartFour posted...

AA7 when

It still hasn't even been announced, right? Like even as "unnamed Ace Attorney project" or anything?

Probably 2022 at the earliest even if we get lucky, then :(

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Beat DDDLC yesterday. Wasn't feeling it too much until THE TRANSFORMATION! And the inevitable orca cross-examination


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it saddens me that the AA writers insist on one-upping themselves every time. i know AAI isn't the best-received game out there, but i still really enjoyed it. but the next AA game doesn't need to be more epic than AA6 or anything. an AAI-like game with low stakes that focuses on athena would be great, and even if it's not, no one will complain about getting more content.

i suppose that running out of good case ideas period would be a bigger concern.

also, i played 999 but never anything past it. if i get time, it'd be nice. ZTD comes next?
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SeabassDebeste posted...

also, i played 999 but never anything past it. if i get time, it'd be nice. ZTD comes next?

No, VLR and ZTD after that. (Both better than 999 imo)

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I don't think they'll try to top what they did in SoJ for a very long time, if ever.

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LeonhartFour posted...

I don't think they'll try to top what they did in SoJ for a very long time, if ever.

i mean, yes, but i kind of imagine that part of the reason no one's working on anything is that they feel like in order to continue the series, they need to top 6-5
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Eh, I don't necessarily believe that's the case. I could see there being some disagreement or prolonged discussion on what direction to take the series next because they could do literally anything after that.

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More after I get home from work.

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Most of my interest in Mega Man specifically comes from his massive icon status among classic gamers.

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Fascinating

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Nice writeups so far, Leon!

I loved the 3 day time limit in Majoras Mask. Combined with the Bombers Notebook, It really added to the meta game of puzzles that were woven throughout the game.

To this day, the original Super Mario Kart is still my favorite. Part of that may be noatalgia, but of all the Mario Kart games, that one required the most overall skill. No stupid blue shells, minimal AI rubber banding, no snaking needed (so way fewer hand cramps....), well placed shells were more impactful, and shortcuts required more skill to pull off. Double Dash and MK8 are both really great, but none of the other games have quite been able to capture the magic of the original.

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Yeah, I think I would agree with you regarding Mario Kart. I think part of the reason my interest in the series gradually began to wane is because items got out of control.

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#70. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess


Did you know theres a Twilight Princess manga? Its still ongoing, in fact! The latest book was just released in English last month! Ive thought about trying to read it because it looks pretty interesting (Link talks in it, for you purists who were wondering!). Anyway, I believe Twilight Princess was the first Zelda game I actually played to completion. I dont even know what initially intrigued me so much about it. Up to this point, I had already unsuccessfully attempted Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Majoras Mask. I think I just liked the look of the game. The art and the previews for it were really cool, especially after how cartoony Wind Waker looked. It was a total 180. Dont get me wrong. I dont have an issue with Wind Wakers aesthetics. I own the game and might even play it someday! But yeah, Twilight Princess was where it was at, regardless of what people may say about its color palette!

As for what makes Twilight Princess good, it excels at a lot of the traditional Zelda stuff. Dungeons? Check. Snowpeak Ruins is just straight up fun. I love that place. Arbiters Grounds just looks amazing and has a great design. Temple of Time has a great atmosphere. City in the Sky just feels massive and its fun to navigate your way through it with the double clawshot. Speaking of which, weapons and gadgets? Check. The double clawshot lets me act like Spider-Man. That alone is worth the price of admission. The Spinner is also just plain cool. Even the Dominion Rod is a really neat concept! The Gale Boomerang was pretty fun, too. I dont want to hear about how theyve got relatively limited utility outside of the dungeon where you get them because yeah, sure, that might be true, but they make the dungeons theyre a part of so much more fun! Bosses? Check. Case in point with the Spinner because Stallord is so much fun because of it. Argorok is a giant flying dragon with a great atmosphere. I honestly really loved the Zant fight. I thought it was really fun and cleverly done. The presentation is so good. Twilight Princess even managed to make Ganondorf seem kinda cool, which might be its biggest achievement!

I guess you cant discuss Twilight Princess without at least touching on Wolf Link. I actually liked the Wolf Link segments. The Twilight Realm was really cool in terms of ambience and presentation. Midna is whatever to me. She doesnt move the needle one way or the other in my opinion of the game. At least shes not actively annoying like Navi, so Ill take it.

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Twilight Princess was all right. You correctly highlighted Arbiter's Grounds and City in the Sky but I'm here to shoutout that the Ganon fight sequence is great as well.

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That was implied by my statement that they actually managed to make Ganondorf seem kinda cool...!

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Well he was already kinda cool in TP just for that cutscene where the Sages try to seal him! I couldn't be sure!

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Well, I placed it within the context of boss fights!

friendly reminder that Ganondorf is lame and he shouldn't be anywhere near as popular as he is in contests

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This list is bad.

Moonroof posted...

This list is bad.

thank you we were all waiting with bated breath for you to come in and pan the list

now we can move on with our lives

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What are you talking about? Nobody mentioned my opinion at all, anywhere in this thread. You are obsessed with me.

sorry we've already moved on

you'll have to come back next topic if you want to contribute again

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Dont make another topic. You are bad

#69. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End


Today I learned that this is the best-selling Playstation 4 game by a pretty big margin! To be honest, I wasnt sure we needed another Uncharted game starring Nathan Drake after the third one. I thought it ended on a pretty satisfying note and mostly wrapped up his story. Well, Im here to tell you that I was wrong. Uncharted 4 is really good and does an even better job of concluding Drakes role as the lead character. You get a more in-depth look into his backstory (which the series had largely kept intentionally obscure up to this point), and it was good to see him get one last ride with Elena and Sully. I wasnt that big of a fan of Sam, but he turned out to be better than I initially thought from the trailers. The chemistry between the characters has always been one of the highlights of the series for me, and its on full display here.

Another one of the selling points of the Uncharted series is, of course, the big setpieces. Nobody does that better, and the move to Playstation 4 enabled them to do them bigger than ever. Scotland, Madagascar, and the final area of the game are all amazing. The graphics are stunningly beautiful, as youd expect, and you can interact with the environment to your advantage better than ever before. The combat is the area where I think Uncharted has made the biggest strides over the course of its existence. The first three games tell you that stealth is an option, but its absurdly difficult to actually be stealthy and not activate a huge firefight where every enemy knows where you are. Its actually feasible this time! I dont actually dread combat in Uncharted 4, and thats a huge improvement! Another big improvement is that the last boss fight is a lot of fun! Final bosses in the series up to this point have been kind of bad, but I enjoyed this one.

Now if youre a lover of history like I am, one of the big appeals of the series is the fact that Drake is always chasing real historical figures and the legends behind them. Theyre embellished, of course, because that wouldnt be much fun for a video game otherwise! Anyway, I feel like Uncharted 4 might have had the best mystery in the series, but Ive always thought pirates were pretty interesting historical figures. Plus, they even randomly include Guybrush Threepwood among the group of pirates just for the heck of it, which was great. So if youre one of the rare Playstation 4 owners who hasnt played Uncharted 4 yet, give it a shot! I was about to say if you act quick, you can get the first three free for PS+ as part of the Uncharted HD collection, but they just switched over to February games today! That reminds me. I need to get that BioShock collection so I can finally play those games!

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LeonhartFour posted...

Today I learned that this is the best-selling Playstation 4 game by a pretty big margin!

This surprises me and yet I can't really think of a game where I'm like "how is it not X?"

and that's all i've got to say because i've never played the uncharted series

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Spider-Man is #2 by an equally wide margin! Uncharted 4 is at 16 million, Spider-Man is at 13 million, and then you've got a few games around 10 million (The Last of Us Remastered, God of War, and Horizon Zero Dawn). Gran Turismo is at 8 million, and then everything else is sub-5 million.

Probably the most mind-blowing thing is that Detroit: Become Human is a top 10 selling PS4 game.

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Never really understood why people tend to be down on TP relative to other 3D Zeldas

Better than OoT imo

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Undertale update for those of you who don't follow along in SELF

I'm in Waterfall now. Game is pretty cool but it peaked during the first hour and hasn't recaptured that feeling since I left the Ruins.

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#68. Sonic the Hedgehog 2


Sonic the Hedgehog 2 contains probably the very first mind-blowing video game moment for me. Theres a part during the Chemical Plant Zone where Sonic starts running down a very long slope, and he starts running so fast that he literally starts to outrun the screen. Sonic was so fast the game couldnt even keep up with him! As a 6-year-old kid, that was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. Now as a 33-year-old, I understand that its designed to function that way on purpose, but its extremely effective and memorable presentation. Every version of Chemical Plant Zone in throwback Sonic games since has included that part because its just that cool.

Sonic 2 is the game in the series I spent the most time playing when I was growing up. For whatever the reason, it was the only one that I actually owned. The others, I would just periodically rent whenever I was in the mood to play them. Most of the zones are really solid. Emerald Hill is a fairly straightforward version of Green Hill, but with superior music. Its a shame Green Hill is the one that gets all the credit! Chemical Plant Zone might be the most popular and well-known Sonic 2 zone. Its the one youll usually see whenever an homage to the game is made in the series, like Generations and Mania. I feel like Aquatic Ruin is kind of underrated, and I love its music. Casino Night is bright and fun. Its easy to get sucked into playing the slots over and over again, quite literally. Hill Top might be the least memorable of the bunch, except for the rising lava escape toward the end. Mystic Cave has a really cool ambience to it, and the beginning of the theme reminds me of the Inspector Gadget theme! Oil Ocean is a fun level, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it get adapted for Sonic Mania. Metropolis is probably the only zone I flat out dont like. I dislike the music. The enemy placement is annoying, and the zones layout can get really confusing. Thankfully, you get a nice breather zone after that with Sky Chase, followed by an epic penultimate zone with Winged Fortress (whose theme I love, but Ive learned a lot of people dont like much!).

I could go on and on, but I wont! Most of the bosses of the regular zones arent very difficult, but they have cool designs. I think the only ones I would consider tough are Casino Night and Oil Ocean. But the Death Egg bosses gave me fits as a kid. There are times as an adult I wonder if I was better at games as a kid than I am now, and then I play the end of Sonic 2, which I could never beat as a kid. I could never decipher Silver Sonics attack patterns as a kid, but its blatantly obvious as an adult. I do like the fact that Sonic 2 makes you beat two pretty tough bosses back to back with no rings. People complain that Sonic is easy because you can just keep grabbing rings to stay alive, but you cant use that excuse here. The game makes you earn it.

One of the cool things about the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cart is that you can attach it to Sonic 2 and play as Knuckles. It has this weird inverse difficulty curve, where most of the game is absurdly easy as Knuckles. The game isnt equipped to handle his ability to glide and climb. However, the final boss is much harder as Knuckles for one tiny reason: He doesnt jump as high as Sonic. As such, theres literally only one opportunity for him to successfully hit the Death Egg Robot, and thats when his body gets low for that brief moment after jumping down from above. Plus, theres the fact that it takes 12 hits to beat as opposed to the usual 8 hits, and it can be a long drawn out battle as Knuckles where one mistake kills you, and you have to try all over again starting with Silver Sonic. Still, its a fun battle thats really rewarding once you finally pull it off!

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LeonhartFour posted...

Today I learned that this is the best-selling Playstation 4 game by a pretty big margin!

I'd guess this is actually some Call of Duty, or maybe a FIFA game, but Activision and EA (along with most AAA publishers in fact) don't report sales for different consoles separately. That all the best-selling PS4 games you mentioned in your subsequent post were published by Sony is telling about that point.

Still, I didn't realize Uncharted 4 had sold 16 million copies! That's seriously impressive.

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those are all multiplatform games anyway

I'm not sure they've sold 16+ million for PS4 alone combined with everything else. The most recent CoD has sold 20 million total.

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