 Last year I wrote a blog about some of the more memorable games that I have been playing from my PS3 backlog as I aim to finally finish it for good. When I wrote my first backlog highlights blog, I was down to twenty games left. I ended up surprisingly adding seven more games to my backlog between now and then, but now I’m down to my final seven. I feel I’ve played enough interesting games to talk about since my prior blog so I thought now was a great time to write a Part 2 highlights blog. So yes, let’s roll right into it then!  Breath of Fire IV I had enjoyed each Breath of Fire more than the last, so I was definitely curious what I’d think of the final numbered game in the series. Throughout the game, I was really won over by how fantastic the adventure was. It went beyond the basics of castles and fantasy races as it offered truly odd creatures to ride, amusing trickster fairies, and the most fantastic and often alien dragons in the series. The pacing was surprisingly fast, maybe too fast, but I really dug how much ground the adventure covers and how it is always showing you new things. The game’s structure is interesting as it primarily follows Ryu and the band of friends he journeys with (it’s a good cast, especially Ershin), but then also will swap over to Fou-Lu who is the ultimate villain of the game so you can see what motivates him. While parts of the story were easy to guess, it did a good job misdirecting me at times and a lot of the bigger emotional moments land. Breath of Fire IV definitely had my favorite combat system in the series. You have six characters to play with and each turn you can pick the order of three people to attack in the front while the rest then will remain in reserves ready to swap in instantly and occasionally randomly offer small assistance. This gives you a ton of power, as you can target weaknesses easily, dodge damage swiftly, and set up big magical combos freely. Two of the final dungeons explore this system to its fullest by upping the damage you receive and by being long enough to test resource management. I left my adventure feeling very satisfied and I’m glad I played it. I think Breath of Fire IV did indeed become my favorite in the series and is the one I’d most actively recommend.  Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves I ended up playing Sly 2, 3, and 4 as I had been clearing out my PS3 backlog as I didn’t realize I had access to Sly 4 via PS+. I covered Sly 2 in my prior blog and while I enjoyed both Sly 3 and 4 a lot, I want to give the main shoutout here to Sly 3 as I felt it was fairly unique among the games and offered a satisfying ending to the main trilogy. Sly 3 resembles Sly 2 at first glance, where you do a handful of small jobs in a small open world to build up to the big heist, but it differs in some key ways. Those open worlds I felt were deemphasized a bit as there are no longer really any collectibles to distract you from heading from mission to mission. The missions themselves though are the real difference, as they thoroughly explore mechanics and often offer entirely unique playstyles. There are dramatic boat chases in Venice for example, plane dog fights in the Netherlands as part of a tournament, and even an entire extended sequence reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag before that game ever existed. Again, there’s still more on top of that including numerous sequences with remote controlled vehicles, more twin stick shooter levels, and some fun levels involving grappling hooks. I came to really enjoy the cast in Sly 2 and I continued to love the characters even more in this one including many of the new additions to the crew. The writing was often more witty and endearing and I found the final ending satisfying. I’m glad I finally finished all of the Sly games. Hopefully one day the series will get a follow up to the cliffhanger ending of Sly 4.  Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2 I really enjoyed the first Digital Devil Saga so I was looking forward to the sequel. For the most part it is more of the same, as you go through similar character progression though this time instead of buying licenses to learn skills along linear lines you explore a hexagonal grid that does offer some bonuses as you surround locked hexagons across your team. The character progression was one of my favorite parts of the first game so I had a great time doing it again. The story itself is exciting enough with some big moments and revelations and has a likable enough cast even if I don’t think it’s going to stick with me. The reason I wanted to highlight Digital Devil Saga 2 in my blog though and the part I just won’t forget is the final dungeon of the game, the sun, which sees a sharp difficulty spike. It is filled with some nasty traps, notably tougher encounters, and some very difficult bosses to overcome. I had to do a few runbacks and notably had to grind to get a few extra abilities at various points to overcome the stiff challenges. It’s been a very long time since I had a final dungeon this menacing and grueling (it reminded me of Final Fantasy III and IV) so I felt extra triumphant when I conquered it.  Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater A little over a year after enjoying Metal Gear Solid 2, I returned to tackle Metal Gear Solid 3. It took me a good while to get my footing as it had been long enough that I had to get used to the unique control scheme again, get a handle on how I wanted to approach the various stealth scenarios and resource management, and discover and get used to Snake’s new moves including a very powerful slam move that proved to be a game changer. I was a little worried walking in about the new camouflage, hunger, and wound treatment systems, but none of them proved too complicated or difficult to engage with. Of the classic Metal Gear PS1 and PS2 games, I think Metal Gear Solid 3 is probably all things considered the best one. I was very impressed and won over by the large variety of stealth challenges the game comes up with over the course of the adventure. While I gained more confidence as I went, I had to regularly study and engage with every element of the levels in order to successfully sneak and battle my way through. While narratively it was pretty weird to continually get jumped by weirdos in the woods when little else was progressing with the main story, I did really enjoy the boss fights here as they all felt unique and had clever mechanics. I think the extended sniper battle with The End and the chaotic fiery duel with The Fury were my favorites. The story and excitement really pick up when you enter the main villain’s stronghold, Groznyj Grad. I especially enjoyed the big chase sequence and battle against the Shagohod as well as some of Snake’s interactions with EVA and Ocelot, but of course the final boss fight against The Boss is the real highlight that ties the whole story together. When Snake finally learns the real story behind The Boss and her actions and is asked to follow through with defeating her in combat, it becomes so easy to see why he becomes so disillusioned by the mission and his country.  God of War Saga + Ascension For the longest time, I never thought I’d really be into God of War as I found the flavor of violence I had seen in trailers and gameplay clips off putting. I always like to try a wide variety of games and I remember staring at a copy of the God of War Saga collection quite a few times in my local Fry’s Electronics, but never decided to get it. I briefly played a demo of Ascension in college, but it didn’t move the needle on me wanting to try the series. When the PS4 game came out and got rave reviews I decided to snag a copy, but I never ended up playing it as I figured one day Sony would surely rerelease the old games again and I could play the series in order. Surprisingly, that still hasn’t happened, but in March I noticed a Wario64 tweet advertising that VGP, a website I hadn’t purchased from before, had new copies of the Saga collection for a reasonable price and so I decided to take a chance on the series finally and while I was right I don’t think I’ll ever fully vibe with God of War as the flavor of violence is off putting in many of the games to me, as action games I had a pretty great time playing through all of them which I decided to do right away over the course of a month rather than spacing them out. Rather than highlight one or two, I felt it made the most sense to rapidly cover all of them: God of War: The first game in the series definitely made me see why people liked the series. While I found the violence off putting here as it revels in it, cutting my way through hordes of Greek mythology monsters and navigating fairly elaborate structures proved fun. I got big kicks out of Kratos balancing across beams very early on as it didn’t fit my image of the character and getting to hear so much about the architect for the temple that housed Pandora’s Box as it answered the question “who made this place??” thoroughly. My big knock against this one was the lack of boss fights. God of War II: This one refined the action gameplay so that it feels so much better to play especially as early on enough it introduces a parry ability with the Golden Fleece. It also addressed my biggest complaint from the first one, by having the most boss fights in the series. I found the violence tended to lean more towards cartoonishly over the top so I ended up being more fine with this one overall. It’s a good sequel, I can definitely see why it’s often considered the favorite even if I don’t think it’s mine. God of War Chains of Olympus: I decided to play the two PSP games next even though Ghost of Sparta was made after God of War III. I actually really dug this one. It feels sort of tech demo-like in certain ways, but the handheld pacing with generous save points is pretty nice. God of War Ghost of Sparta: I dug this one even more than Chains of Olympus. Despite being a PSP game, it feels like the PS2 games. I especially enjoyed the setting of Atlantis and the big boss fight against Scylla especially. I think Ghost of Sparta really captured some of the exciting energy God of War II had and, in some ways, surpassed it in its boss fights and set piece moments. It was cool getting to meet Kratos’s mother and brother too however brief. My one big knock is the introduction of fire buffs to attacks. It feels like it takes away from Kratos’ already limited moveset rather than feeling extra powerful like it should be. God of War III: GOW3 is the one that sadly really revels in violence the most in a way I found very off putting, but it also is God of War at its most bombastic and might perhaps be my favorite in the series however narrowly. It kicks off with a very exciting over the top fight against Poseidon on Gaea’s back as she climbs Mount Olympus and it sets the tone well for the adventure. The boss fights are all very solid here and offer some good mid match shake ups to keep them interesting and some, like the battle against Cronos, do tap into that same bombastic energy from the opening that I enjoyed most. I think there is a really interesting element as Kratos’ revenge plays out the world continues to degrade. I’m not sure the ending with Pandora and Kratos sort of forgiving himself really lands sadly as it just feels a little too late in the story for it to work. Incidentally, I did dig Pandora’s Labyrinth a lot. Very clever what they did with it. God of War Ascension: While playing Ascension, I kept wondering when I’d recognize whatever the demo I had played was based off of, but sadly I never did. I really enjoy how much Ascension evoked Uncharted’s energy in various ways throughout because I love that series a ton and I also liked that it did tap into some of that bombastic energy God of War III had especially during the opening with Hecatonchires. The big thing that holds Ascension back for me is the new Fury Gauge. Kratos has a relatively tiny moveset for an action game hero, so it’s frustrating they cut into his combos by locking some behind a gauge that’s both hard to build and easy to lose. I did like the new moves with grabbing enemies though it didn’t quite make up for it. Also, I haven’t really talked about the artifacts Kratos retrieves in these games, but I have to mention Ascension has perhaps the best one with the artifact that lets you rewind and fast forward time on objects. They have some very cool puzzles with it especially as some require you to break and repair elaborate mechanisms a few times to clear them.  Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne For numbered SMT games, I had only briefly dabbled with both SMT 4 and 5 as I didn’t connect with either right away. As the series and Nocturne especially had a reputation for being extra tough, I didn’t really know if I’d like this game even if I was interested in playing it and have enjoyed numerous SMT spinoffs like Persona, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and Digital Devil Saga. What I ultimately found was a journey that was grueling and gut clenching (instant death attacks paired with the protagonist dying leading to an instant game over is a nasty combo), but also far smoother than I expected at every turn. After the apocalypse hits Tokyo, your protagonist becomes transformed into the Demi-Fiend and must recruit and manage a party of demons and ultimately side with a faction leader and their Reason that will determine what the impending reborn world will be like. Your character and the demons you recruit all have basic attacks and eight skills / special attacks, and you can ultimately have twelve in your party which gives you a lot of flexibility to bring the right party members for a specific challenge and train others up for demon fusion which helps you create extra powerful allies. What I perhaps found most surprising were just how powerful buffs and debuffs were in the game over everything else. My go to strategy in boss fights often revolved around debuffing their accuracy, strength, and defense, while buffing my attack power. If your main guy could deal about 200 damage with a basic punch with all of the debuffs and buffs in play using Focus (another buff) and then firing off a special attack could easily deal 5,000+ damage which is gnarly. If enemies can’t hit you either and their strength is weakened thanks to debuffs, you’ll fear little. Of course not every fight lets you have such an ideal set up and I enjoyed conquering the various challenges the game threw at me whether it was extended resource management, tough dungeon gimmicks, and tricky boss fights. The optional dungeon in particular is a big highlight as it often features all three of those at their best. If I had a main knock against the game, it is that there is too much combat. Too often it feels like you took just a step forward and get thrown into multiple back to back fights. The game is the combat and teambuilding as the story is sadly thin even if the world is interesting to explore, but I did end up just repeatedly throwing on an encounter reducer spell for the final dungeon as the high encounter rate did start to bother me. Overall though, I’m really glad I played Shin Megami Tensei III. It was really cool getting to finally finish a mainline game in one of the last major JRPG series I hadn’t.  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots If I had to pick a game in my PS3 backlog that haunted me the most it is probably Metal Gear Solid 4. When I first played it, I hadn’t played any other game in the series so I was confused by the control scheme and how to best approach it so I ended up dropping it about 90 minutes in. I think I wanted to aim for perfect stealth not knowing how boss fights and action sequences regularly appear in these games which didn’t help. Nearly 18 years later having now played MGS 1, 2, 3, the two 5s, and Revengeance, I returned to finally play this game and this time I was prepared to enjoy it. Immediately this time, I was very excited about the control scheme and new gameplay systems. Snake has a familiar set of moves from Metal Gear Solid 3 so I knew how to best use CQC for example walking in. Aiming however is now modern third person shooter controls, which makes it easy to fight moving enemies as you can easily adjust your position and aim while walking. That alone makes Snake more powerful than ever and significantly more fun to control, but it doesn’t stop there as the new Octo-camo suit Snake wears very quickly blends into the surrounding environment making it easy to quickly vanish from enemy sight which is good too as you recover health and reduce stress quickly when you are crouched and not moving. The new Drebin system allows Snake to have access to infinite supplies essentially as you can shop for new guns and ammo in the middle of battle in the pause menu. It’s a little silly that while in the story Snake is dying of old age and is in constant pain from all kinds of threats like nanomachines, fire, microwaves, and smoking, he has never been more powerful than he is here. Admittedly this makes the gameplay less memorable than the classic PS1 and PS2 games, but I still had so much more fun here as the stealth and shooting are excellent and feel great. It’s a shame though, after Acts 1 and 2, which is where the gameplay shines brightest and has a cool new idea to have Snake sneak through active war zones, Act 3 mixes up the ruleset, Act 4 primarily features robots, and Act 5 is all action, but even so I still had a great time playing the game. Unfortunately, I do think the story, which absolutely does have its moments, gets more emphasis than ever here and is too often messy. While it has a very cool setting that feels relevant with PMCs and the war economy running amok, if there is a big message to sort of tie it together, I think it gets muddled by being more about dealing with the raw plot with the characters. The female cast in particular I think is generally treated poorly throughout as Naomi’s story is bizarre and all over the place, the camera constantly lusts over the B&B crew, and Meryl somehow winds up married to the weirdest, lacking charisma, joke of a character (the confession scene wraps around from being weird to incredible at least). Some things that do work here include Raiden’s return as a cyborg ninja, the mustache twirling moments of the big villain Liquid Ocelot, and Snake meeting his parents. I would say overall I had a pretty good time with Metal Gear Solid 4 and that I enjoyed playing through it more than the classic games in the moment to moment gameplay, but the final chapter of the story is sadly a bit of a mess and doesn’t quite come together. I’m very glad after nearly 18 years I finally played it and I’m looking forward to wrapping up the series by playing Peace Walker soon. … That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I’m planning to write a Part 3 Highlights blog and a Top Ten Favorite PS3 games blog when I finish my backlog entirely so please look forward to those! I’m always curious what my readers think so be sure to let me know! I’m publicly most easy to reach on @justinmikos.bsky.social. Until next time! Comments are closed.
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