hmm i think i put off Riven for about 5 years because it kept crashing at times after playing FMVs
eventually did the research and found that it’s because it was programmed around a single-threaded version of QuickTime, so i found a workaround to force my computer to only run the game on a single core
That reminds me. I first started playing Riven when I was like 11 and recently beat it this year after properly doing a second attempt over 20 years later. It was extremely worth it.
That Gotz emoji is everything. Congrats on your banana hoard.
this should be a KOP thread imo
i can’t remember any applicable games but i’m sure i WILL if you give me a minute. oh wait i never killed Dagoth Ur despite doing like everything else in Morrowind
Took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to move it but it’s done!
Finally beat Final Fantasy XII earlier this year, took me 16 years I guess? I hope to beat Metroid Prime at some point, think I first played that one in 2002.
So good to know so many others take a while to beat some games lol
i kinda want to make a list of White Whale Games that i have been meaning to beat forever, and beat them on stream or something like that. this thread is very timely since this idea only occurred to me a few days ago
Ive restarted FF7 about 10 times since I bought the PC version on release in the summer of 1998. My most recent was on the PSX mini… 3 years ago.
I WILL finish this game
I love this idea. I’ve got a couple of my own, for sure
played toe jam and earl as a kid in the early 90s, never completed it until the ps4 nega drive collection
I did this, mostly from memory:
NES
Faxanadu
Punch Out
SMB2
Zelda 2
GB/C
Burai Fighter Deluxe
Wario Land 2
Wario Land 3
GBA
Fire Emblem
Dokapon Monster Hunter
SNES
Troddlers
Baten Kaitos
Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Super Smash TV
Prince of Persia
Pocky and Rocky
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Seiken Densetsu 3
Rudra no Hihou
N64
Blast Corps
Turok
Gex 64: Enter the Gecko
NDS
That wizard rts
PSX
Metal Gear Solid
GCN
Baten Kaitos
Star Fox Adventures
Cubivore
Ikaruga
WII
Super Paper Mario
As a kid I played a lot of Wonder Boy in Monster Land on the Sega Master System and never made it past the pyramid, then played it a bunch circa 2002 and got slightly further, and finally revisited it with the necessary seriousness in 2012 and beat it.
Monster Land is a mostly linear platformer, but stuffed with hidden coins, hidden shops and hidden bosses. You can attack or press up in seemingly empty spots all over and often you’ll find something (but every level is on a timer so you can’t be thorough).
You need enough coins to purchase stuff at the shops and you need to have bought good stuff to beat the bosses, who in turn drop a lot of money. So at first when you don’t know where anything is the game seems insanely hard, but the more secrets you’ve memorized the further you get. It’s really satisfying when everything falls into place and you find a route with just enough money to buy the best armors.
Also, the final boss is invincible unless you’ve earlier beat a super secret boss for a unique item and then found a super secret shop that lets you exchange it for the spell to reveal the dragon’s true form
A few years back I started with the idea of having a list of games or a related theme for a given year as a sort of larger goal to work towards, and the one for 2020 was revisiting several games that I bounced off of generally at least a decade or so prior that had a good number of defenders (it didn’t get finished until 2021 as things got screwy for obvious reasons). Off the top of my head I think the list was God Hand, Shenmue, Deus Ex, Gradius V, Killer 7, and Bayonetta… 2 (was a cheat but I begrudgingly finished the first near release).
I didn’t love all of them but some did surprise me or at least produce memorable moments, plus it was good to be able to mentally cross them off after having them in the back of my head for so many years.
Re: your list I actually did only get around to beating Faxanadu in recent years so that’s also probably a contender for my personal “longest game”. I thought it was decent, definitely flawed but also a bit odder than I expected so it held my attention decently enough. If you get something out of Cubivore you are better than me though.
Zelda II and SMB2 (if we’re talking US version) are absolutely worth playing through. Two of my very favorite NES games.
I actually got thiiiis close to beating Zelda 2 as a teen but gave up when the last dungeon killed me too many times.
I’ve “finished” SMB2J using copious save states, but I’ve barely touched the US version weirdly
Someday I am going to finish a Dark Souls game. Not today but someday.
FWIW when I finally got to the last boss in Zelda 2 I was on my last life and wasn’t up to try and get back to it again if it was avoidable, so I paused and looked up the way to cheese it. No regrets.
I second what @MintyJuffowup said, and add Faxanadu to those two! That’s a fantastic set of NES games to have on the list. I’ve finished all four, and they’re all worth the time and effort.
What -I- keep intending to go back and beat on NES is the first TMNT. Could only ever get to the third stage, then I could never figure out where to go from there. It’d be more about exacting revenge on the game than anything else though.
Tomb Raider 4 was my own personal Everest. I chipped away at my original copy for years on a monthly basis.
It seemed impenetrable when I started.
In hindsight this is largely the result of the aging engine being pushed to absolute breaking point by level designers very in tune with it’s limitations, bored of the the same-old block labyrinths and forced to meet an ungodly annual release schedule whilst still integrating new mechanics (first-person digital scope aim anyone?).
As a I got older, my frustration morphed into this sort of forensic examination of the 3D spaces themselves. Progress was slower but I began to undertand the ‘language’ of the game.
The original PC release also came with a level editor. Installing this was the ‘aha’ moment for me.
Instead of thinking about the spaces organically, I began to think about the mechanics of the editor and how the pieces necessarily had to fit together in order to function. This is not a good way to design a game, but it certainly taught me a lot about the sort of games I enjoy and the systems at play.
I finally finished it 13 years later and really have nothing but respect for it despite it being a complete mess.
Kudos to this angry customer who commited their feelings to cardboard no less. Hate mail used to require real dedication, you had to pay for a stamp and everything! They sent this first class!
I’d listen to anyone with handwriting that good
