30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[Nix]

Day 29

Favorite Overall Cast

 

 

Ace Attorney

 

Although there are some characters from this series I despise (see Moe), Ace Attorney comes together with one of the largest, likable and most memorable cast of characters out there.  The lead characters are all great, many of the witnesses are quirky and memorable, some witnesses are really annoying and deserve to die in a fire, the prosecutors are all fun and enjoyable, the judge is awesome, and many of the villains are magnificent bastards... there's really too much to talk about here.

 

But really, Edgeworth's the man.  Athena's a close second, but it's all about Edgeworth.

[Gregzilla]

Day 29 - Favorite Overall Cast

 

Portal 2

There are lots of games with interesting and enjoyable characters, but GLaDOS, Wheatley, Cave Johnson, and the Cores get my pick because this game has the funniest, cleverest, and most well-delivered writing I've seen in any game, period.  GLaDOS' immature hatred for you after the events of the first game is hilarious, Wheatley's naive attempts to be helpful and intelligent are hilarious, Cave Johnson's morally corrupt lust for science is hilarious, and the incessant ramblings of the cores are hilarious.  Everything about the story and dialogue in this game is done perfectly, and the characters are the most lovable out of any game I've played for that reason.

[Tori Himemiya]

DAY 29 OF PRESIDENT CROW BEING A CAST MEMBER!

Another no brainer...

Brutal Legend!

I really love Brutal Legend and it shows a lot. The main characters are quite awesome. Every character in the game are quite humorous and they feel alive in a sense. They always seem to talk about something related to the plot and will taunt the other fraction at times. And surprisingly there's quite a few depths to these characters as well like Eddie having a unique family history to how the fractions are created. Every unit in the game are unique in their own way besides how they act and how they attack, they actually have their own stories which you'll learn in the game. Like the Headbangers and Razorgirls were slaves to Lionwhyte before they gain their freedom, and the Headbangers even put together the Headsplitter which is a vehicle class that's capable of shooting crossbow bolts and functions very well. The Drowning Doom came into existence after Ironheade kicked out Ophelia due to people believing that she's a traitor and due to her depression and loss trust awakened the Black Tear Rebellion again due to drowning in the Sea of Black Tears. And the Tainted Coil gained their vehicles from observing Eddie putting together vehicles and copied it to their own unique classes. And the cameos from Ozzy, Lemmy, and Rob Halford is also really great, especially from Ozzy since he sells you stuff while generally being himself. All in all I really love Brutal Legend's cast and I feel like I can talk about them all day but I don't wanna bore you guys by ranting on how much I love this game already.

UNTIL NEXT TIEM SSMB!

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Day 29: Favorite Favorite Favorite Favorite Favorite Cast

 

 

The Cast of Planescape: Torment

 

You seldom find a group of characters as involving as the cast of Planescape, and I say this as it applies to all media. As I've said before, in Planescape the characters are human, in spite of their monstrous ancestry. Their thoughts and feelings, their highs and lows, are on display in such an earnest and intriguing fashion that I see even modern RPGs struggle with. It's a bit hard to explain. You know how, in a game like Mass Effect, heroes and villains tend to gravitate towards you? It's not just anyone that Mordin or Jack befriends, they befriend Shepard, because Shepard is the main character. Their contributions are on a bit of a superficial level: having Legion around lets you have a voice with the Geth, Mordin lets you solve the sweeping issue of the Geophage, etc. In Planescape, tho, the cast of characters are more-or-less regular inhabitants of the world. They're each unique, sure, but so are a lot of people in the city. They don't really give you a chance to make a big change with the narrative, because they're not there just because you're the main character. What they have to contribute they contribute as characters; the viewpoints and personality they bring to the table are far more powerful than any world-changer. But I digress. For being characters of true merit, I'm giving the Planescape cast my pick of the day.

 

Runners Up:

• Cast of Persona 4
• Cast of Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Cast of MOTHER 3
• Cast of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
• Cast of Telltale's Walking Dead

[Soniman]

 

After so many RPGS that had it's fair share of unlikable character on the party, Xenoblade was a breath of fresh air in the sense that we finally have a cast where I liked every character. Each of them had their own personal struggle to overcome and their story arc to tell. My personal favorite out of the group was Melia, because I felt that she lost the most but at the same time, she was one of the stronger characters emotionally since she was eventually able to overcome it it be strong. The other characters are great to, you have Dunban who servers as team dad and resident badass, Reyn who's a big fucking dork but he's lovable nonetheless, Sharla as the medic (the most useful fucking medic in a RPG I played) and team mom who's always looking out for others, and finally Rikki, probably the weakest character overall but he's still fun. Point remains, I love em all.

 

 

 

Eh, what can I say? I grew up with these guys. When I was kid I was a big fan of nearly all of them, I reallly enjoyed their cool powers and personality traits, their backstories and their solo stories in general. I really wish Sega would dust off some of these characters more because they're just a wealth of potential and I really do love most of them dearly.

[Starman Swift]

Day 29: Favorite Overall Cast

 

 

The cast of Persona 4 is as colorful as the game itself, which is to say their personalities are mostly yellow.

 

I'm not finished with this game yet, but it's pretty promising so far. Persona games feature Social Links, measures of how close you are to characters. As these Social Links fill up, you learn more and more about the character's through interactions. People are usually never exactly as they seem at first, but building the Social Link sheds light on any problems or whatever they're not showing. This gives you a whole new reason to level up the Social Links, other than the gameplay advantages they give you. Plus, there's even non-party member characters scattered around with social links to fill, you get to learn about more than just who you battle with.

 

Runner Ups:

 

The Walking Dead: Like I've said before, great characters to drive forward a mostly-character based plot. You'll learn to love and hate and love to hate and hate to love these characters.

 

Mother 3: There's a whole lot of charming characters in this charming game. Not much else to say about them. 

[Phantomime]

No other characters from this game will ever be in Smash.

 

Favorite Overall Cast: KI:U

 

 

I know I already mentioned the game's great cast on Day 2, but hey, no harm in going talking about it again. Every character is memorable for their own reasons. All of them. Well, maybe not the dog and little girl that show up in one of the later levels. The heroes and villains are all great and unique, and the dialogue is very Saturday morning cartoon-esque. It's very hard to talk about the cast in detail without spoilers, considering most of the cast comes after a big spoiler, but I will say that a personal favorite of mine was a certain superhero type fellow from a chapter about halfway through the game. A couple of my other favorite characters from Uprising are Palutena and Main-Villain-Who-I-Shouldn't-be-Talking-About-Because-Spoilers.

[Goldenlink64]

Day 29: Favorite Overall Cast:

 

Am I really gonna do this?

 

 

...yeah I'm sorry but I gotta go with NMH just one more time.

 

No More Heroes

 

I've pretty much said before, like Metal Gear Solid, the bosses in this game are pretty much the star of the show and they're all fleshed out so well considering the limited amount of screen time they have before you fight them. The game arguably makes you fall in love with almost every one of these guys right before you're forced to kill them, and that's probably why I love this game's story and handling of the cast so much.

 

Rank #9 (I won't say his name but if you played the game you know who I'm talking about) only lasts 2 cutscenes in the entire game but he's made more of an impression on me than a lot of characters do in an entire show or game and personally sings to you one of the classiest songs I've heard in gaming. And that's just Rank#9. I love all of these guys (except for 2 guys maybe but I don't outright dislike them though).

 

Speaking of Metal Gear Solid though...

 

Um, yeah... I couldn't find anything official that had most of the crew in one picture but hey this cosplay is really neat so this works too right?

 

Like I am with No More Heroes, I love how fleshed out and realistic the characters and bosses feel in MGS. They all work and contrast with each other so well, I can't imagine the game being the same with any of them being replaced. Sniper Wolf especially gave me one of my favorite characters and scenes in any game. If you played the game you probably have an idea what it might be, but for those who haven't I won't say, just play it.

 

Runner Up:

 

Considering it's my favorite game, I loved the Perfect Dark Crew. Joanna Dark, Jonathon Dark, Dr. Carrington and Elvis all just grew on me. They're not the best or as fleshed out as the ones I mentioned above but I still liked the charm of them the game gave off to me. It's just too bad Perfect Dark Zero tried to retcon everything that made them appealing (seriously though, Joanna is supposed to be a female James Bond, you're a British Game Company, WHY DID YOU RETCON HER INTO AN AMERICAN TEENAGE BRAT RAREWARE!?!?)

 

Previously on Day 28:

NEXT TIME ON 30 DAY GRUMPS: I GET SAD BECAUSE IT'S ALMOST OVER:

[Zaysho]

Day 29: Overall Favorite Cast

I have quite a few, but there are three series that come to mind:

1) Sonic the Hedgehog

 

And this isn't even ALL of them...

Of any video game franchise, in almost any of its incarnations and continuities, Sonic continues to draw me in year after year. I don't care if Sonic Team isn't getting mileage out of them they use to anymore, it doesn't make the characters or world any less interesting for me, and I can always flex my imagination a bit thinking about them. The majority of the original game characters are plenty likable and interesting to boot. Their distinct personalities and unique abilities make me clamor for more of their stories and adventures. Personally, I think the Archie comics in their current state, more or less, delivers what I'm after in that department, but Sonic Team still laid a solid foundation that inspires all sorts of different ideas and interpretations, so props to them.

2) Tales of Symphonia

 

For the last few years, I'd done almost annual playthroughs of Tales of Symphonia. It's a really fun RPG with a good story. Maybe a little cliched, but it's still entertaining and easy to get invested in. But I love the main cast of characters. I think my very first playthrough back in 2004, I didn't quite get into them all. I really liked Kratos and Regal, for example, but I thought Colette was boring, Zelos annoyed me

to the point I was happy to get rid of him

, and Genis was obnoxious.

 

But when I played it again some years later in college, I found myself getting taken in by most of the cast. Colette, while still rather milquetoast, became interesting and even relatable. She internalized her own problems to not worry others, no matter how bad it got. Zelos, who annoyed me originally, became more sympathetic as I picked up clues that were more obvious since I knew what was coming. Genis... well, he was still obnoxious, but even he was a little sympathetic. I also got more invested in characters like Sheena and Raine; the former I learned to play with and found I enjoyed her style, and she was just likable and fun. I sorta wanted to smack Lloyd for his cluelessness, but I have a feeling even if he did pick up on what she was feeling, it wouldn't matter anyway. I also quite like Raine's backstory and how she slowly warmed up to Lloyd's less logical tendencies and became less rigid in her interactions with the group. I even warmed up to Presea once I learned more of her history (I didn't have a strong opinion of her one way or the other previously).

3) Chrono Trigger

 

Chrono Trigger is one of those games that, no matter how many times I play it, I can still come back to it and enjoy the journey it takes me on. A large part of that is the colorful cast of characters. Even for just simple 16-bit sprites, and perhaps this is owed to Akira Toriyama's artwork, they have tons of personality to them. They're a ragtag group of time travelers all brought together for the common goal of stopping a world devouring parasite, Lavos. Along the way, they all have their own individual goals which cross with primary conflict. They're all a bunch of well-written, likable characters, and their struggles both personal and beyond make them interesting.

 

I've long wanted to do a comic based on Chrono Trigger, because I think these characters' personalties play off of each other so well, they can lead to some interesting developments not present in the original game. Lucca's smarts and her desire to keep things within her control and understanding coupled with Marle's naivete and impulsiveness, or Robo's cold logic with Frog's "honor before reason" approach, for example, could make some really fun moments. Even in the game, each scene has unique dialogue for each of them, showing how each approaches a particular situation, and trying out all the combos is what makes them so interesting and opens them up for so many cool moments.

My personal favorite is when you take Magus to Ozzie's castle, the goal essentially being to get Magus's gear, but also to permanently end the war between the humans and the fiends. Magus just doesn't give a crap what Ozzie has to say, and is tired of dealing with him and the rest of his bumbling generals, so he decides to put them down (or at least make them give up; I doubt they were killed). And it kind of just read like a good episode of Dragon Ball Z, because the same approach of "I'm tired of your shit, you're done," is always entertaining for me to watch, personally.

[azoo]

Day 29: Overall Favorite Cast

I would say EarthBound but I'm gonna give it to another favorite of mine..

 

(awful 90s CG artwork aside)

 

Sonic Adventure.

 

Sonic was a snarky and fun-loving adventurer that kept having to face rising tensions he'd never faced before, Tails was a boy that thrived off of his idolization of his surrogate brother and faced extreme danger for the first time on his own, Amy was a regular person that had her own sweet and kind motives that pushed her beyond an ultra-flanderized infatuation with Sonic, Knuckles was a lonely guardian that traveled beyond his known wits to find what he was looking for, Gamma was one of the more thought-provoking and truly emotional moments in a 6th generation game, and Big was the hokey fun character that let all the pressure ease off while yet also playing his own important role.

 

Each of them had their own level of likeability that shined through the bad acting and shoddy cutscenes. You actually started to care for the characters and you learn to really like them for who they are. Their slice-of-life stories all kind of blend together into one big picture that helps paint out the image of how tragic the story of Chaos, Tikal and the Knuckles Clan is, and how much of a threat Eggman can be. It all comes together amazingly, and if redone today, chances are it would be the most satisfying Sonic story out there.

 

Oh yeah, also everyone had really cool designs that made them appealing to look at as a group of characters. That's important too.

[DemonShad716]

Day 29: Favorite Overall Cast

 

Gah, these past few days have been difficult for me to put my Sonic card down, I just can't...but just once more.

Ok, here goes:

 

Seeing how many characters are in the Sonic universe, it's pretty clear that this overall cast is my favorite. Each character has their own unique personality and purpose within each storyline. In most games, many of these characters are playable and boasts their own arsenal of cool moves, power ups and outfits that I enjoy. The tv shows that some characters appear in also give off more of their personality.

 

Even in the Sonic Comic universe, the cast is just as great with their own plotlines and one on one battles. Everyone's plot line lengthens the game or comic and makes them enjoyable for longer. Many of the battles are intense, each with alternate outcomes. The voice acting for some characters are just absolutely amazing. A few actors in particular would be Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman and Roger Craig Smith as Sonic. Mike's voice for Eggman fits the character so well that I can't think of how Eggman would sound if he were to be replaced. I have gotten used to Sonic's current VA, Roger, so I'm going to enjoy Sonic Boom no problem.

 

Honorable Mentions

 

- Mass Effect series

- Gears of War cast

- Halo series cast

- Pokemon

- Smash Bros.

- Mario cast

- Team Fortress 2

- Half Life 2

- Left 4 Dead

- Kirby series cast

[Sean]

27. Favorite developers

Treasure and Nintendo in general. I haven't played all of Treasure's games, but every single one I've tried is pure badass. The spritework in their games is incredible to look at and the gameplay is tightly designed; they seem to try vastly different things in each of their games despite usually going for shooters or platformers, or a combination of the two. As for Nintendo, they haven't really made some of the smartest choices in the industry but their output is more often than not solid and doesn't disappoint me. I love most of their IPs, from the more popular stuff like Mario and Zelda to series with less output such as Metroid and F-Zero. And there are so many other games by them I really want to try someday such as Pikmin and Xenoblade.

28. Most anticipated game

Dual Destinies. Aside from AAI, it was the first Ace Attorney game I got a chance to look forward to ever since getting into the series, since I only started playing after Apollo Justice came out. I followed every square inch of development alongside everybody else (except when it came to spoilery stuff, which I tried my hardest to avoid before I got to play it myself) and despite it being digital-only, I'm sure glad we got the game at all because it's so far one of my top favorite 3DS games alongside Super Mario 3D Land and Kirby: Triple Deluxe. Definitely one of those instances where my hype paid off and then some.

29. Favorite overall cast

Kid Icarus: Uprising wouldn't be half the game it is if it didn't have such an overwhelming focus on its characters. I probably wouldn't have managed to happily put up with the uncomfortable control scheme if I didn't have snarky banter sprinkled with uncharacteristically dark humor for a Nintendo game to look forward to every second of the story. Thing is, Uprising's plot moves at a mile a minute and is actually composed of several story arcs, so the majority of these characters tend to make sporadic appearances. However, each of their scenes is so damn impressionable that you get the feeling that each character is far more fleshed-out than the developers allow us to see; many of them seem like they could very well be the protagonist of their own games separate from Pit's. I think that's honestly the best direction they could have gone, since the story and characters really don't have much impact on the actual gameplay and it would otherwise be a decent, if unremarkable arcade-like rail shooter/beat-em-up. These characters are the game.

[Noir]

Day 29 - Favorite Overall Cast

 

I've only played two cases and part of the DLC case so far in Dual Destinies, but I'm preemptively awarding favorite cast to Ace Attorney. I couldn't believe how quickly the game had me fall in love with everyone; they're all more adorable than I'd ever have imagined before picking it up. All the banter is endlessly entertaining. I haven't gotten far enough for anything to be particularly emotional, but going by what others have said and my relatively early impressions, I can only imagine I'll be praising the characters even more by that time.

Runner up would be the Team Fortress crew, equally endearing even after almost five years of playing the game. That's impressive!

[The Deleter]

Day 29: Favorite overall cast

 

 

 

The Professor Layton cast

 

There's something so endearing about Layton's universe, I can't help but love it. The hand-painted backgrounds, the classic European setting, and the iconic music all add a little to it, but I think the biggest factor of them all is the characters.

 

The main cast is rather small, consisting of Layton, a gentlemanly professor who loves solving puzzles, Luke, a boy who has the ability to communicate with animals and is the self-proclaimed apprentice of Layton, and Emmy, Layton's tomboyish assistant who is always the first to throw a punch. Together this small band of protagonists roam around the towns they encounter, discovering the world and mysteries around them.

 

The real meat of the cast, however, comes from the side characters and NPC's. This series has such a plethora of side characters, you'd think that every single one would be cardboard cutouts who give you tasks and send you on your way. Instead, it's the exact opposite. Every single character in the series gets their own characterization and quirks, and even have entire episodes based around them alone, establishing their connections with the other townsfolk. This really helps bring the villages to life, and sometimes gets you to care about their lives enough that you feel sorry for them when the end-game from the villain is revealed.

 

My philosophy on side characters is "If a story can make you care about the side characters, it's gotta be doing something right." Thankfully, due to it's unique and charming cast of characters. this series is one of them.

 

Day 29: Complete

[Carbo]

Day 29: Favorite Overall Cast

Hard for me to settle here. Persona 4 and Ace Attorney are general runner ups. In the end I'll have to settle with No More Heroes, a series that in essence uses it's game play as a vehicle to proceed to the next crazy scenario much like Suda's previous title Killer7. It's a case of it damn well having to justify it's set up with it's context and the cast is the entire focus with this game. Travis wants to be number one and he needs to slash his way through ten colorful boss battles in order to proceed. I already went through extensively why Travis himself is such an engaging character, and a lot of acknowledgment is deserved to the side cast that is the meat of the game.

During the course of the campaign you will be introduced to a slew of complex and interesting characters who all have more depth than Travis does and keeps things afloat. It's a crapsack world and they are here to keep it together when Travis plows through the ranks, all the while having a one-sided fling with his boss Sylvia and a bitter rivalry with Sir Henry Motherfucker. Each encounter during the adventure isn't only memorable in it's own right; we learn of the world through the characters we meet as Travis is but one man that merely mirrors the general player mentality. There's a sense of Edgar Wright-esque symbolism and themes imbued within each encounter that makes things intriguingly clever. Who can forget memorable bosses like Bad Girl, Doctor Peace, Holly Summers and Letz Shake?

... Actually we can forget Letz Shake pretty easily.

[MamboCat]

Day 29 - Favourite Cast

 

This one is really hard; because in some game series the character roster changes, but not always for the better. For example I really like the cast of Assassin's Creed II, but when we get onto III it's really only Haytham the Magnificent Bastard that I like, and he's the friggin' bad guy! XD That and we get extra coverage of the modern day cast... blargh.

 

Also with the Sonic series; some of the characters I really like (Tails, Eggman).. but others just fail to impress (Gamma, Silver) or I just dislike (Elise, Mephiles)!

 

So it's hard to me to pick a game where I like the entire cast, or I find their interactions interesting.

 

So I am going to be boring and go back to a game I have already spoken about at length: Legacy of Kain.

 

Sorry!

 

But every character is interesting and has a part to play in the games, even though sometimes the writing goes so far up its own behind it's confusing for the player! As the first Soul Reaver game has you track down and kill Raziel's brethren; you get an insight into what their relationships were like; Raziel patronised Melchiah, teased Zephon over his form's portrayal of his soul, commended Rahab on his triumph over sunlight, mourned Dumah for his defeat against the humans... and of course traded faux-Shakespearean insults with Kain! We also have the spirit Ariel as a guide, a friend for Raziel if you will! She may be bound to the Pillars but she is not useless. And of course the enigmatic Elder God.

 

As the series progresses, we meet more players in the story and it is revealed who these characters really are, what they want and what they are really pursuing. I don't think there is a single character I dislike in this series.

[sploit]

Day 29 - Favourite Cast.

 

Out of the games that I have played in recent months, one title sprang to mind instantly...

 

Uncharted: Golden Abyss - this was the first game that I had ever played in the series, but it is a great game in terms of its cast of characters. Each one brings something to the table and they all play their roles/parts really well. Drake is great as the hero, slightly cocky/overconfident, but generally a good guy and capable with a good set of skills (typical hero traits - remind you guys of anyone)? The main bad guy (I forget his name...General something or other), is also really cool - selfish, very arrogant, brutal/heartless and greedy - the perfect enemy for a game that is essentially about treasure. Dante - again another bad guy or anti hero type of guy - out for himself, very greedy, does not mind betraying others etc. Chase - youngish and somewhat naive, yet intelligent in her field and also relatively capable of looking after herself - a decent supporting character. That said apart from their traits, all of the characters are recognizable visually and are written really well into the story, everything just fits.

 

So yeah, that is definitely my choice for that one.

[Jeffhog]

ON CLOUD TWENTY-NINE

~ Masahiro Sakurai's Comedy of Errors ~

 

 

 

Day 29/30: Favourite Overall Cast

 

Cast Selected: The Kid Icarus: Uprising Cast (Nintendo 3DS, 2012)

 

"I'll help you prepare for the battles ahead, Pit."
"Thanks! I'm honored to be at your service, Lady Palutena! But before we get started, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
"And what's that?"
"Who is this 'Icarus' guy this game is named after? Can I meet him?"
"Uhm... Actually, no. But let's not worry about that."
"...why not? What happened to Icarus?"
"Let's just focus on you right now."

~Palutena & Pit

 

Hey look, this game again! Hey look, who cares?

 

As amazing as Uprising is, just as I've mentioned a good many times throughout this campaign, what really sells this game is the story. What held the story together, of course, was the incredible cast, for reasons Sean already described. An entire cavalcade of actual, silly, snarky, hammy, sometimes disturbing, but always humorous dorks, with just the right amount of sharp wit in the dialogue where it's neither underwhelming nor overbearing.

 

Pit, Hades, and Palutena, the core focus of the game, each hold the spot for and respectively, so for a better idea of what I would have described, simply read on through those tabs. talk about convenient

 

That's not to say that the other side characters were a bunch of Boring Boringtons. Each one brought something unique to the table during their own respective appearances, including the Saturday morning cartoon superhero personality of Pyrrhon the Sun God(?), a homicidal variation of Mother Nature with an incredible dislike of humans through Viridi the Goddess of Nature, the jerkish brutish bounty hunter with a heart of gold being Magnus, Pit's twin and fold from the Mirror of Truth with Dark Pit, and so on.

 

Just... play this game. You surely have a Nintendo 3DS, right? Likely the most popular console this gen? Then why do I not see this game in your library?

 

Saunter on over to your local stores aND JUST PLAY UPRISING ALREADY.

 

 

[Tornado]

The cast of Snatcher is easily Kojima's best. Everyone fits into their roles perfectly, and he manages to interweave their stories in a cohesive, emotional plot while keeping everything (for the most part) character driven. You are given a lot of information about the characters (enough to understand the motivations), and you are loaded with entirely optional supplemental stuff that by no means is necessary but only contributes to making the characters more believable in their actions. The best part is, their are some twists, but those twists are done by character desires rather than the Metal Gear-esque "we need the story to last another hour, so let's have Ocelet betray someone."

 

 

Plus, the entire thing is borne out of love between two of the major characters (and there's even a couple nice character motivation twists in that), and you always get plus points for that kinda thing.

[Kaabiitorori]

Day 29: Favourite Overall Cast

 

 

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

 

The Paper Mario and even the Mario & Luigi series have featured a consistent cast of great and memorable characters, going from your party members, the villains, and many side characters found throughout your adventure. The Thousand-Year Door's cast is probably the one that left me a really memorable impression back in 2004 when I first played the game and still remains at the top of my favourite casts in the entire Mario RPG series and, dare to say, even the entire Mario franchise.

 

From the smart Goombella to the timid yet strong-willed Koops, from the adventurous Admiral Bobbery to the sweet and loyal Vivian... Mario's partners share their traits and personalities very well into the game as well as being proven as powerful allies to Mario on his journey. The X-Nauts, commanded by Sir Grodus, are also proven to be a threatening group to the point of capturing Princess Peach for their evil plans; Bowser, while on a secondary stance for the majority of the game, can offer its share of evil (albeit quite entertaining for the most part!) alongside Kammy Koopa; and even other bad guys such as Rawk Hawk do a pretty good job at their role as well. Even Luigi makes a noteworthy appearance in this game as he tells his brother all about his journey on Pudding Continent, proving to Mario he can try to be just as strong and brave as him.

 

(Post finished, but I'll have to leave an introduction later as I gotta go to work) .w.

[Sami]

Dawn of

The Final Day

-24 Hours Remain-

This is it, ladies and gents - Day 30 of SSMB's Second 30 Days of Video Games! It's been real. It's been fun. I'm extremely happy and proud to have headed the event for real this year, and I had a great time all month being a part of it. It's brought a lot of interesting games to my attention - in particular, Homem's posts about Fallout and all the posts about Metroid. I actually went and played Super Metroid thanks to you guys, and I'm really glad I did. I'd love to do something like this again, be it another 30 Days event in two years, or something else entirely.

I want to once again thank Kiah for being such a huge help this month - reading and tallying every single post to administer the final count and badge distribution is a huge undertaking and this event would never have gotten started without her.

So without further ado -

Day 30 - Favorite Ending

The Last of Us

"Wow, I'm shocked you'd pick that!" - Absolutely No One Ever

If you've payed absolutely any attention to The Last of Us at all, you've heard about its ending to some degree. Maybe you heard it was bad. Maybe you heard it was good. Maybe you got a few more details than that. Whicher it was, it doesn't really matter. The ending to The Last of Us is a subject that has always pervaded every single conversation I've had about the game. I've excitedly talked about how brilliant it is, I've staunchly defended nearly every single aspect of it, and I've had it lead me to more philosophical conversations about morality and humanity.

I don't believe there's such a thing as absolute perfection when it comes to gaming - the complicated nature of game design and the fact that every player's experience is different makes it impossible to craft an experience that is truly flawless from beginning to end.

But make no mistake - the ending to The Last of Us is perfect.

It treats its characters and world with respect, it paces itself flawlessly, it handles its themes with care and maturity, and it chooses the perfect times to give and take control from the player. I have never been so close to the edge of my seat as I was playing through the ending to this game, nor have I had such interesting conversations about a game outside of its own context before. I've described and showed the ending to my non-gaming father and brother-in-law, just to see what they'd think about it. I enjoy seeing how people interpret it, and what they take away from it.

The Last of Us went from being a great game to one of my all time favorites thanks to its final two hours. It just gelled with me perfectly the moment I played through it, and reading the conversations people had about it only raised my appreciation further.

Thanks for Playing!

[Willsy]

Oh no, it's the final day....I really enjoyed all of this, I hope we have something similar again soon! (Translate as: We better have something like this again soon) Maybe a 30 days of movies or something.

I have to say, writing at least a paragraph a day for the last 25 days was a great literacy exercise! It's been great fun though.

Day 30: Favourite Ending

Sonic Unleashed

http://youtu.be/hcs4nUm9Z1o

I've brought up Unleashed's story a couple of times before in this topic, and I did mention that I love the ending. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that it's my favourite ending of any Sonic game. And video game. It just feels like the perfect way to end a story like this. After Chip is sealed inside the planet, Sonic feels sad. The voice of Chip comforts him and tells him to move on with his life, and that he will always be there. Then as the credits roll, we see Sonic running along the Coast of Apotos with Tails flying the Tornado next to him, something that kind of evokes Sonic 2 ending vibes (not exactly, but similar with Tails in the Tornado following Sonic).

Anyway, it's been fun guys, I hope we get to do something like this again soon!

[Tornado]

I always liked how Halo 2 practically ended mid-sentence for all the shitting it did all over the story of the game. Though that was just because it amused me, of course.

[Brad]

I've already spoken about as one of my favourite moments - and it's also my favourite ending. But I don't wanna go on about the ending again since I said all I could about it back then, so I'll talk about another favourite ending of mine.

 

 

 

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD FOR HEAVY RAIN, YO.

 

The climatic ending of the narrative based Heavy Rain was a very memorable conclusion. First, comes the pretty shocking twist of the Origami Killer's reveal - the very friendly and loveable member of the main cast which you'd been unknowingly contributing to the madness of. After a final battle for Shaun's life (and many others) amongst the factory based setting, the fates of your characters are decided. Do they end happy? Do they descend into a dark state of mind? All the choices you made lead up to a satisfying conclusion which pays off.

 

The most memorable part which I might have undersold here is the fact you played as the Origami Killer throughout the story. The friendly, retired and seemingly innocent detective character who you had been supporting to carry out his schemes, and just generally helping him to survive. It hits hard when you see him bring up all the successes he's had because of the player and how he turns them against the protagonists. He meets his fitting fate you craft by the end (at least, I know I was satisfied), but it doesn't mean the expertly played reveal didn't hit hard and leave a lasting impression on me.

 

I'm also a fan of the endings for Skyward Sword for being a satisfying prequel to the Zelda franchise, Arkham City for having the satisfying Joker death twist to bow Hamill out of the role, Wind Waker for having a brilliant final boss fight and end to Hyrule... and I'm sure there's a few more I'm forgetting. Ah well. 

 

I think with that, I've done all 30 Days. Cheers for hosting the event Discoid, and once again big kudos to Kiah for being the big trooper behind the scenes! You rock~

[MamboCat]

Oh wow... er.. OK for this one please refer to "Best Gaming Moment"! haha...

 

Nah, I'll come up with another one, but it will take me a while to think of one that can beat Sonic 2's. :3