What's the last game you played that really surprised you, and how?

Nightingale

In a nearby bounty, JA community members collectively nailed why Nightingale is great. This game indeed surprised me.

It all started with just a few first hours of gameplay, thinking it was “yet another survival game” - or at least I thought so. Another initial concern was its early access status, which usually indicates potential frustration due to bugs or lack of content. But Nightingale defied my expectations. It doesn’t suffer from these issues; instead, it feels like a polished, ready-to-ship product. The game’s immersive world, engaging realm and crafting mechanics, and seamless performance (apart long loading times, but I can live with it) made it a solid experience, and I truly enjoy every moment spent in it.

Pokémon Go

It's 2024, and reviewing a game that recently celebrated its 8th anniversary might seem outdated. However, Pokémon Go has undergone many meaningful changes over the years, and I’ve recently gained a fresh perspective. This review is about how this game surprised me.

I started playing Pokémon Go back in 2016, like probably millions of others, out of curiosity. AR was a hot topic then, with few alternatives except for a couple of quirky shooters. Pokémon Go offered a collector's game tied to a precise geographic location, wrapped in the popular Pokémon IP. However, after a few weeks, I got bored and dropped the game without making significant progress. I wandered around with my 5-year-old daughter, collecting iconic Pokémons, but the game lacked content beyond the core AR mechanic.

This year, with the opening of a JA Pokémon community and a few bounties related to the brand, I decided to give the game another try. To my surprise, the game has changed significantly, adding many layers of gameplay. Now, you can not only wander around the neighborhood but also play at home, participate in raids, engage in PvP battles, and enjoy enhanced collecting and leveling systems. Pokémon Go has evolved from an AR MVP into a polished final product.

Many tools, services, communities, and websites have arisen around the game, confirming its continued popularity and demand. I invited my son, who is now also 5 years old, to play, and over the last three weeks, we’ve walked over 100 km together, having fun. He’s the type of person who is nearly impossible to drag away from the local playground. Now, instead, he studies maps and plans routes to check for rare Pokémons. This game has turned him into an explorer, enjoying the thrill of the 'Pokémon hunt' and discovery in general. He also seems to enjoy min-maxing in video games like I do, by looking for optimal stats and skillsets.

In three weeks, we both reached level 32 as free-to-play players and started doing raids, taking on more challenging bosses. As part of our outdoor journeys, I decided to reinforce his interest by watching the Pokémon anime, starting from season 1. This gave the game an even better boost, as now he sees animated Pokémon and their evolutions that are already in his Pokedex.

If you tried Pokémon Go and then abandoned it, I urge you to check the game out again, especially if you have kids. The game offers a solid child-parent bonding experience and is absolutely worth your time and effort.

Final Fantasy VII - Ever Crisis

I don't really like gatcha or F2P games as they try to force me to spend real money usually very quickly, but I wanted to give this a try, as I was interesting in the First Soldier story about Sephiroth's past.

Given my lack of experience with these kind of games, I wasn't very good with my ingame resources and currencies at the beginning. With my current knowledge if I started to play again, I would manage unlocking content and upgrading items a lot better, but even with my mistakes I still managed to have a productive and enjoyable experience with the game without paying for it. Yes, my progression is a lot slower then those who spend money, but still after almost a year playing it, I still find content to do, and have my daily routine of logging in and getting a few things.

The game has seasonal events with various outfits, and I missed out on the summer outfit from last year, because I didn't know yet how to play the gatcha elements cleverly. To my surprise, this summer that outfit was available again, and this time I got it. Nice to see that it's not a if you missed it tough luck type of thing, but there is possibility for new players to get stuff from previous events as well.

Will see how long I will keep playing, there is still story content for me to do and not just the daily grind of levelling characters, so as long as I'm enjoying it without having to spend money, I'll keep playing.

If you don't have the time to play through FF7 Remake and Rebirth, you might want to give this one a try, as it has a way shorter playthrough of the story's key elements, with new chapters being released regularly. The other 2 playable stories are Crisis Core and First Soldier. The game is also available on Steam, if playing on a mobile phone is not your thing. While the story scenes have the character design resemble more the original '97 game, the cutscenes have surprisingly beautiful graphics.

Gedonia

Got my first gaming laptop a little under a year ago so I really didn't have many games until the summer sales. I got a bunch of cheap games just because and Gedonia was one of them. I was quite surprised that I like it so much.

It's quite old looking, like some of the games I played as a child, and I honestly wasn't expecting much from it. I haven't played too much, but I've had fun in the little bit that I have played. The side quests are quirky and humorous at times. The main quest is somewhat generic, but interesting enough for me to be engaged.

My favorite feature, and the one I find the coolest, is the modding system. The game has built-in modding which allows you to add your own quests and items to your playthroughs. Being able to add more to the game from its own menu makes for an interesting addition to the games replayability.

The last game that surprised me was throne and liberty it has a difference in gameplay where u can change into animals to run fly and swim plus its a mmorpg open world ive played loads over the years but actually enjoying this one more the gameplay is very easy to learn even for the basic gamer