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I was gonna bring this one up in my Resolutions thread, and probably still will, but hey, why not spread the love?

So, I just played Jenny LeClue: Detectivú, for the Nintendo Switch. I bought it pretty much out of the blú - it was deeply discounted, I had enough golden coins to get it essentially for free, and it looked pretty neat. It's an indie-developed third-person adventure game, with some puzzle gameplay and sci-fi/horror motifs.

What did I like about it? I thought the core premise was a neat one - you play as a diminutive detective, who's also the star of a series of children's mystery novels. You get to choose Jenny's words and actions, in certain scenarios, and one of the great joys is getting your pint-sized protagonist to defy the narrating novelist. Jenny herself is riddled with spunk and sass, concealing a mind focused on the truth, and a heart eager to connect. The artstyle, I found totally lovable - each character looks like they're constructed of paper, but not to the detriment of expressiveness (far from it). And it's not just the characters - a variety of environments are lovingly crafted, too. And the lighting was tremendous at conveying all feelings between hope and terror. Then there's the sounds - try to run off a cliff, and the peril sound will catch you. The game also has full voice acting, apparently added in a post-release free update. The voicework is genuinely great, and goes a long way to making these characters feel real.

So, what were the disappointments? Well, the gameplay was a mixed bag. Some tasks, like undoing a screw by rotating the joystick, made perfect sense. But oftentimes, the interactivity was little more than "keep tapping/holding the A button". The puzzles, too, were mixed - a couple had me stumped for a hot second, but many were mere trial-and-error, or just a set of tedious steps. Speaking of which - tedium. Jenny's pace of movement leans to the realistic (i.e. very slowly traversing a ledge), which is swell for immersion, but slows the game down a bit. Moreover, while the "scene select" option lets you reenter the game at one of various points, I discovered no way to skip text, even in scenes you've already "passed". So if you want to go back to find something you missed, it'll take a while. Still, the game's most prominent flaw has to be the ending. I won't spoil it, beyond saying that I found it a horribly dissatisfying ending to a story that had been growing more compelling by the minute.

So, was this a good game, and would I recommend it? From a few minutes in, until the very ending, I would have said yes, wholeheartedly. But that ending really leaves a bitter taste. There's a lot good in this game, and I certainly don't regret my purchase. The presentation style, both in audio and visual, really hits it out of the park. If that's something that looks good to you too, and you don't need a spellbinding story or gripping gameplay, then this game's the one for you. But if those flaws would overshadow your appreciation for this charming town, and its headstrong heroine, then I certainly understand.

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On 5/2/2021 at 9:54 AM, Zan Partizanne said:

Began with Persona 5 Strikers yesterday. It's what I expected from a hack and slash. Tons of button commands I have to memorize. Won't be easy, but I'll give my best to master it. Otherwise this game is exactly what I expected from a Persona game.

Have started fifth prison. So far I have to say this game is really fun, and the controls work way better than expected. Game has lots of commands, but switching personas, characters and targetting enemies is really not too hard. The story is interesting too. I wonder what the detective is up to.

Spoiler

I think he has Akechi treatment, means playable.

 

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Beaten Persona 5 Strikers.

The game was a pleasant surprise considering I'm not into heck and slash games. The battle system and controls were easy to understand and to use. Also a big pro is that the game is stopped whenever I want to target enemies, so the player is not punished, if he should lose the focus. Gameplay was well executed and the dungeon exploration was fun. It's like regular Persona 5 however with a bit more moves. The only issue is that fusing Personas is more restricted. It's not possible to choose two Personas to see the result. Velvet Room was the only issue I have. The story is told very well and dispensed on unnecessary filling interactions. The game has no social links, instead it has friendship point system. You can gain friendship points by fulfilling requests (like collecting things, defeating certain monsters...), cooking or selecting the right answer to certain questions. With these points you can strengthen up your party of unlocking other things which will help in dungeon exploration or battles. Thanks to the less interactions, this game really is fastpaced and it never felt like reading a visul novel as it how was the case in Persona 5 (Royal) for me. Consequently the game was not all that long. I beat it in 32 h although I skipped a few quests. Still I was entertained overall and had lots of fun. The music features original themes from the main game, remixes and a few new themes (dungeon and event themes). I loved hearing good old classics like "Life Will Change" again. I wouldn't say I liked the remixes more than the originals, but it was definitely a nice addition.

Overall it's definitely recommendable to all people who liked Persona 5 (Royal) and are at least a little bit interested in heck and slash games. I found a special edition for 35 €, just about two months after release which was really cool.

my rating: 8.5 / 10

Edited by Zan Partizanne
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Back in January I was playing Banner of the Maid. A strategy rpg set during the French Revolution with gameplay that errs closer to Fire Emblem than others in the genre. I was enjoying myself, but somewhere along the way the game's challenge started to dilute the satisfaction of clearing a map. You just can't get your units stronger than the enemies so making your way through can feel like a constant slog. There are infinite grinding maps, but the moment I started to indulge I realized how much I'd prefer a more casual playthrough. I picked the game back up recently and bumped the difficulty down to Easy (there are only two difficulties) and things became more fast paced until they introduced green units that must be protected. Think of the worst green unit behavior you've encountered in Fire Emblem, and it's here also. The game drops an autosave two turns previous, but even so I found myself in an unwinnable situation when a green unit appears late into a map and then waits to die as they get swarmed by reinforcements, failing the chapter. They appeared right by the start of the map and I had no units waiting back there to assist since I was nearly finished routing the enemy. I'd have to replay the chapter from the beginning with this new knowledge just to clear it.

Despite the annoyances of these maps, it's a pretty great take on fire emblem. There's a weapon triangle, only it's a rectangle between muskets >rifles >sabers >swords. Level up gains are fixed, and there's a ton of skills earned by leveling up. You can further customize units by buying more skills or using stat boosters. Some classes also have branched promotions, but the two choices just have small stat differences as far as I can tell. The side quests are fun because they give you good stories about side characters and occasionally let you play as villains. A decent substitute for support conversations since you can play out their backstories rather than just hear about them. The only problem with them is that they almost universally take place on a map you just cleared before unlocking them, so it's boring to play the same map again with different enemy placements. Reinforcements are marked by footsteps on the edges of the map, so you at least have a warning about them. The game doesn't feature permadeath ever, but if you lose too many units you'll fail most missions. I like that alternative to Fire Emblem's casual mode a lot.

Maybe I'll pick up the game some more. I've been in the mood for Fire Emblem, and it's certainly one of the better games I've played in the genre, I'm just really bitter after these last few chapters and their suicidal green units. The story wasn't bad either. You wouldn't expect that after seeing some of the horny character artwork but the characters themselves are rather tame. Perhaps tame is a good word for the narrative. Nothing really leaves an impression, good or bad.

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Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Folks, try the demo. It's so good that I turned it off after 20 minutes and bought the full version right away.

It's this kind of neo-retro game build upon proven ideas but gives them its own twist.

It's a metroidvania. If you like that genre, give it a shot. You will find a lot of save points on the map, where you choose one of the three characters, each with a different skillset needed to discover new rooms. Think of save rooms as peculiar hubs, from which you set off with each hero to check different sides of the map and lick those walls. I don't know how to describe it very well. It's not like in classic Igavanias that every save spot is a relief and then you can plan your next moves. Instead save points are so densely scattered that when I come across one, I feel "yeah! There will probably be some rooms that use that particular hero, but for now I'm going with what I have and come back later". This game does some key points differently.

First of all, a save point doesn't heal without food (which I'm not sure how to get atm). After losing your life you starts at the very beginning of the map. BUT - after each death you also end up in a shop. Let's say it's a kind of Styx in which a terrible being brings one of the heroes back to life and gives you the option to buy the upgrades. Aside from obvious ones like adding HP or individual characters' skills, most of these upgrades are unclear. I had no idea what I was buying when I spent 200 crystals on some "book of wisdom". It turned out after the purchase that I got item descriptions in menus.

I love how many things are unclear here! This is the one point in metroidvania design where Astalon absolutely rocks. Scratches the itch with this one platform hanging too high, this elevator leading probably to the last level but "no-o, not now!", with these doors, which always require a different key than the one you have. 

This keys tho, they remind me of the first Legend of Zelda. You can mess up your exploration quite a bit by using some of the keys to open the doors that are not really needed for progressing. For example, there are some doors behind which there is only +1 life. There are more, er, key places that would be handy to open up.

The map layout is another example of thoughtful game design, consistent with the above-mentioned theme of "ambiguity." It can be irritating, because not always is a passage properly marked within a given block / room. You have to remember that there is some roadblock there. Then again,  later on this is solved y buying an upgrade showing e.g. a closed door. It provides tons of fun from the exploration itself and works great in tandem with the fact that dying doesn't really hurt so much, because you can always quickly go back wherever you want and the worst that will happen is that you have more crystals for upgrades. That's a delicious pick-up-and-play gameplay loop for me.

Now maybe a little bit about heroes. There's a typical swordsman with short range that can cut through vines blocking roads. There's an archery girl who is light and has a single wall-jump enabling her to climb into otherwise inaccessible places. Mechanically she's great when you master the pulsating pattern of jumping and stamping arrows. There is also a wizard who has a shorter range than the girl, but shoots more often. Some passages can only be opened by his magic.

The game is constructed in such a way that often one of the characters has a segment at the end of which a shortcut is unlocked for the rest of the cast, giving you the opportunity to repeat that segment and potentially find a secret.

I'm gushing over this game. The music is great too (although it should still play when you pause the game imo). I was expecting this to be a good game after watching some trailers, but not that good!  

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In the past few weeks I've been playing Omori, an rpg maker game starring four kids on a grand adventure. The game presents a real world plot alongside a fantasy dreamscape that makes up the bulk of gameplay. In terms of aesthetics and tone, it's certainly aiming for the Earthbound/Undertale experience, but with more explicit horror sequences. The battle system is great. Fights are dangerous if you don't engage with the game's system of manipulating emotions. Sort of a weapon triangle of status ailments between Happy, Sad, and Angry. Happy beats angry, Sad beats happy, angry beats sad. Inflicting emotions on allies or enemies is an easy way to gain an advantage. There's also a friendship meter that you can spend on a variety of followup actions, or a super move when its full. The Super move is pretty much only a factor in boss fights due to how long it takes to charge, and it can definitely feel like an "I win!" button so long as you can keep your allies alive. I don't really mind having an easy answer to fights, it can just feel a little cheap when the only way to build the meter is taking damage. If the player could influence the buildup themselves, it would feel more strategic. For standard enemy battles, just stick to followups.

The music and sound design is always expertly tailored to the current scene. I thought the plot was great. For the entire game you're being tee-ed up for a dark terrible secret, and when it comes out it really puts the experience in a new light. It never feels like you're waiting for the big revelation though because of how separated the two worlds are. In the dream scape, the game is full of touching moments and a great sense of humor. Both worlds are great palette cleansers for the other. And I think the mark of great fiction writing is tackling serious subject matter in a way that you can find very relatable. I loved every second of the game and wouldn't mind returning to it to see what secrets I missed. I did look up the game's four bad endings, and one of them I really don't like. It's the one moment where the game feels like it's making a meme out of something I'd never be comfortable laughing at. 

I also played Resident Evil 7. This has been a long time coming. I've been a fan of the series for most of my time on this earth. But I had no confidence in Capcom during the mid 2010s, and the shift to first person just felt so trend-chasey in the wake of the two other, most relevant horror games at the time: PT and Outlast. So I didn't play it despite the glowing reviews from people I know have experienced that classic RE magic before. Boy did I miss out, RE7 is excellent, I would have loved it back then. I also was able to stream my blind playthrough to some friends and we had a great time. I was repeatedly making dumb predictions about the plot and characters and inadvertently predicted the final boss sort of. I liked the pacing, the puzzles and secrets felt solid, enemy encounters generally felt right, except in the rare case that they spawn in an enemy behind you. The sound design was perfect. They really nailed all the strange noises an old house will make, and you have to train yourself to ignore the creaks and bumps.

The first person perspective made some things harder, like looking for items, but there was a new consumable item that points out all the interactables in the vicinity and that's a big help. I don't like that the game doesn't pause when you read notes, however I notice notes are pretty much always in rooms where you wouldn't be fighting enemies anyway so it's not likely an issue in practice. Not pausing the game for inventory management or key item usage feels more scummy. Suddenly I'm not afraid of the enemies chasing me, but of being clocked while waiting for key turn animations or doing emergency item combining. It also feels dumb that a weapon absolutely needs to be hot keyed in order to equip. You can't just hit Equip from the inventory. The UI in general has very small text that was hard to read. It also feels odd that absolutely none of the items in your inventory ever need to be examined. The Examine feature is just there because it's a resident evil game. They do still hide things inside of other things, but those other things are always planted within the environment rather than taking up space in the inventory. And mixing items is done in a separate menu despite having a manual prompt. The UI just felt very clunky and difficult to grasp because of these issues.

Edited by Glennstavos
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Playing through Kirby Fighters 2's story mode rn. It's pretty much the same gameplay as 1, a minigame from Triple Deluxe, but it features more characters, items and a whole story mode. The story mode has five chapters which all have a different amount of levels. The further progressed the chapter, the higher the amount of floors. I've made it to the fifth and final chapter. This chapter features 50 floors. However it has a small but very crucial difference to the former chapters. You have only three attempts (in the former you have infinite unless you haven't enough coins to pay for a continue). Passing all 50 floors is a mammoth task. I'm level 40 and just have made it to floor 15 yet. I definitely will level up in other modes. However even then I still sense lots of trouble. Also the CPU isn't very helpful. There are lots of situations in which my partner screws me by standing in my way or stealing items I can use more efficiently than them. Overall it's a fun game, but I don't think it's worth 20 $ considering 1 was a minigame so basically free. And Super Kirby Clash was more appealing which is for free. Though I'll give a more detailed review once I've beaten story mode and played the other modes.

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Well, recently my joy-con drift got to the point where it made playing Monster Hunter Rise almost unbearable; I can easily handle the joy-con sometimes thinking I'm inputting left when I'm not inputting anything, but it's gotten a lot more frequent and it's gotten to the point where the character will go left even if I tell him to go right, or I am already making the character go right and the character will suddenly stop and go left or even start pacing back-and-forth. It's a real shame, as I was really enjoying Monster Hunter Rise and I had just unlocked the 6-star hub quests.

This means that, for the time being, I'm going to have to stop with the Switch games. Until I can either get replacement joy-cons or fix the ones that I currently have, my options in terms of playing games is that I can either plug in my PS4 and finish my current playthrough of Final Fantasy 7 Remake (I'm currently at the Wall Market), or I can plug in my GameCube and finish my current playthrough of Ocarina of Time (I'm currently at the Spirit Temple as Young Link), and I can't decide which one to do.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Edited by vanguard333
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Beaten story mode of Kirby Fighters 2. Have to admit it wasn't too bad once I had the appropriate level. Started with level 55 and ended with level 61 for the final boss. The strategy was fighter and picking up as many charge items as possible to spam flamehadouken to attack both opponents simulteanously. A few challenges like having doubled speed made it a bit harder, but overall I could make it to the final boss with only one lost life. Final boss was not too bad. However their first attack in second phase got me. It's technically unavoidable if you stand on the wrong side. There's no time to switch side in time to dodge it. However thankfully my partner, Meta Knight, survived, so it wasn't all over. 

As for the story all the floors have total random fights aside of the bosses. Same goes for the items. So it depends not only on skills, but also on luck how the progress is. I had barely any charge or strength items, so I had lots of trouble in the first 1/3 of game. After halfway I got better items, so the fights became way shorter and less effortful. It made more fun than the handicap fights in Smash, but still both story modes were rather poor in terms of game design. 

I yet have to play the other modes to 100% this game, but online mode doesn't work for me at all. I couldn't get into one single game yet. Welp...

Online game is actually the main part of this game, if you don't have friends or siblings to play with, so not being able to do it is a MAJOR downer.

Ultimate's online mode had poor connectivity, but at least matches happened.

Oh well, I will give it another try...

It's not a bad game, but I don't think it's worth 20 $, considering Super Kirby Clash, a better fighting game (even if only playing together), exists for free.

Without online mode I'd rank it: 5 / 10 

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On 6/9/2021 at 10:09 PM, vanguard333 said:

Well, recently my joy-con drift got to the point where it made playing Monster Hunter Rise almost unbearable; I can easily handle the joy-con sometimes thinking I'm inputting left when I'm not inputting anything, but it's gotten a lot more frequent and it's gotten to the point where the character will go left even if I tell him to go right, or I am already making the character go right and the character will suddenly stop and go left or even start pacing back-and-forth. It's a real shame, as I was really enjoying Monster Hunter Rise and I had just unlocked the 6-star hub quests.

This means that, for the time being, I'm going to have to stop with the Switch games. Until I can either get replacement joy-cons or fix the ones that I currently have, my options in terms of playing games is that I can either plug in my PS4 and finish my current playthrough of Final Fantasy 7 Remake (I'm currently at the Wall Market), or I can plug in my GameCube and finish my current playthrough of Ocarina of Time (I'm currently at the Spirit Temple as Young Link), and I can't decide which one to do.

Anyone have any suggestions?

yes: try to fix your joy-con.

it might be easier than you think, and you won't have to spend money to get a new one. you don't even need to be a "tech guy", really.

i had a similar drifting issue with a PS4 controller( left stick input acting by itself almost all the time, to the point it almost looked like it had its own will ), but i've managed to fix that by myself just by searching on the internet for solutions. youtube videos helped a lot.

since i had to choose between buying a new controller or trying to fix mine even if it meant eventually breaking it, i decided to go for the latter because the controller was already acting on its own, so i had nothing to loose anyway.

to be honest, it's truly a silly thing to solve because most of the times it's either dust or some dirt getting inside the base of the joystick. once you open it up and clean it a bit, it goes back to working as intended. while i was at it, once i realized how easy it was to open it and deal with the stuff inside the controller, i even decided to customize my PS4 controller further with some leds buttons. looks pretty nice now, especially in the evening:

Spoiler

71bn4x+PTbL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

anyway, back in topic:

- in terms of portables, i'm currently playing FE Sacred Stones on my phone. i'm almost at the end of Eirika's route, and once i'm done with both Eirika/Ephraim routes, i'll probably leave the FE franchise in standby for a while, and move to its twin, long-dead franchise: Advance Wars.

that franchise started back in the NES era too, but since searching and getting that kind of ROMS with dedicated english patches has become quite tedious these days, i'll just leave behind the NES/SNES Wars titles, and play with those from the GBA/DS era.

after that will be done too, i guess i'll resume FE from where i left, starting with PoR/RD.

- in terms of home consoles, i just finished Final Fantasy XV along with all the DLCs. the game's story and gameplay are both fine overall, although some mechanics and features could've been managed a bit better( the combat can be quite clunky at times ).

yesterday i started with its free multiplayer expansion called "Comrades", will try that out for now and see how it goes. there's also "A King's Tale" left to try out, but that will wait for now, otherwise my head will implode by the overload of FF XV related stuff.

then, my roadplan until 2022 will probably be something like this: Scarlet Nexus coming up next, then Tales of Arise, and finally Elden Ring next year.

Edited by 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ
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@joycon drift 

I just recommend sending that in to Nintendo. Especially if you're resigned to not playing your switch for a while or are shopping for cheap alternative controllers. Mine was in rough shape, and the only cleaning method I wanted to try was compressed air into that flap underneath the stick which everything online said would help. I got my Joy Con back in a couple weeks, and it was pretty clearly not the same one I sent in. I think if a joy con is too far gone they're going to scrap it for parts and send you a refurbished replacement. And it's hard to complain with that if they'll do it for free. 

2 hours ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

that franchise started back in the NES era too, but since searching and getting that kind of ROMS with dedicated english patches has become quite tedious these days, i'll just leave behind the NES/SNES Wars titles, and play with those from the GBA/DS era.

If it makes a difference, the original Famicom games don't have any sort of story mode. It's strictly a game where you set up and play individual battles against a second player or AI opponent. It wasn't until Advance Wars where the game had a single player campaign mode.

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3 hours ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

yes: try to fix your joy-con.

it might be easier than you think, and you won't have to spend money to get a new one. you don't even need to be a "tech guy", really.

i had a similar drifting issue with a PS4 controller( left stick input acting by itself almost all the time, to the point it almost looked like it had its own will ), but i've managed to fix that by myself just by searching on the internet for solutions. youtube videos helped a lot.

since i had to choose between buying a new controller or trying to fix mine even if it meant eventually breaking it, i decided to go for the latter because the controller was already acting on its own, so i had nothing to loose anyway.

to be honest, it's truly a silly thing to solve because most of the times it's either dust or some dirt getting inside the base of the joystick. once you open it up and clean it a bit, it goes back to working as intended.

Thanks. Cleaning the joy-con used to work the last couple of times that this happened, but I tried cleaning it this time and it didn't work.

1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

@joycon drift 

I just recommend sending that in to Nintendo. Especially if you're resigned to not playing your switch for a while or are shopping for cheap alternative controllers. Mine was in rough shape, and the only cleaning method I wanted to try was compressed air into that flap underneath the stick which everything online said would help. I got my Joy Con back in a couple weeks, and it was pretty clearly not the same one I sent in. I think if a joy con is too far gone they're going to scrap it for parts and send you a refurbished replacement. And it's hard to complain with that if they'll do it for free. 

Thanks. I might do that. I'm going to try one more time to look at it and see if I can fix it myself, but if I can't, I'll probably send it in.

I remember a time when Nintendo consoles and controllers were the most durable of them all, and I'm not even old. The GameCube was almost indestructible, the Wii and Wii U weren't as strong but they can survive quite well, and it took a lot of accidental drops and multiple moves over the course of more than a decade before my GameBoy Advance died and that honestly might've been the battery that died rather than structural damage. What happened to Nintendo?

 

Anyway, going back to the topic of actually playing games, I'm probably going to plug in the GameCube and finish Ocarina of Time before moving on to Majora's Mask. I've had both games on the collector's edition since I was 5, I call myself a Zelda fan, and yet I've never actually finished either game. So, I may as well finish playing through them.

6 hours ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

- in terms of home consoles, i just finished Final Fantasy XV along with all the DLCs. the game's story and gameplay are both fine overall, although some mechanics and features could've been managed a bit better( the combat can be quite clunky at times ).

I've never played that game, though I know a lot about the truly nightmarish development it went through. It's honestly amazing that the game wasn't considered to be horrible when it released.

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Berwick Saga.

Finally wanna give Adel, Leon and Sherlock their time in the sun. Also wanna see if I can get Elbert's Spear rank up quicker by keeping his avoid as high as possible. Sure, I have to raise his shield rank eventually too. But especially after getting Shieldfair, this should go extremely quickly.
I do want to buy the Sword Mount too. Considering how Reese's middling sword rank tends to make him fall just short of 100% accuracy with the Gram, I wanna see how much it helps.

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6 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Thanks. Cleaning the joy-con used to work the last couple of times that this happened, but I tried cleaning it this time and it didn't work.

I'm going to try one more time to look at it and see if I can fix it myself, but if I can't, I'll probably send it in.

then it might be the potentiometer that's acting up.

you should try opening the small boxes at the base of the joystick( i presume it should be the same for every controller with joysticks ), remove the holders from the inside and clean each one of those boxes either by blowing air into them, or eventually by using isopropyl alcohol in small doses to clean them up.

usually blowing air works just fine, as long as you place everything back as it was before opening the controller. then again, if you're not really comfortable with messing around internal circuits and whatnot, then you might as well just send it in.

6 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I've never played that game, though I know a lot about the truly nightmarish development it went through. It's honestly amazing that the game wasn't considered to be horrible when it released.

the game isn't perfect by any means, but it's not that terrible either.

it's just that after being in development hell for years, risking to be cancelled, then renamed after changing directors along with changing the game's vision...all of that back at the time didn't exactly leave a good impression for many fans, but in the end the game turned out to be alright. probably one of the deepest FF titles in the franchise so far when it comes to characters story and world's lore, with an overwhelming amount of features to offer.

the "Royal Edition" has also quite a good portion of new content added and DLCs included, with its main feature being the nod to the previous "Versus XIII" combat system, or at least what it should have been.

Edited by 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ
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1 hour ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

then it might be the potentiometer that's acting up.

you should try opening the small boxes at the base of the joystick( i presume it should be the same for every controller with joysticks ), remove the holders from the inside and clean each one of those boxes either by blowing air into them, or eventually by using isopropyl alcohol in small doses to clean them up.

usually blowing air works just fine, as long as you place everything back as it was before opening the controller. then again, if you're not really comfortable with messing around internal circuits and whatnot, then you might as well just send it in.

Thanks. I'll probably just send it in then.

 

1 hour ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

the game isn't perfect by any means, but it's not that terrible either.

it's just that after being in development hell for years, risking to be cancelled, then renamed after changing directors along with changing the game's vision...all of that back at the time didn't exactly leave a good impression for many fans, but in the end the game turned out to be alright. probably one of the deepest FF titles in the franchise so far when it comes to characters story and world's lore, with an overwhelming amount of features to offer.

the "Royal Edition" has also quite a good portion of new content added and DLCs included, with its main feature being the nod to the previous "Versus XIII" combat system, or at least what it should have been.

That's what I mean; it's amazing that the game ended up as something that's considered to be okay (I'm using phrases like "considered to be" simply because I haven't played it, so I myself can't say anything about the quality).

The development troubles went further than that: for just one example, when they rebranded the game and changed directors, Square Enix's executives also ordered that the dev team stop using the Crystal Tools engine to make the game (which was a relief, as that engine was unfinished garbage)… and switch to using the Luminous Engine, which was still being programmed and tested. They were having to finish the game at the same time that they were having to finish the engine that they were using to make the game.

I'm not a Final Fantasy fan, but I'd honestly love to see the original Versus XIII idea realized as it looked really interesting. I mean, if Snyder fans got to see a four-hour cut of Justice League, why can't we get a Nomura cut of Final Fantasy?

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Recently came back to play Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast and man the DX version really did downgrade everything the Dreamcast version had. But yeah I'm going through a Sonic marathon with the Sonic games that had a serious story and continuity (basically anything before the 2010s)

Edited by DarkSage861
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1 hour ago, Lyn said:

Ys VIII- Lacrimosa of Dana

Defeated a red dragon/ dinosaur monster. Met a new character. Learned how to fish. 

Cool. I'm guessing that the new character was a big blue-haired guy with an anchor?

By the way, this is one of those games where you should go out of your way to explore each area that you can access, even if there's a level disparity between your characters and the wildlife (in which case avoid/run from the wildlife). I found the game's layout surprisingly linear, but I've spoken to a few people who had the opposite experience. That said, there was one area where things weren't intuitive; it occurred when I obtained access to an optional forest area where you can find a very useful castaway. The thing is that the forest area has both level 30 enemies (no disparity), and level 50 raptor-like enemies. If I hadn't been using a guide to avoid missing the game's permanently-missable sidequests, I might not have come back to this area until a lot later and missed a lot. So, thoroughly explore everything you can gain access to.

Another thing: complete all the sidequests as soon as you can; these quests don't last forever, and you can miss a lot if you don't finish them.

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2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Cool. I'm guessing that the new character was a big blue-haired guy with an anchor?

By the way, this is one of those games where you should go out of your way to explore each area that you can access, even if there's a level disparity between your characters and the wildlife (in which case avoid/run from the wildlife). I found the game's layout surprisingly linear, but I've spoken to a few people who had the opposite experience. That said, there was one area where things weren't intuitive; it occurred when I obtained access to an optional forest area where you can find a very useful castaway. The thing is that the forest area has both level 30 enemies (no disparity), and level 50 raptor-like enemies. If I hadn't been using a guide to avoid missing the game's permanently-missable sidequests, I might not have come back to this area until a lot later and missed a lot. So, thoroughly explore everything you can gain access to.

Another thing: complete all the sidequests as soon as you can; these quests don't last forever, and you can miss a lot if you don't finish them.

Yep, it was that guy. An anchor is such an odd weapon, but it works for him.

I've been trying to explore everywhere and collect everything. Where do I get the side quests?

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26 minutes ago, Lyn said:

Yep, it was that guy. An anchor is such an odd weapon, but it works for him.

I've been trying to explore everywhere and collect everything. Where do I get the side quests?

You get sidequests by talking to the NPCs in castaway village. When the game introduces sidequests, it will also add a signpost near the exit to castaway village that will list all the available sidequests.

You're making sure to collect everything; that's also good, as you will definitely want to make sure you have plenty of the various materials. Sometimes, though surprisingly rarely, there'll be something you can't get just yet (like a treasure chest that's out-of-reach until you get the double-jump). If you suspect that something's out-of-reach for now, I'd suggest double-checking a walkthrough just to make sure.

I should probably mention that I played this game for the first time a few months ago, and the main reason I haven't completed it is that I just moved recently and I still haven't plugged in my PS4 yet. If you ever have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Edited by vanguard333
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On 6/9/2021 at 4:09 PM, vanguard333 said:

Anyone have any suggestions?

I sent my two left Joy-Cons in to Nintendo, to fix the drift. They were back, and repaired, in about three weeks. So that could be an option, if you don't mind waiting a bit.

Otherwise, I played some Switch games with my GameCube controller. With an adapter, it works great on games where certain buttons (namely -Minus and ZL) are non-essential. In particular, I found it to be my favorite controller for playing Celeste thus far. I also used it in Three Houses, with minor inconvenience - I can't zoom out, and I can't Divine Pulse without first getting a "game over" death. That said, it's preferable to the cursor drifting under my nose. You mentioned having a GameCube, so maybe this would be an interim option?

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So... I'm currently borrowing a set of joy-cons from a sibling that has their own Switch (cleaning my joy-cons failed, so I'm going to have to send them in). However, I promised to only play a game that would be "gentle" on the joy-cons, so no Monster Hunter Rise.

Instead, because there's a sale on the Nintendo e-shop, I decided to purchase a game I'd been meaning to get, and at half price: Valkyria Chronicles Remastered. It's a tactical RPG, so it should be "gentle" on the joy-cons, and I'd been meaning to play the original Valkyria Chronicles because I really enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles 4.

I have to say, it's always interesting trying an earlier game in a series after starting with the later ones. I expected stuff like there not being grenadiers or APCs, but I did not expect stuff like not being able to redo story missions, or being asked if I want to play on easy or normal for each optional skirmish rather than being asked that once before starting the story campaign.

 

@Shanty Pete's 1st Mate Thanks for the suggestions. By the way, is it possible to get the joy-cons fixed for free even if the one-year warranty has expired? I once heard from someone that it's possible because of the current lawsuit, but I've been having trouble finding anything to verify that, and I'm concerned because, well, the one-year warranty has probably expired by now.

I do have a GameCube controller adapter because of Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it's not plugged in right now and I'd have to find it (I'm still unpacking after my recent move).

Edited by vanguard333
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