Jump to content

Soooooo what'cha playing?


Recommended Posts

Spiderman

Cleared 3/1.

My 2nd ever platinum trophy, with the first being 13 Sentinels last month. (Or this would be the 3rd if my 100% completion badge in Fire Emblem Warriors on the Switch counts. Not really a trophy that the system tracks, per say.)

9/10. Very solid cinematic action game with awesome traversal, dynamic events, great combat, great story, and a perfectly realized super hero fantasy. So... why am I knocking off a point? Simply put, the Taskmaster/Screwball challenges and Miles/Mary Jane stealth missions are NOT fun. 


Victor Vran

Cleared 3/5/23.

6/10. A very average or even below average Diablo-like that I moved up my priority list to clear before it left PS Plus. The combat is solid for the genre, but the character building is shallow, the loot isn't as generous as I'd like, and the difficulty is rather too high for the genre. Good thing I'm not a completionist, or the absurd challenges (don't get hit... in a Diablo-like? Really?) would drive me insane. On the plus side, the humor is good, and it has some of the most memorable maps in its genre. The Motorhead WW2 inspired level is possibly the most unique thing I've ever seen in this type of game.

 

Yakuza 0 

Cleared 3/11.

6/10. Story is good. Goro is life. The combat balance realllllllly hasn't aged well. Being chained indefinitely by common enemies who are very aggressive and attack faster than the player is just not on. And this was on Easy. I shudder to think of what Hard and Legendary are like. Also, I audibly groaned every time I had to play a Kiryu chapter. Goro doesn't just have more personality - he's also faster, more effective, and isn't reliant on environmental weapons.


Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire

Cleared 3/12

9/10. For those curious, I saved the last third of the third campaign to be enjoyed with potential dlc. That dlc didn't come. So now I've cleared it. And I still love it. It's only real shortcoming is that there isn't more of it.

As for Golden Wildfire as a path, I think it's got some of the best maps, and the story falls somewhere in the middle. Claude's at his best here. He schemes. He is true to his convictions. This feels right. But here's the thing....

Spoiler

Scarlet Blaze is the definitive Golden Route, as it is the only one that actually rids Fodlan of both factions that are corrupting it. Dimitri's path leaves the Church in power. Claude's doesn't address the even worse mole Nazis. Only Edelgard handles both, and I don't really know how to feel about that. Because if I'm being real, Claude is the most worthy ruler of Fodlan with the best moral standing, and I'm not even a GD fan.


Yakuza Kiwami

Cleared 3/19.

8/10. While still somewhat aged, this is a marked improvement on 0 in almost every way. The combat feels better. The story is even stronger. Goro chews all the scenery in the universe. Kiryu's kit is improved. They separated yen and xp. The only complaints I really have are no business-sim minigames (I really enjoy these in 0 and LAD), and no playable Goro.

At any rate, Yakuza looks to be my grand clearing project for the year. 2 games (plus Judgement) down, 5 to go. Just counting what's on PS Plus Extra right now anyway.

 

Exoprimal (beta)

Abandoned.

Fuck this game out of 10. I was actually pretty hyped for the love child of Anthem, EDF, and Dino Crisis, but the forced PvP element ruins any fun to be had, and even the actual fun PvE parts of it are too brief and on-rails to actually be sustainable.

 

Wonderful 101

Abandoned

So, uh.... here's a fun, endearing 7/10 action game with a completely disfunctional 0/10 motion/drawing mechanic (which can basically be described as Okami if it had the responsiveness of a tranquilized tortoise) crudely bolted onto it. This is the rare game I might watch a playthrough of just to enjoy the charm, but as a game, I'm done.

 

Outriders

Abandoned, maybe? Idk. Might come back if I feel like it.

7/10

I love me a third person looter shooter, and Outriders initially impresses with slick gunplay, stellar graphics, and plenty of gore. But frankly, I found it much too difficult, and too stingy in its loot drops. It makes it hard to want to play.

 

Monster Hunter Stories 2

Cleared 3/30.

7/10

An inoffensive, cute, aggressively average monster collecting JRPG. The combat certainly takes some unique risks that feel kinda fun in practice, but that's just overwhelmingly been my impression of the game - it's kind of fun. The story is kind of there. The combat is kind of engaging. The gear loop is kind of rewarding. The exploration kind of exists. The only real standout feature is the egg collecting itself - the whole gacha system is never good game design, even in a game like this or XBC2 where all pulls are free, but it does drive that one more go feeling through sheer anticipation. Or maybe it's just that I have some interest in collecting personal favorites like Tobi-Kodachi and Legiana.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate it. I think the bones of an exceptional game are in there. Maybe if there is a MHS3 with Rise or even World level graphics, snappier combat speed, meaningful quality of life updates, and faster traversal, it could be one of the JRPG greats. But this aint quite it.

 

Hi Fi Rush

Cleared 3/26.

9.5/10 This is the game I've been playing a couple hours a week while I have access to dad's Xbox. And well, it's kind of a masterpiece. Slick combat, great level design, vibrant art, a loveable cast, hysterical comedy, bangin tunes, and a unique blend of rhythm, light platforming, and character action. It's not as good as Devil May Cry 3 or 5, but it's a damn good 3rd place. I'm only actually docking the half point here because timing-rings are never fun, in any game, and this game has particularly strict and unforgiving ones - sometimes multiple times in a level.

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

9 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Monster Hunter Stories 2

Ongoing

7/10

An inoffensive, cute, aggressively average monster collecting JRPG. The combat certainly takes some unique risks that feel kinda fun in practice, but that's just overwhelmingly been my impression of the game - it's kind of fun. The story is kind of there. The combat is kind of engaging. The gear loop is kind of rewarding. The exploration kind of exists. The only real standout feature is the egg collecting itself - the whole gacha system is never good game design, even in a game like this or XBC2 where all pulls are free, but it does drive that one more go feeling through sheer anticipation. Or maybe it's just that I have some interest in collecting personal favorites like Tobi-Kodachi and Legiana.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate it. I think the bones of an exceptional game are in there. Maybe if there is a MHS3 with Rise or even World level graphics, snappier combat speed, meaningful quality of life updates, and faster traversal, it could be one of the JRPG greats. But this aint quite it.

Cool. I've played Stories 2 as well; I played all the way to the end, and then didn't do any of the postgame content.

There is a way to guarantee which type of monstie you get from an egg: fight the monster in the overworld, and use the item that makes it more likely for the monster to retreat back to its nest after bein defeated. That's how I got a tigrex and a monoblos in the second area of the game (when those two are sleeping monsters you do not want to wake unless you're skilled or overlevelled enough to defeat it).

Yeah, that's how I feel as well: the bones of a truly great game are here. I don't have a problem with the graphics, but I do have some problems with its structure, namely that it's way too easy to end up overlevelled. Whenever I play an RPG these days, I always ask myself, "Is the level-up system in this game necessary?" because of just how many times having a level-up system didn't add anything and, if anything, detracted from the game (The Witcher 3 is a good example). For all Pokémon's faults, the level-up system is necessary, as stuff like evolution are directly tied to it and it complements IVs and natures, which differentiate different examples of the same Pokémon. With Monster Hunter Stories 2, however, I feel that it clashes with the game's other mechanics.

For one example, it makes a ton of sense that a newly-hatched monstie starts at a low level, but it does mean that you have to grind if you want that monstie to catch up to the team. This wouldn't be much of a problem if not for the fact that the rider and every other monstie in the group also gains experience points, so if you just got a monstie that you want to use, you're going to end up overlevelled. This again wouldn't be much of a problem if the game encouraged sticking to a core team, but the game does just the opposite; a lot of monsties the player finds later in the game will be outright better than a lot of the earlier monsties in every way: there's no reason to keep a Bulldrome once the player can get a Monoblos/Diablos, there's no reason to keep a red Yian Kut-Ku once the player can get a blue Yian Kut-Ku, etc. There are some early-game monsties that retain their relevance. One thing I like to do in monster-collecting RPGs is do a playthrough where I use a team consisting entirely of monsters that are underdogs, and I felt strongly discouraged from doing so when playing Stories 2.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Cool. I've played Stories 2 as well; I played all the way to the end, and then didn't do any of the postgame content.

There is a way to guarantee which type of monstie you get from an egg: fight the monster in the overworld, and use the item that makes it more likely for the monster to retreat back to its nest after bein defeated. That's how I got a tigrex and a monoblos in the second area of the game (when those two are sleeping monsters you do not want to wake unless you're skilled or overlevelled enough to defeat it).

Yeah, that's how I feel as well: the bones of a truly great game are here. I don't have a problem with the graphics, but I do have some problems with its structure, namely that it's way too easy to end up overlevelled. Whenever I play an RPG these days, I always ask myself, "Is the level-up system in this game necessary?" because of just how many times having a level-up system didn't add anything and, if anything, detracted from the game (The Witcher 3 is a good example). For all Pokémon's faults, the level-up system is necessary, as stuff like evolution are directly tied to it and it complements IVs and natures, which differentiate different examples of the same Pokémon. With Monster Hunter Stories 2, however, I feel that it clashes with the game's other mechanics.

For one example, it makes a ton of sense that a newly-hatched monstie starts at a low level, but it does mean that you have to grind if you want that monstie to catch up to the team. This wouldn't be much of a problem if not for the fact that the rider and every other monstie in the group also gains experience points, so if you just got a monstie that you want to use, you're going to end up overlevelled. This again wouldn't be much of a problem if the game encouraged sticking to a core team, but the game does just the opposite; a lot of monsties the player finds later in the game will be outright better than a lot of the earlier monsties in every way: there's no reason to keep a Bulldrome once the player can get a Monoblos/Diablos, there's no reason to keep a red Yian Kut-Ku once the player can get a blue Yian Kut-Ku, etc. There are some early-game monsties that retain their relevance. One thing I like to do in monster-collecting RPGs is do a playthrough where I use a team consisting entirely of monsters that are underdogs, and I felt strongly discouraged from doing so when playing Stories 2.

So, it's not so much that I have a problem with a cartoony style, as it is that I think Rise already does that way better. And the combination of the style with the younger protagonist essentially means that I don't care about my main character, and rush to put them in full armor asap. 

 

As far as overleving goes, my problem is that there's actually no way to quickly catch a new monstie up to your team without grinding. You can save quests to cash them in for the monstie you want (which requires you to research and know when you're about to have access to something good), and that's about it. Expeditions help raise up a backup team, but that is time that you aren't using your new pet. 

 

Whereas a more functional monster collector has you catch mons estimated to the level you are meant to be at that point, and even more functional ones like Nexomon make leveling lightning fast.

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

So, it's not so much that I have a problem with a cartoony style, as it is that I think Rise already does that way better. And the combination of the style with the younger protagonist essentially means that I don't care about my main character, and rush to put them in full armor asap. 

 

As far as overleving goes, my problem is that there's actually no way to quickly catch a new monstie up to your team without grinding. You can save quests to cash them in for the monstie you want (which requires you to research and know when you're about to have access to something good), and that's about it. Expeditions help raise up a backup team, but that is time that you aren't using your new pet.  Whereas a more functional monster collector has you catch mons estimated to the level you are meant to be at that point, and even more functional ones like Nexomon make leveling lightning fast.

I see. That makes sense. Rise definitely has really good visuals.

I dislike that as well; I tried to include that in my list of problems with the level-up system (the part where I say, "it makes a ton of sense that a newly-hatched monstie starts at a low level, but it does mean that you have to grind if you want that monstie to catch up to the team". I realize now that the subsequent sentences may have mitigated this when the intent was to show problems compounding on each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/25/2023 at 7:55 PM, vanguard333 said:

I see. That makes sense. Rise definitely has really good visuals.

I dislike that as well; I tried to include that in my list of problems with the level-up system (the part where I say, "it makes a ton of sense that a newly-hatched monstie starts at a low level, but it does mean that you have to grind if you want that monstie to catch up to the team". I realize now that the subsequent sentences may have mitigated this when the intent was to show problems compounding on each other.

An issue I'm actually taking much greater issue with is that the combination of attack types and rider skills crunches your team options. HM slavery was always a sucky part of Pokemon, but MHS2 compounds the issue in that you can't assign these HM's. They're innate, and they're VERY poorly distributed. You need rock breaker/mega breaker, swim, fly, lava dive, ivy climb, and ground tunnel to have the full range of traversal. But monsters generally only have 1 of these, if any at all. They may have something relatively useless like item finders, or roar.

 

Moreover, Fly is a redundant skill because one monster with Fly is locked to your party and can't be removed. So monsters that only have Fly (many of my favorites) don't justify a team slot. Conversely, monsties that fill 2 of the above ride skills (see - Palamute) are overly valuable, essentially locked into a party. This compounds the already major issue that earlier monsters are generally replaced by later ones.

 

It essentially feels like a team-building game with only a few objectively right answers and tons of objectively wrong ones. It's a game that decides what team it wants from you.

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now Playing: Resident Evil 2 Remake 

This game is probably one of the tougher games I've ever played, I'm not really used to survival horror games and the game mechanics that come with it (inventory management is a big one, I have a huge problem with wasting health items and ammo), after about 40 minutes I felt exhausted and it felt like I've been playing for hours at that point. It's the only game up to this point that made me feel that way and it's kinda refreshing actually reacting to games again, and I want to keep playing this game and get better at it so I'm not so lost and clueless like I am now. It's a solid game so far, and I'll definitely come back to it and beat it and then try more RE games. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

An issue I'm actually taking much greater issue with is that the combination of attack types and rider skills crunches your team options. HM slavery was always a sucky part of Pokemon, but MHS2 compounds the issue in that you can't assign these HM's. They're innate, and they're VERY poorly distributed. You need rock breaker/mega breaker, swim, fly, lava dive, ivy climb, and ground tunnel to have the full range of traversal. But monsters generally only have 1 of these, if any at all. They may have something relatively useless like item finders, or roar.

Moreover, Fly is a redundant skill because one monster with Fly is locked to your party and can't be removed. So monsters that only have Fly (many of my favorites) don't justify a team slot. Conversely, monsties that fill 2 of the above ride skills (see - Palamute) are overly valuable, essentially locked into a party. This compounds the already major issue that earlier monsters are generally replaced by later ones.

It essentially feels like a team-building game with only a few objectively right answers and tons of objectively wrong ones. It's a game that decides what team it wants from you.

Yeah, I agree. I got a Tigrex early in the game, and I was really glad that I did, since it had two ride skills: if I remember correctly, the same two ride skills that Palamute had when it was added to the game. That made Tigrex invaluable to my team despite me not really being a fan of Tigrex and originally only trying to obtain one early because of how challenging it is to do so.

Yeah; fly is made redundant by having the mandatory-due-to-the-plot Rathalos. I didn't far in the first Stories game due to only having played the demo for it, but I think it had the same problem, and it stems from the same thing: mandatory-due-to-the-story Rathalos. I don't have too much of a problem with a story-mandatory monstie in-of-itself, I get that Rathalos is the series mascot, and I do like Razewing Rathalos, but this is a bit like if every new Pokémon forced a Pikachu or a Charizard on the player. In my case, the "all other fliers are redundant" problem is exacerbated by the fact that, since the story forces a Rathalos on me, I feel obligated to get a Rathian monstie so the Rathalos won't be alone.

I hope that, for the almost-inevitable Stories 3, the story-mandatory monstie isn't a Rathalos, but is instead a brand new monstie created for the game; perhaps even an elder dragon that starts off weak and grows stronger over the course of the game. This would be a nice inversion of how the elder dragon no one knows exists until now is usually the final boss of the game, though they could still have such an elder dragon as well.

Yeah, I know what you mean. My team would've been better in every had I replaced my Yian Kut-Ku (which I had kept in order to have a monstie that does technical attackss) with the shark monstie, especially since I had two other fire monsties thanks to Rathian and Razewing Rathalos, but I didn't want to have to use the shark monstie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

Spoiler

After playing Book 1 I of course intended to finish the journey. I have never played Book 2 or its DS remake, so this is a totally new Fire Emblem game to me. I planned to play on SF’s own VincentASM’s translation patch, but I eventually returned to the Switch version for its portability. My game was still in Japanese, but thankfully the script is written out for us on this very site. Looking back, it’s kind of petty to write off FE3 on Book 1 alone when so many of its new ideas come to life here. This is such a strange, and delightfully disrespecting game, even from the start. I haven’t finished Thracia myself, but this is certainly up there as the hardest Kaga game.

Because holy chapter 2, what a tone setter to a fire emblem game. My iron man attempt ended here with a full army wipe. I always wondered why FE3 uniquely has an official walkthrough on this website. If you’re coming off of Book 1, your expectation is that the Macedonian wyvern knights probably retreat before they reach you. And the super strong one on a throne with a ridersbane surely isn’t the first boss of the series to move once you’re in range. Once your expectations of enemy AI have been thoroughly shattered, they’re broken again in chapter 3 where some of the wyverns DONT move. Won’t even target you if you plant a unit next to them. The game is playing you back and forth on this dilemna and others the whole way through. Will the super strong pre-promoted enemies move to attack me? Is the thief programmed to escape the moment he reaches his (invisible to the player) escape tile, or does he stick around? Is he randomly given normal AI where he comes up and attacks your dancer? Do I have the time to check these houses for valuable information on recruiting and reinforcement spawns? And which of these forts will ambush spawns come from – can I plant butts in those seats before it happens? FE3 Book 2 is the Guide User’s Paradise, and I earned this vacation.

So I did use the SF walkthrough guide and looked up whatever I felt like in contrast to the Blind Ironman format of the previous game. Nothing wrong with playing the game this way. I fear any repeat playthroughs of the game would be all too similar with the way you’re handed very strong units that are begging to be used on top of outrageously bad filler units. The level design is similarly restrictive. Feels like Shining Force 1 with its 1-2 space wide paths through mountains and forests. I’m not talking about a single chokepoint that units need to pass through, I’m talking about Chapter 3’s 20 space long line around the mountain that your army has to pass through single file. Don’t design maps this way, please. I can definitely see shades of FE4 map design in Book 2 with it's wide mountain vistas. Chapter 8 is a direct sequel of chapter 7, which evokes that multi-mission setup of Genealogy's chapters where the action just takes place on a different part of the map. Chapter 8 is...also a recreation of FE1's chapter 18 The Sable Order. Why did they cut that map from Book 1 if they were going to just remake it anyway...?

Despite the raw impression left by the early game, this game goes in a lot of unexpected directions. Tons of new enemy types, new staves and magic that don’t always become staples in later games, Tiki’s new transformations from the secret shop (that I only know about due to a guide, granted). I like how the early game is flooding you with powerful enemies that you’re supposed to run from, the mid game is a heroic quest of fighting ancient dragons and collecting artifacts, and the late game is an easy curb stomp as you return home, culminating in a True Ending finale that answers all the hanging plot threads and is super hard to complete. Fire and Ice Dragons are actually weak to the opposing elemental breath and spells. Star Shards let you make any unit good – they even let you earn two stat ups at once. I like the lore presented about this universe, the History of the Emblem, if you will. This is the sort of game and narrative I wanted out of a FE1 remake. So again I’m left wondering how much better FE3 would have been if they chose not to remake the original and instead focused resources on a 30 chapter epic sequel with even more mechanical tweaks. That seems to be the direction they went in with FE12, and yeah I’m 300% more interested in playing FE12 than I’ve ever been. How would you change Book 2? And also, How Dare you change Book 2?

Stella Glow

Spoiler

Here’s something I been working on since last month. Stella Glow is an SRPG published by Atlus for the 3DS. I thumbed through MobyGames to see if there was a connection between this and Stella Deus, an Atlus published SRPG on the PS2 I played last year. Seems like it’s just a coincidence in names, though they have plenty in common in terms of gameplay. It’s an isometric grid with flanking mechanics, individual turn order, and level scaling. Thankfully the level scaling only affects EXP gains, but it still proves consequential since a level up refills your HP and MP immediately. I chose not to do a single optional battle, and I think I made the game easier because of it. Each battle has a recommended level, but I recommend ignoring that and coming into each fight a few levels under. Those HP refills mid-battle are way more valuable than having a tiny bit more stats. The game is very stingy with healing. Only two of 15 characters have a decent single target healing skill, and healing items aren’t strong enough to justify all their limitations.

Turn order is not a Player Phase/Enemy Phase ordeal. Instead everybody’s Agility stat determines both the initial order and how many turns you get in relation to other units. To complete the Final Fantasy 10 reference, there’s a turn order display on the bottom of the top screen that updates based on what action you’re taking. If your character only moves but does not use an action, they’ll get their next turn a bit faster. This is great because if you’re stuck just moving units from point A to point B, they might eventually catch up to the action again sometime this year. The big issue is that you can’t scroll the turn order display like you can in FF10. You see the next dozen turns in the queue, but nothing beyond that. So until you’re down to the last four or five enemies, your unit’s next turn is completely un-knowable. You can’t make informed decisions about who needs healing the earliest, or which enemy can be killed before their next turn. You just have to vibe it out and hope your guesses pay off. Huge oversight in design.

The average map is 6 units versus about 12-15 enemies – about half the numbers of your average fire emblem game. And yet the map length is easily as long as Fire Emblem’s. I think the biggest reason why is again because of the turn order. The game has to cycle through every enemy selecting the Wait command when they have nothing to do but stand around. It’s only about three seconds each time, but that’s several minutes per map, and several hours by the end of your playthrough. I’d be less annoyed if the downtime had some sort of purpose – like loading screens do. My playtime came in at 50 hours, and that’s with a deliberate refusal to do optional content.

Technically there are Free Time activities, but it’s on a Persona-style calendar system. You either use it, or you lose it. Working your way through characters’ “Social Links” arms them with helpful bonus skills, so it’s the best use of your time. I only maxed out two of my units. It’s impossible to do a “Max Social Link Run” until you’re on NG+. Your progress won’t carry over, but NG+ is basically an easy mode where exp/gold gains are increased and so is your free time opportunities by 300%. I really don’t get why some games reward you with an Easy difficulty when you beat the game. For what it’s worth, the base difficulty of the first playthrough is pretty good. The difficulty curve starts out brain dead easy and steadily climbs to some tough maps. Optional battle conditions also arm you with some unique equipment and items if you're willing to go the extra mile. I like the games battle systems as well. My only complaint is the poor pacing and vague/flat out wrong skill descriptions. There are a lot of skills and effects that enhance your critical rate, but the game never thinks to display your crit rate on the battle forecast, so their value is indiscernible.

I’ve got some words on the story as well. I don’t go into games with grand expectations. I expected stock standard jrpg fare and got it. But some of the delivery irked me. I’m not an anime guy, but playing and talking about jrpgs has naturally lead me to hearing about “harem anime” and this game seems to check those theoretical hitboxes. The game holds to a mushy PG rating with its romance, but 'Tuning' the witches is an un-subtle metaphor for sex. Interacting with virtual girls is fine in any game, but do they have to be kids? Only one of your ten potential partners is at least 18 years old. Okay, two of them are 1000+ year old ageless beings and one is a robot, but you get my point. And when they confess their love for the main character it just gets uncomfortable as he refuses to reciprocate. “Because it’s too embarrassing”. Then the girl says “that’s okay. Not saying it back is just who you are”. I want to vomit. Sorry for going all woke SJW, but could you imagine if Japanese developers let women on to the writing staff instead of just providing artwork? The tropes impact the gameplay as well. Like how a main antagonist shows up but the battle arbitrarily ends before you reach them. Well in the meantime, they still take their turn selecting the Wait command, further compounding the pacing issues I mentioned earlier. And of course, the villains warp away the moment they are defeated.

Zelda 2: Amida's Curse

Spoiler

Zelda 2 is an excellent game. I’d say it’s underrated, but calling any Nintendo game – and Zelda of all things underrated feels oxymoronic to say the least. I will say it’s definitely a game awaiting re-evaluation in this post-Dark Souls era of gaming. It’s a metroid-like game from decades before anyone decided that should be a genre. It’s action platformer design flies in the face of its status as a Zelda sequel. Dungeon items and spells are all combat focused or serve as single-application “keys” to specific “doors”. But damn if it’s not a great showcase of NES action games. Its DNA lives on in the indie space too, perhaps best showcased in Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. Many have added QoL update patches over the years, but here is one case where somebody started from scratch in building a new adventure.

Amida’s Curse is set in a new realm separate from Hyrule. Link wanders in and must solve the mystery of this place before he can be let back out. When we stare into the abyss, don’t be surprised when the abyss stares back. The final dungeon is a standout horror moment that takes the “Dark Link” concept to a whole new level. The soundtrack matches the game’s somber tone wonderfully. The game difficulty is about on par with the original. Dungeon level design is way more intuitive and some of the strategy-guide-worthy tricks are explained outright by town NPCs. As long as you explore everywhere for health and magic extensions, you’ll make it to the end. Extra Lives are also recontextualized. Instead of giving you an extra life and disappearing forever, they add on to your extra life stock following each continue. That’s a smart idea.

My biggest gripe is the lack of a way to replenish your extra lives. With no random encounters, stopping in at a town to replenish health and magic is easy. But the only way to refill on extra lives is to game over my remaining lives and hit Continue. Doing this places me back at the starting area, and like Zelda 2 your starting area isn’t conveniently in the middle of the overworld map. It’s more a straight line to the end with branching paths. Thankfully this hack removes random encounters entirely, allowing you to explore the overworld unmolested and hunt down secret locations. The very first screen has a heart container that I missed on the first pass. You also get an item that lets you cross specific rivers and skip over several screens of enemies, but in general expect a lot of walking from point A to point B. I’ve seen Zelda 2 mods place you at the dungeon entrance on Game Over – that would have been a more suitable solution.

Don’t have a lot else to say. If you love Zelda 2, this is more Zelda 2. I like how early the Up Stab is incorporated into the game for puzzle solving. I like that dungeons don’t have strict formulas. Sometimes the boss is guarding the dungeon item instead of the Crystal, other times there’s no boss until you step into the next miniature dungeon and there he is. And yes, Zelda 2 will continue to stand as the best Zelda sequel. Quote me on that in May.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

Spoiler

I am also playing Resident Evil 4 Remake. It’s been slow going due to some real life circumstances but at 15 hours in I am loving every second of it. The baited breath experience of seeing if Leon says The Line, or if there’s still a Treasure in a birds nest right there. But also experiencing a new, unmistakably modern take on Resident Evil. The level design keeps a focus on exploration, yet still allows for easy backtracking and the linearity of the original game if you want it. Nothing is compromised in this translation. Like Resident Evil 2 remake, it was clearly made by people with a love for the old games as much as the newer ones. I was worried that this game might adopt a more serious tone than the original, but I honestly think it’s zanier while still touching up the broad strokes story with better character moments, re-arranged order of events, and incredible evolution of RE4’s gun-fu gameplay.

For so many years now the engineers at Capcom have stood at the peak of survival horror. This second golden age. Seeing a childhood favorite series rise once again to Triple A prestige every two years is surreal. Not at all different from God of War, Game of the Year 2018. But imagine if it was something even dumber like Gex or Warioware lining everybody’s GOTY lists. Capcom fans cry all the time about bringing back this or that beloved franchise, but now I’m starting to think they may have a point. Resident Evil can’t last forever – because nothing lasts forever. And Capcom seems to be developing all of their games on this RE Engine, even the small scale Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection. When I see this game’s gore effects, it’s commitment to ancient game design tropes that the development team believes in completely... I can’t help but wonder what would a Dino Crisis, Dead Rising or Lost Planet look like in this engine. Resident Evil can afford to take a break. I say this as a lifetime fan that has been pandered to for decades. I will never starve now that I have twenty plus Resident Evil games to keep me company. Remake Devil May Cry 1. Give us a third person shooter dungeon crawler Mega Man Legends 3. Take the fast paced reflexive gameplay of this game and do a Final Fight. I know Capcom can do whatever it sets its mind to. Because they just remade one of the greatest video games of all time, and that remake is also one of the greatest video games of all time.

 

Edited by Zapp Branniglenn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

April has been heavy on starts, light on clears.

 

Yakuza Kiwami 2

Cleared 4/11.

7, maybe 8/10. Mostly a downgrade from Kiwami 1 in terms of combat and story. But the return of cabaret club manager and the addition of Maijima Construction did help, and I ended up spending much longer on the game than intended.

 

Ghost of Tsushima

Cleared 4/19.

8/10.

This one's been sitting in my backlog for years. I had the story mostly done before the open-worldisms wore me out, as they are often prone to do. So getting back in and actually clearing it all was a big gaming milestone.

My third ever platinum trophy after 13 Sentinels and Spiderman. I do love a game with only completion/collection based trophies (no difficulty trophies) and no missables.

Gameplay wise, it's really just an above-average Assasssin's Creed game with below-average objectives. But it more than makes up for it with gorgeous scenery, a gripping narrative, and a unique approach to quest tracking/UI that more games should use.

 

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

Ongoing

Currently thinking 7/10. While the unique hybrid gameplay is appealing and the setting is interesting, there's also a lot that I don't like here. I don't like strict turn limits in strategy games. I don't like being rated based on turn count. Or poor allied accuracy that makes Xcom look generous. Or some of the mission design.

Also, I think characters are too disposable by design, so I rarely care about individuals. They have only the most barebones characterization, and the class-based upgrade system means you won't really develop carries like you would in Fire Emblem. They're basically only slightly better than Shadow Dragon characters.

 

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

Ongoing

An enjoyable 6 or 7 out of 10. Clearly held back by the budget/more niche IP. But I also think they care more about what they're making than Pokemon does. And as a result, I enjoy it more. Vaguely enjoyable mediocrity just seems to be the standard for monster collecting JRPGs (other than Jade Cocoon, which was exceptional for its time), and this is the least mediocre one I've played.

 

Neo The World Ends with You

Ongoing.

A strong 8/10. This is a damn good game that I ultimately think deserved to sell much better than it did. It's got a real sense of style, a strong soundtrack, a unique action combat system, solid puzzles, endeating characters, and an excellent approach to custom difficulty. 

 

Persona 5 Royal

Ongoing

I'm too early in to really appreciate how much has changed from the vanilla release. But to be clear, I think vanilla Persona 5 was already one of the greatest games of all time - a 10/10 masterpiece, and this promises to be a better version of that.

 

Assassin's Creed Black Flag

Edit: Cleared 4/29.

I'm leaning towards 7/10 so far. It's pretty uneven. The Assassin parts are below average for the series, while the pirate parts add a lot of unique gameplay. Trouble is, I'm not really the biggest fan of any kind of vehicular combat, so the naval combat isn't really my cup of tea. 

 

Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry

Cleared 4/30

6/10, maybe 7/10. It's a separate story now also sold separately, so I am counting it as a separate clear. As a shorter, more contained experience, it speeds up progression, tells a simple narrative, and gets the job done. Freeing slaves and killing slavers makes the whole thing worth it, and Adewale is a protagonist who is both generically likeable, and distinctly fun to play. 

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm playing my very first Mario RPG, Origami King.

Whilst I'm not a fan of this hand mode for having awkward controls, I love that battle system so much. It challenges my brain to put all the enemies to a favoured spot for me. Also the overworld and music are pretty.

It reminds me a lot on Bug Fables which was a really cute game.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/21/2023 at 11:22 PM, Fabulously Olivier said:

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

Ongoing

Currently thinking 7/10. While the unique hybrid gameplay is appealing and the setting is interesting, there's also a lot that I don't like here. I don't like strict turn limits in strategy games. I don't like being rated based on turn count. Or poor allied accuracy that makes Xcom look generous. Or some of the mission design.

Also, I think characters are too disposable by design, so I rarely care about individuals. They have only the most barebones characterization, and the class-based upgrade system means you won't really develop carries like you would in Fire Emblem. They're basically only slightly better than Shadow Dragon characters.

Yeah, I can definitely understand those criticisms. The poor accuracy at the start of the game meant that a lot of my strategies relied heavily on restarting from a recent save if I ever missed, which thankfully was easy to do since the game provides a lot of save files and lets the player save at any time.

Incidentally, all those things are greatly improved in Valkyria Chronicles 4. While the rating is still based on turn count, it is more generous and main story missions can be replayed. The accuracy is generally a bit better, and the side characters now have their own unlockable side missions that do a lot to help flesh them out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Yeah, I can definitely understand those criticisms. The poor accuracy at the start of the game meant that a lot of my strategies relied heavily on restarting from a recent save if I ever missed, which thankfully was easy to do since the game provides a lot of save files and lets the player save at any time.

Incidentally, all those things are greatly improved in Valkyria Chronicles 4. While the rating is still based on turn count, it is more generous and main story missions can be replayed. The accuracy is generally a bit better, and the side characters now have their own unlockable side missions that do a lot to help flesh them out.

I own both and will clear them *eventually.* The way I generally play games is to have a couple primary games and then one or more on the backburner when I need a change of pace. And this is one of those backburner games that I'll clear one bit at a time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I own both and will clear them *eventually.* The way I generally play games is to have a couple primary games and then one or more on the backburner when I need a change of pace. And this is one of those backburner games that I'll clear one bit at a time.

That makes sense; I've been planning to do something similar by getting the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection even though I'm still playing Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, although part of that is due to my right joy-con starting to drift, causing the camera to veer down and to the right every now and then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

That makes sense; I've been planning to do something similar by getting the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection even though I'm still playing Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, although part of that is due to my right joy-con starting to drift, causing the camera to veer down and to the right every now and then.

Oh, I'll probably get the MMBN collection when it goes on a good sale. I enjoyed the first few ones a lot growing up, and it's one of those rare series with no competitors/successors to its formula.

 

Joy con drift is the worst. I got it during my first playthrough of Three Houses, and I absolutely blame that on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which came out a week earlier and was the most aggressively button mashing experience I've possibly ever played.

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Oh, I'll probably get the MMBN collection when it goes on a good sale. I enjoyed the first few ones a lot growing up, and it's one of those rare series with no competitors/successors to its formula.

 

Joy con drift is the worst. I got it during my first playthrough of Three Houses, and I absolutely blame that on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which came out a week earlier and was the most aggressively button mashing experience I've possibly ever played.

Cool. I myself have only played the last two games in the series (5: Team Colonel and 6: Cybeast Gregar).

Indeed. Mega Man Star Force was somewhat similar, but it restricted the player to one row instead of three and was more about reaction than strategy.

 

Yeah, joy-con drift stinks. The last time I got it was last year; in that case, it was the left joy-con causing my character to constantly veer to the left. I don't think any one particular game caused it, but it became unbearable three quarters of the way through the base game of Monster Hunter Rise, forcing me to play 2D games and non-Switch games until I bought a replacement joy-con.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rolled credits on Octopath Traveler 2 finally, and I'm left feeling that it's sort of a modern take on Trials of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 3. Which is to say that it's a very pretty, compulsively playable game with a broadly charming cast of characters and almost zero narrative or combat depth.

A couple of the more lighthearted stories are simple fun, but all 8 are let down by their mustache twirling villains and the near-total lack of interaction between your party members. The combat runs out of ideas after you've recruited all the characters early on, with even less decision making in its class system than Seiken 3, and can be sailed through all the way to the end by spamming the same couple moves over and over.

The open world has perilously few secrets to find, both in the barebones dungeons and the narrow hub-and-spoke overworld, and actively punishes exploration by further flattening the already gentle difficulty curve. The 2 dozen or so towns you discover are impressively varied and lovely to look at, but for me the ability to shake down every villager for resources reduced them to giant compulsive loot boxes.

It's never unpleasant, there's always a clear goal in front of you, and you're always picking up more stuff. But there's not much to it beyond the comfy progression fantasy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haven't played much in the last few weeks but at the top of the month I did play

Mega Man Rock N' Roll

Spoiler

Among hacking communities and fan games, the realm of Mega Man is so large that it can be hard to keep up with. Though I suppose that's not dissimilar from the realm of officially published Mega Man games. Between Megamix Engine and Mega Man Maker, there's no shortage of tools to start making your own levels and publishing them. Simply playing the games is as straightforward as running the .exe file - no roms, emulators, or patch files necessary to play. And of course, shout outs to Capcom for allowing such expression of creativity even if they can't legally endorse or acknowledge it. If I worked at capcom, making a Mega Man game that competes with what fans are working on is a seriously daunting task. Take for instance, Mega Man Rock N' Roll. If you're a fan, you've probably got the premise just from the title. Doctor Wily's plans for world domination now have to contend with a new super fighting robot - Mega Man's 'sister' Roll. She lacks the powerful charge shot but has a tiny double jump for aiding platform segments and giving you a new means for dodging attacks that Rock could not. 

Mega Man teaming up with Roll is one of those no-brainer sequel pitches that you'd be surprised hasn't already been done in an official capacity - if only to have a title as excellent as Rock & Roll. Sure his name isn't "Rock" in English, but some jokes you can just leave for the fans. There's loads of cameos throughout the game's dialogue-less cutscenes. Even Dagger Man who comes from another fan game: Mega Man Super Fighting Robot. Stages will hide secret battles with other robot masters under Wily's control that will create alternative routes for you during the Wily Castle using their unique abilities. Teamwork becomes a sort of narrative throughline by the point Rock and Roll infiltrate from different directions and then come together with a unique forced co-op mechanic for the final boss.

As for the levels themselves, they're as good as one would hope from them. The Slide has a lot of applications, special weapons from one stage can be used to collect more items from other stages, the instant death hazards are threatening but well telegraphed. It's fairly light on level gimmicks and instead is more interested in testing the player's ability to jump and shoot. I love the weapon wheel accessed with the right stick so that you don't need to cycle one at a time or pause the game for what you want. And you're given the weapon energy equalizer upgrade from the start too. The special weapons are very potent in this game. I think Bubble Shield is perhaps a bit too useful with how much abuse it takes. My only critique is one I have of many Mega Man games: The Wily Stages feel disproportionately difficult to the robot master stages and I end up spending more of my play time there. 

Oh and of course the music is excellent. My favorites are Ghost Woman, and pretty much every Wily Castle stage's theme but especially Research Labs.

Fire Emblem The Binding Blade

Spoiler

After rolling through both books of Mystery of the Emblem, I decided I needed a break from Kaga. But oops, FE6 should have been called Fire Emblem AAR (Another Archanea remake) because wow they were being cute with these references. I first played FE6 back when we were waiting to hear if the Shadow Dragon sequel would get a US release. In that pre-Operation Rainfall world, we knew better than to get our hopes up. Fire Emblem was very dead, and it was up to ROM hackers to unlock its history and create new campaigns. Bless them. The FE6 translation was functional. As I recall, the House NPCs and supports were still in Japanese, but the core story was finished. This replay was a long time coming. It’s the first post-Kaga Fire Emblem. There has got to be some hot takes to be made here. I only wish I was more familiar with Thracia to connect all the dots. Canto, weapon repairing, and skills are gone. But Fog of War gets a second chance over Fatigue? Gross.

Returning to GBAFE is always an awkward homecoming. I grew up on FE7 and 8. And in several replays I feel like I never broke away from my casual mindsets and habits. The Rescue mechanic always takes time to re-acclimate to. Cut me some slack, I just came from FE3, a game with limited warp/rescue staves and no canto. So when a unit acts they STOP until the next turn arrives. It’s a very Golf-esque “Play where the ball lies” ecosystem. Rescuing is many things. It saves turns. It saves lives. It's a reused mechanic from Advance Wars that was easy to recreate. But now I appreciate that it's about getting units where they can most contribute. There is so little finality in your movements, everything is loose and allows you to switch up plans on the fly when taking an unlikely hit on player phase. I will never master Rescue as a mechanic, but I feel like I am only having more fun when I try to make use of it.

FE6 demands more of my attention than the other GBA titles. It’s difficulty curve is a Dark Soulsian flat line from start to finish. Map size is bloated enough to make me want to take a little break after each map. Enemy HP is bloated like FE3. Getting the double is easy in FE6 but ORKOs, even on Normal mode, are not always feasible even on good units. And what's with the random jerks carrying killer weapons in every map? I decided to go with the lesser played B route and Sacae route just to see what FE6 players are so damned afraid of. Sacae is not so bad. Nomads with +10 crit bows aren't so threatening when they're lured out by somebody with decent defense. The problems only came with Chapter 20’s out of bounds ballistae and siege tome users. I had no choice but to wait them out. 20X is another meme chapter that surely plays hell on any would be LTCer, but really the only part of it that bugs me is having a big rectangular river keeping your units miles away from grouping up. Once you’ve grouped up, the reinforcements that pop out of the tents are easy to dispatch. Overall I’d say FE6 map design is superior to what I’ve seen in Kaga era, it’s just heavily reliant on gimmicks. Said gimmicks definitely enhance the variety in gameplay but will occasionally fail to offer any counterplay opportunities. Like Fates.

FE6 might see a remake one of these days and I probably don’t have to worry about them maintaining the game’s core identity. I hope they expand the late game narrative more than anything. 85% of the play time is building up the major confrontation between our army and Berns, and yet we acquire the awesome mythical sword and defeat King Zephiel in almost back to back chapters (the sidequest in between them could have been anywhere else in the game's plot). That’s less time spent in Bern than the Western Isles. With all the regional disputes you settle throughout the game, there are obvious spots to insert Guinevere into the narrative –becoming the leader that Bern will need when the war is over. That would go well with some added chapters in the Bern arc where you’re liberating the people. At the very least have her speak with Elfin since they have so much in common. Slapping Echoes base conversations into the game would do a lot for most of the cast, but Guinevere and Elfin feel like they need special attention.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Left 4 Dead 2: I usually play this for a month or two every couple of years and it's been great, I really miss this game and I wish I had this game on PC. L4D2 on Xbox is still surprisingly populated it can definitely get repetitive due to only having 14 campaigns that you can blast through very quickly. Overall, I came back to this game to enjoy the nostalgia and just enjoy myself, which I definitely did. Pretty great game that I recommend especially if you have a group to play with. 

Edited by 𝙇𝙤𝙠𝙞
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wanted to play the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, but I wanted to purchase it physically to save storage space and every store said it would arrive over a month from now. I have been continuing to play Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, but joy-con drift has begun to happen for my right joy-con, throwing the camera all over the place at random moments and sometimes almost ruining the hunt, so I really need a 2D game to play instead.

So, I decided to play Ocean's Heart for the first time.

Ocean's Heart is a 2D Zelda-like; it's an action-adventure set in an island archipelago. I haven't gotten very far into it, but the game has been very good so far. The basic sword has easily the greatest range of any sword in a 2D Zelda-like or actual 2D Zelda game without being overly generous and the game has been paced well so far.

One of the reasons I started playing it is that the game was made using the Solarus engine: the same engine that I am currently using to make a 2D Zelda-like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Air Conflicts: Secret Wars (Via the Switch collection.)

I don't really play many flying games but it seems like a decent WW2 arcadey flight sim, I also like how it has more obscure parts of the war. (Such as Yugoslavia.) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Played through Vernal Edge, a metroidvania with smaller levels you can tackle in any order, like Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. While the exploration and combat elements aren't particular standouts, the platforming and movement are consistently excellent throughout. Almost like tossing Cappy in Mario Odyssey, tons of your moves chain together to allow you to access areas that initially seem far out of reach, and treasure is always well-placed to reward players who experiment with their many options. Constantly asking myself "hey can I go up there?" and finding that yes, you totally can, was a real joy.

I also really appreciated the game's efforts to make its movement/speed tech feel approachable for non-speedrunners like myself. Unlike backwards long jumps or mockballs or obscure out of bounds glitches, the core concept behind the tech is super easy to understand and execute: you just divekick straight down into any slope to get zooming. And once you pick up the basics, you start noticing how the level design is constantly offering up little opportunities for you to gain speed and chart a more elegant line through each screen. It's entirely optional, but the low stakes and fantastically zippy payoff do a great job of encouraging constant experimentation, and even when you're not powersliding it's still super fun just to imagine the other paths you could've taken through the levels. And then later on you learn to activate the same boost by wavedashing into flat terrain, expanding the possibilities even further!

Basic fights start to drag a bit in the back half, but the game smartly wraps up before it overstays its welcome and is bolstered by a string of great boss fights that carry it through to the end. All in all, it's an impressive debut for the developer, Hello Penguin Team, and I'm excited to see whatever they cook up next!

Screenshots:

Spoiler

cimMK5K.png

hY9sB8P.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/23/2023 at 11:31 PM, Hrothgar777 said:

Engage (if only there was a thread dedicated to these kinds of posts in the Engage subforum).

 

For now, crappy life circumstances limit how much I can play on it on a TV, and at this point the pleasure that I get from the game would probably be outweighed by the inconvenience of doing it on handheld (which is largely why I dropped Scarlet and haven't played it more than 3 or 4 times), especially with zero privacy unless I literally sat in my car, so I won't play a whole lot of it until life circumstances change.

But some initial thoughts:

 

-Being able to explore battle maps afterward is a nice touch, and it compensates for the smaller Somniel map vs. Garegg Mach.

-Either I've just gotten worse as a gamer or the battles are harder than in 3H. It's set on easy and casual, but chapter 5 was brutal. And it looks like there aren't plentiful opportunities to level grind either.

-For now I'm good, but I think sooner or later I'm going to get tired of running around the Somniel doing random crap for stat boosts. Which could be a problem if it turns out you need to keep doing that to remain competitive. Though, I didn't in 3H so maybe not.

-Yes, I'm going to keep comparing this to Three Houses. From the start I knew this wouldn't fill the void finishing 3H left, but I got it solely because it was Nintendo's successor to that.

-I hear outfits are interchangeable once purchased (haven't yet gotten to the point where I can buy one). Presumably this is gender-locked, but Clanne needs to be the exception to the rule. For me, that one thing would make this worth playing.

-The mother suddenly dying held no emotional weight. A random episode of Star Trek I watched tonight did a better job pulling at my heartstrings with the death of a random Cardassian old guy than the death of Engage's big heroine did.

-I get the feeling Engage is kind of modeled off of Fates. Even the "two retainers to the noble" thing is the same.

-I hope the jukebox has a lot of offerings, and that you can play them during battle. And if so, I hope they become available quickly.

-I was told money's limited here. That's also what I heard about Scarlet (is it a new thing with Nintendo?). Granted, I've always had way more than I need anyway because I don't spend that much (except in Three Hopes), so hopefully it shouldn't make a difference.

-Alear is frigging weak. Byleth and Edelgard were wrecking balls more or less from the start, but this dude has to fusion dance engage to get anything done.

-I didn't name him Alear. Had I done so, would the audio actually say "Alear" instead of the speaker going silent?

-The weapons triangle is back and that's good, but I'm not sure if I like the "Break" mechanic. At this point it's being used against me much more often than I use it against the enemy.

-I heard the baddies in this are kind of like Team Rocket. Hopefully that won't disrupt tension in the narrative by having them fail every time they try something.

So I stopped playing for a while, but I recently picked back up as I have a TV with privacy again. Just cleared Chapter 11 so I'm still mid-game at most, but anyhow here are a few updated thoughts.

 

-Chapter 10 was great. So far the game as a whole has been rather mediocre, but this chapter proved that Engage always had the potential to be more. Personally, I think it was the song that really sold this chapter; here, Intelligent Systems managed to turn the annoying theme song into something epic. I'm also a sucker for endgame "battle-hardened revolutionaries storm the palace looking to slay the tyrant" narratives, which this reminded me of for some reason.

-The aftermath and chapter 11 was pretty good too. I figured Veyle was just a copy of goldfish-chan from Fates, but

Spoiler

she also has an evil split personality.

-I had 1200 SP on Alfred, a maxed out bond with Sigurd, and enough bond fragments to get him up with somebody else. I really should've had him inherit skills while I had the chance. Oof.

-I turned Clanne into an archer and gave Framme Micaiah (though that's a moot point now). The two of them are my power duo, and I plan to keep them both regardless of whoever else I end up replacing.

-On that note, I still have Vander in my party even though he's way lower level than everyone else. I don't know if I ought to keep him or not. Armored lance guy with the constantly shut eyes is kind of dead weight too.

-The Somniel cat creature is like my patron saint. Everytime I return to the Somniel, the first thing I do is feed and pet him. Whoever thought to add sunglasses as an accessory, give him/her a raise because that's one cool kitty.

-Haven't done the tower battles yet. Hopefully that'll be fun.

-Doing skirmishes is getting to be more difficult, which probably means I'm not doing enough of it to keep up (lately, it's been only 2 before doing the chapter battle). Though to be fair they clearly upped the number of enemies too.

-I really thought I was going to like the after-battle exploration but instead it's a real drag. Man.

-Not gonna lie, Ivy's hot. Her dialogue and delivery so far has been pretty good too. I just hope she doesn't become an irrelevant background character now.

-If I'm not mistaken, next they go to the desert kingdom or whatever it was. Here's to hoping the second half of the story will be more exciting than the first. Though, I heard somewhere that the Four Hounds succumb to "Team Rocket Syndrome" and get nerfed after the first battle with them.

-Still not a fan of the name Sombron. Reminds of me of sombrero and makes it slightly harder to take this guy seriously as a villain.

Edited by Hrothgar777
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clear 21 - Doom 2016 (5/6)

So, I'm not a fan of first person game's in general, so I don't trust myself to give a confident review. My enjoyment was probably around an 8/10, but I can appreciate that this is probably one of the best entries in its genre. Meaty combat, metal soundtrack, impactful guns and melee, good enemy variety, and a length that doesn't overstay its welcome.

I really just have one complaint - first person is NOT a platforming perspective. Don't try to make it one.

 

Clear 22 - Yakuza 3 (5/7)

5-6/10. A huge step down in quality from the Kiwami games in every regard. Just a low point for the series. Weaker story, worse combat, aged graphics, and pace-killing orphanage shenanigans. The best thing I have to say is that at 13 hours, it was mercifully short.


Clear 23 - Assassin's Creed Unity (5/18)

6-7/10. I really wanted to like you. A return to an Ezio-like protagonist and a European city setting is exactly what I want from these games, but Unity makes it really difficult. I enjoyed it more than Black Flag, frankly, but the story was lacking, Arno is a majestic dipshit, and the lack of control responsiveness got me killed constantly. Most hits I took were despite me pressing the parry button. Most of my smoke bomb uses required 5-10 presses of the button before it responded. It was just unpleasant. And that's not counting the times where he'd just bug out and forget how to attack, block, or run entirely until I escape combat or die.


Clear 24 - Yakuza 4 (5/22)

8/10. I know this one gets flak for its multiple protagonist story being somewhat of an oddball. But especially after 3, this is such a breath of fresh air. Honestly, I think the franchise needed more playable characters at this point because playing the same character with the same basic moveset in the same locations that barely change from game to game does honestly make it hard to justify sequels.

Combat is improved, pacing is great, and Akiyama is one of my new favorite characters in the franchise in terms of both gameplay and personality. And frankly, I think the story ties up previous games wonderfully... even if Tanimura is a bit of a bore in general (and his final boss fight suuuuuucks).

 

Ongoing

Also still maintaining mostly-daily time in Persona 5 Royal, and doing an occassional ingame day of Neo TWEWY (like one ingame day after every game clear or two.)

 

I'd like to get at least one more clear by the end of the month, and I'm looking towards one of these next as achievable games to do that:

* Assassin's Creed Rogue

* Doom Eternal

* Dusk Diver

* Star Wars the Force Unleashed

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...