Soooooo what'cha playing?

[Lightcosmo]

Just finished the Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki: Crimson Sin. 

All in all, not a bad game by any means. Kuro combat is improved from CS tenfold so thats always a positive.

[Fabulously Olivier]

2 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

Just finished the Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki: Crimson Sin. 

All in all, not a bad game by any means. Kuro combat is improved from CS tenfold so thats always a positive.

I really am hyped for that game to be localized.

[Lightcosmo]

1 minute ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I really am hyped for that game to be localized.

I didnt understand a single bit of the story as i cant read Chinese, but the events had an interesting setting, at least. 

So i played it 100% for gameplay and the recurring characters, haha.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Currently playing Age of Wonder 4.

Making your own race with all it´s boons and whatever downsides are accompanied and seeing how you do is all pretty fun. Just finished a playthrough where my gold-skin angelic barbarian runesmith dwarfs tattoed with antimagic runes, equipped with magically guided seeker missiles and armor sundering weapons marched all over the map, accompanied by giant golden golems and weird angels creatures, whilst being supported by druids and summoning walking earth quakes out of nowhere. Yeah, that was fun.

But godamn the AI is weird. In the early game the AI will happily forward settle you - on higher difficulties especially egregious since the AI shits out units like nobodies business and they apparently get maphacks so they know exactly where you are. And in the mid to lategame they just walk around in one giant army blob which makes it diffcult fighting into them unless you happen to have tier 5 units for auto resolving or a ready to spend a lot of time finagling around for 30 minutes or more. Losing or retretaing is not an option, because both have a chance of dispersing your units to the nearest city after some turns or just straigth up kill them. 

And the victory conditions are nothing to write home about either. 2 out of... 4? conditions have you build 3 beacons, light them up/cast a spell and then wait 15 turns and defend against the spawned in (read: enemies being periodically spawned in near your victory beacons not  necessarily map AI) enemies and boom. Theoretically enemy AI will attack, but again, one giant slow blob. It is funny seeing them scramble to make alliances and denounce the one player who casts the victory spell - I think if your races alignement (good-evil) and essence (shadow, chaos, arcane, industrial, nature, order) align they´ll ally with you though. Then there´s your typical domination vistory and besides that you can put alternate win conditions, most often a certain prebuilt race that starts in a stronger position (starts with more cities, gets free vassals etc.) that you can defeat to win the map. These can bug out I guess because I conquered the enemies leader throne city (the only place from where your leader can resurrect) but the leader got killed by someone else and so no W for me. But thank fuck for those because they can dramatically cut down the time for on a map - getting a score victory (after 150 rounds or more) is tedious as hell. 

Some minor issues with the interface, mostly problems with clicking on the right unit, both on the world map and in the combat map.

T5 units and high level heroes are 🤌

[Integrity]

aow4 really feels like a game that's gonna be great in a year or two of patch/expansion cycles, and just doesn't quite hit the mark immediately

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

25 minutes ago, Integrity said:

aow4 really feels like a game that's gonna be great in a year or two of patch/expansion cycles, and just doesn't quite hit the mark immediately

and if your saves don´t get lost in the aether, thus wiping your profile and getting rid of racebuilding metaprogression stuff : /

+1 for rat tho

[Capt. Fargus]

I been spending a bit of time in the world of Heroes of Might and Magic lately. I've since discovered that HOMM 4 sucks royally.

Had to delete HOMM5.  Aint too happy bout that. Loved the game but saves wouldn't work for some reason and since I was running it with a PlayonMac app I couldn't figure out how to make em work. At least that freed up a little memory on the laptop for a couple other games I wanted

[Ace_]

I've been playing Pokemon Shield. It's a great game

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I'm out the other end of some bleak grown up stuff. So I'm regaining some normalcy with our regularly scheduled gaming

Fire Emblem: The Last Promise

Spoiler

I’ve checked out a lot of ROM hacks in the last year or two, but it took some time to lock down which Fire Emblem hack I wanted to play. I was actually there during the seminal ‘golden age’ of FE hacks 10+ years ago. Most of the attention went to translation patches of the Japan Only games, while the rest were technical showcases or barley-beatable gag maps. I wish I had heard of The Last Promise at that time. A full, finished campaign? That was the dream and I missed it. So it’s that seminal-prestige that drew me to playing it now over a more modern FE hack. It seems I’m not alone in rediscovering the game either. I’ve seen comments on FE streams and youtube videos that make it clear that the game has been reclaimed by our community in a more positive light. No longer “cringe” as the kids say. And have you seen the newest fire emblem? I would not want to be caught playing that in public. But I would flaunt The Last Promise if I could on the Switch. I like the over the top animations, the rare voice acting, even the story was inoffensive for how much it gets memed. I showed this clip to a friend, purely to poke fun at the music selection, and his response disregarded the joke and arrived at "this looks really cool".  I think I had more fun discovering what this game had to offer than any official Fire Emblem game in the last ten years besides Echoes. And I don’t think it’s just me being nostalgic for GBA era – I’m hot off a replay of FE6 and have revisited 7 and 8 plenty over the years. That novelty won’t impress me.

First thing that jumped out at me is the music. It’s pretty standard fare these days for ROM hacks to feature remixes of other popular game songs in the game's specific “sound font”. Writing original music takes a lot of effort for something the player may never appreciate. They made some great picks though. I wasn't playing Ys books 1 & 2 in 2012, but in 2023 I am well acquainted with the stylings of Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa. One shortcoming of the soundtrack is the distribution of songs. Most of the tracks you heard exactly once in the game are in Siegfried's campaign, when maps are over in 10-15 minutes. There’s not enough time to appreciate them, and they would have been better suited to the late game’s Hour+ length chapters. And all those unique battle themes? Sorry, I played with animations off except for Tekun and Kelik. A lot of that is gonna get missed by the type of audience who seeks out GBA rom hacks. I’m sure there was some consideration regarding which chapter had whichever song choice. For one thing, he went with You Will Know our Names for the Credits. That’s funny. Xenoblade should have done that.

Of course there were some dampeners to the experience. The Last Promise does not have the level of polish that official entries have, thus there were plenty of bugs ranging from funny to upsetting to game breaking. I’m pretty sure the Finale has a hard lock scenario, because there’s a door you must open with no droppable keys from the two reachable enemies. If you reach this point of the game with both of your lockpick users dead and no Door Keys sitting in your convoy, Game Over. Watch the ending on youtube. I wasn’t exactly playing an Iron Man, but I do leave my units to die occasionally. I guess that was a niche playstyle back then. Another oversight that I’m noticing now in my post-playthrough research is chapter 21. It’s a Survive chapter that you can end early by taking out the boss. I had no issues reaching him, but on Turn 7, you get 3-4 returning characters. And since I cleared the map before then, those guys never joined my team. And here I thought the script just forgot about them. Also, just a level design gripe. One of my low key favorite bits of FE7 is how you have to leave units behind to protect Merlinus. This hack has the same Tent, but he is almost never threatened which feels like a missed opportunity.

This being a ROM hack, there’s not a whole lot of gameplay information online in a digestible format. Some people on Reddit compiled lists of important notes since so many of the original sources have been lost to time, and I ended up being very grateful for them by the end. The difficulty spike in the final chapters is no joke. This is a hard game when you don’t know secret shop locations, or who can support with who. The in-game information is pretty unreliable too. One of the visitable houses mentions the concept of supports...several maps before supports have even been turned on. Weapon descriptions are notoriously unhelpful. Almost always failing to mention when a weapon deals effective damage – and against who. Or the little details that this weapon is magical, raises some of your stats, or even ignores enemy defense. You have to find all this out for yourself by testing.

Lastly, I want to mention that I stumbled upon this post from Blazer a few years ago. And it resonated with me. I too was a forums prowling dweeb in my youth with big ambitions. I was 12 years old when I began posting flash animations to Newgrounds, and 14 when one animation I posted was good enough that the site staff sent me and thirty other users a free Wacom drawing tablet to encourage promising creators to up their talent to the next level. It was a massive gesture at a time where my family was so hard up for cash that I was working (illegally at that age) to help pay off the bills. No way I could justify a 150 dollar tablet for my dumb hobby. That bit of notoriety was as far as my star shined though. I never made anything I truly loved, even at the time. I was a self-hating teenage creative with plenty of external hate stacked on top from friends and family. I walked away from my art and got irrationally upset when folks asked where I went. My creative spirit was stunted for many years after that. I guess what I wish most of all was that I made one thing that proves it was worth it. One thing to be proud of before walking away. Maybe I read too much into TLP's script, but I can feel the type of turmoil that would go into leading a project that wasn’t originally yours alone. The pressure of living up to a promise of an adventure that so many spriters had contributed to over the years. The leader of the Rebellion gets captured at a critical moment, and Kelik (the ‘Fairy King’ LOL) picks up the torch, even though it’s not his fight. Blazer finished the fight. I couldn’t. I’m not memeing when I say I admire that. I can only hope there’s time left that I make something with as much soul and talent as The Last Promise. “The Power is Within You”, after all.

Warhammer 40K: Boltgun

Spoiler

Since 2016’s hit video game DOOM, there’s been a bit of a renaissance right now in “Boomer Shooters”. DOOM clones that very specifically rif the aesthetics and design sensibilities of John Romero and Carmack’s 1993 masterpiece. It’s worth remembering however that Doom (1993) and Doom (2016) are different enough that they sit on opposite ends of FPS game design sensibilities. I want to make this distinction because Warhammer Boltgun is not trying to be Doom 2016. You might be led to think it is based on trailers and the game’s blindingly fast movement speed. But if you’re running up on enemies like you’re waiting for a Glory Kill prompt, you’ll just find yourself staring at a game over screen. The optimal playstyle for this game is to find some cover or a vantage point, plant yourself like a turret and glaze your mouse over the enemies. Taking a step left and right to avoid their slow projectiles. Only coming down to restock on supplies at Sonic the Hedgehog speeds that the enemy can do little about. The awesome charge move in trailers can OHKO the absolute weakest of enemies, but its utility ends there. I couldn’t even use it to push large enemies over an edge without careening myself off, and it straight up fails to work when going up or down slopes.

Even as a Classic Doom experience, this game seems to be lacking in some areas. I think having a sprint button in a game like this is a mistake already. But not having an option for Sprint Toggle is pretty obnoxious. Gotta keep my pinky finger on Shift at all times. Hit reactions are far too subtle. And no map. Even DOOM had a map 30 years ago. I wasn’t getting lost often, but sometimes you get spat back out into a central room with a key and it’s just like “ugh, where was the purple door?” My biggest gripe is just the passivity of enemies during a Purge sequence. Most enemies give up chasing you due to their slow movement speed and getting hung up on level architecture. A Purge only ends when designated big enemies die, clearly because game testers got bored tracking down every toad and gremlin. But even the big boys can end up behind a wall and leave you wandering for minutes in a quiet arena tracking them down. And they don’t make noise or attack until they have line of sight on you.

Warhammer’s been making big waves in its video game adaptations, and this too is a good outlet for our exterminatus needs. The gore effects are comical. The taunts are funny. And I never tire of seeing the phrase Contempt Full when I can’t pick up any more armor. The loadout of guns is a little too standard for how slowly they get rolled out. But some strategies open up with experimentation. The Aspiring Champion is one of the more dangerous enemies, but you can prevent his resurrection with the Volkite Caliver that melts their body beyond repair. I felt like the chainsaw melee attack wasn’t particularly useful, but it let’s you defy gravity and dash to a target up high. It also pauses the action when you hold down the button and can look around for an avenue of escape. 

So I’m sad to say I didn’t fully enjoy my time with Boltgun. It’s not the end of the world to be a just okay game. It's standard for quality reminded me of Space Marine on the Xbox 360 - also releasing at the peak of the cover shooter craze to be aggressively okay rather than shoot for the top. With this being a licensed property, a lot of people will pick this up as their first boomer shooter, and I kind of wish they got a better game out of it. This genre has so much more to offer. But on the other hand they may just love it anyway. Ultimately my misgivings on its game design I think come down to be me being hungry to pull off more Glory Kills in the sequel to Doom 2016. And I should just shut up and buy it.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Spoiler

The mid 90s saw the introduction of console FPS. Not just ports of Id-software games, but original creations built with a controller in mind and attempting to match the fully 3D visuals of Quake. Turok was one of these pioneers, released five months before 007 Goldeneye. And boy was there a difference in approach there. Goldeneye opted for tank control movement and auto aim amnesty. Turok has a strafe-lock scheme that matches the WASD keys of a keyboard – Using the N64’s C buttons. The control stick allows for turning and adjusting your aim up and down as the player is allowed to awkwardly circle strafe their opponent. I say awkwardly because it kind of defies all the console controls we’re used to. In Turok you move with your right thumb and aim with your left. I feel like I woke up one day to discover I'm left handed now. To even do something as basic as switching your weapon, you have to forfeit the ability to move, or else finger gymnastics your left thumb over to reach it the A and B buttons.

As a shooter, the control scheme is something that you can adapt to with time. But the game just had to be a platformer as well. You have to contend with more than a few extended platforming sequences, often with the punishment for missing a jump being instant death. The only lenience was that your jump input was still accepted for a moment after walking off a ledge. It's a challenging game overall. 8 levels, and the game saves more details than I'd like. Every enemy you've killed, every ammo clip you've picked up, and every bit of health is permanently used up. You can't replay a level to stock up, and once I realized that, I started to take the game more seriously to avoid an unwinnable save file. So I would casually run through a level until I find a major progression item, reload my save, then make the same trip perfectly and spending as few resources as possible. Run straight back to the save point with no detours. Taking mental note of health and ammo I could go back for later.

Playing this game alongside Boltgun definitely left me appreciating its DOOM-esque automap. It's very useful since the game's poor draw distance and lack of landmarks makes it easy to lose your way. The level design is comprised of sprawling rooms that splinter into a lot of dead ends. Plenty of health and ammo on the way to those dead ends, but it's only enough to maybe recoup what you have to spend on the way there. My ultra-conservative playstyle of perfecting the route dragged down the pacing of the game already, and this level design didn't help matters. When playing Turok on its original hardware, I can't say that I'd recommend it unless you're morbidly curious about FPS games in a single control stick era. As for the remaster, I'm sure it's fine for those that want a nostalgia fix of that game you remember renting that had the dinos. You won't have to to condition yourself to move and aim with the opposite hands either.

 

[vanguard333]

I just played through and finished Tears of the Kingdom. I didn't explore every cave or well, but I fought every type of enemy, completed all 152 shrines, did all the main story content and every sidequest that I found interesting. It was a ton of fun; the reused map still provided a fresh experience for me, but I am a bit biased in that it's been long enough since I played Breath of the Wild that a second playthrough of Breath of the Wild would be a somewhat fresh experience. I hope the next game uses a smaller overworld that can be more densely-packed, and I hope Link is left-handed in the next game.

 

I also finally started my first playthrough of Fire Emblem: Engage. I had been holding off on getting the game, despite being a big Fire Emblem fan, as I wanted to wait until I could find a copy that was either used or on sale. On the same day that I got Tears of the Kingdom, I found a used copy of Fire Emblem Engage that was on sale, so I finally got the game, and now I have started playing it. I just beat chapter 3, so I'm not very far in the game. 

 

Speaking of sales, when looking to get the expansion pass for Engage, I found Persona 5 Royal on sale for 40% off. I've gone back and forth on whether or not to get the game, usually leaning towards getting the game, so I decided to get the game since it was on sale. I probably won't start playing it for some time, since I also have Fire Emblem Engage, Ocean's Heart, and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak that I need to complete.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I'll probably have a bit more to add given I'm on vacation for the next couple days but here's what I've played since last time

 

25. Ratchet and Clank 2016 (Cleared 5/27)

9/10. Extremely enjoyable 3rd person shooter/light platformer/collectathon with great humor. 

26. Immortals Fenyx Rising (6/12)

A mixed bag, but ultimately a solid 7/10. Breath of the Mild. Great combat, enjoyable puzzles, atrocious platforming, and some funny jokes. There was absolutely something hella compelling about it though, because it was my 4th platinum trophy this year.

27. Oninaki (Cleared 6/17)

4/10, maybe 3/10. Nihilism the video game. No one has a personality. The story is soulless. The combat is unremarkable. The only things that kinda work are the art style and skill trees. Yeah, Tokyo RPG Factory games certainly feel factory made alright. Still not the worst game I've cleared this year. That's solidly Warriors Legends of Troy.

28. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Cleared 6/22)

8/10. This game had no right being as good as it is. It's authentically Mario, brimming with personality, has a great soundtrack, and is more than just Xcom for babies. I've never seen an SRPG function with only 3 characters, and you can do so much in one turn between movement, dashing, jump attacks, pipes, attacking, and skills. It is just so delightfully fast paced, while aggressive and defensive at the same time. Make more SRPGs that play like this!

On the negative, some of the enemy design is extremely annoying, and this game as the worst texture pop in I have ever seen. Entire objects were literally glitching onto my screen (in exploration and Tacticam).

29. Yakuza 5 (Cleared 6/26)

So, an ideal Yakuza game is probably a 9/10 in retrospect. But I'm knocking off one point for Haruka's part and 1 point for Saejima's part, because they were both boring as shit, and they were back to back so I actually had to take a break for a while. So 7/10 it is. 

The story comes together well, but I ultimately think it was too much Yakuza for its own good, and not ideally paced. Also, needs a lot more Akiyama. Every game needs more Akiyama.

30. TMNT Shredder's Revenge (6/27)

Enjoyably 6-7/10. It's fun, it's quick, it's full of personality, and it's authentic. But the enemy design is super cheap. They basically specialize in low to no telegraph attacks, and hitting you from offscreen. Also, it's really short.

31. Luigi's Mansion 3 (Cleared 6/28)

8/10. Fun, creative, brimming with personality. The puzzles and combat are both fun. Though frankly, some of the bosses really aggravated me. They love "guess which of these is the real one" bosses.

 

Doom Eternal

Abandoned.

7/10. Great gunplay, entertaining setup for a story. Basic enemies are fun to fight. But the platforming is even more frustrating, the difficulty is way too high, and the boss designs suck.

Ultimately, I drew the line at the Hellvire - a durable, teleporting summoner that infinitely spawns high level empowered demons. No thanks, fam.

 

Currently playing Ys 9 Monstrum Nox, Dusk Diver, Persona 5 Royal, Neo TWEWY, and Fate Extella. Also Diablo 3 when my friend is on. And I have a lot more that I want to play. They'll be talked about in more depth when cleared or abandoned.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[RibsChirino]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses: I'm "hunting" my own Custom Achievements for this and I'm 6/9. Already beat Azure Moon, Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind. Currently finishing Silver Snow and then I'll do a Maddening run (probably Crimson Flower) to get my 100%. LOVE this game so much, it's what brought me here by searching around.

Final Fantasy XVI: First playthrough. Started it on release day but I'm playing very slowly, like 6-7 hours in I think. My wife is playing a lot more but I don't mind as I'm super deep into FE3H. But so far, so good. Really enjoying the production, combat's fun too.

Octopath Traveler: First playthrough. Recording it for my Ribs and Chill YouTube channel. Like 20 hours in, all Chapter 1 quests done, about to start Chapter 2.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana: First playtrhough and really loving it! I can see why this is one of the fan favorites in this series. Top-notch combat and a beautiful atmosphere. Soundtrack is very good as well.

I also play gacha games but right now the only one I'm playing is Princess Connect! Re:Dive (JP)

[Perkilator]

I just bought Trails in the Sky FC for $10 on Steam and so far, I’m having a blast!

[Zapp Branniglenn]

The Legend of Zelda: The Sealed Palace

Spoiler

You know me, never miss a new Zelda. Tears of the who now? Here we have a 2023 Ocarina of Time ROM Hack that reaches the feature length of a standard 3D zelda. It’s connection to OoT is really hard to speculate on. This version of Hyrule is entirely new, but names for places, characters, and items are all reused. It’s like a remake of Ocarina, on the same engine as Ocarina. And in general the story is delivered rather awkwardly with every major character just talking to you telepathically from the sacred realm. Link only meets the Sages face to face when they’re handing over their Medallion. Edit from the future: This game's connection to OoT is actually a fascinating mystery you can solve only through use of the Mask of Truth and Mido's Song. Very worthwhile to seek out that lore!

Ocarina is a very special game for me, so I got a lot out of this hack and can recommend it to other fans. If you’re not especially fond of OoT, this game won’t change your mind however. It’s got the same awkward first person aiming. Plus a very slow, meandering start. The game starts you in some very large areas with plenty to see but little you can actually do. And the lack of minimap can make it hard to acclimate to a new area. It introduces no new items or enemies. The items are gotten in almost exactly the same order. It does update Ocarina’s boss fights. As far as I noticed they have the same damage and health, and yet I felt way more threatened due to new arena hazards. I was hoping for more dungeons that involve both Young and Adult Link, but that only happens once – in a dungeon that’s not mandatory to return to. There is however a greater focus on smaller scale dungeons similar to OoT’s Bottom of the Well. The hunt for secrets is a lot more engaging because they don’t rely on Ocarina’s reused rooms every time you uncover a hole in the ground. Definitely a better game to hunt for 100% compared to the original. And it maps the iron boots, hover boots, and Ocarina to the D-Pad which cuts down on trips to the inventory screen.

The dungeon design is the highlight of the Sealed Palace. My favorites were Dodongo’s Cavern, the Forest Temple, and the fourth dungeon that I dare not spoil. The level design isn’t stellar 100% of the time, but they’re doing some interesting stuff with OoT’s mechanics. Puzzles involving bombchus, killing a baby dodongo near an explodable wall, using a deku stick to light a line of bomb flowers on the wall – I didn’t know you could do that in OoT. The ass end of the game’s puzzles is just the platforming challenges. Precision platforming in OoT is clunky and there’s too much of it. If you need to carry a crate across the room, good luck because your first person view that helps line up your jump is disabled. It’s difficult to gauge whether Link’s abnormally large ledge grab range will work on any particular gap. After a while I had to stop asking myself “is this really the intended way of getting up here?”. It is.

The standard route of progression is also a little awkward. Remember how in OoT you’ll be exploring Goron City as Navi nags you with “I wonder how Saria is doing…”. And that’s the game’s only hint that you need to backtrack to the forest for Saria’s Song, and then play it for the grumpy Darunia? Well, the Sealed Palace is always like that. You're never pointed in any direction, but Navi’s always hinting you toward a major progression item, so you ought to seek it out before you’re partway through a dungeon and missing something. I’m very grateful for Navi’s help, but she missed a few steps. Like needing the Golden Scale from the fishing minigame to get the Iron Boots, or the Fire Arrow/Dins Fire to progress in the Water Temple. Even if the player did know what you need at all times, it would be a lot of inorganic ping ponging across the map. I don’t mind a few walks of shame out of these dungeons, but I’d prefer self-contained dungeons where what you need to explore it is either within the dungeon itself and/or required for entry.

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon

Spoiler

So FE11 has been my least favorite in the series since it came out. And attempts at revisiting it always ended within an hour. There’s clearly some baggage I need to sort through before I can properly critique it. I’m not the sort of person that ‘hates’ video games, and I recently came to the epiphany that Fire Emblem is the pizza of SRPGS. You can theoretically make a bad pizza, but it is such a universally lovable food. Nobody sets out to make bad pizza. When I’m dragging and dropping units in Fire Emblem, everything clicks in a way that it just doesn’t in similar games. I can have fun playing FE11, I just have to open myself up to it again with fresh eyes. And keep the hot takes at home, like how this game legit looks worse than a then-current Cell Phone game.

Of course I don’t replay a game without a purpose. I didn’t know it back when the game was relevant, but Shadow Dragon actually introduces new characters and entirely new gaiden chapters. The unlock conditions are just so obtuse that no casual/blind player has ever unlocked them. Chapter 12x comes right after you recruit FIVE new units, and they expected the player to have 15 or less by the end? Suffice to say, a lot of innocent people died on this run. I really cultivated my inner-psycopath in recruiting a new unit, then looking around for the nearest cliff to push them off. I also learned that the game pushes generic units with randomized classes and names into your army whenever you’re below an army size of 16, so I had to get proactive with my herd culling in every chapter. Do the Gaiden chapters improve FE11? Not at all. Shadow Dragon’s most appealing characteristic is its short length, so making it 20% longer serves no purpose. 24X is pretty neat. 10/10 would warp skip again.

The UI for this game is very zoomed in to the action, and with no way to adjust. The Screen real estate is 11 tiles wide and 8 tiles tall. Only units with 4-5 movement range can have their movement accurately gauged at a glance. It’s easy to miss or forget that enemies with 9-10 Move are waiting just offscreen when you only see 4-6 spaces around your cursor at a given time. If it weren’t for the ability to highlight enemy ranges this would be straight up unplayable. Tellius on the other hand is extremely playable without highlighting enemy ranges, so long as the map doesn't ask you to move southward. I’m also not a fan of the Enemy Phase Skip feature by pressing Start. Sure, it speeds up the gameplay, but FE11 enemy phases are already shorter than FE6-10 due to the lesser enemy density. And it won't fade back in to show a unit death or level up so you have to take stock of your army every turn if you rely on it - defeating its purpose of saving time. 

Okay time for a Let’s Say Nice Things about FE11 Paragraph. The Script has gotten a major glow up. I still laugh at the Yow! It’s an enemy ambush and Tick Tock move that Frock dialogue exchanges. The between chapter narration reminds me of Three Houses, except it describes events in the present that we care about and offers tips about what units to bring in the more gimmicky maps. Second is the music. The remake of FE1’s songs are all awful, no effort at all to surpass the original chiptune. But the new stuff definitely meets the standard for quality we expect from this series. I’m a big fan of A Hero’s Destiny. Great corruption of the usual player phase theme. This is the creative expression a Remake's OST needs. It's just understanding motifs and subversions. Finally, playable ballisticians are neat. The level design was definitely not built to accommodate being able to attack from more than 2 spaces away, but FE11, more than most FEs, is in desperate need of more interesting, unique units. And it definitely makes chapter 13 more of a set piece. Wish they added more enemy ballistae to counter fliers in the late game, but I don't think there's a single one that isn't an FE3 placement.

I’ve heard people say Shadow Dragon is a bad remake because it’s “too faithful” to the original. First off, which ‘original’? A faithful remake would have kept Weapon Level as a stat. It wouldn’t have the “Give this Silver Sword to Hardin” scene and forget to give Hardin high enough ranks to use it. It wouldn’t have gone against the game’s original balance by thoughtlessly adding mechanics like weapon triangle, forging, or Reclass. And it certainly wouldn’t have cut 50% of the content to sell as a separate 40 dollar game. But if we want to keep the discussion on game mechanics, the biggest loss is FE3’s dismounting. I don’t agree 100% with how FE3 implemented it, but FE11’s reclassing would have paired tremendously well with it. As would the new ‘Ledge’ terrain type that only infantry can traverse. Don’t want to use a neutered version of your units? Reclass them. It’s a baffling omission that would have balanced the game and made FE11 distinct from every other western FE all the way up to Three Houses. And Three Houses did dismounting even worse somehow, so it would have aged even better in retrospect.

After my blood soaked replay I decided I’d like to play again more seriously on Hard 5. For so many years this was touted as the hardest mode of any western fire emblem game, and I thought I’d give it a shot. Mostly to get a firsthand idea of what works, what units do you really need, what is worth forging. It was an iron man until chapter 8 ish when Lena died just as Wolf was about to really come online (Sedgar was long dead). And I knew I wouldn’t be able to push the game to its limits without her. 692 turns, 291 are just chapters 1-3. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s about as hard as Three Houses Maddening. Very different games, but the difficulty is all front loaded, and really comes down to how much homework you’re okay with. The only safe way through those first few chapter bosses is to break their weapon after half an hour. So why not spend an extra 30 minutes leveling up your units to 10? I didn’t, but I spent a lot of time in the mid game routing enemies with Cain/Abel, The Whitewings, etc that could not survive by the end. So much wasted time that definitely evoked The Monastery after the time skip. And while there isn’t a Divine Pulse, two battle saves per map means one hard save every ten-ish enemies. You can keep reloading for a crit or dodge for max degeneracy. And a successful boss kill shuts off the reinforcements, leading to an immediate checkmate on what is already the shortest maps in the series.

So do I like FE11 now? Not anymore than FE1 or 3, but I think I understand it better. I felt ready to stomach FE12, with Book 2 still fresh in my memory. I patched a ROM and oh my god what have they done to my baby boy. Dreadful, worst remake. Too much talking between chapters. Here, have 80 characters and 10 deployment slots. The Astral Shards are...and the map design is still...Not sure yet if I can push myself to finish it or write about it. This is painful to sit through. I may not come to grips with it for another 15 years just like FE11.

Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete

Spoiler

I generally point to the PS1 as being the best console for JRPGs. Quality, Quantity, just the sheer variety in game design on display. From cozy contemporary, colorful RPGs like we had in the SNES era alongside a ton of experimental junk we’ve never seen again like Alundra, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Xenogears. FYI: Lunar 1 and 2 handily fall into the former camp, but I guess that tracks, with them being Sega CD games originally. Lunar 1 and 2 both predate Chrono Trigger, technically. The only consistent knock on this era are the load times and localization quality. Translation teams at big publishers like Square and Konami largely still consisted of one overworked man that would quit his job after that Hell Project was over. So that’s why I’m a fan of Working Designs, who are responsible for dozens of mid-90s JRPGs we would not have gotten otherwise. They catch a lot of flak from retro game purists because they deliberately alter the tone of scenes and characters to be, in their eyes, funnier. And their notion of funny includes a few song/movie references and a lot of horny jokes that...actually would fly unnoticed in today’s JRPGs. Seriously, whatever you think of the artistic debauchery they get up to, WD localization are annoyingly ahead of their time. And I’ll salute their efforts as hard as I salute Ted Woolsey’s portfolio.

So Lunar 2 is another home run out of Game Arts/Studio Alex. Great artwork, sprite animation, and music. NPC dialogue is consistently fun to read. As a 2D RPG, it no doubt struggled to turn heads when re-released on PS1 in the year 2000. The Battle system is unchanged from Lunar 1, but spell lists are longer. Party members are all equally relevant yet the new equippable crest slots let you further tweak their parameters and spells. It does still have that issue where it’s hard to line up AoE attacks on enemies. Every enemy has tells in their animation that hint at what they’re going to do, but their target is totally unknown, therefore their position when your turn comes around is often unknown. That lack of information stunts the decision making possibilities but the deficiency of strategic depth doesn’t prevent it from being plenty challenging. Being able to save anywhere, and giving you plenty of warning that there’s a boss coming up goes a long way toward keeping the game moving forward after a game over. A simple change to your party’s formation and accessories can change the fight drastically.

The narrative is a bit more complex this time around. The villain is introduced extremely early to our heroes, but the stakes of his threat are left extremely vague. Somewhat forgotten as the main story path takes you down a linear romp through one town after another, learning their problem, then solving it. But even so, our party always has a reason to hang out together as they go through some satisfying arcs. Except for Lucia. A lot of the game’s mystery revolves around this character so I won’t spoil what her role is, but I’ll just say it was pretty frustrating and the unanswered questions were hard for me to get past. Ditto for another character from Lunar 1. His backstory ends up being quite similar to Hiro’s after the ending and I don’t think the writers once thought of making that obvious parallel. To get a happy ending, you have to do some overtime, post game.

The epilogue is pretty low effort. The most interesting part for me was just revisiting all the game’s locations and seeing what npcs have to say. The critical story path consists of just talking to certain minor characters, reuniting your party, then a couple of standard dungeons. There’s harder bonus dungeons with good rewards, but they’re not necessary to reach the Epilogue boss and ending. As far as post games go, it’s a little underwhelming. Then again I’m wracking my brain thinking of any other 90s RPG that features a post game at all. Pokemon Red/Blue opens up Cerulean cave after the Credits, but otherwise nothing in the game reacts to you becoming league champion so it’s a little debatable if that counts.

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Fabulously Olivier]

20 hours ago, Perkilator said:

I just bought Trails in the Sky FC for $10 on Steam and so far, I’m having a blast!

Oh boy. The end of this game and transition into the next is one of the most epic moments in gaming.

 

Anyway, last clear for June.

 

32. Ys 9: Monstrum Nox

Cleared 6/30

8/10

So, Ys 8 and 9 are to Ys what FE 9 and 10 are to FE. The prior game of each is a 10/10 masterpiece and the peak of the franchise, and the next game is just good-to-great. 

So, let's start with what I really like here.

The cast of characters is mostly better. This is the coolest version of Adol yet. Hawk is a fun, badass character who does a good job at filling the rival role. White Cat is fun to play and beyond adorable. Raging Bull is pleasant. I don't much care for Renegade or Doll. Usually with this franchise, I struggle to find a full party of characters I like, usually because both characters of one damage type are annoying (like Sahad and Ricotta for the impact type in Ys 8). But Adol/Krysha/Credo are all to my liking and fill the triangle. That said, Ys 8 had real quality where it counts - no one in 9 is as likeable as Hummel and Dana.

Movement and traversal are much improved thanks to monstrum gifts. The ability to glide, run up walls, and zip to grappling points helps make exploring fast and fun. 

As ever, the combat and soundtrack of Ys are top-notch.

 

But here's what I didn't much care for...

This franchise is all about the joy of exploration, and the dingy, repetitive city setting really makes the game feel one note until you start breaking out from it. And even once you leave the city, there isn't that much variety. The game essentially has a gray, brown, and green color palette with a little water, and one lava area. It's a real downer compared to the vibrant, original setting of 8.

The game also takes most of its run time to start picking up the plot. It reaches serious heights around Chapter 7 (of 9) to the end, but it drags before then. 

Also, the game seems bogged down in progress gates, and not in a fun way. A progress gate in 8 involved you exploring the island and finding survivors who could help open up more of the map. It naturally worked into the game. A progress gate in 9 involves either slowly grinding nox points from enemy spawn points or doing side quests until the game lets you do a Grimwald Nox and unlock more of the map, and I find it slows the pace considerably.

Oh, and also, the prison-exploration/puzzle bits with other-Adol are awful, and the game knows it because it lets you skip them if you die.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[RibsChirino]

Today I played a bit more of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana but sadly couldn't play much because I only game on stream and my internet crapped out today. I still managed to get another Achievement so I'm now at 9/54, plenty to do, about 16 hours in. I'm fighting Gargantula but I haven't been able to defeat the boss. Loving the game so much.

[shinespark]

Played through the new DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. It doesn't do much to change up the formula from the base campaign, and the new planet isn't quite so pretty as some of the other ones, but the core combat is still great and a couple new stage gimmicks and enemies add some much-needed variety. Notably the cannons that shoot you across the overworld have been incorporated into the levels themselves, and the movement options they afford are a really natural fit with the rest of the mechanics.

Also, I never used Mario in the campaign since the original game required you to use him for every single fight, but I tried him out here just to keep things fresh, and it turns out he's utterly godlike. His ability to trigger overwatch shots on his own turn, combined with his ability to earn extra overwatch shots every time he gets a kill, means he can easily attack like 5+ times a turn with a little planning, turning all foes beneath his gaze into dust.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Picked up Stellaris and i have no fucken idea what is when and why is who.

I think games of this size(?) would much benefit from dedicated tutorial missions and not an advisor that tries it´s best to keep you from flailing around too much. Unless I missed that option. Also possible.

[vanguard333]

I just finished my first playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage. It was okay. I'm going to eventually do another playthrough where I complete the DLC content, but, before that, I'm going to play a game that I was torn on whether or not to try, but I decided to get the game after seeing it on sale: Persona 5 Royal.

I know that time management is a big part of Persona games as far as choosing what to have the protagonist do in each time slot and stuff like that, so, to anyone here who has already played Persona 5, I have to ask: any advise? No spoilers; just advice that you either received before you started playing, or that you wish you had received before you started playing.

 

EDIT: I just started playing Persona 5 Royal. I am still early in the first month, so most of what I've experienced has been cutscenes and scripted sequences, so I really can't say if the game is fun so far since since it's nowhere near done with tutorials and such.

One thing I did personally find a little annoying is that the cat Morgana is the one that gets the "Zorro" persona. I thought to myself, "Why does Morgana get the Zorro persona? Why does the talking cat get the persona of a legendary fictional swashbuckling hero that was famously played by Antonio Banderas- oh, now I get it; very funny."

Jokes aside, I'm surprised that they were allowed to use the name "Zorro". As far as I know, Zorro is not yet public domain in most places; he will be public domain in five years, but he isn't yet.

 

EDIT: I've played a bit further in the game; still in the first month, but further into the month. I've been exploring the first palace, and I have been enjoying the game, but there is one thing I don't like: the player character can only carry up to six Personas at a time, and, unlike Pokémon, extra Personas are released instead of stored and getting a replacement requires either money or finding them again in a palace. I've come across at least a few Personas that I wanted to keep but couldn't.

Edited July 19, 2023 by vanguard333

[Fabulously Olivier]

I will almost certainly have Soul Hackers 2 and Borderlands 3 cleared by the end of the month, so I'm posting them in my monthly list and I'll just update with clear dates.

 

33. Dusk Diver

(Cleared 7/4)

6/10. So, this one draws interesting comparisons to Dynasty Warriors, Persona, and Yakuza (though Persona only because of social links and aesthetic). I've heard people say that it's more Warriors and the Yakuza comparisons are a stretch, but I'd actually like to assert that it's the opposite. Yes, it uses Light/Heavy combos like a musou game. You know what else does? Yakuza. Yes, it has pretty high enemy counts? You know what else sometimes does? Yakuza. And those enemy counts are much closer in number and individual durability to what is normal for a Yakuza game than to a Warriors game. 

And that comparison makes it easier to accept what the game is. Because a Warriors game with a single playable character would suck ass, even if it was only 8 hours long. This is why Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is such a low tier musou. But as a Yakuza style game, this is more normal.

As this kind of game, it's... serviceable. Yumo is a likeable enough female protagonist, the support cast is unremarkable but endearing enough. Some of the side quests are quirky and kinda memorable. Exploring the city can be fun. The stage designs are pretty basic, and the whole collect-a-thon aspect isn't too bad because you'll easily find enough dragon vein shards in the city to progress with minimal effort. 

Yumo's moveset is a mixed bag. I generally only found myself using the full light string, and the rapid hit Strong V, because everything else was too slow and ineffectual, and moved too much. But Yumo is secondary because the most effective part of your kit is easily summoning the 3 supporting characters to do attacks for you. Yumo's attacks are just a means to generate energy to use them.

If I were to sum it up, nothing about this was great or worth full price, but at a bargain bin cost, it also wasn't a bad use of my time.

34. Persona 5 Royal

(Cleared 7/7)

10/10. Persona 5 was already one of my 10/10 games. It is a game with stellar combat, story, characters, soundtrack, and UI. This version improves upon nitpick complaints I had while adding new content. The result is an even better package.

That said, Kasumi adds nothing to the story, Akechi's new content is pretty uninteresting because he's become a shallow character, and neither are playable for long enough to make a real difference.

The new palace is great, but the chill vibes really make it feel more like a midgame dungeon than a climactic finish, which could arguably make the OG release hit harder.

35. Outriders

(Cleared 7/9)

6/10. So, this one is a game that got worse the longer I played. It started out as a fast, fun, impactful third person shooter that I had an immensely fun time with. But here's the thing. It expects you to ramp up world tiers quickly and constantly, which causes the game to rapidly become more difficult than its ungenerous loot drops allow you to tackle. If you lower the game to a comfortable difficulty, your drops will be downleveled far beneath what you already have. In an extreme case, my first legendary gun was half the strength of the guns I was wielding two rarity tiers lower. Basically, I was only able to enjoy the game by giving up on the looter aspect of this looter shooter and racing to the end on a low difficult to experience the full dumb-but-enjoyable story.

I see why this game has still not turned a profit, and I'm not sad about it either, even as a fan of this much-maligned genre.

36. Infamous 2

(Cleared 7/16)

The definition of a 7/10 game. Fun enough but shallow, lacking in variety. It's a very early open world sandbox with the potential to be way more than it is.

Cole is an unexceptional protagonist, and I think he held back the franchise. His powers are one-dimension, and he has the personality of sandpaper.

A special middle finger to the story though.

Spoiler

The entire game, good choices were always associated with the attractive, good natured Kao. Evil choices were always associated with the greasy, annoying, immoral Nix. Except at the end, when Kao develops a fear of death that causes her to side with the villain. Nix sides with you against the villain, but not out of any moral redeeming quality of the character. No, that anthropomorphic hemarrhoid just wanted to kill the villain because he destroyed her army of murderous swamp zombies. Basically, fuck that character. She's the worst, and I'm glad she dies in both endings.

I get that Infamous' morality system is always hamfisted and unsubtle, but since they decided to give the antagonist a complicated moral decision, the least they could have done was give whichever companion you were siding with interesting moral reasons for being willing to make both choices in the end.

37. For Honor Campaign

(Cleared 7/17)

Unscored. I am withholding the score because the game is bluntly not what I wanted it to be, and I cannot score it objectively. I wanted a game with slow, defensive combat where you carefully block, parry, and attack with the game's directional block system. I got a fast dueling game with stupidly spammable guard breaks and unblockables. I wanted a big faction war where your choice of faction mattered. I got a glorified Soul Calibur where factions don't matter, and the Viking players always win anyway.

38. Yakuza 6

(Cleared 7/23)

8/10. So, my Yakuza journey is finally over until they add more games to the subscription service. Good. I need the break. This was my biggest gaming undertaking in a long time, and it was worth it. The story, gameplay, setting, and emotions of this franchise are all so wonderful and detailed, and I haven't gotten this sense of scope and continuity from anything since the Trails series.

This was at one point meant to be the end of Kiryu's journey, and if it had been, I think it would have been a fitting one. It was an effective tying together of all of his prior conflicts.

Needs more Akiyama though.

 

39. Soul Hackers 2

(Cleared 7/25)

6/10. Great combat, an effective twist on the Megaten formula. Basic map design. Boring story. A weirdly non-existent/ambient soundtrack. Mostly unexceptional characters. I like Saizo though. He's fun.

Overall, it's easy to tell that this is from the TMS FE team, but it is also significantly weaker than TMS FE.

 

40. Borderlands 3

(Cleared 7/27)

8/10. This game interrupted my rotation because it's leaving the subscription. But I'm not mad. It's fun.

The gameplay and mechanics make so many great improvements to the prior games. Individual loot and scaling are both wonderful additions that I never want to co op without again. Also, the loot is more generous, which is good. Skill trees are a bit more complex too. Also good.

The main flaw isn't actually the story, but the characters. Yes, Ava is annoying but she's honestly barely in it so whatever. It's easily the Calypso twins that hold the game back, and did major damage to the franchise. They suck, they're obnoxious, and I hate them. Worst villains ever.

 

 

 

Other games being played:

Diablo 3, Diablo 2 Resurrected, and Diablo Immortal. Yes, all 3 at once. But the context for each is different. 3 as co op and for fun. 2 Resurrected a bit at a time to clear and uninstall. Immortal during lunch breaks, trips, etc. to clear and uninstall.

Kingdom Hearts 3 - this one was started in my rotation before Borderlands 3 forced its way in. It will be resumed when I am done.

Neo the World Ends with You - a bit at a time, rarely. I'm not in love with it, so it's just a little palette cleanser after I finish multiple other games in my rotation.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[vanguard333]

5 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

34. Persona 5 Royal

(Cleared 7/7)

Cool; I'm currently playing Persona 5 Royal right now; I'm at 7/19 in the in-game calendar. This is my first time playing a Persona game and I have been enjoying it a lot. I admittedly have been using a walkthrough for some guidance, but I play offline and I know the game has a feature where, when the player plays the game online, they can see what other people recommend doing each day, so I'm only using the walkthrough to make up for not having that feature.

By the way, I do have one question:

Spoiler

I noticed immediately that Akechi said he heard someone talk about pancakes before meeting the main characters, when the only character who talked about pancakes was Morgana, who can only be heard by people who have personae. Without asking for too much in the way of spoilers, I just want to ask: is there a dialogue option where we can say that we figured it out because he mentioned pancakes?

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

8 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Cool; I'm currently playing Persona 5 Royal right now; I'm at 7/19 in the in-game calendar. This is my first time playing a Persona game and I have been enjoying it a lot. I admittedly have been using a walkthrough for some guidance, but I play offline and I know the game has a feature where, when the player plays the game online, they can see what other people recommend doing each day, so I'm only using the walkthrough to make up for not having that feature.

By the way, I do have one question:

  Hide contents

I noticed immediately that Akechi said he heard someone talk about pancakes before meeting the main characters, when the only character who talked about pancakes was Morgana, who can only be heard by people who have personae. Without asking for too much in the way of spoilers, I just want to ask: is there a dialogue option where we can say that we figured it out because he mentioned pancakes?

 

Well uh, let's just say you're way more observant than I am and caught something important.

[vanguard333]

9 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Well uh, let's just say you're way more observant than I am and caught something important.

I see.

In that case, do you have any advice for beginners that's relevant to where I currently am in the game (7/20 in the in-game calendar)? For an example, are physical-attack skills useful at all? I tend to avoid them because they cost HP to use.

Edited July 25, 2023 by vanguard333

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 minute ago, vanguard333 said:

I see.

In that case, do you have any advice for beginners that's relevant to where I currently am in the game (7/20 in the in-game calendar)?

I think that following walkthroughs/advice only dimenishes your enjoyment of the game, honestly. A lot of the fun of the time management/social side of the game is that it's where all the spontaneous gameplay/surprises happen, whereas the dungeon crawling is more linear and predictable.

 

Darts and billiards are pretty big additions to Royal though. You can play darts correctly to get 2 characters to max Baton Pass in one day, and billiards can increase your technical damage.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I think that following walkthroughs/advice only diminishes your enjoyment of the game, honestly. A lot of the fun of the time management/social side of the game is that it's where all the spontaneous gameplay/surprises happen, whereas the dungeon crawling is more linear and predictable.

Yeah, I understand; for me though, it gets a bit overwhelming. It doesn't help that, largely thanks to my autism, I don't tend to do well at dialogue checks, as my many failed attempts at recruiting personae (even with Morgana outright telling me what type of answers to give) can attest (I do succeed often enough to get enough useful personae thankfully, but I have had more failures than successes), so I mainly use the walkthrough for dialogue checks with the party and confidants.

Don't get me wrong; if I felt I was going to do another playthrough soon after this one, and if I hadn't already known enough about the game to want specific outcomes, I probably would've tried to go through this playthrough completely blind. Next time I play the game, and there probably will be a next time since I am enjoying the game a lot, I probably won't even glance at a walkthrough or anything like that.

Edited July 26, 2023 by vanguard333