What are you playing?

[Positive Touch]

rime is god of war with no combat. also it wants to give me feels but it doesn't feel like it really justified it. not a bad game so far but it doesn't stand out at all either.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Rime is a so-so ICO clone. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say it's anything special.

[paprikastaude]

The initial trailer was so cringey that I'm never going to touch it. Ripping off the Journey mountain (now with a nonsensical key-design!), taking the ICO aesthetic quite shamelessly - plus whimsical music!

ugh, pretentious knockoff.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Still plugging through Xenoblade Chronicles I'm in the snowy mountain area. I've gotten pretty good at the battle system, but because I can blow past most normal fights I'm underleveled for the bosses.  When I look online everyone keeps saying you need to be about within 4 levels of the boss. Argh. What a pain. The main thing is I keep on missing every 2nd or 3rd attack even after I do buffs. If I could hit, then no problem but from what I'm reading that missing is likely caused by being too low a level.

Which brings me back to Dragon Quest VIII I got the S rank in the monster arena so I got Morrie on my team now. But I'm at that damned god-bird fight and I'm a good 10 levels under what I hear other people have taken it on with. Looks like I have to grind here too.

[Mr. Gundam]

Seeing that Burnout Paradise announcement today reminded me of my time playing Burnout 3 back then so I decided to pick it up again

This game is just as great as I remember and holds up amazingly

I'd love a remaster of Burnout 3 or Burnout Revenge. Closed courses = good. Open world = bad.

[HardcoreRetro]

About to give the Assassin's Creed Origins Discovery Tour a try. Can't wait to be disappointed, uninstall the game and shove it into the cupboard with all the other stuff I'm never playing again.

[CrazyDiamond]

I'd love a remaster of Burnout 3 or Burnout Revenge. Closed courses = good. Open world = bad.

Was Paradise bad? I only played 3 but every time I see people talking about this series they seem to agree that 3's the best

[Mr. Gundam]

I'd love a remaster of Burnout 3 or Burnout Revenge. Closed courses = good. Open world = bad.

Was Paradise bad? I only played 3 but every time I see people talking about this series they seem to agree that 3's the best

Paradise was a cool idea but it required you to memorize courses or you'd take the wrong turn and fall out of races.

I just wanted some closed course racing.

[paprikastaude]

I liked NfS Most Wanted reboot which iirc was like Burnout Paradise

[CrazyDiamond]

Back then I got the feeling that they wanted to go the NFS route with the open world, Underground 1 and 2 are like that too. I guess that's typical of EA. Though I'm pretty sure in NSF they closed off the paths you're not supposed to take.

[paprikastaude]

Still, rereleasing remastering yet another already HD-game like Paradise instead of the OG trilogy

[I'm a Puppy!]

Burnout 3

[bdoughty]

Skyrim SE and Fallout 4 on Xbox One X in the glorious 4K update. Which basically broke both games and slowed everyting to a crawl. Thanks Todd.  MS should have made a 1080p/60FPS option mandatory to go along with the 4K. Witcher 3 did it and only took 550MB update for both 4K/30 and 1080p/60.  Fallout alone dumped an extra 20 GB to get a shitter version of the game.  Throw in a few graphical mods and you are screwed.

So unless they patch that disaster. Just Rocket League and Cities Skyline.

[bdoughty]

In the meantime I'm also playing Fallout 4.

If you could care less about achievements there are some great mods that will save you some time and make building things much more enjoyable and not break the immersion too much.

SEO - Place a wireless fusebox anywhere in a settlement and it covers the whole settlement. No more running wires, with a couple exceptions. Of course a simple cheat mod can grant you any of the crafting items (as little or as much as you want)

https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4045054

See-Through-Scopes - Will make using a Sniper Rifle far more enjoyable as it removes the fade to black while zooming. Also adds better zoom on most base game guns. DLC Scopes are also viable from the same guy. I run the whole game with the Nuka World DLC Handmade auto rifle (7.62 round) and play a VATS free with it a 10mm pistol and combat shotgun.

https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/969715

FUCK. LOOKING. FOR. DUCT. TAPES.

Grow lots of Corn. Tato, Mutfruit and have some purified water. Go to cooking station and it creates Vegetable starch which makes 5 adhesive when scrapped to the workbench.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vegetable_starch

[eleuin]

Beat Bloodborne

Lvl 80 at the end. I think out of all souls games I missed the most stuff here on my first playthrough. Didn't know how to get in the area after Healing Church Workshop.
Met NPCs but didn't know how to advance their storylines.

Sent the cannibal dude back to the Chapel but he merked the guy who asked me to find people and disappeared a little later.
There was that lady in hypogean gaol but she wouldn't move and then was gone too

Also realized I missed all of the Old Hunter DLC, didn't think things through before ending the game 

Ending

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chose to submit, knew refusing meant a boss fight but that didn't mean much to me. I didn't even think of consuming the umbilical cords so I'm glad my character avoided becoming the new watcher.
Mergo's Wet Nurse as a final boss fight was kind of underwhelming but so were Gwyn and Nashandra so it's w/e

[close]

Overall really enjoyed my time. The focus on aggression was a welcome change. The trick weapon mechanic was cool, just wish I found more skill scaling weapons
Went most of the game using the thread cane, later on adding the axe and Tonitrus

It was definitely on the easier side, never felt the need to call on help after the first two bosses (which I beat with a friend years ago)

Not sure if I'll ever go through NG+ though, these games are exhausting. Chalice dungeon progress carrying over is a nice touch at least

Still have to replay DS2 to go through the DLC and the whole of DS3 after stopping quite early on

[Cerveza mas fina]

Wait you didnt fight the final boss of Bloodborne? I wouldnt call that beating it tbf as the final boss is pretty damn hard

I guess officialy its an ending but...

[bdoughty]

Find a legendary two-shot weapon and you can pretty much dump all those Stimpacks. Trade them in for Rad-X and Radaway if you are planning to do Far Harbor (DLC).

[demi]

Beat Bloodborne

Lvl 80 at the end. I think out of all souls games I missed the most stuff here on my first playthrough. Didn't know how to get in the area after Healing Church Workshop.
Met NPCs but didn't know how to advance their storylines.

Sent the cannibal dude back to the Chapel but he merked the guy who asked me to find people and disappeared a little later.
There was that lady in hypogean gaol but she wouldn't move and then was gone too

Also realized I missed all of the Old Hunter DLC, didn't think things through before ending the game 

Ending

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chose to submit, knew refusing meant a boss fight but that didn't mean much to me. I didn't even think of consuming the umbilical cords so I'm glad my character avoided becoming the new watcher.
Mergo's Wet Nurse as a final boss fight was kind of underwhelming but so were Gwyn and Nashandra so it's w/e

[close]

Overall really enjoyed my time. The focus on aggression was a welcome change. The trick weapon mechanic was cool, just wish I found more skill scaling weapons
Went most of the game using the thread cane, later on adding the axe and Tonitrus

It was definitely on the easier side, never felt the need to call on help after the first two bosses (which I beat with a friend years ago)

Not sure if I'll ever go through NG+ though, these games are exhausting. Chalice dungeon progress carrying over is a nice touch at least

Still have to replay DS2 to go through the DLC and the whole of DS3 after stopping quite early on

You didnt beat Bloodborne btw

Still missing 2 boss fights (that are way better than Mergos Wet Nurse)

[Bebpo]

Chalice dungeons are crap though. It's shit they hid some of the best optional bosses down there where you gotta grind all these dumb floors. Bloodborne's one of my favorite games of the last decade, especially with Old Hunters which was so.good, but I did a few bosses in Chalice dungeons and shelved it at that point.

If they're making a BB2, hope they ditch the chalice dungeon mechanic and just integrate as many great bosses as possible into the world.

[Raist]

[chronovore]

LOL

Acting like you need an emotional support animal just to play Bloodborne RIP

--------


I finished Call of Duty WW2 - singleplayer was actually pretty good. Going to dive into multiplayer and zombies next

It might be nice if they walked you through equipping your weapons. It intentionally kills the player-character so the player goes to the idyllic church area for hints, where they can pick up weapons, but nothing is equipped, and the instruction refers to the inventory menu, not the equip menu, trash.gifX100

[seagrams hotsauce]

Playing through Pikmin for the first time in almost two decades and boy, these little fuckers sure get distracted a lot easier than I remember.

[eleuin]

Well damn if the DLC is that good guess I'll have to run through things quickly and actually beat the game

Learning that chalice difficulty is independent of NG+ is nice to know too

[paprikastaude]

I finished BB blind in like 23 hours and then did the rest in NG+ with a guide. I'm surprised I got to the snow area without help.

[Cerveza mas fina]

LOL

Acting like you need an emotional support animal just to play Bloodborne RIP

--------


I finished Call of Duty WW2 - singleplayer was actually pretty good. Going to dive into multiplayer and zombies next

It might be nice if they walked you through equipping your weapons. It intentionally kills the player-character so the player goes to the idyllic church area for hints, where they can pick up weapons, but nothing is equipped, and the instruction refers to the inventory menu, not the equip menu, trash.gifX100

Have to agree here, souls game are obtuse to a point of many things jusy not making sense

My biggest gripe is things like “be in the church at sundown on tuesday and consume a strawberry while having the pom pom equipped to open a portal” like who stumbles on this shit by chance

[HardcoreRetro]

My biggest gripe is things like “be in the church at sundown on tuesday and consume a strawberry while having the pom pom equipped to open a portal” like who stumbles on this shit by chance

Dodongo Dislikes Smoke.

[kingv]

LOL

Acting like you need an emotional support animal just to play Bloodborne RIP

--------


I finished Call of Duty WW2 - singleplayer was actually pretty good. Going to dive into multiplayer and zombies next

It might be nice if they walked you through equipping your weapons. It intentionally kills the player-character so the player goes to the idyllic church area for hints, where they can pick up weapons, but nothing is equipped, and the instruction refers to the inventory menu, not the equip menu, trash.gifX100

Have to agree here, souls game are obtuse to a point of many things jusy not making sense

My biggest gripe is things like “be in the church at sundown on tuesday and consume a strawberry while having the pom pom equipped to open a portal” like who stumbles on this shit by chance

“Wtf do I do with all of these cancerous ovaries?”

“OMG, you haven’t even REALLY beat the game!”

[Bebpo]

LOL

Acting like you need an emotional support animal just to play Bloodborne RIP

--------


I finished Call of Duty WW2 - singleplayer was actually pretty good. Going to dive into multiplayer and zombies next

It might be nice if they walked you through equipping your weapons. It intentionally kills the player-character so the player goes to the idyllic church area for hints, where they can pick up weapons, but nothing is equipped, and the instruction refers to the inventory menu, not the equip menu, trash.gifX100

Have to agree here, souls game are obtuse to a point of many things jusy not making sense

My biggest gripe is things like “be in the church at sundown on tuesday and consume a strawberry while having the pom pom equipped to open a portal” like who stumbles on this shit by chance

This is BS, souls games are pretty straightforward. You literally are just walking down one path, if it branches or you explore the branches will come back to where you were, or somewhere else you've been or a dead end with an item, and there's always just one path forward and you fight the bosses in order generally. I've never heard of anything like the bolded having gone through all of them. Maybe some easter egg stuff?

Playing Monster Hunter, the game is way more obtuse than any souls game.

[etiolate]

Playing the latest Astroneer patch. Game is still in early access. They changed a lot of the art and redid the base building system a bit. They made it so you must research tethers before using them which is a huge pain since they are the most basic and necessary tool for the game. The game doesn't really function without them. Other changes I generally like. The bigger habitat makes keeping power up much easier.

[Nintex]

Finished Twilight Princess HD.

Found all heart containers, Poe's and Stamps too.
Easily one of my favorite Zelda game still.

The story has much more emphasis than in most other Zelda-games and the character building (especially of Midna) is quite well done for a Zelda game.
In fact, almost every character is 'interesting' in a way, except for maybe the Ordon Villagers.

The dungeons are mostly all great. The Temple of Time is a bit too simplistic I think but overall it has some of the best dungeons in the series. Not just the regular fire/water etc. too but stuff like the Ice Mansion and Arbiters Grounds.

Bosses... visually and technically spectacular. The way you have to use items in clever ways too beat them. But overall the bosses aren't aggressive enough. They're mostly designed like puzzles that shoot occasional projectiles rather than aggressive beasts that actually want to kill you.

Compared to many other games with multiple forms/control/gameplay mechanics (like the 'Werehog' lol) the Wolf in Twilight Princess is done really well. Although the move set is fairly limited it does give Link a bunch of new abilities to work with.

I thought it would be a drag to play this after Breath of the Wild but I greatly enjoyed it and rediscovered why I liked this game so much when it came out.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Started Grim Dawn again after a 2 year break because I fucked up a build.

Not going to fuck it up now on this fresh start.

Game looks a lot better too on my new pc.

[Cerveza mas fina]

LOL

Acting like you need an emotional support animal just to play Bloodborne RIP

--------


I finished Call of Duty WW2 - singleplayer was actually pretty good. Going to dive into multiplayer and zombies next

It might be nice if they walked you through equipping your weapons. It intentionally kills the player-character so the player goes to the idyllic church area for hints, where they can pick up weapons, but nothing is equipped, and the instruction refers to the inventory menu, not the equip menu, trash.gifX100

Have to agree here, souls game are obtuse to a point of many things jusy not making sense

My biggest gripe is things like “be in the church at sundown on tuesday and consume a strawberry while having the pom pom equipped to open a portal” like who stumbles on this shit by chance

This is BS, souls games are pretty straightforward. You literally are just walking down one path, if it branches or you explore the branches will come back to where you were, or somewhere else you've been or a dead end with an item, and there's always just one path forward and you fight the bosses in order generally. I've never heard of anything like the bolded having gone through all of them. Maybe some easter egg stuff?

Playing Monster Hunter, the game is way more obtuse than any souls game.

Yeah im not talking about just playing through the game, but getting some stuff or materials etc.

[kingv]

Finished Twilight Princess HD.

Found all heart containers, Poe's and Stamps too.
Easily one of my favorite Zelda game still.

The story has much more emphasis than in most other Zelda-games and the character building (especially of Midna) is quite well done for a Zelda game.
In fact, almost every character is 'interesting' in a way, except for maybe the Ordon Villagers.

The dungeons are mostly all great. The Temple of Time is a bit too simplistic I think but overall it has some of the best dungeons in the series. Not just the regular fire/water etc. too but stuff like the Ice Mansion and Arbiters Grounds.

Bosses... visually and technically spectacular. The way you have to use items in clever ways too beat them. But overall the bosses aren't aggressive enough. They're mostly designed like puzzles that shoot occasional projectiles rather than aggressive beasts that actually want to kill you.

Compared to many other games with multiple forms/control/gameplay mechanics (like the 'Werehog' lol) the Wolf in Twilight Princess is done really well. Although the move set is fairly limited it does give Link a bunch of new abilities to work with.

I thought it would be a drag to play this after Breath of the Wild but I greatly enjoyed it and rediscovered why I liked this game so much when it came out.

I was playing TP HD when botw came out and I don’t think I could ever go back. The way the dialogue/tutorial is done is just painful to me. It’s like it’s set up to slow you down on purpose or something.

[desert punk]

Yep, the TP tutorial sucks ass

When I was playing it the first time I fell asleep sooo many times during those shitty first hours. I was so close to ditching the game, but thankfully I persevered. Tutorial aside, it's an almost perfect successor to the OoT formular and my favorite 3D-Zelda, though childhood nostalgia demands that I put Link's Awakening on my private pedestal (haven't played Breath of the Wild yet).

Tried playing TP on Dolphin sometime last year, but didn't make it through the tutorial this time

If they ever decide to port it to the Switch, I'll try it out again maybe...

[Positive Touch]

breath is so good it makes me want to give twilight a second shot and play skyward for the first time. i know i'd prolly get fed up with both, but still....

[paprikastaude]

First 45 mins are shit, but once you're the wolf it's the GOAT (behind MM)

Breath of the Wild starting area isn't that great either tbh. And after BotW's tutorial, it's not like it ever has anything that could compete with TP's dungeons, gamedesign-wise.

[Positive Touch]

:shrug i'll take breath's freeform exploration over yet another oot-by-numbers any day of the week. i was bored with twilight the first time around because it had the been there done that feeling all through it.

[desert punk]

The reason I haven't tried out BotW yet is that I'm skeptical about the open world gameplay (and the breakable gear). I wouldn't have minded another OoT approach in the vein of TP. I mean it's not that Zelda games are being released on a yearly basis like your average Ubi title, so I don't know how you can get bored of them, unless you replay them all to death.

Not that I begrude them for trying out something new. I'm just weary of that trend of turning everything into an open world...

[Bebpo]

I'm mixed on open world games. I like the concept, but I hate big open worlds with nothing to do and copy/paste shit everywhere aka Bethesda. I like real world open worlds that give cool virtual tourism + lots of things to do with Watchdogs 2 or GTAV.

I loved Zelda BoTW's open world. I think a big part of it is the traversal and being able to go anywhere and climb anything. There's lots of hidden stuff to find everywhere, so if you see something and explore it, chances are there will be something there to reward you for it, which is how open world should be in games. Also I liked that the "dungeon" of some of the story arcs was more "how do I get to point B" and you just find a path. It's really excellent game design. Plus all the dungeons were pretty good, even though there aren't many.

Anyhow, as someone that hates crafting/survival games and bland open worlds, BoTW was my favorite game of all last year. So yeah, you should play it.


For the sequel I just want more dungeons like how TP delivered. Give me 8-10 good dungeons + all the cool open world stuff from BoTW and maybe 4 more tools and we got a perfect Zelda.

[paprikastaude]

I wanted the series to change and don't even need it to go back to the old formula. But the old formula is still more enjoyable right now 
But then again, semi-linear AA's are the best. Give me all the Okami, Beyond Good & Evil, Nier 1...

[Let's Cyber]

I put around 12ish hours into Subnautica this week.

There is a lot to learn in the beginning. It is easy to get overwhelmed with all the inventory management but I'm starting to enjoy it after I crafted a vehicle. Some of the biomes at lower depths are really cool visually.

[seagrams hotsauce]

Just wait til you get to the Lost River and the ILZ and stuff. Have you run into any Leviathans yet?

[bork]

I seem to be addicted to Dragon Quest Builders.  Had the last few days off (and am off today, too!) and spent entirely too much time playing the game.  Every time I play it I completely lose track of the time...started playing it last night around 8-9 and the next thing I knew it was almost four in the morning. 

Cleared Chapter 1.  It was pretty easy and I only got "stuck" on one thing- the double-jump boots.  Searched and searched every cave for their location (it's random) and could not find it.  Spent maybe two hours today combing through everything again before the boss fight and finally found them...only to realize that when you go to Chapter 2 you lose everything and have to start all over. 


I still ended up playing the game for a while tonight but now I dunno.  Whatever magic the first chapter had is starting to wear off and I don't know if I'm going to want to do this again for another chapter or two, at least not without a bit of a break.

[Let's Cyber]

Just wait til you get to the Lost River and the ILZ and stuff. Have you run into any Leviathans yet?

I just ran into some Reefbacks, they're pretty awesome. Something on their backs shot me with darts and killed me, though. 

[seagrams hotsauce]

Just wait til you get to the Lost River and the ILZ and stuff. Have you run into any Leviathans yet?

I just ran into some Reefbacks, they're pretty awesome. Something on their backs shot me with darts and killed me, though. 

Oh, you've got some neat stuff in store. I really love the atmosphere of the game. The inventory management is indeed terrible, especially in the beginning, but once you get enough resources to get a decent base the difficulty curve drops a lot. My one major complain is there's no periodic autosave.

The way the story unfolds is interesting, though a little obtuse from time to time. I'm towards the end of the game right now, and there have been a couple points where I've gone to the wiki to figure out what's next when there's no obvious next goal.

[HardcoreRetro]

Finished listening to the tours in AC Origins.

Eh, read the wiki page instead.

[Positive Touch]

I seem to be addicted to Dragon Quest Builders.  Had the last few days off (and am off today, too!) and spent entirely too much time playing the game.  Every time I play it I completely lose track of the time...started playing it last night around 8-9 and the next thing I knew it was almost four in the morning. 

Cleared Chapter 1.  It was pretty easy and I only got "stuck" on one thing- the double-jump boots.  Searched and searched every cave for their location (it's random) and could not find it.  Spent maybe two hours today combing through everything again before the boss fight and finally found them...only to realize that when you go to Chapter 2 you lose everything and have to start all over. 


I still ended up playing the game for a while tonight but now I dunno.  Whatever magic the first chapter had is starting to wear off and I don't know if I'm going to want to do this again for another chapter or two, at least not without a bit of a break.

keep going. there's enough variety in the chapters that it makes them feel unique instead of entirely starting over (although ch 3 is kind of a slog imo).

[Svejk]

I seem to be addicted to Dragon Quest Builders.  Had the last few days off (and am off today, too!) and spent entirely too much time playing the game.  Every time I play it I completely lose track of the time...started playing it last night around 8-9 and the next thing I knew it was almost four in the morning. 

Cleared Chapter 1.  It was pretty easy and I only got "stuck" on one thing- the double-jump boots.  Searched and searched every cave for their location (it's random) and could not find it.  Spent maybe two hours today combing through everything again before the boss fight and finally found them...only to realize that when you go to Chapter 2 you lose everything and have to start all over. 


I still ended up playing the game for a while tonight but now I dunno.  Whatever magic the first chapter had is starting to wear off and I don't know if I'm going to want to do this again for another chapter or two, at least not without a bit of a break.

Yep.. And it happens again when you get to Chapter 3.     I never knew about double jump boots though...  I found the boots that don't hurt you when you fall from high places, but that's it. 

 A part of me just wants to just hold off on this one and wait for the next installment to see what all they improve on.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I really loved DQB but I'll agree that I bet that the sequel will be much better.

I didn't mind the having to start over again thing. I find each chapter does a good job of posing new challenges, though I will say Chapter 3 does make it a little long in the tooth. But you do get canons and a motorbike so...

[chronovore]

Well I finished Grimrock 2...

(Image removed from quote.)

Problem is the last boss summoned dozens of monsters I have never seen before and I know I did not enter one Pyramid cause I can't figure out how... so I checked the FAQ and lo & behold I missed aroune 20% of the game, literally (5 maps).

Jesus... How big and open ended is this game?

Oh, and there is a POST GAME dungeon as well.... haha. Wow @ this game.

11/10

Upvoted for both enthusiasm AND Borys using a single well-chosen pic instead of breaking all page-formatting and sanity with a sequences of xtreem high-rez pix.

[bork]

I really loved DQB but I'll agree that I bet that the sequel will be much better.

I didn't mind the having to start over again thing. I find each chapter does a good job of posing new challenges, though I will say Chapter 3 does make it a little long in the tooth. But you do get canons and a motorbike so...

[Mr. Gundam]

I really loved DQB but I'll agree that I bet that the sequel will be much better.

I didn't mind the having to start over again thing. I find each chapter does a good job of posing new challenges, though I will say Chapter 3 does make it a little long in the tooth. But you do get canons and a motorbike so...

Near the end of the game. It's pretty sweet.

[Freyj]

I gave up on DQB near the end of Chapter 2. The core of the game is fantastic but the chapters completely broke the progress loop for me. It’d be like if every couple monsters MHW took away all of your gear and the ability to fight any of the old monsters again.

There’s too much focus on combat (which isn’t great) over building and exploration.

Looking forward to DQB2 but I sincerely hope they nix the chapter system.

[kingv]

I’ve been visiting a friend and we have been slowly playing through Catherine.

And you know what, I realize I don’t really like the puzzle game much. It sort of sucks, and can be really frustrating, especially on the boss fights when you get to a complicTed layout but have about 7 seconds to figure it out before a Giant butthole with a tongue is on top of you.

Also, the controls are garbage. Don’t believe me? Get to the back of the map and try to figure out which direction to go. Also, the controls are just too touchy in general. I just had too many times when the dude was jumping on or off something accidentally.

[Cravy]

Mount & Blade: Warband. It has ps2 graphics and shitty combat but I can't stop playing it.

[toku]

Into the Breach is great. It being a mech strategy game is much more appealing to me than FTL's space commander setup (which still rocked). Good score too

[Rufus]

Splash Damage buffed Phantom in Dirty Bomb. His invisibility cloak is now inaudible. The only reason I can come up with for this is so the katana idiots can actually get kills by running straight at people. Might just shelve the game until the revert this change. Absolutely stupid.

[I'm a Puppy!]

So I broke down (obviously, I mean, I said I would after all) and got the Secret of Mana Remake
Yeah, the music is terribad. First thing I did was go and set it back to the original source. Much better.
It's gotten a lot of flack, and I think mainly it's more a complaint against the missed opportunity than the game itself.
Outside of the archers nothing really feels too borked gameplay wise. It's a little buggy here and there but OK.
But I find it plays a lot like the original, which is a shame, as even back then Secret of Mana wasn't the top shelf of gameplay. Hit boxes were weird and the stagger mechanic was a pain even then.
So I find when a lot of people are complaining about how it plays, I'm like, "Well, the original played the same largely, so...if that's fine with you, why isn't this?"

I'll agree it would've been nice to see them actually change the gameplay to reflect more modern sensibilities. That being said, the whole game is a bunch of "It would've been nice if..."
- Animation is laughably bad. Almost to the point of "Why did you even try?" Yeah, it seems small that character's mouths don't lip sync, but it does become really jarring when you see someone gesticulating wildly and their mouth is completely shut.
- Graphics. Outside of the obvious "Well it would cost more, duh!" reason I can't see why they would use the graphics they settled on. Really giving it a Saga Frontier 2 or Legend of Mana look would be really amazing. I get that would make it more expensive, but again, it keeps with the whole "missed opportunities" thing that this game seems to embody
- Gameplay. Like I said, they didn't really do much to make the gameplay better. I felt it was a bit janky in the orginal, it's still janky now.
- Music. Holy crap. How'd they screw this up?

Overall it also seems they missed a lot of the little touches that made Mana so special back in the day. Travelling via cannon was fun because you got blasted up and you got to see the world spin and all that. It really gave you a bit of a "this is cool" feel. Now? You get in, screen fades, you fall in the next area. This is just an example of the little touches that they've left out.

All that being said, it's not a bad game per se. I still enjoy it and will play it with the wife. It's just that it could have been so much better.

[Corporal]

So I broke down (obviously, I mean, I said I would after all) and got the Secret of Mana Remake
(SNIP)
Really giving it a Saga Frontier 2 or Legend of Mana look would be really amazing.

Oh, the ungodly things I would do for that... 

...



Seriously, Someone related to the Mana franchise must have slept with all the wives of all SquEnix bosses. And made them watch. Otherwise I just can't explain why the franchise is being treated like this, again and again and again.

Still, gotta admire that cockroach like survivability. No matter what they shit out under the Mana label, it always seems to earn juuust enough to keep them coming back for more.

[paprikastaude]

I think sometime soon I'll start SNES Secret of Mana for the first time, seems like a good time now that people talk about it again.