What are you playing?

[Nintex]

Played Halo 5 for the first time.

So the two opening levels are pretty awesome. I like the new burst and melee moves, it looks gorgeous in 4K/HDR and it has a bit of the darker ODST vibe going on.

Why was this game 'bad' again? Probably the multiplayer(?). 

[chronovore]

I originally started playing Naruto: The Broken Bond in 2009. I really enjoyed the first game, but despite the polish added to the sequel's appearance, this game has a disappointing amount of missteps in the design and UI department.

Every fight starts with the enemy getting a free set of attacks in. Players have to be holding DEFEND from before the screen appears, or take several hits.

Navigation on the local map is oddly unclear. I'm sure this was the same in the original, but it's annoying me more now.

There's a boss fight (Sasuke vs. Itachi) only 20% into the story which demands the player use a new character (Sasuke), and one of his specific jutsu to finish the opponent. The condition is displayed as text to be read. That text is in a box which obscures the boss' actual hitpoints, and the jutsu doesn't automatically kill the boss. And the boss has a completely fucking OP jutsu that he can pull repeatedly. This fight took me maybe two dozen tries to clear.

Checkpoints are unevenly implemented. Had a mission that required me to find the bad guy and then fight him, but when I lost the fight, the RETRY made me find him again. This happened four times.

Big boss fight had a bunch of QTE and I missed one input so it had me go all the way back to the cinematic, and it's unskippable.

If I drop this game I think I'm never coming back to it. It's sad, I had been intending to finish it for nearly a decade now, but I'm finding it too frustrating, and disappointing.

[paprikastaude]

I really wanted these ubisoft Naruto adventure(?) games when I still cared for this series a decade ago and could only play 360 at friends houses. Nowadays that ship has sailed though.

[demi]

The Naruto Ubi games are dog poop. The CC2 games are way better

[agrajag]

So this is pretty embarassing, but I spent the last several days trying to beat level 3 colosseum in Hollow Knight. After 100+ tries I finally did it. The last boss wasn't even hard, I beat him on the second try. It was getting to him that was giving me fits. The part where you have to bounce off walls and all the little flying enemies that shoot acid projectiles in four different directions come out, I kept dying. And I don't even have that many charms. I had the shaman stone, sharp shadow, long claw and grub charm equipped. Finally, I reached a zen-like focus and did a near perfect run up to my sticking point and just beasted it. Ever get a feeling when every piece is just falling in the right place and you just *know* this is the one, I am going to beat this fucker this time.

 

[Freyj]

If you can do that shit you can 100% the game ez. I was happy with where I ended up because there was no way I was grinding that out.

[agrajag]

If you can do that shit you can 100% the game ez. I was happy with where I ended up because there was no way I was grinding that out.

I don't know man, the watcher knights still give me nightmares, I am scared to go back to them. Right now trying to beat the Collector, doesn't seem too hard after a couple of go's at it. Temporarily gave up on Grey Prince Zote, he can just take too many hits.

[MMaRsu]

Finally finished a Dead Cells run. That game is fucking amazing.

[Nintex]

Moar Nier.

This game is just keeping me hooked with its great visuals and presentation, beautiful music and weirdness.   

[agrajag]

Well shit, beat the Watcher Knights and it wasn't even that hard.

Edit: and then promptly got killed by an unexpected cowardly husk at the top of the tower because I had only one heart left   

[agrajag]

You blew through the game much quicker than me, respect. Jusr unlocked the black egg and it shows I'm at 85% completion.

[agrajag]

Dunno if it's that or if I just had way more free time.

I just died to the Traitor lord twice after getting far. Keep forgetting to use the shade cloak. Going to chill and try again later.

There were a couple of days where I played for hours on end, but usually I limit my play time. Traitor lord is not that hard, you should get him pretty quick. I am getting my ass kicked by the Hollow Knight currently.

[agrajag]

I hate all types of mantises, especially the ones that throw projectiles at you. As a matter of facts, I hate all projectile enemies in this game.

[agrajag]

Just defeated The Hollow Knight. Honestly, he was pretty easy compared to some other bosses once I figured out what to do

spoiler (click to show/hide)

have grubsong, sharp shadow, the mantis nail and quick dash equipped, stay close to him and dash right through him when he charges at you

[close]

[agrajag]

Damn so I guess I got the bad ending, shoulda fucked around a bit more before fighting the Hollow Knight.

[Freyj]

nothing bad about getting either of the "bad" endings, your last save just drops you outside HK's arena

spoiler (click to show/hide)

still say fuck that game making you fight HK every time you want to attempt The Radiance 

[close]

[Freyj]

Nioh continues to be great. I'm in the fourth region now.

I kinda hope they find a way around the mission structure with Nioh 2. I see people stan for it but I miss the even mildly connected feeling of the Soulsborne worlds.

[tiesto]

ACE OF SEAFOOD, some weird 3D underwater action game where you play as fish with lasers... good music and the concept makes me think of a long lost PS1 game or something.

[agrajag]

nothing bad about getting either of the "bad" endings, your last save just drops you outside HK's arena

spoiler (click to show/hide)

still say fuck that game making you fight HK every time you want to attempt The Radiance 

[close]

That sucks, you can't save it in between the two bosses? B.S. I feel like I have to do some serious grinding to even get the Awoken Dream Nail, I haven't defeated a single dream boss yet. 85%, more like 55% lol

[Freyj]

Dream Bosses you can pick like 2 / 3 of 5 as long as you get all the Dream Warriors.

The DLC added Dung Defender's Dream Boss White Defender as well. He was maybe the easiest of the 5 to me.

[agrajag]

Thanks. Maybe I am not good at recognizing the gimmicks, but the dream bosses seem several magnitudes harder than their regular versions. Nevertheless, the completionist within me has to beat them.

[BisMarckie]

Played Cuphead for the first time. I bought it when it came out but haven't played it until today.

Stupid question: How much harder does it get after the first two bosses?
I am struggling with the game more than I want to admit

[agrajag]

Oh I thought you meant the dream warriors

Haven't fought any of the dream bosses yet. If I do I'll probably try out White Defender, Lost Kin and Soul Master dream variant as the regular versions were my favorite boss fights so far.

Lost Kin waa one of the easiest bosses for me, so maybe I'll try that one. The Dream Soul Master is hard af. I think dream False Knight is eaaier, which is what I am working on now.

[agrajag]

One piece of advice i got was that the fragile charms don't break when losing to the dream bosses. So there's a helpful tip for ya.

I started the grimm troupe so I'll probably grind geo and make them unbreakable before I clean those up.

Yeah, you don't lose your geo either. How do you open the grimm troupe dlc? I don't see it. It was included in the Switch version, no?

[kingv]

Nioh continues to be great. I'm in the fourth region now.

I kinda hope they find a way around the mission structure with Nioh 2. I see people stan for it but I miss the even mildly connected feeling of the Soulsborne worlds.

I was tge opposite. I really liked the mission structure. Like I could grind out a mission, and then, once I had beaten it, I never had to go through it again. Dark souls I eventually gave up because I just got bored of doing the same parts over and over again. In Nioh it stayed fresh because I kept getting new levels....

That said, imo the game could have been a bit shorter. I felt like by the last area I was just ready for it to end

[Freyj]

I have to do the side missions so I’m gonna be redoing the same levels 5 times at least.

[Himu]

In the mood for RPGs thanks to snes Classic and fighting game season is rolling down soon after EVO.

Which fire emblem on 3ds should I start with? Was the one with the twins good? That seemed to catch my interest the most when I was looking at trailers ways back.

[agrajag]

Cool, thanks Wrath.

[kingv]

Just started Hellblade on X1X, and holy crap this is the prettiest graphics I've ever seen. It's truly stunning.

Framerate is not so hot though, and so far it's mostly atmospheric walking. :-/

[agrajag]

Downward slashing is big in level 3 too.

[agrajag]

Beat that Dream False Knight fucker. Joni's Blessing is very helpful in this one.

[Joe Molotov]

In the mood for RPGs thanks to snes Classic and fighting game season is rolling down soon after EVO.

Which fire emblem on 3ds should I start with? Was the one with the twins good? That seemed to catch my interest the most when I was looking at trailers ways back.

Awakening and Fates are both good. Awakening is the first 3DS one and a good place to start, since it's more straightforward than Fates. Fates is has two different storylines, Conquest and Birthright (sold separately, unless you're a kewl kid and got the hard-to-find Collector's Edition) and then a downloadable third part Revelations. It also has base building and some mild multiplayer elements (invading other people's bases through Streetpass).

There's also Echoes, which I haven't played but it's supposed to be dece. It's a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden for the Fami. Fire Emblem Warriors is also on the 3DS if you want Fire Emblem Musou, but you might as well get that on the Switch if you have a Switch.

[Nintex]

Fire Emblem Echoes is great. I was surprised at how good it was it being based on a Famicom game. The production values are impressive for a 3DS game as well.

The two character/army mechanic works really well and the pacing is great. The dungeon gameplay is somewhat decent as well.
It lacks some of the newer features (because those did not exist on the Famicom) but the core gameplay is very well executed.
The weakest element are the maps which are often very simple in terms of terrain and lay-out. Again because it is based on an old game.

Because Echoes is heading towards an inevitable conclusion there is not much of the dating 7 year old dragon girls stuff in there if that's your thing though.

[kingv]

I liked echoes too.

The dungeons were weird though. Like the characters have a simple sort of move set but it’s all sort of meaningless because as soon as you hit something it goes into turn-based mode. I’m not sure where it is coming from... is it a bastardization of Fire Emblem Warriors maybe, but it seems like a weird thing to develop just for this game.

I also liked that the traditional weapon triangle and leveling is gone. Nice change of pace.

[agrajag]

Yeah the Collector is easy as shit.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Beat Breath of Fire 1 (GBA) holy hell. How in the world would I have finished this game back in the day? It is so obtuse and has such little regard for the player's time, I mean with triple the EXP and gold this game still was insane from a random encounter rate and the "I dunno, figure it out LOLZ" approach. Really it felt behind even FFIV which was out at the time this was originally released. More like a NES RPG in 16 bit graphics than a true 16 bit adventure, the only thing that was really "16 bit" was the different characters that could do different abilities on the world map thing. Also, Karn was a beast if you got his Puka spell and the Agni spell breaks the end game, I don't know how you were really supposed to finish the game without it. But it's not entirely obvious how to get it.

Before I move onto Breath of Fire 2, I'll likely stop off and play Soulblazer, I've never played that/illusion of Gaia/Terranigma series. Time that gets corrected.

[agrajag]

Alright, so the White Defender was ridiculously easy. I thought I hadenough essence for the Awoken Nail, but I have to defeat another dream boss, d'oh!

[paprikastaude]

Seems like I might be like 80% through Final Fantasy 12 HD at 24 hours or so. Even considering 2x speed, I guess I might be quite underleveled with that playtime. I already started to have a harder time, even though people said this version is way easier than the og. That reminds me I never finished FF6 or 7, despite being the only FF games I thoroughly enjoyed before this one, because I got to the end in like 25 hours and then the final bosses were way too strong...

[Urinals]

Bought Octopath Traveler. First retail Switch game I bought digitally so let's see how that dynamic plays out.

[tiesto]

Beat Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection a moment ago... while I had the dryer running. The buzzer for the dryer happened as soon as the credits roll ended, which was a funny case of serendipity.

Overall, I liked the game, although it got ridiculously hammy in the cutscene before the final boss(es). And someone in Falcom definitely has a sister/stepsister thing, since there always seems to be that kinda tension in their games (Trails in the Sky, Cold Steel, and a bit in this). The NPCs really steal the show, my favorite being the chainsmoking nun. Dungeon design is a bit lacking compared to Ys and Xanadu Next, but the action RPG gameplay still is fast and responsive, and it's got some good boss fights as per Falcom's specialty. Worth playing, I think it's on sale on GOG...

Now it's finally time to start Octopath...

[Urinals]

The Splatoon 2 community is not good at Salmon Run. 

[agrajag]

Alright, so the White Defender was ridiculously easy. I thought I hadenough essence for the Awoken Nail, but I have to defeat another dream boss, d'oh!

I got 1800 today and I only beat one dream boss (Zote). Thinking I might do them all. Right now clearing out the grubs before I head to the white palace, from there I'll finish up Grim Troupe than go for the true ending.

How the fuck. I beat two and only got 1500. And I am pretty sure I hit up every essence tree, whatever they are called. Maybe Zote gives you a shitload of essence?

[agrajag]

300. I also beat all the warrior graves as they are easy.

Just got all the grubs. Going to work on getting all the charms. As of now beat the first phase of the white palace, and thinking of filling out the journal for the greenpath dude. Still have the third level of the colosseum to go through too.

Really, I just don't want to beat the game quickly. Want to go for the True Ending and at least 100% completion.

I gotall the warrior graves too, so I am really clueless as to why I am so low one essence.

I am growing really frustrated with my left joycon. It started drifting a few days ago and it seems that it's impeding me from getting full speed when running. Even when I use the quick run charm, I am moving in slow motion. Bah!

[Bebpo]

Finally got around to sitting down and finishing SoTC PS4 remake. Was doing one colossus here and there. Some of my favorites were still awesome, like 14 platforming rodeo in the hidden city.
Visually this was like one of the best looking games ever, and it's easily the best remake of any game I've played.

But man, I had a really shit time on the last 2 even though I've played the game like 6 times in the past on PS2 and PS3. On #15 I forgot how to do a few bits like the palm and took me like an hour running around trying a ton of stuff. Then #16 while it's sorta my favorite for the Night on Bald Mountain epicness of it all, the physics and camera and jumping backward controls fucked me so many times. Must've taken me 90 mins even though I knew exactly what to do. Just kept having everything fuck up and I wanted to toss the disc out the window.

So while it was a nice trip of one of my favorite games, was definitely glad when I was done in the end. I feel like most of the game is pretty relaxing game and probably better played high, but the last boss is kinda a fucker and not relaxing at all 

[paprikastaude]

How do you not fix the controls when remaking sotc 

[Rufus]

Sounds a lot like my first playthrough, Bebpo. I died to the last colossus more times than all the other ones combined. Probably contributed a lot toward my distaste for brick wall finales in games.

The other one I had a lot of trouble with was the bull, because it just did not occur to me for the longest time that it was afraid of fire.

[Nintex]

Talking about SOTC.

I thought Nier was out of tricks after 10 hours or so. But then it throws a giant robot shmup sequence at you. 

[agrajag]

I also get random essence when grinding for Geo, but it hasn't happened often enough for me to think that was a significant contribution (especially since it just adds two each time). Just did everything except for just one dream boss and it was 1800

Look up the guide I posted, you must be missing some stuff.

I'm probably missing a bunch of stuff, there are areas I haven't cleared yet for sure. Like I don't even have the map for royal waterways yet. But I am getting tired of backtracking at this point. And the control issues are frustrating me.

[agrajag]

Well I easily wrecked Zote with the desolate dive/iframe trick.

[chronovore]

As mentioned, giant swathes of disappointment from the Naruto: The Broken Bond open-world sequel.

So I moved on to DJ Hero 2, which turns out to have a bunch of ill-advised, oddly-numbered Achievements. So I made sure I could clear enough of them to get back to a multiple of 5, and wouldn't accidentally activate any of the other ones. There are a bunch of horriblad, grind-o-riffic Achievements. Get 25000 crossfades. Win 50 XBL battles. MEEEEHHHHHHHHH. It's fun enough to play on Medium, but I tried a song on Expert tonight and I can safely say that it's more difficult than spelling an Aztec god's name backward.

Also picked up Torchlight and Poker Night at the Inventory 2. The former is kind of a chill Diablo, and the latter is probably the most affable game I've ever played. Brock Samson, Claptrap, Ash Williams, and Sam&Max play in a tournament MC'd by glaDOS. It's remarkably relaxing. The banter between the characters is fun, and playing with the different unlocks is surprisingly enjoyable. I got to watch Brock win a hand, playing two Queens which had Molotov Cocktease on them. Each felt/chip/card set will change the casino, and there are particular themed screens for victory on them. I think it was US$1.49 in the Ultimate Sale, and I probably got my money's worth before the first hand was resolved.

[Great Rumbler]

The Splatoon 2 community is not good at Salmon Run. 

Salmon Run can get pretty tough sometimes even with people who are decent at it. But if you get some randos who have no idea what they're doing, you might as well just get ready to lose on round 1.

[kingv]

You must have the only Xbox in the land of the rising sun.

At least I’m assuming because of the Ultimate Sale.

[Bebpo]

How do you not fix the controls when remaking sotc 

The only control things I would've changed in a remake are:

1. Non-camera dependent back jump. I fucking hate camera dependent jump away from the surface you are grabbing in games when the camera is spinning all around and you have no fucking idea what direction the game thinks is currently back. Like just make it jump + another button when you're grabbing something to jump directly back. It's not that hard.

2. The dumb edge sensitivity where if you're running around and one foot goes over an edge, wanderer stops and wobbles and then falls grabbing the ledge and you've got to climb back up. I'd change it so once he starts to wobble you can correct the wobble and skip the stupid fall -> grab -> climb animation loop. It's a minor thing but got kinda tired of it by the end.


However I'd definitely have messed with the physics a bit. I remember reading back on the PS3 remaster by bluepoint that they screwed up the physics slightly, or that the US/JP versions on PS2 had different physics and they went off the worse one for the PS3. I wonder if that carried over. I don't remember the PS2 being as wonky on climbing the final boss's hands as this was.

Still love the game and think it's a work of art, the remake is incredibly beautiful. But idk, maybe it's not like top3 or top5 game of all time for me anymore. Maybe more like top10, but then I figure a lot of the classic games I love wouldn't hold up quite as well these days.

[agrajag]

Also, Exodust, I just realized that I never did beat Traitor Lord, maybe that's where the essence discrepancy comes from? Do you get essence from defeating regular bosses? He's pretty easy thoufh

[agrajag]

Also, Exodust, I just realized that I never did beat Traitor Lord, maybe that's where the essence discrepancy comes from? Do you get essence from defeating regular bosses? He's pretty easy thoufh

Technically you get it from Cloth's ghost after the fight, but I don't think you get it from the boss fight.

Poor Cloth

And I read that little thing's (forget her name) that's in love with Zote mind after I beat him, and she is starting to get disillusioned. This game is dark.

[bluemax]

Tried some Doom VFR on PSVR last night and felt ill before the end of the tutorial level. While I don't get to play the gameplay part of the game I'm working on a lot, I don't think it has ever made me feel nauseous like Doom did.

The Last Guardian VR short demo thing was cool though.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Beat Breath of Fire 1 (GBA) holy hell. How in the world would I have finished this game back in the day? It is so obtuse and has such little regard for the player's time, I mean with triple the EXP and gold this game still was insane from a random encounter rate and the "I dunno, figure it out LOLZ" approach. Really it felt behind even FFIV which was out at the time this was originally released. More like a NES RPG in 16 bit graphics than a true 16 bit adventure, the only thing that was really "16 bit" was the different characters that could do different abilities on the world map thing. Also, Karn was a beast if you got his Puka spell and the Agni spell breaks the end game, I don't know how you were really supposed to finish the game without it. But it's not entirely obvious how to get it.

Before I move onto Breath of Fire 2, I'll likely stop off and play Soulblazer, I've never played that/illusion of Gaia/Terranigma series. Time that gets corrected.

3x EXP and 3x Gold

BoF2 is even worse with grinding.

I really liked that "pixelated" boss in BoF1. Such a known gimmick (strong against magic/ strong against physical) but shown in such a cool way.

That was my favorite boss/part of BoF1 actually. I 'm glad someone else liked it

Instead of stopping off on Soul Blazer I went right into BoF2 It's really funny how rudimentary it makes BoF1 look by comparison. Towns have more than a handful of people, and they say different things unlike BoF1 with their 3-4 lines of unique dialogue per town. I've just started. Already I'm having to grind. That's not great, but I'm still having fun.

Also started God of War PS4 I've never played a GoW game before. Truth be told I found them to be too "try hard edgy". But so far I'm liking this. Combat is OK, but makes me miss better action games like Bayo.

[agrajag]

The god damn buzzsaw section  in the White Palace is gonna make me rage quit 

[kingv]

Is that the part where there is like a bunch of flying enemies and a conveyor belt that like pulls you into these sharp points.

I remember that being basically the only hard part in the whole game.

The final boss is definitely the coolest part of the first God of War though, so worth powering through that cheap shit.

Edit: clearly everyone else is talking about hollow knight, lol

[kingv]

Tried some Doom VFR on PSVR last night and felt ill before the end of the tutorial level. While I don't get to play the gameplay part of the game I'm working on a lot, I don't think it has ever made me feel nauseous like Doom did.

The Last Guardian VR short demo thing was cool though.

Kinda cool/best is how I felt about almost everything on PSVR that I tried.

A lot of it is legitimately very neat... but also shallow.