What are you playing?

[Bebpo]

Finished Ys IX at around 40 hours 100%-ing it.

Gameplay-wise Oath/Origins are better gameplay, but I think overall this is the best Ys adventure. It was a very good game like a good big book or TV season, well developed world and cast and stories making for a good adventure tale. This game's got me back on board with Ys now because I'm actually interested in future stories if they do it like this.

There's one part where Dogi says to Adol about their adventure in this game, "Adventuring through mountain ranges & the ocean is always good, but this time it's a different kind of good"

Ys IX almost is a Ys reboot of the series; it still has plenty of callbacks to the past games, but feels like a fresh start and hopefully they continue it on in this style for another game or two. Lore-wise this game's actually made me interested in one of the eventual future story chapters.

[demi]

Dana was amazing, good to see Ys carries tradition of being amazing games

[Let's Cyber]

Forager
Crafting/building/light dungeoneering with clicker-like pacing. Turns out this is an unholy combination. I had a really hard time tearing myself away. Only 'woke up' when the "played 3 hours" achievement popped up.

I thought about picking this up on Switch but I guess they're way behind on updates compared to the PC.

[Coffee Dog]

Panzer Paladin kicks ass. Very shovel knight meets blaster master. I hope it gets a little harder, but other than that I'm really satsified with it (only 3 bosses down).

[Rufus]

It might be a blessig in disguise. The game has more item progression than is necessary. It's best in the early game, when your entire set-up is scuffed and you actually feel some resistance. The late game moves into Factorio/Satisfactory/modded Minecraft territory, where the only thing to do is to increase the efficiency of your production line.

[Akala]

The Crew 2 is pretty neat for a $10 game (GMG/UBI). The story seems dumb/ but the condensed US and ability to change from flying/driving/boating seems fun.

[Great Rumbler]

The Crew 2 is pretty neat for a $10 game (GMG/UBI). The story seems dumb/ but the condensed US and ability to change from flying/driving/boating seems fun.

I really don't understand why all these racing games need some kind of story.

[paprikastaude]

Dead Space 2 is dope. Except that they turned the protagonist into Whitey McGeneric PS360 man, but I already knew that. The "more action" focus however doesn't bother me.

Now I want to replay the Wii game too. No idea why I was dumb and sold it. Gotta get it back I think I replay all the games in autumn.

[Akala]

The Crew 2 is pretty neat for a $10 game (GMG/UBI). The story seems dumb/ but the condensed US and ability to change from flying/driving/boating seems fun.

I really don't understand why all these racing games need some kind of story.

ppl keep chasing ridge racer type 4. 

92.4% are awful tho

[Bebpo]

Started playing Planescape Torment. Gonna take some time to get into this. It's extremely wordy and the art style of Sigil is pretty fucking ugly. Like as in this is one of the most unattractive games I've played which is a big turn off. I like the concept of door portals everywhere, that's neat. Also at the start I'm super weak since I went with a charisma/intelligence build and so the couple of quest fights I've tried wipe me in like one hit. Need to figure out a good way to get started and geared & partied up for the combat.

[Rufus]

Go to the Smouldering Corpse bar (it's south-east) ASAP and pick up Dak'kon. He'll tank for you.

[Rufus]

Carrion
Had fun until I got lost and now I desperately need a map, but there isn't one for some stupid reason.

[Great Rumbler]

It's extremely wordy and the art style of Sigil is pretty fucking ugly. Like as in this is one of the most unattractive games I've played which is a big turn off.

 

[bork]

Carrion
Had fun until I got lost and now I desperately need a map, but there isn't one for some stupid reason.

This is where I am right now.  Shouldn't be too difficult to get back on track...I hope!

[Rufus]

Carrion
Had fun until I got lost and now I desperately need a map, but there isn't one for some stupid reason.

This is where I am right now.  Shouldn't be too difficult to get back on track...I hope!

Found a map:
https://i.redd.it/lnfwmai75yc51.png

(and it's shit )

If you're stuck after getting the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

possession power, go back to the guy sitting at his desk playing what looks to be Doom. Possess him.

[close]

[tiesto]

Started playing Planescape Torment. Gonna take some time to get into this. It's extremely wordy and the art style of Sigil is pretty fucking ugly. Like as in this is one of the most unattractive games I've played which is a big turn off. I like the concept of door portals everywhere, that's neat. Also at the start I'm super weak since I went with a charisma/intelligence build and so the couple of quest fights I've tried wipe me in like one hit. Need to figure out a good way to get started and geared & partied up for the combat.

I found I appreciated the game a lot more when I turned the combat down to very easy (I don't play D&D so I have no idea about all its stats or successful strategies) and treated the game more like a visual novel/point and click adventure game.

[Nintex]

Undertale

This shit is crazy, I love it.

[Bebpo]

Started playing Planescape Torment. Gonna take some time to get into this. It's extremely wordy and the art style of Sigil is pretty fucking ugly. Like as in this is one of the most unattractive games I've played which is a big turn off. I like the concept of door portals everywhere, that's neat. Also at the start I'm super weak since I went with a charisma/intelligence build and so the couple of quest fights I've tried wipe me in like one hit. Need to figure out a good way to get started and geared & partied up for the combat.

I found I appreciated the game a lot more when I turned the combat down to very easy (I don't play D&D so I have no idea about all its stats or successful strategies) and treated the game more like a visual novel/point and click adventure game.

I'll grab the party member rufus mentioned today and see how it goes.

I think I'm still the starting level 3 (I forget, do you only level upon resting? I haven't found a place to rest), and I tried doing the Mausoleum quest and the skeletons were rough and then I got to the sorcerer at the end and both TNO & Morte had like less than half HP and he basically one shotted me in a second or two.

I played Baldur's Gate 1 last fall but I realize I've forgotten how to combat in early D&D.

Also I feel like everyone in Sigil wants to kill me as opppsed to BG1's safe feeling towns. Which is why I want to get my bearings asap.

[Rufus]

If you have Dustman robes you can disguise yourself as one. That will let you explore in peace.

Before you leave, make sure to visit Deionarra's grave on the ground floor. It's in the north-west, iirc. She can grant you the ability to revive fallen comrades, provided you play your cards right.

[MMaRsu]

Undertale

This shit is crazy, I love it.

game is so good

[Bebpo]

Kinda got my bearings going on Planescape. I probably want to install some mods. My inventory is pretty full and I saw one of the main mods is making items stackable.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, getting the hang of this. The only thing I'm finding really annoying in the Hive is literally every 20 feet I'm getting attacked by thugs who keep respawning. More annoying is they run away when low on life and it's hard to chase them down to finish them. Yeah I'm getting a lot of rings/bracelets to sell so it's helping on the money-side and a bit of xp, but I'm finding myself just running past them as much as possible. I guess these are the "random encounters" of this part of the game.

[Mr Gilhaney]

Undertale

This shit is crazy, I love it.

If you like it, you really should check out mother 3. The fan translation is perfect, and the game is very undertale but better.

[Bebpo]

Planescape - Did the catacombs and got Annah. Quested most of Hive so far. It's alright so far. Story is a little interesting, but the combat and dungeon crawling feels like a chore. I'm lvl.6 and gonna change over to mage next before continuing and see if spellcasting is more fun. At least with Annah I can detect traps and stop getting hit by every trap in dungeons and not being able to open anything locked.

*edit* got my mage class and learned a bunch of skills, cleared out my journal quests and got to the lower ward. Liking the game now. Have the combat difficulty down because it's still not great and Dakkan seems to melt. But at least using AoE spells like pacify & horror I'm doing fine against groups.

[MMaRsu]

Gilhany is back 🥰

[Rufus]

Mages are really powerful in Torment. The higest level spells are like FF summons.

Don't forget to talk to your companions. Especially Dak'kon, since it's not only the best character quest, but also improves him.

[Bebpo]

Mages are really powerful in Torment. The higest level spells are like FF summons.

Don't forget to talk to your companions. Especially Dak'kon, since it's not only the best character quest, but also improves him.

Yeah, I've gone through all their dialogues so far and read their biographies. Actually wasn't that much, though maybe it'll add more later.

One thing though, one of the mods I installed was increased party banter, increasing from 10% chance every 40 seconds to 10% chance every 30 seconds which means there should be a banter about once every 5 mins.

So far I've never seen Morte/Dakkon/Annah talk to each other at all? Does party banter not open up until later in the game with more party members?

Not really sure what to do with all the one-time use stuff like charms/spells. They're useful, but as someone that hordes in rpgs I don't like using one time use items when I don't absolutely need them. But meanwhile I keep running out of inv space. I guess I should just use them and figure I probably won't actually need them at any point and can just buy them from merchants if I do at that point.

[Rufus]

I don't recall how frequent the banter is, but I know there isn't that much in total. Dak'kon is rarely involved (as are two later characters) and Annah hates Morte. Could just be your current party composition. 

Your inventory is pretty much always going to be full, even with the stacking valuables. Just flog what you don't need. As a mage, you won't be needing the random charms anyway.

Does the enhanced edition clearly mark quest items? I forget how it is in the classic version.

You're making me want to replay the game. Seems I forgot enough that it will be worthwhile again.

[Positive Touch]

recently i've been going back to the old old stuff to help take the edge off and it's working pretty well. i replayed metroid 2 (with a map!) and found that given the context of its release, as an early handheld game, it holds up pretty well. the action is good, the items were fun and clever, and the maps are nowhere near as brutal when you're using a map after getting lost. good times. i even got the best ending with a single minute to spare.

after that i booted up metroid 4 and found the bright and detailed gba aesthetic super nostalgic and appealing. i thought about all the time that had passed between the titles - 11 years - and how fast the technology improved. then i thought about the time between metroid 4 and now - 18 years - and got depressed as shit realizing how fucking long it's been since then. fuck the passage of time lol.

[Nintex]

Sounds good Positive Touch. Metroid 2 indeed holds up really well. The remake on 3DS is also quite good and just before that launched some fans made a remake too, AM2R or something like that.
And yeah, time is fucking crazy. When I was 18 or so Ocarina of Time was a 'retro' game included with the GameCube.

Now Metroid Prime 2002 (18 years) is much older than OOT was when it re-released on GameCube in 2003(< 5 years).
The 'long' wait between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion that made everyone wonder if Metroid would ever return was only 8 years.
It has been 13 years since Metroid Prime 3 released.

Played some Astral Chain today. Up to file 5 now. Still a really fun game and from the vibe I'm getting I should be about halfway through.

[Bebpo]

I don't recall how frequent the banter is, but I know there isn't that much in total. Dak'kon is rarely involved (as are two later characters) and Annah hates Morte. Could just be your current party composition. 

Your inventory is pretty much always going to be full, even with the stacking valuables. Just flog what you don't need. As a mage, you won't be needing the random charms anyway.

Does the enhanced edition clearly mark quest items? I forget how it is in the classic version.

You're making me want to replay the game. Seems I forgot enough that it will be worthwhile again.

Nope. I am still carrying around the initial mortuary keys and journals because it's really not good about that. I'm using these mods in edition to the basic EE improvements:

-Custom log window re-sizing
-Use journal bestiary portraits when talking to people
-BAGS - you can buy a bag that holds 50 items early on in the Hive marketplace, been using that for all this junk that isn't sellable. Apparently there's another 2 bags later in the game including one user questline to get one. I've pretty much maxed out the current bag I have
-Party banter speed up frequency
-Unfinished Business collection of bug fixes/tweaks/additional unfinished questlines restored (though I hear it's pretty minimal in content adjustment). I was looking up a part I was stuck on a quest and found out a couple of the quests I did were from the Unfinished Business mod and not part of the original game. Honestly couldn't tell, enjoyed them.

One thing I kind of wish that these old IE games just had game speed adjustments. With always run on, everywhere I go it feels like I'm playing the game on a FF speed. Which I probably would be doing anyhow if there was a FF speed button, but it just feels a bit odd.

Otherwise, outside of inventory management, I'm generally feeling these IE games are holding up after BG1 and now this. I really enjoy reading the dice roll / saves mechanics of spells coming from a non-dice background.

[Bebpo]

recently i've been going back to the old old stuff to help take the edge off and it's working pretty well. i replayed metroid 2 (with a map!) and found that given the context of its release, as an early handheld game, it holds up pretty well. the action is good, the items were fun and clever, and the maps are nowhere near as brutal when you're using a map after getting lost. good times. i even got the best ending with a single minute to spare.

after that i booted up metroid 4 and found the bright and detailed gba aesthetic super nostalgic and appealing. i thought about all the time that had passed between the titles - 11 years - and how fast the technology improved. then i thought about the time between metroid 4 and now - 18 years - and got depressed as shit realizing how fucking long it's been since then. fuck the passage of time lol.

Ooooh, yeah I should add Metroid 2 (either the AM2R version of 3DS version) to my covid backlog playlist this year. Been meaning to play a version of Metroid 2 at some point. Probably go with AM2R just because it's easier on the eyes than 3DS 3d.

[Don Rumata]

Played like 30 minutes of Carrion and tbh, despite the cool idea and visuals, i'm already bored of it.
Also WTF at no map in a metroidvania.

Creaks instead is pretty fun (albeit very simple so far), and as usual, amazing style and soundtrack.
It's missing the fun characters you had in Machinarium and Samorost tho, it's basically just you and a couple of enemies so far.

[Bebpo]

I don't recall how frequent the banter is, but I know there isn't that much in total. Dak'kon is rarely involved (as are two later characters) and Annah hates Morte. Could just be your current party composition. 

Your inventory is pretty much always going to be full, even with the stacking valuables. Just flog what you don't need. As a mage, you won't be needing the random charms anyway.

Does the enhanced edition clearly mark quest items? I forget how it is in the classic version.

You're making me want to replay the game. Seems I forgot enough that it will be worthwhile again.

Also to kind of add on this. Playing this morning and finishing up in Lower Ward, there are two optional sidequests from earlier areas I have that require a quest item, that was never marked as a quest item and looked just like any other item and I retrieved the item before I got the quest and sold it like I sell all my stuff and I went around to the three or so main merchants in the area and looked into their lists which includes the items I've sold and I can't find either one.

So I'm going to end up finding the item code and editing the ini to enable console commands so I can create the damn items and finish the sidequests.

I remember having to do this once or two in BG1 for a quest item as well.

Definitely one of the slightly annoying things.

[Rufus]

Played like 30 minutes of Carrion and tbh, despite the cool idea and visuals, i'm already bored of it.
Also WTF at no map in a metroidvania.

It gets more intersting once they put some obstacles in your way and you unlock more abilities.

Also to kind of add on this. Playing this morning and finishing up in Lower Ward, there are two optional sidequests from earlier areas I have that require a quest item, that was never marked as a quest item and looked just like any other item and I retrieved the item before I got the quest and sold it like I sell all my stuff and I went around to the three or so main merchants in the area and looked into their lists which includes the items I've sold and I can't find either one.

So I'm going to end up finding the item code and editing the ini to enable console commands so I can create the damn items and finish the sidequests.

I remember having to do this once or two in BG1 for a quest item as well.

Definitely one of the slightly annoying things.

Yeah, it's a double-whammy with the severely limited inventory.

Besides that bag mod, you can also just use random containers as stashes. I usually use the barrels inside the Dustmen's bar.
Just be sure to bring anything you might need with you before you leave Sigil. You won't return for a while.

I re-installed as well and rushed through the Mortuary. I had forgotten how annoying the random thugs are. They're everywhere, too. And I (re-)learned that Dak'kon can't tank worth shit, sorry about that suggestion. Morte is the real tank. Enemies can't seem to hit him, even though his AC isn't better than TNO's.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, Dakkon is kinda a sucky tank. Makes sense he's a mage/tank. I mostly have him buffing def/str on Morte and Himself and TNO and then going in to attack while TNO launches status effect/debuff spells/attack spells and then goes in for attack and Annah just attacks from the side since she has no spells or skills.

The lower ward/clerks' ward are pretty dense. Working through the Clerk's Ward. At the brothel now on the quest to get the succubus gal. For how well written parts of these games are it's still funny going up to random NPCs and saying "Hey wanna join my party?" lol

I did Dakkon's questline. That was a long read but pretty good backstory. Story-wise TNO's looking for the Night Hag now. I'm guessing I'm about halfway at this point? almost lvl.8 mage now since levels reset when I changed to mage at lvl.6 fighter. Running about 20 INT, 18 WIS, 16 CHA and 9 CON/9 STR/9 DEX so I just try not to get hit haha.

[Bebpo]

Also maybe it's just the dated design on Planescape, but there are definitely some questing issues.

Like I did a quest with an NPC Sebastian in Lower Ward which ended up with him dead.
Then I meet an NPC zombie at the Coffin maker shop who gives me a quest to talk to Sebastian and try to free him. And even though Sebastian is dead the only dialogue option is "Where do I find Sebastian?" and the quest is now unfinishable because I didn't do it first and can't remove it from my quest log.

Just like how I can't remove the Silent King weakness questline and the only legit way to do it is before you leave the Undead Nation because afterwards Silent Mary won't take you to him. You can still do it by just killing everyone in the entire town and getting into the Silent King room, but yeah not gonna do that.

[Rufus]

Yup, you have to know the sequence for a couple things. Obsidian is better about this.

I already encountered something similar in the mortuary. There's a memory you can recall of yourself stashing something in zombie #42. However it was so long ago, #42 is now a skeleton. If you go to the top floor before you get the memory, you might have found the crowbar and learned that you can loosen bolts on skeletons and collapsed them all with this knowledge.
If you don't know that you stashed items inside its chest, you get standard (worthless) loot from the skeleton. The stupid thing has to be standing to retrieve the stuff from whatever magic pocket in its ribcage.

As far as playtime, you spend the vast majority of it in Sigil. Once you've talked to Ravel you're leaving the city, so finish up lingering quests before you visit her. Not much left in the game at that point.

You'll go to another city right after, but it's much smaller and you can cut your visit there very short if you're not careful.

edit: typing hard

[Bebpo]

Sounds good. Yeah, I've been wrapping up everything in Sigil and got Ignus. Pretty much done and at the Foundry now. Will open the portal and go to Ravel's maze tomorrow. I'm around 16-17 hours in. And party is around lvl.9 at this point.

Was kind of funny how many quests in Clerk's Ward were solved by just buying items at the exotic item shop. I didn't think of that and couldn't figure out where to go to solve a lot of these and then I looked it up for one and saw oh that's the solution to most of these.

[Bebpo]

Planescape - Got to Curst. Feels like the story is coming together and mostly making sense now. Not sure what to think about it yet. I do like the companions.

[Bebpo]

Was reading up and trying to figure out how geography/cosmology-wise Planescape & Baldur's Gate relate. The main continuity stuff I've noticed is Dakkon's backstory of the Mind-Flayers which were in BG1.

So from what I get from the wiki, the world/universe/dimension that Baldur's Gate and most of the D&D stuff is Toril which is on the Prime Material Plane in the center of the wheel of alignment planes.

But the Outlands where Planescape is, is also at the the very center of the planes? This is where it gets kind of confusing to me. Like they talk a lot about the multi-dimensional great blood war that's been going on. Does that ever bleed over into any of the other D&D games?

I do like the little stories in Planescapes of NPCs who came from other planes and stumbled into Sigil.
Also is Clerk's Ward supposed to be considered the Upper Ward of Sigil? Or is there still some Upper Ward area I haven't been to?

And from what I see Curst looks like it's located at the bottom of the spire in the Outlands. So same world (Outlands) but Sigil is just up in the sky on top of some giant infinite pillar in the world. It's all a bit weird and confusing.

[Rufus]

There are a bunch of maps of the planes out there, but they don't make any sense to me either.

Clerk's is Upper in all but name, yeah.

---

I ran into more quest shenanigans in my plathrough (can't find out the Silent King's secret without violence because I didn't have 16 CHA at the right time :'( ) made me want to start over. Stupid perfectionism. I pushed through, even though it wouldn't have taken that long to catch up.

That did made me finally look up some skill check statistics and it seems for every stat but CON, a value of 16 allows you to pass 90% of checks. Most of them are INT (~40%), then WIS and CHA (~20% each).

spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of my earlierst playthroughs was with a trainer. Every attribute at 25 allowed me to do whatever I wanted and I don't think it deprived me of anything.

[close]

[Bebpo]

I'm still running around with 9/9/9 in STR/CON/DEX lol

I tried to look up what to put points into if you start INT/WIS/CHA at 16/16/16 like I did. But I couldn't find any good tips besides getting WIS to 18 and INT to 19. So after the first few points I have no idea what to do but it's not like I seem to be using STR/DEX/CON much at all, especially since after the catacombs there's like no combat in the game anymore so I just keep putting them evenly across INT/WIS/CHA.

The only thing that sucks about 9 STR is the 50LB weight limit. Even with INV management sometimes I want to hold a bunch of key items but it gets tight.

[Rufus]

WIS gives you bonus XP, which is great for that alone. I always max it. You can increase it to 25 by questing, but that assumes you're a completionist. I currently run around with 20 and won't be putting any more points into it (there's a scroll that gives you +2 to any stat).
I bump INT to 18, because mage (usually), and spread the rest semi-randomly.

That said, powergaming fixed content games is stupid.

[tiesto]

I remember the Curst and Carceri parts of the game seemed to be sort of undeveloped and go pretty quickly. I say you only have a couple more hours left of the game.

[Bebpo]

Random Planescape Torment thoughts:

Tiesto's description of it as basically a visual novel seems pretty close, though I'd say it's closer to a PnC adventure game given the inventory management and questing puzzles.

Definitely doesn't feel like a crpg that much. There's no real roleplaying, all the spells and gear/loot taking up my inv space is pointless because there's almost no combat and there doesn't seem to be a whole bunch of ways to accomplish quests like pickpocketing something or sneaking into rooms. When people said this was a dialogue-based rpg, I was expecting quests where you can smartly talk your way out of fighting or through quest completion like you can do in a lot of crpgs and especially like Obsidian stuff.

But everytime you get in a quest dialogue, the first dialogue choice is always the long, wordy and correct one to "win" the dialogue. So you always just keep selecting the top choice. There isn't even a challenge of figuring out which is the correct dialogue choice. The few times I thought maybe that option was there and tried picking a choice that wasn't the first top one I'd get it wrong. There should be a mod that randomizes the order of dialogue choices.

So since dialogues are basically just talking about every subject to get info and then selecting the top choice when it matters, and there's no real combat, the entire gameplay is basically just figuring where to go to get what item to give to what person to clear each quest and progress, which...is essentially an adventure game.

Which is fine, I'm enjoying it though I still don't know what to think of the story. At this point I sorta feel like the plot is heading in the direction of KoTOR1

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where the Amnesiac discovers they were actually the villain

Because in all these flashbacks TNO sure seems like a terrible ruthless villain persona

[close]

But I guess if the game is pretty short in these later sections I should finish it this week and see where the plot ends up.

[Rufus]

Yup. Next to no reactivity. The game relies on you caring about the story and TNO's character to give what choice you do have any meaning, which in turn gives context to your journey, but ultimately you get rail-roaded hard. (Sometimes clumsily. Lothar putting you on Ravel's trail is pretty random.)
Would be cool if there was a full Fighther's, Thief's and Mage's path, with personality on top, given that TNO could theoretically be any kind of person, but what we got impressed young Rufus immensely anyway.

[Don Rumata]

Finished Creaks.
Not their best, but very cute and fun.
No puzzle had me stuck for more than a minute or two, except for one (which i had to look up a solution for  ), it flows very well.
Only disappointments are less music than other games of theirs, and i was expecting one epic final puzzle in the belly of the beast, but instead it's basically just a cutscene till the end.
I'll say this style of very mechanical puzzle, may lend itself for less creativity in terms of characters and visuals, but it was much more pleasurable to play than the usual point & click "guess wtf i want you to do" they had in games like Samorost and Machinarium.

[Bebpo]

Planescape Torment - At the final dungeon now, should be able to finish it tomorrow.

Had a really shitshow time in the last 1/3rd and missed a ton of story/quests which are the important part of a story game 
In Curst I was exploring all the locations in the starting screen and one of them is a stairway down to Curst Underground
...and there seems to be no way back up afterwards? Curst Underground only leads to the Curst Prison where everyone including the guards attack you on site!

So I went from barely any combat to having to fight like 50 Curst Prison guards a few at a time with my low-level party which was mostly just Morte tanking solo and everyone buffing him.

Then I get the sword and get teleported to the bone desert and everything there is attacking me too! So I run past it to the demon house.

Which takes me to Baator and the Pillar of Skulls where everything is attacking me again! So I talk to the Skulls and leave.

Which eventually gets me to Curst Gone which is just chaos and everything is attacking me! So I rush up and do a couple interaction dialogues with anyone who is blue outline and not attacking me and then I go into the administration and fight Trias and now I'm back at Sigil.

So like from Curst to this point it was just 2-3 hours of non-stop everything being hostile and attacking me and very little questing which was not really fun with my lvl.10 party and INT/CHA/WIS MC.

Also apparently if I hadn't been running from everything and killing everything there was a companion in the Prison I could've found but totally missed that. I also gave my Modron Cube to the Pillar of Skulls lol so not getting the companion there.

Part of me feels like for a such a story-focused game I should replay the Curst section and actually see all the story, but at this point I think I'll just do the final dungeon and see the ending and move on. Don't see myself replaying this. The story & setting is interesting, but the gameplay is way less enjoyable than Baldur's Gate 1 was.

[Rufus]

In Curst I was exploring all the locations in the starting screen and one of them is a stairway down to Curst Underground
...and there seems to be no way back up afterwards? Curst Underground only leads to the Curst Prison where everyone including the guards attack you on site!

I told you to be careful there.
I don't remember if there's any kind of warning, but I do know I did the exact same thing on a prior playthrough.

Also apparently if I hadn't been running from everything and killing everything there was a companion in the Prison I could've found but totally missed that.

He's very easily overlooked. A good fighter, but evil, despite his lawful neutral alignment. Blind justice animating an empty suit of armour.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

He will execute Trias when the conversation ends, no matter what. You can get Trias' celestial sword that way, without having to kill him yourself. It can shapeshift into any weapon, but it's not really worth it, since the game's almost over.

[close]

I usually wake him, exhaust his dialogue for the STR buff, and then convice him that he's already dead.
Oh, and he's voiced by Keith David!

I also gave my Modron Cube to the Pillar of Skulls lol so not getting the companion there.

Aw, poor Nordom, damned forever. :'( I just rescued him from the cube in my game. He's the only ranged character, but also underleveled when you get him. Tedious dialogue (and acquisition, since the cube is a randomized maze), but cute. Kind of an XP leech, too, tbh...

Part of me feels like for a such a story-focused game I should replay the Curst section and actually see all the story, but at this point I think I'll just do the final dungeon and see the ending and move on.

I don't actually remember Curst that well, but I think the gist is that it's a dead-end place that is getting worse (due to Trias' influence), foreshadowing the slide into Carceri. There's a lecturer in the Festhall who explains everything about how a place might slide to another plane. Curst is where that plays out.

You've missed out on loot and a bunch of XP, of course, but it's hardly essential, unless the following areas give you a lot of trouble.

I have a feeling you'll hate the last 'dungeon'. Bring the Bronze Sphere with you! It should still be on Pharod's remains if you didn't go back earlier.

Don't see myself replaying this. The story & setting is interesting, but the gameplay is way less enjoyable than Baldur's Gate 1 was.

Understandable. The meat is in the story, and that's unaffected by your class choice.

All the insight unlocked by high WIS/INT/CHA is fluff, strictly speaking, but I can't imagine the game without it. I'm still curious to see how a meathead fighter gets on, but I doubt that will last long.

[Akala]

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Finally around to playing the 2nd reboot as I enjoyed murdering through the first one a few months back. I like the setting less, I guess I am about halfway through? I also think they kind of leaned into the survival bits a bit much on this one. Personally finding it breaks up the pacing as I want to collect as much as possible in the open areas, but there is just so much collectible junk stuffed into the maps where it takes a bit too long. Overall doesn't feel as tight as the first one so far, although set pieces are still good.

Will queue the third one up a few months after I beat this one to not get sick of. I am really liking this series overall so far, hopefully they make more of them eventually.

[Svejk]

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Finally around to playing the 2nd reboot as I enjoyed murdering through the first one a few months back. I like the setting less, I guess I am about halfway through? I also think they kind of leaned into the survival bits a bit much on this one. Personally finding it breaks up the pacing as I want to collect as much as possible in the open areas, but there is just so much collectible junk stuffed into the maps where it takes a bit too long. Overall doesn't feel as tight as the first one so far, although set pieces are still good.

Will queue the third one up a few months after I beat this one to not get sick of. I am really liking this series overall so far, hopefully they make more of them eventually.

I loved all 3, but each in it's own way... I felt the action and gunplay of Rise, specifically, should've been reserved more as the 3rd and final installment, as it was more climactic, rather than Shadow's stealth/exploration depth and... ending..(?)   If you play Shadow afterwards (which you should), you'll want to play the DE with all the dlc.  It totally feels much more complete as a game.  Frankly, it was the one game that made me officially dislike season pass bullshit with content that was intended to be in the game, but didn't have time to put in?  Fuck all that... I'll wait longer and give me a damn premium game for $60... Don't nickel and dime a $80+ price tag for a game that's not even complete.

[Akala]

Is the DE content you are talking about mainly the extra challenge tombs? Or something in the campaign?

Not sure how I am playing Shadow, I have a standard copy from black Friday for X1, but I got the DE upgrade for the Humble copy on PC. I kind of like playing these on couch so far, but may just play on PC and flip the standard copy as it's unopened. 

[BIONIC]

The dlc in shadow is integrated into the story if you have it installed, but I think you can play them separately from the main menu as well.

[Akala]

good lord the standard edition has like zero resale so will just keep. 

hopefully DE upgrade goes on sale on XB at some point in next few months.

[Bebpo]

In Curst I was exploring all the locations in the starting screen and one of them is a stairway down to Curst Underground
...and there seems to be no way back up afterwards? Curst Underground only leads to the Curst Prison where everyone including the guards attack you on site!

I told you to be careful there.
I don't remember if there's any kind of warning, but I do know I did the exact same thing on a prior playthrough.

Yeah, when I couldn't find my way back up I'm like "yup, this must be what Rufus was talking about with cutting it short"

And yeah I was reading and apparently the questlines there give crazy XP to get your levels up. So that might've helped too. Last dungeon might be a pain. Worst case scenario I'll debug mode it and run godmode or something if it seems unbeatable.

I still have the bronze sphere and the negatation token on me which seemed important items. I also have my arm even though I can't equip it as a mage.

[BisMarckie]

Still playing Persona 3 FES. NGL the game kinda hit a snag for me duriing the summer parts, but then they introduce a robot and a dog to your party

35 hours in and I there still is roughly 60% of the game left

[Svejk]

good lord the standard edition has like zero resale so will just keep. 

hopefully DE upgrade goes on sale on XB at some point in next few months.

Yeah, like Bionic said, you can play them separately...  I went standard at launch and only a few months ago got the Definitive Edition upgrade on sale for like $5 (PSN).  For me, all the dlc addressed my issues with the base game.. mainly adding more combat encounters, letting you better utilize the skills you learn in the main story.  The base game felt like they introduce some cool skills, but never gives you a chance to really use them.  Just a word of warning though, if you are a stickler about changing outfits for Lara constantly (like me), you'll need to complete the story before you can unlock the option to turn off outfit restrictions.. also a part of the DE upgrade.

[Rufus]

I also have my arm even though I can't equip it as a mage.

Did you show it to Fell? He can peel the tattoos off. Ask Dak'kon to translate for some extra dialogue. The arm serves no purpose beyond that.

[Bebpo]

Planescape Torment

Wait, that was the ending? For all this story game build up (and final dungeon sure was crap). Like a 2 second CG movie?


    


Time to go read up on the wiki and try to get more out of this story.

For a "you don't need to fight, INT/WIS/CHA builds", I wonder how the fuck you're supposed to fight the final boss? When I got to him all my spells were used up from the Ingus fight and being a mage all my physical weapons were shit and nothing could hit him, Morte couldn't hit him and did 0 damage and I brought back Annah and she could do like 2 damage with magical punch daggers if she happened to hit him. So basically I couldn't even do damage and he just rolled my team.

After I realized I couldn't hit him at all and even do 1 damage, I just console command instakill on him. Thank god for that or I'd have to youtube the ending.
 
On Ingus I had the same thing when I ran out of spells and ended up just using that 99 use black barb wand over and over for like 5 damage at a time until he died after 5-10 mins.

Also in terms of character questlines I don't think I ever figured out how to activate Fall from Grace or Annah's personal quest. In the EE version you get achievements for finishing the personal questlines. I did all their dialogue trees, but nothing. I got the achievement for Dakkon/Morte/Ingus.