What are you playing?

[archnemesis]

The PSP versions of Ys 1 & 2 are great too.

[Nintex]

I clicked the link and it was only like 3 Euro and now I own YS 1+2. 

[Tuckers Law]

Been playing Ys1 I am on the Darm Tower part and I forgot all about the Dogi punching walls meme. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dat soundtrack

[close]

Which version? Eternal on PC? Turbo Duo?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/223810/Ys_I__II_Chronicles/

I wish I had the original hardware and games.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

What was up with that bat/vampire boss before the Darm Tower I swear the hit detection is fucked.

[close]

1+2 Chronicles on PC is probably the best version of the games, but I have a soft spot for the soundtrack of the Turbo games.
Definitely give Origin and Oath in Felghana a playthrough next!

I really dig the PC-88 soundtrack that they have in the collection and kinda started playing Oath and Origin yesterday. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was listening to this last night. 

[close]

There’s a way to mod the steam versions soundtracks to your choice of chipset/platform (as long as you can track down the music itself).  Actually, unless I’m misremembering, I think it was someone here that pointed it out to me.  Regardless, I know I’ve seen guides on how to do it and it was pretty simple.

Damn I should play more Y’s, games are great and the music 

[D3RANG3D]

This one?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=167949156https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=167949156

[Tektonic]

Played & finished Tales of Berseria

now playing Tales of Zestiria

then going to play Tales of Vesperia

(yes, tales backlog... then maybe Tales of Arise will be in a bundle and I'll play that)

What did you think? I liked the story and characters of Berseria, even though some of the dungeons/fields dragged on for a bit too long and battles were way too buttonmashy. Definitely preferred it to Arise.

Yes I did enjoy Berseria, sure Velvet was angsty, but the story seemed to pay off in the end. Backtracking was a pain, the geoboard was a godsend, but they kept gating it behind backtracking.. Buttonmashy was good for me, as I never seemed to know exactly when all the systems were in play, so just bashing seemed to work.

I think playing Berseria first is helping Zestiria, because obviously the story makes more sense. But not sure why the change malakhim to seraphim but anyway... I don't like the save point skits, pressing Y anywhere in Berseria was good. But i'm enjoying it, which is more than I thought considering the bad reputation it has.

[demi]

Because Berseria takes place a long time before Zesteria, and history has changed, like why the Shepard is revered as a savior, when Berseria says a different story

The short story is that in the time between Berseria and Zesteria, mankind basically forgot about them so they went back to being invisible to the human eye

There's a lot of liberties since they take place so far between each other

[Tektonic]

Because Berseria takes place a long time before Zesteria, and history has changed, like why the Shepard is revered as a savior, when Berseria says a different story

The short story is that in the time between Berseria and Zesteria, mankind basically forgot about them so they went back to being invisible to the human eye

There's a lot of liberties since they take place so far between each other

I think playing it in reverse makes the idea of "history being pretty unreliable" stronger. not sure that's the intention, but as i play Zestiria I keep tut tutting.
Also; intro of Zestiria with the seraphim feels a lot like Dragon Quest IX and it's Celestrians ....

[tiesto]

I finished Paper Mario. Including the "optional" boss (the final dojo fight) and getting all the badges/star pieces. Fun game, with some cute parts. The combat dragged out a bit and got a tad repetitive but so far it's probably my second favorite of the Mario RPGs, behind of course the original. I'll get to TTYD later since a lot of people praise that one to high heavens.

[Polident Hive]

Fans of that game are...passionate. I can never tell if every Mario RPG since has been bad or people are longing for that same high of TTYD.

Speaking for myself, I never finished Paper Mario N64 or Super Paper Mario Wii. But I really liked TTYD back then. I kinda get it.

[benjipwns]

I actually like all the Mario RPG's I've played. Which is not all of them but SNES original, Mario & Luigi, Paper Mario, even Super Paper Mario (even if the dialogue is... dear god...) though TTYD isn't my favorite. I think a lot of its praise is more backlash overpraise since it (and the first Paper Mario) weren't all that well received by many reviewers.

[Tuckers Law]

TTYD superfans are super obnoxious.  The game was really good, great even, but not the perfect, ultimate example of Mario RPG’s or even Paper Mario, in my opinion.  SPM is my personal favorite in the series, but apparently it’s not a “real” Paper Mario because it leans more into the action-rpg side of the series.  I strongly disagree of course, but learned it’s not worth arguing over; the TTYD style-or-bust people are obstinate and unreasonable.

This one?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=167949156https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=167949156

Yep, that’s the one!  Once I was able to locate the music I wanted and get it formatted into .ogg (I think I used MusicBee), everything else was very simple to do.

[Nintex]

Because the GameCube had about 4.5 RPG's quite a number of them are overrated.

[Joe Molotov]

Knocked out 4 more bosses in Demon Souls last night: the Old Warrior, Storm King, Maneaters, and the Old Monk.

Maneaters can maneat my entire butthole, those guys sucked. And of course Miyazaki puts a black phantom Mindflayer right on the tiny-ass stairway leading to them, so you have to deal with this jerk every time you run back to the boss room. None of the other bosses gave me too much trouble. The Storm King fight was a cool gimmick fight, Old Warrior was easy once you realized you could just sneak up behind him and hit him and then walk away and never get hit. Apparently Old Monk can controlled by an invader, which I didn't know until afterwards, but I'm playing in offline mode because I don't pay for PS+ so I got the NPC version which was kind of a joke.

Just need to finish the mines and the poison swamp and then I'll be ready to head back to Bolsonaro.

[Madrun Badrun]

Think I'm quitting playing PolyBridge after getting through the first 35ish levels.  It's a really fun puzzle game but it's too finicky and doesn't give the tools to make fixing mistakes easy.  Like give me a tool to make equilateral triangles and then be able to rotate them. 

[Svejk]

Just picked up The Slovak Run for a buck fiddy.  Get the platinum in 10 minutes!  And although they're inferior to Czechs, support a Slovak! 

[Joe Molotov]

The Slovak Run is an infinite runner game, where you play as a typical old Slovak shepherd whose lovely sheep is lost.

[D3RANG3D]

Been playing Ys The Oath in Felghana, the English voice acting was kinda shitty so I modded in the Japanese voice acting. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am up to the Lava Pit level now got fucked up by a swarm of tiny bugs lol.

[close]

[Madrun Badrun]

Vampire Survivors is so damn good even though it's completely brainless.  It's like just get bathed in flashing lights and sounds and time just slips away.  3$ game I have sunk 37 hours into. 

[Joe Molotov]

I beat Demon's Souls last night. Fantastic game. Gonna jump right into Dark Souls while I'm still riding the dopamine high.

[D3RANG3D]

Up to the mechanical bird boss on the lava pit level in Oath in Felghana, I don't remember this enemy is it new?

edit

I beat the bird boss, and am now in the deeper part of the mines.

[tiesto]

Up to the mechanical bird boss on the lava pit level in Oath in Felghana, I don't remember this enemy is it new?

edit

I beat the bird boss, and am now in the deeper part of the mines.

Movin along, I'd say you've probably hit the halfway point.

Are you gonna do a whole series playthrough? Even though it's not the "canon" version I'd recommend you track down a PC Engine emu and a copy of the fan translation for Dawn of Ys. That's always been my personal favorite out of the 3 Ys IV releases (Dawn of Ys-PC Engine CD, Mask of the Sun-SNES, and the official Memories of Celceta for Vita/PS4/PC).

5 can be skipped since it's the worst game in the franchise and feels more like a middling SNES action RPG than a Ys game.

6-9 are all available on PC which is nice. Origin as well, which is a definite MUST PLAY. My #1 Ys even if it doesn't star Adol.

[D3RANG3D]

Up to the mechanical bird boss on the lava pit level in Oath in Felghana, I don't remember this enemy is it new?

edit

I beat the bird boss, and am now in the deeper part of the mines.

Movin along, I'd say you've probably hit the halfway point.

Are you gonna do a whole series playthrough? Even though it's not the "canon" version I'd recommend you track down a PC Engine emu and a copy of the fan translation for Dawn of Ys. That's always been my personal favorite out of the 3 Ys IV releases (Dawn of Ys-PC Engine CD, Mask of the Sun-SNES, and the official Memories of Celceta for Vita/PS4/PC).

5 can be skipped since it's the worst game in the franchise and feels more like a middling SNES action RPG than a Ys game.

6-9 are all available on PC which is nice. Origin as well, which is a definite MUST PLAY. My #1 Ys even if it doesn't star Adol.

I am going to go through all the ones I own on steam.

Ys 1&2
Origin
Oath
Ark

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am also playing through the Genesis version of Ys 3 too since I already beat the Snes version back in the day.

[close]

[Polident Hive]

Ys Ark, Oath, and Origin are the highlights of Ys. That gameplay style appealed most to me. Stuff before and the three party system from seven and up are good in their own ways.

[Joe Molotov]

I played Dex build with the Uchigatana in Elden Ring and Demon’s Souls, so I decided to mix it up and go Str in Dark Souls. I checked a guide for good thicc starting weapons and saw you can get the Gravelord Sword just a two minute run from Firelink Shrine, so I grabbed it and then immediately dumped 11 levels into Str so I can one-hand it. I almost OHKO’d the Taurus Demon and it only took 5 or 6 swipes to take out the Bell Gargoyles. Look, I’m not here to “git gud”, I’m just here to farm dopamine from numbers going up and bosses going down.

[naff]

helll yeah. that's wild. i've played that game a few times, my first play was pure strength and i never used the gravelord sword. didn't even know it was a weapon. i mained zweihander for most of the game as str build

[Tuckers Law]

I played Dex build with the Uchigatana in Elden Ring and Demon’s Souls, so I decided to mix it up and go Str in Dark Souls. I checked a guide for good thicc starting weapons and saw you can get the Gravelord Sword just a two minute run from Firelink Shrine, so I grabbed it and then immediately dumped 11 levels into Str so I can one-hand it. I almost OHKO’d the Taurus Demon and it only took 5 or 6 swipes to take out the Bell Gargoyles. Look, I’m not here to “git gud”, I’m just here to farm dopamine from numbers going up and bosses going down.

Cheese in Souls games is 100% a valid playstyle.  Those games throw so much fuckery at you that it's only fair, especially in first playthroughs.

[D3RANG3D]

Ys Ark, Oath, and Origin are the highlights of Ys. That gameplay style appealed most to me. Stuff before and the three party system from seven and up are good in their own ways.

Is there a Ys game where you can switch between Adol and Dogi for some heroing/wall punching action?

[tiesto]

Ys Ark, Oath, and Origin are the highlights of Ys. That gameplay style appealed most to me. Stuff before and the three party system from seven and up are good in their own ways.

Is there a Ys game where you can switch between Adol and Dogi for some heroing/wall punching action?

7 has Dogi as a playable character you can switch to.

[Joe Molotov]

helll yeah. that's wild. i've played that game a few times, my first play was pure strength and i never used the gravelord sword. didn't even know it was a weapon. i mained zweihander for most of the game as str build

It has no scaling so it eventually gets outclassed, but it's crushing these early game enemies, even bastards like the Black Knights, and I can just save all my titanite shards for now until I find something that's really worth upgrading.

[tiesto]

Started playing Crash 3 (original PS1 version) last night, already beat the first 3 worlds (so, about 15 levels)...

This seems a lot easier than 1 and 2, and unlocking a double jump ability after the second boss definitely helps. I'd say this is probably slightly better than the second game, but both are leagues better than the first (which I still need to go back to, since I stopped like 75% of the way through).

[benjipwns]

3 is easier than 2 both are much easier than 1.

No idea if this remains in the trilogy remake since it probably redid all the maps and the physics are probably consistent so there's fewer instant death situations if you aren't nearly pixel perfect. (2 and 3 are also more forgiving with the Aku Aku masks.)

[Joe Molotov]

Capra Demon is still a bitch after all these years.

This is where I gave up on Dark Souls on my last attempt to play it (on Switch). Not because I couldn’t beat him, because I eventually did, but just because he was so frustrating so early on in the game, that I felt like I’m bad at the game and I’m never gonna beat it. After beating Elden Ring and Demon’s Souls, I’m now convinced this guy just really sucks. There’s no boss like him in either of those games. The tiny-ass arena, the Capra Demon basically already in your face before the fog wall clears. You have about two seconds to react before you just get flattened. You try to roll around his opening attack and end up getting pinned to the wall by the damn dogs. Even knowing the basic stat of running up the stairs and finishing off the dogs then dropping down for a thrusting attack on the demon, actually pulling it off took me about 20 attempts over two hours. Glad that’s over with.

[Joe Molotov]

For the record, I’m still not good at the game. But now I have a large enough sample size to believe that I can beat it without being good.

[Bebpo]

Dark Souls 1 is the most broken game in the series.

If you run a

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dex Katana Bleed build

[close]

You can kill every boss in like 4 hits and no skill is required.


I really need to start Elden Ring already...

[Joe Molotov]

Dark Souls 1 is the most broken game in the series.

If you run a

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dex Katana Bleed build

[close]

You can kill every boss in like 4 hits and no skill is required.

I really need to start Elden Ring already...

I probably should have just went Uchi again but I'm gonna stick to my STR build for now. If I change my mind later, I'll just dupe a million souls to "respecc" into DEX lol.

[Madrun Badrun]

STR is great in DS 1 and 2.  3 is much more made for DEX. 

[Joe Molotov]

I'm thinking about running the Claymore. It seems like a solid mix between power and speed. I farmed up some large titanite shards fighting slimes in the sewers, gonna see how it feels at +10.

[Madrun Badrun]

Zweihander is all I used in like 3 play thoughts lol

[Madrun Badrun]

I'm playing blasphemous.  It's decent. 

[D3RANG3D]

I started up Duke Nukem Forever yesterday and was wondering what game did I play before that I didn't like because I am thoroughly entertained. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now that I think about it at the time my rig was flabbynsick™ wasn't playable on it. 

[close]

[Madrun Badrun]

Blasphemous has a stupid difficulty spike at the end due to the DLC bosses, which I didn't even give me anything because I already ruined the quest by killing a standard boss before the DLC ones.  The end of the game was just frustrating and not fun.

[tiesto]

A whole lotta Crash 3. Beat Cortex, got 4/5 colored gems, and working on unlocking the bonus levels via speedruns. I only have levels 24 and 25 to speedrun and then I unlock the last bonus level. Gonna get the last colored gem (fuck getting all the white gems) and then beat the 5 extra levels you get via speedrunning, and call it a day.

[Joe Molotov]

[D3RANG3D]

Ys Oath I am still at the Elderm mountains stage and got the Earth Amulet from Dogi, saw some treasure chests I don't know how to get to man this level is annoying.

[archnemesis]

I'm about halfway through Triangle Strategy. While not outstanding, it does scratch an itch and it's been a while since I played well made tactics game.

One of my kids wanted to try Zelda: Breath of the Wild so I've been playing that too. I didn't get far into it at launch. We just finished the first divine beast dungeon.

Also a lot of Magic Arena. The new set is fun to draft and there are plenty of jank decks that I want to try out.

[Svejk]

Making slow progress on Chrono Trigger.  On the Blackbird prison part.  Kinda want to finish it up and get back to FFVI Pixel Remaster now. Lol

Playing through some Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection.  Haven’t played the first Sharted since like ’08 so don’t remember too much.  Granted this is a remaster, some of the level designs, moreso art direction, has been nice… the grabbable ledges don’t stand out as more present games do.  Granted the geometries are reduced, but still, they’re not as immediately obvious.   

Impulse bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition on sale.  Even though I’m still about 65% through Elden Ring, been craving some less stressful pew-pewing.  I never played though ME1 thanks to the RROD (and my farewell to XB and MS in general).  Played through ME2 on PS3 and enjoyed it, but tried ME3 on WiiU, but it sucked on there. Loading and resolution was unbearable.  I may regret the purchase later, but still feeling the urge. Lol  It looks pretty nice in 4K though.  Like Uncharted, the animations are dated, but still nice to see spruced up in hi def.

[Joe Molotov]

Getting close to the end of Dark Souls, I've got three of the four Lord Souls. Just need to kill Nito.

[Bebpo]

My favorite in DS1 is Seath the scaleless. His story is great.

I'm enjoying the lore so far in Elden Ring, but so far it doesn't hold a candle to DS1 & Bloodborne's story/lore. DS1 is like my favorite Dark Fantasy story ever. DS2 is even more interesting in an ambiguous Silent Hill 2 way, but it's just a bit too incomplete to really work.

DS3 story was forgettable and DeSo story is good but doesn't compare. Sekiro's story/lore is interesting but like DS2 feels too incomplete to be satisfying to me.

[D3RANG3D]

Ys Oath I beat Elderm and am at Valestein now.

[Nintex]

Making slow progress on Chrono Trigger.  On the Blackbird prison part.  Kinda want to finish it up and get back to FFVI Pixel Remaster now. Lol

Playing through some Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection.  Haven’t played the first Sharted since like ’08 so don’t remember too much.  Granted this is a remaster, some of the level designs, moreso art direction, has been nice… the grabbable ledges don’t stand out as more present games do.  Granted the geometries are reduced, but still, they’re not as immediately obvious.   

Impulse bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition on sale.  Even though I’m still about 65% through Elden Ring, been craving some less stressful pew-pewing.  I never played though ME1 thanks to the RROD (and my farewell to XB and MS in general).  Played through ME2 on PS3 and enjoyed it, but tried ME3 on WiiU, but it sucked on there. Loading and resolution was unbearable.  I may regret the purchase later, but still feeling the urge. Lol  It looks pretty nice in 4K though.  Like Uncharted, the animations are dated, but still nice to see spruced up in hi def.

I was surprised how well the Mass Effect trilogy held up with a new coat of paint.
It also helps that the games are 20 - 30 hour-ish (even shorter if you just do the main story things).
Back then those were the 'big' games instead of plowing through an open world for 200 hours.

[D3RANG3D]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1848450/Nightmare_of_Decay/

Started up the demo for this game, I like it so far it's if tank controls Resident Evil was first person instead limited ammo it's old RE played straight.

[Pissy F Benny]

Making slow progress on Chrono Trigger.  On the Blackbird prison part.  Kinda want to finish it up and get back to FFVI Pixel Remaster now. Lol

Playing through some Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection.  Haven’t played the first Sharted since like ’08 so don’t remember too much.  Granted this is a remaster, some of the level designs, moreso art direction, has been nice… the grabbable ledges don’t stand out as more present games do.  Granted the geometries are reduced, but still, they’re not as immediately obvious.   

Impulse bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition on sale.  Even though I’m still about 65% through Elden Ring, been craving some less stressful pew-pewing.  I never played though ME1 thanks to the RROD (and my farewell to XB and MS in general).  Played through ME2 on PS3 and enjoyed it, but tried ME3 on WiiU, but it sucked on there. Loading and resolution was unbearable.  I may regret the purchase later, but still feeling the urge. Lol  It looks pretty nice in 4K though.  Like Uncharted, the animations are dated, but still nice to see spruced up in hi def.

I was surprised how well the Mass Effect trilogy held up with a new coat of paint.
It also helps that the games are 20 - 30 hour-ish (even shorter if you just do the main story things).
Back then those were the 'big' games instead of plowing through an open world for 200 hours.

1+2 held up. 3 is still and will forever be mostly c+p trash, and that's without talking about the story

[Polident Hive]

Sonic the Fighters is bad 

Shouldn’t be surprised. At best I expected a dumbed down VF2 with a Sonic skin. It stings a little. A hundred years ago I saw it in a magazine, back when I was the appropriate age demographic for sonic games. Knuckles punching Tails in the face. I have low standards. I had fun with Sonic R. But this is sub masters of teras kasi quality.

[tiesto]

Pokemon Snap - just unlocked Mew's stage (the final course)... gonna go back and capture the rest of the pokemon I missed, and then capture Mew.

Golden Axe Warrior - just started playing this, unlocked the Earth magic and made it to the 4th dungeon (I think there are 9 or 10)... it's a total Zelda 1 rip but that's not a bad thing since I love Zelda 1. Feels like the world is larger, but the dungeons are a bit more restrained and less puzzle-oriented.

[Nintex]

After 6 hours or so Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster is both better and worse than I expected.

I enjoy the different way of leveling (i.e. you level things you use as opposed to just random stats) and that your party gets mixed up a lot with characters joining and leaving.

On the other hand it is structured in a way that you have to return to a 'main base' to progress the story.
Which means you spend a lot of time traveling the same areas over and over.

You can tell the developers felt more confident after the success of FF1 though. There's a lot of references to other things in the game (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, various other games etc.).
The story and world design also make more sense than the random mess of things that is FF1.

[Joe Molotov]

I finished DS1 and now I'm playing Bloodborne. I beat Father Gasciogne, the Cleric Beast, and the Blood-starved Beast without too much trouble, but Vicar Amelia is kicking my butt. I got her down to 1hp on my last run, but then I choked. Got a few levels grinding around Cathedral Ward before I fight her again. I've been using Ludwig's Holy Blade and it feels really badass. The L2 overhead swing can hit her in the face and stagger her, I just have to make sure not to miss.

[D3RANG3D]

Beat Ys I .

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dark Fact 

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

I was exploring a little more around Old Yarnham and got snatched by some bagmen and thrown in horny jail. It turned out to be a good place to farm for souls and weapon shards, so I leveled a few more times and got Ludwig's Holy Blade up to +6, and then made mincemeat of Vicar Amelia Watson and the Darkbeast Paarl. I also bought the Tomb Prospectors Set to gain access to INFINITE COLLAR WORKS, and immediately became goated with the sauce.

[tiesto]

After 6 hours or so Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster is both better and worse than I expected.

I enjoy the different way of leveling (i.e. you level things you use as opposed to just random stats) and that your party gets mixed up a lot with characters joining and leaving.

On the other hand it is structured in a way that you have to return to a 'main base' to progress the story.
Which means you spend a lot of time traveling the same areas over and over.

You can tell the developers felt more confident after the success of FF1 though. There's a lot of references to other things in the game (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, various other games etc.).
The story and world design also make more sense than the random mess of things that is FF1.

I've said to people that FFII walked so SaGa can run. The game is pretty flawed but super ambitious for a game of its vintage. One of the first RPGs with a fully fledged, developing plot, and characters/npcs with a shrivel of personality. Also the growth system, as unbalanced and frustrating as it is, was novel. The biggest problem aside from the stat growth system is the frustrating dungeon design, filled with tons of empty rooms.

I haven't played the pixel remaster of II yet but I hear it fixes some of the balance issues of the original Famicom release.

[D3RANG3D]

Started up Ys II I am at the ice mountain part on the first boss.