Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 3558850 times)

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I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36720 on: March 30, 2021, 01:25:18 PM »
Finished Horizon Zero Dawn Really a 7/10 at best in this day and age. What really sticks out at me is how one note Aloy is. Not just because she's a Mary Sue, without any real character progression (you could've taken her from the first hour in the game and put her at the last battle and it wouldn't have made any change). But also because Ashly Burch was only able to convey half of one emotion through the whole game. I mean, I know she didn't have much to work with, but even 2B's opening monologue conveyed more emotion, even though it was supposed to be delivered by an emotionless android.

I must admit I'm interested in the sequel (definitely won't be paying full price for it) but not looking forward to a mono-tone Aloy for several hours.
que

Svejk

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36721 on: March 30, 2021, 01:38:25 PM »
Anything related to humans in Horizon were all boring as hell.  However, battling robo-monsters easily pulled me through the game. 
Personally, I don't get all the praise Ashly Burch gets though.  :doge

The Sceneman

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36722 on: March 30, 2021, 06:50:48 PM »
BBW sex and representation is always appreciated. Stop body shaming

Is BJ Blazkowicz a BBW? Hes a big dude lol
I think demi is referring to the second game New Colossus, which has this scene:


Holy shit, I will be playing this after New Order lol
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Great Rumbler

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36723 on: March 30, 2021, 06:59:05 PM »
The story in New Colossus is even crazier.
dog

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36724 on: March 30, 2021, 07:17:22 PM »
New Order had better pacing though. New Colossus has a much slower build-up.

Don't forget to play the Old Blood either. Fantastic expansion that.
🤴

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36725 on: March 30, 2021, 10:24:33 PM »
TBH i loved the first half of New Order, but by the end of the second half, i was praying for it to finish.
That game is too long for its own good.

chronovore

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36726 on: March 31, 2021, 02:34:16 AM »
Started Undead Labs' State of Decay 2 on Xbone.

Nice to see they kept all the cool stuff and didn't fix ANY of 'dat jank. Player characters are warned about nearly everything, except basic stuff like Stamina management and needing to sleep. Ended up staying up all night and approaching a main story mission with 1/10th the usual Stamina level, and was desperately trying to fend off hordes. Apparently I'm also carrying backpacks around in my backpack, but having a partner doesn't easily lend itself to helping carry my shit.

Still: Good times.

Where THE FUCK are they hiding the multiplayer in this game?

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36727 on: March 31, 2021, 06:18:18 AM »
Started Undead Labs' State of Decay 2 on Xbone.

Nice to see they kept all the cool stuff and didn't fix ANY of 'dat jank. Player characters are warned about nearly everything, except basic stuff like Stamina management and needing to sleep. Ended up staying up all night and approaching a main story mission with 1/10th the usual Stamina level, and was desperately trying to fend off hordes. Apparently I'm also carrying backpacks around in my backpack, but having a partner doesn't easily lend itself to helping carry my shit.

Still: Good times.

Where THE FUCK are they hiding the multiplayer in this game?

I think you can just invite people!
What

Thirty-Ought-Six

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36728 on: March 31, 2021, 09:51:11 AM »
Octopath Traveler

The structure of the game doesn't work for me at all, so I ignored it. I really liked my starting character (H'aanit) but out of the next 4 characters I unlocked, the only interesting one was Cyrus. Tressa and Therion were ok, but with boring stories, while Ophilia and her story were both aggressively boring. There was no way I was going to slog through 8 characters at this rate.

So rather than unlocking any more characters, I just did all H'aanit's chapters in a row (along with some optional bosses). Took some grinding to be able to skip every other character's story, but the combat is the best part of the game so that wasn't bad. I also ignored the job switching aspect, it was Hunter/Thief, Thief/Cleric, Scholar/Hunter, and Merchant/Dancer all the way. I got attached to those classes so it would feel wrong to change them partway through.

So yeah, love the combat, hate the game structure. I appreciate that they made it possible to fully complete one character's story without doing any others.

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36729 on: March 31, 2021, 11:10:17 AM »
Would like to try out Octopath, mainly for the look and music but definitely not gonna pay more than $19 for it. Everyone sorta says the same things. Combat is fun, looks and sounds great. Rest sorta sucks.
que

Pissy F Benny

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36730 on: March 31, 2021, 11:13:20 AM »
Its on gamepass
(ice)

Mr Gilhaney

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36731 on: April 02, 2021, 08:52:43 PM »
With the huge disco elysium patch (full voice overs now) I have been replaying that again. So good.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36732 on: April 03, 2021, 07:18:31 PM »
Still Xenoblade. Lvl 93 or so now. Mopping up some late quests before heading to the final boss. I found out this late in the game that some quests unlock more skill trees and non-unique enemies have a drop rate for Arts books  :whoo
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Great Rumbler

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36733 on: April 03, 2021, 10:12:19 PM »
Ended up using cheats in Dyson Sphere Progam and it's still taking forever.  :lol
dog

chronovore

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36734 on: April 04, 2021, 04:08:58 AM »
Started Hollow Knight. Really enjoying it so far. Charming world, esp. impressive considering it’s all bugs and maggots. Fairly difficult, and I’m only at the first boss. So I’m probably doomed to not complete. Still: fun for now. 

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36735 on: April 04, 2021, 09:29:30 AM »
Opened the Giants Door in Xenoblade  :o

I gotta say though, some of these late game quests have a bit of a lame ending.  :lol
You spend quite some time collecting 3 treasures to open a hidden door, only to find one hallway with a treasure chest.
Sometimes you have to go through quite an ordeal to find a unique flower or some shit of which only 1 exists in the entire game at the top of a frozen summit and it's just an NPC saying: "Cool, thanks!".

Now I need to go wrap things up in Alcamoth and I've pretty much done everything I wanted to do.
🤴

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36736 on: April 04, 2021, 12:21:40 PM »
Started Hollow Knight. Really enjoying it so far. Charming world, esp. impressive considering it’s all bugs and maggots. Fairly difficult, and I’m only at the first boss. So I’m probably doomed to not complete. Still: fun for now.

Enjoy!

One of the best games ever made imo. It's not horribly tough outside a few bosses. Progression is non-linear so if you get stuck you can do other stuff and come back later.

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36737 on: April 05, 2021, 11:17:27 AM »
Started Hollow Knight. Really enjoying it so far. Charming world, esp. impressive considering it’s all bugs and maggots. Fairly difficult, and I’m only at the first boss. So I’m probably doomed to not complete. Still: fun for now.
I gave up on Hollow Knight twice before it "clicked" for me. I still think the check points and fast travel are way too far apart.
But really it's quite an experience.
que

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36738 on: April 05, 2021, 12:45:22 PM »
Finally finished FFIV DS, I really loved the difficulty on this (apparently the difficulty on the DS is "Hard mode" on the steam/iOS/Android releases). It was good until the last dungeon where it just went off the rails and became a total slog. This was way harder than the SNES hard type. And that last level was awful. 5 floors between the last check point and the final boss and a higher random encounter rate and each random encounter could be worse than most of the bosses you've faced before. And to top all that off there was a long cut scene before the actual boss fight. Excellent game outside of the final level. But man, that last level was some serious BS.

Ryza 1 is on sale finally, so I picked it up. It's my first serious attempt at a Alterie game. I'm only like 15 minutes in. I've put Xenoblade 2 on hold for now. It's just dragging.
que

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36739 on: April 05, 2021, 01:19:51 PM »
Completed Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

So glad I bought this. I never go to finish it on Wii and this remake is pretty much perfect.
The only weakness I would say is the side content, a lot of missions come down to slaying a few monsters or collecting a bunch of items.
The main story is fantastic and pretty much all the playable characters are great. Walking through this beautifully designed world with the incredible music is just wonderful.

Now to play Future Connected.
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Joe Molotov

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36740 on: April 05, 2021, 01:50:27 PM »
Future Connected is pretty short and ultimately feels like it was made to appease people who's Shulk x Melia ship got sank.
©@©™

demi

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36741 on: April 05, 2021, 01:51:03 PM »
Future Connected is such a drop after experiencing the original story, I'm still not sure what the point of it was. Wasnt exactly sequel baiting or anything. Just some "epilogue" random side story
fat

tiesto

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36742 on: April 06, 2021, 12:24:07 PM »
Just an easy way to retcon a test/debug area into an actual full fledged location and add some bonus content. I had enough fun with exploring the new area but yeah it was pretty unnecessary. Torna is a much more fleshed out product.
^_^

Svejk

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36743 on: April 07, 2021, 01:35:16 PM »
Finally jumped back into Demon's Souls over the weekend.  Who in the actual fuck is this red samurai guy that keeps popping up at the beginning of Stage 4-1 all of a sudden??  >:(  I can't even play the stage now as he one shots me and I do barely any damage to him.  Not to mention the rolly polly motherfucker that's there at the beginning of the stage too not making it any easier.  Went back and made it further on 1-3 and 3-2 though, so made some progress elsewhere at least.

Raist

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36744 on: April 07, 2021, 03:53:17 PM »
Lol git gud n00b.

That's a black phantom. Related to world tendency.

Svejk

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36745 on: April 07, 2021, 04:41:07 PM »
Lol git gud n00b.

That's a black phantom. Related to world tendency.
Ah... reading up on it now.  Yeah, I never was understanding what the World Tendency part of the menu was for.  Now I know.

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36746 on: April 07, 2021, 05:09:42 PM »
Started Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen on my RG351 (which is great BTW) I've only made it through chapter 2 but I can already tell I'm gonna really enjoy this.
que

Raist

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36747 on: April 07, 2021, 05:58:43 PM »
Lol git gud n00b.

That's a black phantom. Related to world tendency.
Ah... reading up on it now.  Yeah, I never was understanding what the World Tendency part of the menu was for.  Now I know.

Now the question is how the fuck did you manage to reach pure black tendency before getting to the first boss  :lol

naff

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36748 on: April 07, 2021, 06:04:01 PM »
it's easy, you die a few times in human form on the stage. global tendency affects your world tendency too. its a fucked up convoluted dumb ass system. prob the dumbest system in the game, and brings it down (still really like the game, but it would be a lot better if world tendency wasn't so poorly implemented)
◕‿◕

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36749 on: April 07, 2021, 07:32:10 PM »
Started Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen on my RG351 (which is great BTW) I've only made it through chapter 2 but I can already tell I'm gonna really enjoy this.

I really should play this. TO is one of my favorites of all time and love Matsuno stuff, but never played the older Ogre games.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36750 on: April 07, 2021, 07:37:32 PM »
Some thoughts on Future Connected after a few hours of play.

More Xenoblade is always good and it adds in some QOL changes compared to the base game but there's a few changes that I'm not thrilled about.

- Removal of chain attacks and skill trees
Chain attacks are removed and that makes it harder to stop the momentum of enemy attacks when you're near death. Without skill trees, you lose the ability to revive party members with more health or change armor classes and such.
Certain vanilla Shulk/Melia stats aren't great and as far as I can tell there's no way to improve those stats.

- Not a lot of gear and armor
This makes fighting higher level monsters much harder because in Xenoblade there's some very powerful gear that could make fighting monsters 10 levels higher viable.
In the original games drop rates for great gear are fairly high. Every 3 enemies drop a useful item. Here the drop rate is very low.

- Longer 'cool down' time between actions
As I mained Melia for the latter half of Xenoblade, the difference is striking. Before I could Summon Bolt, wait for the Ether Energy to fill up then cast the bolt and then instantly do Mind Blast before the Ether Energy ran out even though my bolt was not yet cast.
This meant that you could sorta 'cheese' stacking attacks. It worked for chain attacks too. Just do Mind Blast, and just before the animation ends, hit the team attack button. You could get 2 fully charged attacks out of 1 charge.
No longer possible in FC because you can't cast something new until the animation of your original attack has ended.

- Replacing Rein and Sharla with Nene and Niko
Instead of Rein and Sharla your other 2 party members aside from Shulk and Melia are two Nopon with the skills and abilities of Rein(berserker) and Sharla(healer). If you add in two new characters with the exact same stats as the original characters, why not just include the original characters?  ???

+/- Adding in more Nopon
I'm not a Nopon hater so I don't mind more of those furballs. With that said, the prospector mechanic is a bit under developed. As you move through the world you collect Prospectors which join your party. It's basically a group of allies that joins in battle.
There's no way to control their actions though and they team-up with Shulk by default. Shulk AI is dumb but you want to play as Melia because her AI is dumber and her spells are more helpful in battle. Both Shulk and these Nopon are kinda useless.

+ Removal of gem crafting
In FC you can just pick up gems instead of having to pick up Crystals and crafting gems out of those Crystals. The only downside is that you no longer get Crystals from enemies so you can only collect gems from the ether mining points.
At like halfway through Xenoblade crafting already becomes so easy that the crafting minigame (which is totally random anyway) just breaks the pace of the game.

+ Layered environments
FC is a 'newer' game and you can tell from the way the landscape is created. They clearly no longer have Wii limitations to work around so you get more interesting environments and layouts from a gameplay perspective overall

+ Condensed quest locations
Because the world is smaller, quest locations are more condensed. In a town you might find 5 people with quests in the same area. In Xenoblade you have a lot of quests that spawn different areas of the game.
Some of these are interesting but there are also a bunch that is just 'slay 3 monsters, but do it in this remote area that has no fast travel point for no reason'

+ Voiced heart-to-hearts
They have a slightly different name that I forgot but the heart-to-heart moments are now fully voiced cutscenes as opposed to speech bubbles in the original game.
Considering some of those heart-to-hearts in the original game contained optional important plot developments for the overall story it was a shame those weren't cutscenes

+ Better enemy AI
The enemy AI has been much improved. In the original game most enemies don't move 2 steps from their spawn location and they seldom sync their attacks (even though some enemies have the ability to perform chain attacks).
In FC the enemies are much more agressive and time their attacks pretty well. They're also moving around the map in 'packs' making it harder to pick them off one at a time. Definitely an improvement.

+ Better cosmetics and overall graphics
Even though it mostly looks the same as the base game there's definitely some visual improvements such as the more dynamic lighting at night, props for destroyed buildings, better textures, materials, caves, dungeon areas and improved costumes and cosmetics.
The new outfits are mixed in with the existing sets but are in general more interesting and detailed than most base game gear.


Overall it's a weird thing considering it's an expansion that is part of the game but has more QOL improvements than the base game but also some fundamental gameplay changes.
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I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36751 on: April 07, 2021, 08:36:24 PM »
Started Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen on my RG351 (which is great BTW) I've only made it through chapter 2 but I can already tell I'm gonna really enjoy this.

I really should play this. TO is one of my favorites of all time and love Matsuno stuff, but never played the older Ogre games.
I'm in the same boat. Love Tactics Ogre but never played the Ogre battle games. Sorta different but I like it!
que

Svejk

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36752 on: April 07, 2021, 09:12:25 PM »
Lol git gud n00b.

That's a black phantom. Related to world tendency.
Ah... reading up on it now.  Yeah, I never was understanding what the World Tendency part of the menu was for.  Now I know.

Now the question is how the fuck did you manage to reach pure black tendency before getting to the first boss  :lol
it's easy, you die a few times in human form on the stage. global tendency affects your world tendency too. its a fucked up convoluted dumb ass system. prob the dumbest system in the game, and brings it down (still really like the game, but it would be a lot better if world tendency wasn't so poorly implemented)
4-1 has been way more challenging of a level than others for some reason, but I've only tried it like 2 or 3 times.  Been holding off to go back to it... Was feeling like I've made some progress and gained some levels with upgraded gear and such, but then that guy shows up and wrecks me.  I haven't given him an honest try though.. I just said fuck that guy, I'm going somewhere else. Lol
Well, now I understand a bit more of that system.. Gotta say, not liking this tendency so far. Lol
« Last Edit: April 08, 2021, 07:13:56 AM by Svejk »

Raist

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36753 on: April 08, 2021, 05:41:03 AM »
it's easy, you die a few times in human form on the stage. global tendency affects your world tendency too. its a fucked up convoluted dumb ass system. prob the dumbest system in the game, and brings it down (still really like the game, but it would be a lot better if world tendency wasn't so poorly implemented)

I know how it works (and the tendency system is awesome, shut your dirty mouth :bolo)

What I'm saying is that you have to try quite hard to get pure black tendency, i.e deliberately dying in human form multiple times. Which means either going back to that particular stage after beating a boss elsewhere, or spamming the soul > body stones (ephemeral something, haven't played this game since the OG give me a break).

Svejk

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36754 on: April 08, 2021, 07:26:40 AM »
it's easy, you die a few times in human form on the stage. global tendency affects your world tendency too. its a fucked up convoluted dumb ass system. prob the dumbest system in the game, and brings it down (still really like the game, but it would be a lot better if world tendency wasn't so poorly implemented)

I know how it works (and the tendency system is awesome, shut your dirty mouth :bolo)

What I'm saying is that you have to try quite hard to get pure black tendency, i.e deliberately dying in human form multiple times. Which means either going back to that particular stage after beating a boss elsewhere, or spamming the soul > body stones (ephemeral something, haven't played this game since the OG give me a break).
I must've unintentionally timed it for the prior. :yeshrug  I haven't used one of those stone things yet to regain human form.  I don't really recall dying on 4-1 (until this black phantom guy).  I did go in and out of the stage several times to farm some souls with the first few enemies for a bit, but then run back to the nexus and then go elsewhere. 

tiesto

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36755 on: April 08, 2021, 10:17:32 AM »
Finally beat SOR4 and Trials of Mana (original SNES version from Collection of Mana), and also managed to beat Champion's Road in Mario 3D World!!! Still have to finish up the mystery house marathon, though I beat that back on WiiU.

So now I'm playing Bowser's Fury, I have about 94 shines with a few more to go. - Not really into this, although it's got a decent amount of content. I'm just not a fan of open world Mario games where you keep going back to the same areas over and over. Also getting constantly interrupted by Bowser is annoying too.

Once I finish Bowser's Fury I'm gonna go hard on Saturn for a bit... Linkle Liver Story, Albert Odyssey, Legend of Oasis, Battle Garegga, Shienryu, replays of Panzer Saga and Rayearth.
^_^

Beezy

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36756 on: April 08, 2021, 11:18:44 AM »
Once I finish Bowser's Fury I'm gonna go hard on Saturn for a bit... Linkle Liver Story, Albert Odyssey, Legend of Oasis, Battle Garegga, Shienryu, replays of Panzer Saga and Rayearth.
No Dragon Force?

tiesto

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36757 on: April 08, 2021, 11:23:32 AM »
Once I finish Bowser's Fury I'm gonna go hard on Saturn for a bit... Linkle Liver Story, Albert Odyssey, Legend of Oasis, Battle Garegga, Shienryu, replays of Panzer Saga and Rayearth.
No Dragon Force?

I have it but tbh I couldn't get into it when I first played it. I'll give it another go!
^_^

demi

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36758 on: April 10, 2021, 11:14:26 AM »
Recent games:

- Paper Mario: The Origami King, trying to get back to playing some Switch. Not that theres been much, just this and Bravely Default 2.

- Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, I've never actually finished FF12. Going to do it now, thanks to GamePass #ad
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Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36759 on: April 12, 2021, 07:14:30 PM »
Nearing the end of Future Connected I think.

I liked the story overall so far and some of the sidequests were decent. The battles became better balanced once I unlocked the Noppon air strikes  :doge
But overall the battle mechanics in the vanilla game are way better so I'm not sure why they changed it.
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Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36760 on: April 12, 2021, 08:49:58 PM »
But overall the battle mechanics in the vanilla game are way better so I'm not sure why they changed it.

I mean XB2 plays worse and FC was made after XB2 so not really a surprise.

XB1 just played like FFXII offline MMO and was fine and fun as is.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36761 on: April 15, 2021, 12:34:26 AM »
Ok, just picked up Saga Frontier Remastered on Switch.

Betting pool, will this be the first Saga game bebpo actually finishes a single character campaign in??


Here's all the Saga games I've bought and played in the last 20 years+

-Saga Frontier PS1 - Heard bad things about it, probably bootlegged it and tried it for like 15 mins
-Saga Frontier 2 PS1 - Heard ok things about it, really nice 2d art, gave it a shot for an hour or two and didn't know what to do and bailed.
-Minstrel Saga PS2  - Wandered around for a couple hours with no idea where to go and bailed.
-Unlimited Saga PS2 - Heard this was terrible outside the ost so picked it up for collector's value but never played.
-Scarlet Grace Vita - Picked this up and played an hour and didn't want to read all the battle tutorials and wandered around and bailed.
-Scarlet Grace Switch - Picked it up again to give a fair shot, haven't really played it yet.
-Romancing Saga 3 Switch - Picked it up since I never played 2/3 (I might have RS2 on Switch as well...), played a couple hours with one character but lost interest

And I'll throw in that Octopath Traveler, which feels very Saga to me, I picked up and beat the intro chapter with like two characters and haven't gotten around to playing more. Also will throw in The Last Remnant, which I bought on Xbox and then the special edition on PC and never really played either.

The weird thing is I'm all for non-linear wrpgs like say Fallout 1, and I like weird jrpgs like Breath of Fire V, but the non-linear jrpg genre that is mostly Saga just never clicks with me and fails to keep me engaged. When I played the old ones on PS1/PS2 they felt like "use a faq" games and I didn't have the patience.

Otoh, linear jrpgs I tend to finish if I start them. Playing through Fantasian now and will probably finish it.

Gonna start with supposedly the shortest and easiest story with Emelia. Will try to put in the effort to learn the systems and use a guide if I need to and see if I can finally finish at least one scenario in a Saga game.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2021, 02:31:22 AM by Bebpo »

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36762 on: April 15, 2021, 01:25:41 AM »
Played like an hour with Emilia and I'm wandering around some cyberpunk kinda city with no idea what I am doing.

Pretty fun!


Also the game looks hella good in this remake. I'm just playing it in portable mode on switch but everything looks really clean and not in a bad filtered way.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36763 on: April 15, 2021, 04:35:07 AM »
Wandering around cities with no idea what to do and just running into every dungeon I find with my 150 hp party and getting instant wiped sometimes. I know how to progress the main scenario but from what I understand it's easy to miss tons of stuff in Saga, so trying to explore and do side stuff before advancing the main scenario.

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36764 on: April 15, 2021, 02:27:18 PM »
Ok, just picked up Saga Frontier Remastered on Switch.

Betting pool, will this be the first Saga game bebpo actually finishes a single character campaign in??


Here's all the Saga games I've bought and played in the last 20 years+

-Saga Frontier PS1 - Heard bad things about it, probably bootlegged it and tried it for like 15 mins
-Saga Frontier 2 PS1 - Heard ok things about it, really nice 2d art, gave it a shot for an hour or two and didn't know what to do and bailed.
-Minstrel Saga PS2  - Wandered around for a couple hours with no idea where to go and bailed.
-Unlimited Saga PS2 - Heard this was terrible outside the ost so picked it up for collector's value but never played.
-Scarlet Grace Vita - Picked this up and played an hour and didn't want to read all the battle tutorials and wandered around and bailed.
-Scarlet Grace Switch - Picked it up again to give a fair shot, haven't really played it yet.
-Romancing Saga 3 Switch - Picked it up since I never played 2/3 (I might have RS2 on Switch as well...), played a couple hours with one character but lost interest

And I'll throw in that Octopath Traveler, which feels very Saga to me, I picked up and beat the intro chapter with like two characters and haven't gotten around to playing more. Also will throw in The Last Remnant, which I bought on Xbox and then the special edition on PC and never really played either.

The weird thing is I'm all for non-linear wrpgs like say Fallout 1, and I like weird jrpgs like Breath of Fire V, but the non-linear jrpg genre that is mostly Saga just never clicks with me and fails to keep me engaged. When I played the old ones on PS1/PS2 they felt like "use a faq" games and I didn't have the patience.

Otoh, linear jrpgs I tend to finish if I start them. Playing through Fantasian now and will probably finish it.

Gonna start with supposedly the shortest and easiest story with Emelia. Will try to put in the effort to learn the systems and use a guide if I need to and see if I can finally finish at least one scenario in a Saga game.
Dude I'm almost in exactly the same boat. I bought Romancing SaGa 3/Unlimited SaGa based on the OSTs alone. Didn't bother to try Unlimited Saga beyond the first hour because I knew it was god awful. Romancing I think I played about 5 hours and moved onto other more interesting games (though I have to admit Unlimited SaGa is still one of my favorite OSTs of all time, I mean it's up there with Chrono Cross/Trigger levels of good). Keep posting!

Ogre battle: March of the black queen God I really love the non-stop movement of this game. It's not like Tactics where you stop every move and decide what you need to do. You gotta do that real time. I will say though it can be exceedingly difficult to get your units to level correctly with this. You move a unit to take a city and that happens to be where the CPU tries to overwhelm you and you got a unit that's several levels stronger than some others that were on less popular routes. I gotta rethink my strategy because at this point I'll have 3 uber-units and like 7 under leveled units that just get trounced. I've also been reading about this reputation system? In typical Matsuno style the game doesn't mention it or how to work it or anything (at least not by chapter 5) . Not sure I care for this play through, I'm intentionally going in as blind as I can and only looking up basic tips. But it seems stupidly obscure. Similarly there are little QoL things that you'd expect in this day and age like showing you how equipping an item will change your stats or having to memorize what each tarot does rather than having some help text available while you're using them. Still I love the feel and challenge of having to adapt on the move instead of taking turns

13 Sentinels I posted about this in the discord. I'm sorta put off by the VN segments. Your choices so far don't change anything. So it's "hunt for the pixel to click on until you can progress" I get they're doing this instead of cut scenes but without any kind of impact to the story or outcome. It's just "Haha! find where to click before we tell you more!" It's annoying. Not enough to ruin the game but still.
 
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Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36765 on: April 15, 2021, 07:15:29 PM »
I gotta say it really annoys me when game timers count sleep mode time in your game time count. Saga Frontier on Switch does that and so I have no idea what my real game time is :|

Getting the hang of this though and pretty into it. It's fun and I'm dying less. Still very confusing and a ton of obtuse stuff. Like half the NPCs trigger by running into them, the other half you have to press A next to them. It's just random!

And these pre-rendered backgrounds are mazes you can't tell where any of the boundaries are. Remake really needed that infinity engine thing where you hold a button and all walkable area is highlighted in blue. At least they added arrows pointing at exits and feet for boundaries you can hop over. That must have driven people mad in the original, you just have to mash B (run) on every invisible wall in case you can hop past it.

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36766 on: April 16, 2021, 02:43:50 AM »
Trying something new with me blog, and my absurd digital library, if you'll forgive me:
Welcome to the first helping of the Digital Buffet where we take a quick look at random games on digital platforms such as Steam, GOG, Google Play and others. Let’s eat.

Games this week: Cat Quest, Caesar III, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Just Bones, Legend, NBA SuperCard, Tap Heroes, Wargroove
I'll also take requests for future weeks if there's something you're interested in, that I own, and you'd like me to give it an hour or so to see if it's any good before you buy. Because I am most trustworthy reviewer possible. :doge

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36767 on: April 17, 2021, 03:52:45 AM »
I've now recruited 23 characters in Emilia's scenario in Saga Frontier I've done almost all the side stuff and just have a few story scenarios left.

Haven't been able to put the game down since it clicked. It's definitely the weirdest jrpg I've ever played and at times feels like Deadly Premonitions kind of so wtf it works. The 3x battle speed in the remaster helps A LOT. Game feels good at that battle speed. Really short, fast and fun and a lot of visual variety and randomness.

I gotta say playing stuff like DQVIIr and Saga Frontier remaster, they're just so much better than most modern jrpgs like Bravely Default II or Fantasian and stuff. I just have way more fun playing these games in their tighter to the point gameplay.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36768 on: April 17, 2021, 04:07:21 PM »
Woohooo, after 20+ years, finally finished a character campaign in a SaGa game with SaGa Frontier. Finished Emilia's path, did everything, even beat the superboss EarthDragon and recruited everyone except for one missable.

Took a while to figure out, but I 75% know how to play SaGa now. There's still some stuff I'm learning and monster forms are beyond me, but generally I get this game and it's a lot of fun.

It's also super short. It took me maybe around 10-12 hours and that was with a few hours of grinding last night and a lot of hours of being confused early on. I'd wager these campaigns are like 5 hours if you know what you're doing. The main story part was maybe 30-60 mins long for Emilia and I understand she's one of the story heavy characters lol. There were like 6 story missions and they took about 5-10 mins each.

Will start playing the other characters. Whether I do them all is gonna depend on how much of the game is repetitive doing the same stuff over and over again with 7 other character scenarios. If it's too repetitive (like 4 hours of repeating the same stuff and 1 hour unique each scenario), might move on.

Probably will give Romancing SaGa 3 another shot coming from this and have a better feel for how these games work.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36769 on: April 18, 2021, 04:17:34 AM »
Man, Saga Frontier is so cool. I'm pretty far into my 2nd character as the mecha guy T260G. Running an all mech team and it's so different and even more complex systems to learn.

I feel like Saga Frontier is gonna spoil me and make all the other Saga games and Saga-likes feel a bit boring in comparison. I want them to make a new Saga game like Scarlet Grace but with a setting and weirdness like this.

Also this remaster is really good (kinda like Tactics Ogre PSP or Valkyrie Profile PSP or Suikoden I+II PSP or I guess Romancing Saga 2/3 Switch!), but the new game+ is so busted. You literally carry over everything if you want into the other character campaigns which makes 95% of their campaigns pointless since you are ready for the final boss from the start. Luckily with mechs it doesn't really work that way since my first run with Emilia had no mechs so I only got a buffed up start with gear and money. But for my 3rd character onwards I might pick & choose what to carry over. Maybe not stats at least.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36770 on: April 18, 2021, 01:21:52 PM »
Made some progress in Demon's Souls.  Not sure why I struggled with the black phantom Satsuki(?).  First try, destroyed him without being touched.  ::)  From there, I was on a roll.  Cleared 4-1 and 1-3..  Granted those bosses were relatively easy, but I'm ok with that.  :D Just want to keep moving and see new locales.  About to do the Man-eater fight, but wanted to get 2 more dragonstone shards to upgrade my dragonblade... Am playing a magic/melee build, so I've been contemplating using a Falchion with high magic attack I just picked up.  Also got a Uchigatana.. want to experiment with it too.  But I did get firestorm, so I've been putting more into my magic as well. 

This game is awesome.. I'm totally spoiled now though with how this game looks and sounds. (Dat 3D audio  :lawd) I don't know if I can ever go back to BB if they don't flippin update it; remaster it; remake.. whatever.  I can only think Sony has been super silent on it because they're ramping up something for it.  Sony's been stupid lately, but they can't be that stupid to ignore the hardcore souls cult of BB.

Edit: Also been getting back to Baldur's Gate: EE.  Another game I've had in the back burner for well over a year now.   I'm assuming I'm getting close to the end, as I've made it back to Candlekeep and things are really unfolding now.  I'm kinda ready to wrap it up and move onto KOTOR 2 and/or BG2.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2021, 02:23:15 PM by Svejk »

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36771 on: April 18, 2021, 02:23:46 PM »
Completed Xenoblade Future Connected

Overall a fun story and decent enough side quests but outside of Melia/Tyrea not much going on in terms of character development.
The ending could set-up a sequel or be the definitive end of the original Xenoblade story. They've left that unanswered.

That's 2/4 XB's completed. Probably taking a break and playing some other things before getting back to XB2 and Torna.
The next big game I'll dive into is probably Nier Replicant followed shortly by Resident Evil Village. 
🤴

naff

  • someday you feed on a tree frog
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36772 on: April 18, 2021, 07:13:56 PM »
This game is awesome.. I'm totally spoiled now though with how this game looks and sounds. (Dat 3D audio  :lawd)

yes. i tried going back to dark souls 3 and  :-\ :scust

... i actually got used to it and that game still rules, but man, demon's is a god tier remake
◕‿◕

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36773 on: April 18, 2021, 11:16:54 PM »
Finished SaGa Frontier Remastered with my second character, doing the mecha T260G campaign with an all-mech party. Was pretty cool and different and barely squeezed by on that final boss fight.

2 down, 6 characters to go!

Best rpg I've played in a while.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36774 on: April 19, 2021, 12:16:22 AM »
Also Saga Frontier is better than MH Rise coming from that, playing both on the Switch.

I'd say Hitman 3 is probably still GoTY for me, but this is sitting a close second. Really fantastic port/upgrade of a super cool game.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36775 on: April 19, 2021, 10:01:14 AM »
I've been playing a bunch of Albert Odyssey, I think I'm a bit more than halfway through the game right now... defeated the 'fake out' boss but that just set up a second act.

The game itself... it's rather unremarkable aside from those crisp 32-bit sprites (looking even better via Saturn RGB), some decent music (it beat Skies of Arcadia to the punch for having the Amen break in the battle theme), and an absolutely hilarious translation courtesy of WD. Probably their most ridiculous one... npc's joke about ebonics, poultry molestation, bazongas, and all that good stuff.

Gameplay is pretty bland, the encounter rate is fairly high but hardly challenging. Thankfully you gain levels pretty quickly and most fights are trivial. The loading in and out of battle is a bit slow, and there seems to be like a 2 second pause between attacks, which drags out encounters. Apparently WD improved the load times and reduced the encounter rate from the JP version, I couldn't imagine how unbearable that would be.

But yeah, overall a pretty bland experience made better by a funny (although extremely dated) 90s humor translation.

Also started a replay of Magic Knight Rayearth... not that much further than the intro but I forgot a lot about this game. There's a lot of VA in here!
^_^

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36776 on: April 20, 2021, 03:59:07 AM »
Red Dead Online has a problem for the past week where it fails to load the first time I try to get online. It works consistently from the 2nd time, but each attempt takes 3-4 minutes. Waiting for the load to fail just so I can re-attempt it is killing my enthusiasm.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36777 on: April 20, 2021, 08:10:49 AM »
In Baldur's Gate (again) in Baldur's Gate:EE.  The mass of side quests and interweaving sections are a bit crazy.  So many paths to take and interweaving quests...  Even though I'm trying to b-line the end (ready to move on) things keep getting more interesting.  I'll find notes from people that I've either killed or have yet to come across.  The political intrigue is surprisingly well done too.   The big problem I hadn't realized though, is not seeing my reputation was at a 3:"despised"...  The Flaming Fist guys keep attacking me, so I would just fight them and kill them, unknowingly hurting myself... Then Imoen, Jaheira and Khalid just decided to up and leave at one point!   ???   After doing some reading I found out ways of building my reputation back prior to that happening, so I reloaded before then, and basically dumped gold increments to a temple to build my rep back up to 9: "Average".  (fortunately had the gold to spare) Should be enough to finish the story without further penalties.  Just got the invitation for the inauguration of Seravok.. Ready to go stop this bullshit and take back what was mine!

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36778 on: April 20, 2021, 10:39:32 AM »
Watch_Dogs Legion's gameplay loop is completely broken by the introduction of the construction drone and spider robot. My polish construction worker main character just sits outside the level, throws the spider bot over the wall and wins.

Good game design.

Joe Molotov

  • I'm much more humble than you would understand.
  • Administrator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36779 on: April 20, 2021, 01:01:09 PM »
Playing some RE:Revelations while waiting for RE8.
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