What are you playing?

[chronovore]

Played another hour or so of Death Stranding. Updated that thread,  it I’m probably just going to delete the game.

Finally deleted GTA V after half a year of not playing Online and tired of it taking up 100GB.

Also deleted Ghost of Tsushima, unfinished. Finally admitted I am uninterested in completing it. Gotham Knights also is lined up for deletion in this category.

Honestly, it feels kinda great to purge your system of stuff...  Out of site, out of mind, move on. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Until something sparks interest and you download it again only to be reminded why you deleted it in the first or second place. 

For example, I was "done" with DA: Inquisition.. I've downloaded and deleted that game around three times now... And now, I recently dl'd it again because I know there'll be some hype around DA4 when it's starts to come around and it will hit me yet again.   

[close]

Just deleted Gotham Knights, for which I paid full retail price. I decided my time is worth more than that.

[Himu]

What's so bad about Gotham Knights? All I've heard that's bad are graphics.

[Polident Hive]

Agreed, I never understood all the praise that the original Dead Space got. It was just okay.

Think it was a time and place deal. EA releasing an original franchise, single player only, no micro transactions, looking like RE4 in space.

[Himu]

I'm convinced Dragon Quest XI has been rebalanced in the S edition and it's all for the better. On the way to Gondolia there's no save points and I was fighting like three Restless Knights and between my levels or equipment I actually had a surprisingly hard time. Didn't want to over use my magic spells like bang but they were also wrecking havok on my health. Thankfully I had plenty of strong medicine to save my magic. Managed to get to Gondolia. Critical hits wreck you in this. Talking an enemy doing 50-60 hp. Against a character like Serena or Veronica this can mean death and then you're going to spend money reviving. It's great. I'm convinced this has been rebalanced.

[Bebpo]

S is the best version, yeah.

[Pissy F Benny]

Didn't they make the graphics worse though?

I want to give it another shot at some after trying it after coming off the high of the FF7 remake but it seemed pretty naff and low budget in comparison, but i wasn't appreciating it on its own merits.

[Himu]

Didn't they make the graphics worse though?

I want to give it another shot at some after trying it after coming off the high of the FF7 remake but it seemed pretty naff and low budget in comparison, which soured me on it.

On switch yeah but Xbox One and PS4 looks good. Don't know about PS5 but Xbox series X plays it lightning fast. There's almost no load times. Combined with fast and ultra fast battle speeds and the game is just baller.

They've made this game so proper with a capitol P. They took concessions in making DQ easier and more uhhhh easy to get into but rebalanced it so it's still proper, classical DQ. I'm going to catass this game so hard.

[Bebpo]

Didn't they make the graphics worse though?

I want to give it another shot at some after trying it after coming off the high of the FF7 remake but it seemed pretty naff and low budget in comparison, but i wasn't appreciating it on its own merits.

Yeah, S has worse gfx. The PC/PS4/Xbox versions are just the downgraded switch version running at higher resolution and framerate. But that takes care of a lot of the downgrades with high resolution, good fps and good clean AA. But the overall lighting and stuff is still less than the original PS4 version.

But the game is better in every other way so it's worth a bit of a graphics downgrade.

[Himu]

Got the ship. I'm where I stopped in the original version in almost half the time. The boss at the Gondolia was relentless. Game is legit.

I've been taking photos on my adventure. Even with the downgrades it's still a beaut.











Even while playing vidya I'm obsessed with photography.

[paprikastaude]

Agreed, I never understood all the praise that the original Dead Space got. It was just okay.

Think it was a time and place deal. EA releasing an original franchise, single player only, no micro transactions, looking like RE4 in space.

Nah. Then the remake wouldn't get a 90. Even if the level design is corridorey, the gameplay is awesome. Weapons and abilities are unique and fun to use, especially since enemies were designed around them perfectly, everything feels intuitive. The "invisible" UI today is even more refreshing than back in the day, now that games are shitting up the screen more and more with icons and text - even though the remake bloated the UI too.

It's only meh as a fullprice remake. What does Black Mesa cost, 20 bucks? That's about what Dead Space remake should have been too then.

[Himu]

DQ you still have the capacity to make me cry like a baby. Holy shit, I missed DQ.

Last night:



The morning after:

[MMaRsu]

What's so bad about Gotham Knights? All I've heard that's bad are graphics.

The game is bad

[D3RANG3D]

Castlevania 2 Remake it's kinda jank but playable beat the first boss that is how you get Dracula's parts now.

Marlow Briggs I don't remember if I even played this back in the day but I'm having a blast going through it.

[Hamarr]

Played some more Goldeneye

There's an impressive mission variety in this game compared to modern day FPS games. Hostage rescue, rush through a missile silo etc. .
Not many folks seem to be playing though, I'm getting "Rare achievement" awards on mission 7. Guess many couldn't beat Silo? Currently on Surface 2. Which is probably one of the weaker levels overall.

It holds up on Xbox Series X I guess, it's pretty much an emulated port with some glitches and a poor framerate. The XBLA version that never released seemed much superior to this version.

I've been playing it but holding off on some of the levels until I have more weekly achievement quests. It seems way easier with the Xbox controller than it was back when I played it on the N64. Not sure if that was the controller or maybe I was just more used to fps on PC back then.  I'm really digging the level layouts and the variety.  I didn't enjoy Goldeneye a ton back when it was new, but it held up better than I thought. It's also kind of impressive that they actually managed to make the levels look like something people might actually work in back then. Maybe it also getting burnt out on modern game design. I accidentally killed Alec and it was awesome that the game let me do that, or just let me leave the level without completing the objectives and fail the mission.

I can see where people who have never played games like this might hate it, but I am having a blast. I haven't gotten to any escort missions yet, though. I am somewhat dreading those.

[Bebpo]

I'm at the final dungeon/endgame in Eiyuden: Rising around 10 hours and 100%ing everything so far and still liking it, but I get the reviews. This is the most mobile game I've ever played. There's a million quests that are complete fluff and they take like 10-30 seconds to do each so it's just fast traveling around knocking them out for the endorphins of "quest clear!" and slowing building up the town, levels, gear. Lots of quick but repetitive mat grinding if you always want all your weapons (which have 2 upgrade levels to keep upgrading), armor, tools, runes, etc... maxed out.

The game would be like 4-5 hours long if it didn't have all the nothing fluff questing.

...but it goes quick and I find the game super PS1 jrpg/Japanese gaming nostalgic. It's simple and even the English translation mimics a 90s jrpg translation with short sentences that are often kind of goofy. The combat is not bad and basically a Vanilla-ware game and I like the music/sprites/setting/characters. I also enjoy the metroidvania aspect of 100%-ing the dungeons as you get new abilities.

Honestly, the fact that I like this even though it got sorta shat on in reviews makes me think I'm probably really going to like the main Hundred Heroes game when it comes out...someday. I'm very down with the PS1 Japanese style game feeling, especially if they're designed to play very quickly with no nonsense slowness aka Suikoden I/II.

[Nintex]

Played some more Goldeneye

There's an impressive mission variety in this game compared to modern day FPS games. Hostage rescue, rush through a missile silo etc. .
Not many folks seem to be playing though, I'm getting "Rare achievement" awards on mission 7. Guess many couldn't beat Silo? Currently on Surface 2. Which is probably one of the weaker levels overall.

It holds up on Xbox Series X I guess, it's pretty much an emulated port with some glitches and a poor framerate. The XBLA version that never released seemed much superior to this version.

I've been playing it but holding off on some of the levels until I have more weekly achievement quests. It seems way easier with the Xbox controller than it was back when I played it on the N64. Not sure if that was the controller or maybe I was just more used to fps on PC back then.  I'm really digging the level layouts and the variety.  I didn't enjoy Goldeneye a ton back when it was new, but it held up better than I thought. It's also kind of impressive that they actually managed to make the levels look like something people might actually work in back then. Maybe it also getting burnt out on modern game design. I accidentally killed Alec and it was awesome that the game let me do that, or just let me leave the level without completing the objectives and fail the mission.

I can see where people who have never played games like this might hate it, but I am having a blast. I haven't gotten to any escort missions yet, though. I am somewhat dreading those.

The level with the bomb countdown already fucked my runs up multiple times by random explosions destroying circuit boards, scientists not carrying key cards or things not spawning. Same with the hostage ship, hostages would just run into gunfire 

It doesn't matter much because the missions are short and sweet very little padding or filler

[tiesto]

Himu getting back into RPGs again

Haven't posted in a while, here's what I've been playing lately:

Control
Finished this, including the DLC, last week. The game really feels like an evolution of the 360/PS3 era school of game design, an alternate history when western devs didn't decide to disavow "gamey" and "Japanese" type design concepts like wide-linear environmental exploration with backtracking for new abilities, boss fights, cutscenes, etc. I really liked the brutalist influenced environments and some of the traversal puzzles, though the map was terrible and combat quickly became rather intrusive (especially when backtracking to get new abilities). The Ashtray Maze and the Jesse Faden: Action Movie Star parts were especially awesome, with some great and iconic music... shame the rest of the music is mostly that generic tribal drumming "Marvel trailer music" as I call it.

Kirby: Planet Robobot
Finished this too, though I still have to complete Meta Knight's adventure and the 2nd arena before I put it to bed. This game is oozing with charm, and is one of the prettiest games on the 3DS. I enjoy Kirby games, they're a walk in the park if you're just trying to get through the levels, but trying to 100% is where you really get to see the full potential of the games. I especially like turning into a robot and getting the "Mic" ability which allows Kirby to shoot out powerful sound waves. Only complaint is

spoiler (click to show/hide)

having that annoying genre-switch-up for the final battle... why do so many games do this, and why is that genre-switch-up ALWAYS rail shooter?

[close]

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Have a few more levels of the post-game to do before I wrap this one up too. One of the prettiest Switch games, and also with some great level design and fun bosses. Trying to beat the bosses without getting hit was quite enjoyable too.

Valkyrie Elysium
Maaaaan, this is probably the most 6/10 game I ever played. Nothing about it is offensively bad, but nothing about it really stands out either (aside from some decent character and boss design). VP is one of my all time favorites, and it's a shame that they took such an innovative setup and battle system that the series is known for and then turned it into another generic Devil May Cry-esque game. The game feels very PS3/360ish in that it's got a slight chunkiness to the combat that prevents it from being as seamless and smooth as it could be, it has lots of parts where you end up hitting a point of no return, doors locking behind you preventing you from backtracking. And then if you want to get all the collectibles, you have to replay the chapter (around 1.5-3 hours long each) from the start! But the graphics... some of these environments may have looked nice if there was even the slightest bit of color, but everything is grey and washed out (like a PS3/360 game!). Music is low-key but still decent. Story seems like a very bare-bones retelling of the first game, there are minimal short cutscenes, the occasional banter between you and the 4 different einherjar, and short clips of prose from now-deceased townspeople when you find blue flowers (the collectible) that gives a tiny bit of backstory. There's just not a whole lot going on in this game, it's mostly just fight fight fight through mostly-linear environments (lots of dead ends blocked off by rubble, PS3/360 style!) against the same few mooks, the occasional cutscene, maybe a midboss or big boss. Then return to Valhalla to rest up and do it again, or take on sidequests. The sidequests are ~10 min long affairs that are nothing but more combat in a sanctioned-off area of the region you unlock them in. I'm on chapter 6 (of 9) and I don't see it drastically improving.


Crash Bandicoot 4
I played through Crash 1-3 in summer of 2022, while I thought 1 was clunky af and had some questionable design decisions, 2 and 3 were a marked improvement. 4 comes out with all the quality of life features I expect of a modern game, and plays about the smoothest yet for the franchise. But then crushes me with its insanely steep difficulty level. At least they give you infinite lives... but holy shit this game seems absolutely ridiculous to platinum. I'm not gonna bother but I was at least trying to unlock all the flashback tapes. I have 3 to go but don't think I will ever get the ones in the 2 last stages, I just don't have that kinda patience. I'm on the final 'world' but am backtracking to beat all the 'mirror' levels now (kind of a pointless filler) and attempt the blue gem challenge. But I've kinda put this on the backburner for now.

[chronovore]

What's so bad about Gotham Knights? All I've heard that's bad are graphics.

The game is bad

For me, the Gotham Knights looked like it would be Arkham Knight with some varied gameplay based on which of the four heroes I chose, and maybe some change-ups based on with whom I partnered in multiplayer.

It's an open-world game with mediocre motorcycle handling, and poor map pathfinding to locations. This is mostly forgivable because they let me unlock a batwing fast-travel device (it's ugly!) so batcycle time is at a minimum.

The game counts eat night's sortie, letting me know how many minor, major, incidental, and BBEG plans I've foiled each time, but that feels like I'm being graded or judged based on numbers.

There's crafting at my base, with a gazillion material types to craft, but design unlocks feel few and far between, and are not well explained. Who does fire damage? Do I need ice armor? It feels like a F2P game with all these bullshit currencies. It makes me wonder if they'd planned to originally have a paid path for accellerating the upgrade tree. As a GaaS, it would not surprise me.

The combat is similar to Arkham titles, but feels less responsive, less predictable, and has less options. When I lost a fight in an Arkham game, I felt like I knew where I'd made my mistakes. In GK, it's down to navigation or input lag / missing the input window. The combat also takes place in a preset layout most of the time. The "bar invasion" sequences all use the same bar layout. The rooftop "stop the break-in" sequence is either the same or nearly so. In essence, it's the same 4-5 fights over and over again. It's boring.

The story missions are not too bad, but they're not enough to keep me coming back.

I never finished Arkham Knight, I kind of lost interest, but it's a much better game than Gotham Knights.

Story spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm also pissed off at the Alien3 nature of the story. Opening scene, Batman is killed off by Ra's Al Ghul. Over the next few story sequences, other major characters are killed off. Death in comics already feels cheap and reversible, so I have my qualms there, but putting in the game's continuity cheapens it even further, destroying characters that have appeared in the Arkham games.

Story spoilers on the web reveal that Batman is resurrected before the game ends, only to have him sacrifice himself again in the final mission. Again, all this death, cheapened by poor writing, and the gameplay itself is mediocre. The Arkham games deserved a better legacy.

For once, I agree with the critics' summary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_Knights_(video_game)#Critical_reception

[close]

[Himu]

So I'm relishing that this might be the last time in my life I'll be able to do this: catass when not working and just play a deep ass RPG. From here on out I'll have heavy responsibilities and I'm taking advantage of this while I can.

Let's go on an adventure!

















Scattered thoughts

- The Tragedy Quest tradition continues here with some of the saddest vignettes I ever remember in a Dragon Quest game. I love that they kept the tradition of making DQ cartoony, bright and colorful, with full on slap stick humor but with some of the most tragic stories in an RPG. DQ has always been beautiful at that. The story of the Mermaid and her lover is classic DQ and I loved every second. So far I would say that the game has more tragic stories compared to DQVIII, but nothing compared to VII. But then again, nothing really does.

- Story-wise what I am seeing I rates DQXI highly among the franchise. It does a fantastic job feeding you bread crumbs and question and poke and prod as the details emerge bit by bit. So far I'd rate the story probably as good as VIII's. Although VII has the best individual stories, I feel like IV, V, and especially VIII take the crown in terms of actual plot. What I loved about VIII so much is how you don't know what precisely what happened with Dhoulmagus and the attack on the Trode kingdom, but the game consistently hints until you get to flash back and even then. XI works similarly and it's doing a really good job emoting it.

- Characters-wise this is a really good lineup for DQ. They're all memorable in a DQIV way. Cast-wise, I put DQIV and VIII as having the best casts but this is really challenging them as every character here just fits like a nice little piece. Even VIII has its flaws with Angelo being the weak link and in VIII 3ds they added the thief chick Yangus hangs out with and the crazy Jester dude and they just don't work and feel like filler. XI has no such issue. You've got the loyal partner in Erik, the serious mage, the carefree  nice mage, the old man, the swordsman, and then there's Jade who is stealing the show. I can't find a hole in this cast. It's IV tier. That is high praise coming from me.

- Gameplay balance in the S edition is classic DQ. I'm convinced they rebalanced this game in the S edition for vets and the PS4 version was for new players. When I got Jade and Rab in my party they were 5-6 levels above me.

- Money management in this game is God-tier. Every town I'm coming to has gear that is like 3-4k Gold and I have to make each choice very, very wisely: "do I buy or do I skip and save my money for the next town?" age old choice making. But the problem I'm finding is that even if you skip ahead and don't buy anything you're not making enough money on your trek to make up for it when you're in the next town, which makes decision making extremely fluid and personable. Yet at the same time, I've got 40k tokens at the Casino right now and could easily buy a bunch of shit and just pawn it off for hard, cold, cash but I choose not not to. I love it.

- This game just loves to tease. Mini medals for dayyyyys and I was wondering when in the hell does the Medal King show up? They made us wait, and the wait is worth it because this has got to be the best damn Medal King and Medal King HQ in the entire franchise. Holy crap, endless laughs.

- WHEN DO I FINALLY GET THE THIEF AND MAGIC KEY?!?!?!



This teasing has to stop.

All in all, this is shaping up to be a fantastic installment. I'm so glad I gave it a chance My passion for DQ is so damn high and the base DQXI was one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. I have no idea if I was bogged down with depression and couldn't see past caustic, negative thinking or what.

For Yuji Horii's final DQ this might be the swan song I really needed.

[Himu]

Himu getting back into RPGs again

I have no idea if I'm getting back into RPGs again or what. This really caught me by surprise. My main ire with RPGs these days is the majority are wannabe action games. So action RPGs that aren't Souls-tier seems to be a good rule. I play and love DQ because of its traditions, the fact its track record is spotless (there's no bad DQ game), and its iterative over innovation mindset in a genre full of games that say "fuck tradition". But I guess I could be less close-minded and give the other games like SMTV a shot. How is SMTV? Is it a legit dungeon crawler or did they Persona-ize it? Is it still horror? What I've seen makes it look super anime. Soul Hackers 2 looking so bad helped cement this. I also downloaded Yakuza Like a Dragon. Also, RPGs these days tend to be TOO LONG and it's not worth investing that time into unless it is DQXI S quality.

TRAGIC QUEST

Valkyrie Elysium
Maaaaan, this is probably the most 6/10 game I ever played. Nothing about it is offensively bad, but nothing about it really stands out either (aside from some decent character and boss design). VP is one of my all time favorites, and it's a shame that they took such an innovative setup and battle system that the series is known for and then turned it into another generic Devil May Cry-esque game. The game feels very PS3/360ish in that it's got a slight chunkiness to the combat that prevents it from being as seamless and smooth as it could be, it has lots of parts where you end up hitting a point of no return, doors locking behind you preventing you from backtracking. And then if you want to get all the collectibles, you have to replay the chapter (around 1.5-3 hours long each) from the start! But the graphics... some of these environments may have looked nice if there was even the slightest bit of color, but everything is grey and washed out (like a PS3/360 game!). Music is low-key but still decent. Story seems like a very bare-bones retelling of the first game, there are minimal short cutscenes, the occasional banter between you and the 4 different einherjar, and short clips of prose from now-deceased townspeople when you find blue flowers (the collectible) that gives a tiny bit of backstory. There's just not a whole lot going on in this game, it's mostly just fight fight fight through mostly-linear environments (lots of dead ends blocked off by rubble, PS3/360 style!) against the same few mooks, the occasional cutscene, maybe a midboss or big boss. Then return to Valhalla to rest up and do it again, or take on sidequests. The sidequests are ~10 min long affairs that are nothing but more combat in a sanctioned-off area of the region you unlock them in. I'm on chapter 6 (of 9) and I don't see it drastically improving.

Valkyrie Profile is a unique classic of a game and Valkyrie Profile 2 has the best battle system in the ps2 rpg era and the best dungeons (thanks to sealstones) and the fact they traded it all for turning Valkyrie Profile of all things, into a generic hack and slash is precisely WHY most RPGs are not worth supporting in 2023. Waiting nearly 20 years for a Valk sequel and for Valkyrie Profile: Hrist only for them to make a hack and slash might be one of the top 5 insults I've ever endured as a game fan. They take the easy way out and are turning every single game into an action RPG and those that are left tend to decrease the game challenge to be more accommodating. What's left for the classic RPG player? Almost nothing. I didn't leave RPGs, RPG's left me! It's a genre for sell outs. Actual RPGs are a niche thing for a niche audience and the more games become expensive and cinematic the more risk it is to appeal to that already limited audience. It's why Mass Effect chose to invest in the action side more than the RPG side with Mass Effect 2 and no one gave a shit except a select group - because actual RPG fans are a minority. It's why they gave the main character a voice in Fallout 4 and why they have you mowing down the hardest enemy in the franchise within minutes of booting up the game. It's best to stick to Pen and Paper. These days "RPG" is so neutered that people consider the modern God of War games to be RPGs. "RPG" means jack shit now.

But on the flip side, this makes occasions like DQXI S rare events which make them even more important.

[Bebpo]

Finished Eiyuden Rising. Solid 7-8 although the post game is lol, but at least you don't need it for achievements after finishing the last stamp card.

Does absolutely nothing to setup Eiyuden Hundred Heroes though. Total fluff game, but fun 10 hour thing.

[BIONIC]

Caught the Returnal bug last couple of days and finished act 3 and got the secret ending from the endless tower DLC as well. Basically beat the whole thing again in one shot when collecting the fragments (exploring all rooms, beating all bosses, etc.) instead of just darting for them like I probably should’ve

Game really grew on me, and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed the tower. I typically don’t care about endless / score attack shit, but this just cuts out almost all of the fat (some of the rooms are pace-breaking hazard/platforming crap) to focus on the sublime combat. It also made me appreciate the different weapons more and level their traits up.

I’ll look into Housemarque’s next game with great interest.

[tiesto]

Himu getting back into RPGs again

I have no idea if I'm getting back into RPGs again or what. This really caught me by surprise. My main ire with RPGs these days is the majority are wannabe action games. So action RPGs that aren't Souls-tier seems to be a good rule. I play and love DQ because of its traditions, the fact its track record is spotless (there's no bad DQ game), and its iterative over innovation mindset in a genre full of games that say "fuck tradition". But I guess I could be less close-minded and give the other games like SMTV a shot. How is SMTV? Is it a legit dungeon crawler or did they Persona-ize it? Is it still horror? What I've seen makes it look super anime. Soul Hackers 2 looking so bad helped cement this. I also downloaded Yakuza Like a Dragon. Also, RPGs these days tend to be TOO LONG and it's not worth investing that time into unless it is DQXI S quality.

TRAGIC QUEST

(Image removed from quote.)

Valkyrie Elysium
Maaaaan, this is probably the most 6/10 game I ever played. Nothing about it is offensively bad, but nothing about it really stands out either (aside from some decent character and boss design). VP is one of my all time favorites, and it's a shame that they took such an innovative setup and battle system that the series is known for and then turned it into another generic Devil May Cry-esque game. The game feels very PS3/360ish in that it's got a slight chunkiness to the combat that prevents it from being as seamless and smooth as it could be, it has lots of parts where you end up hitting a point of no return, doors locking behind you preventing you from backtracking. And then if you want to get all the collectibles, you have to replay the chapter (around 1.5-3 hours long each) from the start! But the graphics... some of these environments may have looked nice if there was even the slightest bit of color, but everything is grey and washed out (like a PS3/360 game!). Music is low-key but still decent. Story seems like a very bare-bones retelling of the first game, there are minimal short cutscenes, the occasional banter between you and the 4 different einherjar, and short clips of prose from now-deceased townspeople when you find blue flowers (the collectible) that gives a tiny bit of backstory. There's just not a whole lot going on in this game, it's mostly just fight fight fight through mostly-linear environments (lots of dead ends blocked off by rubble, PS3/360 style!) against the same few mooks, the occasional cutscene, maybe a midboss or big boss. Then return to Valhalla to rest up and do it again, or take on sidequests. The sidequests are ~10 min long affairs that are nothing but more combat in a sanctioned-off area of the region you unlock them in. I'm on chapter 6 (of 9) and I don't see it drastically improving.

Valkyrie Profile is a unique classic of a game and Valkyrie Profile 2 has the best battle system in the ps2 rpg era and the best dungeons (thanks to sealstones) and the fact they traded it all for turning Valkyrie Profile of all things, into a generic hack and slash is precisely WHY most RPGs are not worth supporting in 2023. Waiting nearly 20 years for a Valk sequel and for Valkyrie Profile: Hrist only for them to make a hack and slash might be one of the top 5 insults I've ever endured as a game fan. They take the easy way out and are turning every single game into an action RPG and those that are left tend to decrease the game challenge to be more accommodating. What's left for the classic RPG player? Almost nothing. I didn't leave RPGs, RPG's left me! It's a genre for sell outs. Actual RPGs are a niche thing for a niche audience and the more games become expensive and cinematic the more risk it is to appeal to that already limited audience. It's why Mass Effect chose to invest in the action side more than the RPG side with Mass Effect 2 and no one gave a shit except a select group - because actual RPG fans are a minority. It's why they gave the main character a voice in Fallout 4 and why they have you mowing down the hardest enemy in the franchise within minutes of booting up the game. It's best to stick to Pen and Paper. These days "RPG" is so neutered that people consider the modern God of War games to be RPGs. "RPG" means jack shit now.

But on the flip side, this makes occasions like DQXI S rare events which make them even more important.

Like A Dragon was an absolute favorite of mine, I'll admit I've never played Yakuza before this but I thought it was an excellent way to show how a turn-based system could work in the modern day - more interaction with the environment (though with a few pathfinding issues), more dynamic movement, but still classic turn-based gameplay. Apart from a few steep lategame difficulty spikes, and a slightly underbaked job system, the game was super charming and interesting the whole way through.

[Pissy F Benny]

Like a Dragon was 2020 GOTY hands down, that there was some really HOT SHIT that year.

It gives you a taste of what a modern turn based Final Fantasy battle could look like (imagine it with FF production values) and it's not dull like Square seem to believe.

[Himu]

I always felt the next step for turn based combat after ps2 generation with games like VP2 and FFXII (with its weather systems) was more environment interaction. Infinite Undiscovery played with it but other than that the genre decided to not go full bore with it despite it being the next step for turn-base.

So I'm looking forward to Like A Dragon.

[Polident Hive]

Not long ago I tried the Valkyrie Elysium demo along with other JRPG demos on PS5. Scarlet Nexus, Star Ocean, Tales of Arise, some others I’m forgetting. Weakest of the lot for sure. It all seemed generic, from gameplay to graphics. Far from how I’d describe the other in the series.

Liked Scarlet Nexus’s demo enough I bought it on steam. Star Ocean was a surprise given where that series has been the past couple decades. Amazingly, even on PS5 it had spots the frame rate tanks. Tri ace is back.

[HardcoreRetro]

So far Hogwart's Legacy feels more Witcher 3 and less Ubisoft open world. A well realised world and adding some context to the stuff you're doing does wonders to the open world design.

[tiesto]

Not long ago I tried the Valkyrie Elysium demo along with other JRPG demos on PS5. Scarlet Nexus, Star Ocean, Tales of Arise, some others I’m forgetting. Weakest of the lot for sure. It all seemed generic, from gameplay to graphics. Far from how I’d describe the other in the series.

Liked Scarlet Nexus’s demo enough I bought it on steam. Star Ocean was a surprise given where that series has been the past couple decades. Amazingly, even on PS5 it had spots the frame rate tanks. Tri ace is back.

Aside from the teeny tiny font, a story that takes a while to get interesting, and a lack of NPCs to talk to, SO6 felt like a return to form for the series. The combat and environment traversal were fast and fun, the board game minigame was a blast, the characters were well rounded (I liked Midas a lot).

[Himu]

Damn, what a difficulty spike. Now we're talking!



Beat the boss Dora In Gray. I was level 25. Was a bitch without a spell like Multiheal but Rab's ability Rain whatever helped fix that. The boss put me on my toes a lot and forced me to play defensive almost every round, with Jade getting in hits. Sapping the boss wasn't always reliable because it would miss often, last only a few turnsand when I finally pulled it off I'd be in defensive mode again. I hated the fact she charmed my party, which forces me to constantly use Sylv to slap people out of it. Annoying but not too bad with fundamentals.



We now have a game!











Got to Sniflheim and the people are frozen solid. Feels like a remake of the DQVII "villagers are turned to stone" plot, which is pretty dope because it's my favorite. If it's anything like the Dragon Quest I know there's no way to help these people and that's just the way I like it.

[Svejk]

Nice screen shots     Does that game have a photomode or are those just first person grabs?

I jumped on DQXIS immediately after riding my high off DQV (which was fantastic!), but only got a few hours in till something else distracted me.  I liked what I played, but the OG scope of a massive JRPG is just hard for me to justify nowadays.  I may give it another try through Remote Play.

[Himu]

It has a photo mode and I'm cutting the characters out. It's really limited as it's dependent on the positioning of the Hero when you go into Photo Mode and you can only slightly move up/down and to the side, and rotate camera. It works though.

Is this the first DQ game where you get the Magic Key before the Thief Key? I forgot.

[Himu]

Nice screen shots     Does that game have a photomode or are those just first person grabs?

I jumped on DQXIS immediately after riding my high off DQV (which was fantastic!), but only got a few hours in till something else distracted me.  I liked what I played, but the OG scope of a massive JRPG is just hard for me to justify nowadays.  I may give it another try through Remote Play.

DQXI is definitely an investment. If you want another DQ that's short give IV a try. VI is also good, but VII is better but VII is also long. VII 3ds is arguably the best Dragon Quest, however. I suggest IV and VI anyways because IV-VI are part of a trilogy of games called the Zenethian trilogy. There's the DQIII remake coming up soon and it's going to kick ass.

[Hamarr]

So far Hogwart's Legacy feels more Witcher 3 and less Ubisoft open world. A well realised world and adding some context to the stuff you're doing does wonders to the open world design.

How far in are you?  I’m about an hour in and it’s very on rails so far.  Combat feels okay, at least. 

[Bebpo]

Ok, Dead Space picked up after ch.4 when you start getting enough weapons that it becomes more a constant action game. Also maybe helped that I gave up on gfx and switched to 60fps for smoothing combat once it got more action intensive. Been having a lot of fun and this is more the Dead Space I remember.

Actually thought the asteroids mini-game replacement was fine.

Still not a big fan of the economy and not knowing what weapon upgrades do before you buy them since they're expensive. Also I never really liked that you didn't get anywhere near enough nodes in these games to max all your weapons and suit in one playthrough. I remember back in the day basically just maxing the plasma gun and suit and that was mostly it. So far this run is going about the same, been focusing on plasma gun and don't really have many upgrades into anything else.

Also they really should've added a quick turn.

Got up to a bit into ch.6 tonight.

[Himu]

Damn. DQXI went pulled an FFVI but in reality it's kind of an inverse DQIV, which makes it all the better.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Starting off with Sylvando was the right call. He's great as a support character but as a leading man it's too much.

[close]

Really great stuff.

None of these are from cutscenes, all gameplay besides one.





















If you can't tell, I effing love my Xbox.

[Bebpo]

Finished 2064: Read Only Memories - Yeah, that was a good VN. The few bits of actual gameplay & puzzles were pretty bad, but otherwise as a VN it was an enjoyable story and characters with great music and good art.

I do wish it wasn't so buggy. I got to the extra epilogue post-credits where you can go around the whole map and talk to every NPC in the game with new dialogue and the first place I go the game crashed and I'm not going through the ending with all its unskippable dialogue and credit roll again so I skimmed a youtube video of the extra epilogue with some annoying youtuber commenting over the whole thing  and wasn't quite the same. Oh well.

There's also a bunch of other endings but only a couple are on youtube. Seems pretty straight-forward how the other ones go though. I got the good ending and fine with that. Was satisfying. Would recommend for anyone that likes SegaCD styled cyberpunk VNs that are <10 hours.

[HardcoreRetro]

So far Hogwart's Legacy feels more Witcher 3 and less Ubisoft open world. A well realised world and adding some context to the stuff you're doing does wonders to the open world design.

How far in are you?  I’m about an hour in and it’s very on rails so far.  Combat feels okay, at least.

Once you get the first two lessons it opens up the castle. Then when you're done with the Hogsmeade quest it opens up the world. Doing loads of exploration already seems to have broken the level progression for story missions. Enemies were level 3, I was level 8.

[BIONIC]

Is it in anyway like Bully/Persona where you have to go to classes on a schedule or can form “social links” with certain characters?

[HardcoreRetro]

Doesn't seem to be on a schedule. The classes seem to function as your skill tree basically. They unlock new spells and potions. Some of them are part of the main questline, others are sidequests.

There's characters you can befriend but I don't know how they work yet. I assume they have their own questline and give some sort of reward or perk at the end.

[Himu]

Sylvando was a great character in Act 1 but now he's just a flaming annoying queer in Act 2.

Like there's more to him in Act 1 like his Knights Code but now he's like I'M GAY EVERYONE! Which was one of the least interesting things about his character.

They went and Flanderized him. Also he's too overbearing and completely effs with the games tone.  Hopefully he calms his gay ass down soon. Being queer by yourself is fine but making the rest of the party go into your hijinks is too far. I can barely stomach this without voice acting. I can only imagine it with voices and it makes me gag.

Edit: Thank all that is Good Sylv's crappy Pride parade is over. Of course his harem ruined a perfectly good town to the point of ruining it with arguably the worst song in DQ history. I was really hoping to never hear that over bearing song ever again but of course Yuji Horii gave me the damn finger and shoved a popper, a t-shirt that says "Man Whore", and a dose of PReP in my face.

[paprikastaude]

I remain that Dead Space should've been Black Mesa-priced (or at most Metroid Prime Remaster-priced) and is redundant to begin with, since it would have been fine enough for "ordinary" HD collections with all the sequels included. Plus from a nerd perspective, I appreciate more what they achieved graphically on old hardware vs. all these new remakes. Anyway, I warmed up more to Dead Space as a remake, when I got the second half. I remembered much less, since I didn't replay the latter portions as much. I.e. it felt fresh instead of just a fun replay.

Some things I definitely still recognized 1:1, but I think there also is more new stuff towards the end? Did the original have these speed zombies or the knight ones? Doesn't feel that way, but I might be wrong.

[Himu]

How Dragon Quest XI S edition undermines DQXI's storytelling

I didn't know that the interlude in between Acts 1 and 2 were added to the S Edition. Looking back at them, despite liking them while playing them, I think they undermine the games storytelling.

1. Element of surprise. In the original game apparently you don't know that Sylvando has made himself an army of queer paraders. I imagine those who played the original game where he appears in the Hero's story to be utterly shocking, delightful, and hilarious. But because I'm playing the S edition, when I read NPC's talking about "weird dancing parade of demons" I already know it's Sylvando's gang. The result is me not finding the initial scene where he meets the Hero funny, because it's just an extension of something I've experienced and seen and overextends its welcome. The same is applied to Rab. When the game mentions the Lama, I already know I'm about to get him because you see him training with the Lama. I'm near Octogonia and I know I'm about to get Jade because of the story additions made to the S Edition.

2. Dragon Quest stories tend to understate. A wonderful foil to DQ is Final Fantasy. FF, as a franchise, tends to overstate. Think FFVII and Cloud's flashback in Nibelheim. Dragon Quest is a franchise that gives breadcrumbs and leads you to the story, where as FF kind of just dumps an entire meal in front of you. A great example would be DQVII and the robot army. You go to the past and a kingdom is fighting an army of robots that is devastating everyone. No one knows where they come from. You defeat them. One of the scientists during those times made a robot that helps him. You go to the present and find him dead of course, but his favorite robot is alive and kicking. The kingdom finds the robot and uses it as a model to make their own to give themselves some power. It's implied but not specifically stated that the kingdom eventually gains so much power, the robots they created found a way to the past. It is a story of self defeat and creating their own destruction. Tragic Quest reigns. If it were FF, it'd go on and on and on and never imply. It'd be served to you cold.

DQXI S makes a similar mistake because I'm near Octogania and I talk to an NPC who mentions a martial artist woman. That's interesting. Someone mentions that Octogania has become a blissful place in this world of darkness, which I know isn't true because of the stupid Interlude with Jade. I already know what's happening there and when I get there I will already know it's ran by a hopeless romantic monster and Jade will be his Number One because of her cursed bunny suit.

DQXI S has tremendous gameplay strides that the original didn't have but story-wise it's a step backwards for Dragon Quest that ruins the experience for first time players and overstates the story by beating a dead horse for old ones. It doesn't understand what makes DQ storytelling so good. The extra story content probably (definitely) should have been left out of the game.

[Nintex]

Metroid Prime Remastered

Played up until the Magmoor Caverns in one sitting. The game is perfect, better than the original even. Gorgeous visuals, rock solid 60fps, great updated controls and QOL improvements. I can't find a single flaw. It makes other remasters pale in comparison.

[Bebpo]

How Dragon Quest XI S edition undermines DQXI's storytelling

I didn't know that the interlude in between Acts 1 and 2 were added to the S Edition. Looking back at them, despite liking them while playing them, I think they undermine the games storytelling.

1. Element of surprise. In the original game apparently you don't know that Sylvando has made himself an army of queer paraders. I imagine those who played the original game where he appears in the Hero's story to be utterly shocking, delightful, and hilarious. But because I'm playing the S edition, when I read NPC's talking about "weird dancing parade of demons" I already know it's Sylvando's gang. The result is me not finding the initial scene where he meets the Hero funny, because it's just an extension of something I've experienced and seen and overextends its welcome. The same is applied to Rab. When the game mentions the Lama, I already know I'm about to get him because you see him training with the Lama. I'm near Octogonia and I know I'm about to get Jade because of the story additions made to the S Edition.

2. Dragon Quest stories tend to understate. A wonderful foil to DQ is Final Fantasy. FF, as a franchise, tends to overstate. Think FFVII and Cloud's flashback in Nibelheim. Dragon Quest is a franchise that gives breadcrumbs and leads you to the story, where as FF kind of just dumps an entire meal in front of you. A great example would be DQVII and the robot army. You go to the past and a kingdom is fighting an army of robots that is devastating everyone. No one knows where they come from. You defeat them. One of the scientists during those times made a robot that helps him. You go to the present and find him dead of course, but his favorite robot is alive and kicking. The kingdom finds the robot and uses it as a model to make their own to give themselves some power. It's implied but not specifically stated that the kingdom eventually gains so much power, the robots they created found a way to the past. It is a story of self defeat and creating their own destruction. Tragic Quest reigns. If it were FF, it'd go on and on and on and never imply. It'd be served to you cold.

DQXI S makes a similar mistake because I'm near Octogania and I talk to an NPC who mentions a martial artist woman. That's interesting. Someone mentions that Octogania has become a blissful place in this world of darkness, which I know isn't true because of the stupid Interlude with Jade. I already know what's happening there and when I get there I will already know it's ran by a hopeless romantic monster and Jade will be his Number One because of her cursed bunny suit.

DQXI S has tremendous gameplay strides that the original didn't have but story-wise it's a step backwards for Dragon Quest that ruins the experience for first time players and overstates the story by beating a dead horse for old ones. It doesn't understand what makes DQ storytelling so good. The extra story content probably (definitely) should have been left out of the game.

I agree that the intermissions bits were mostly unnecessary, mostly because of pacing reasons, but I don't think they are more of a detriment than what they add so it kind of evens off.

When you finish the game you'll see that none of this matters because Act 3 is such a game ruining act.

Plus all the other improvements in the S version are very good, so S version is still superior.

[Himu]

I assume Act 3 is the Post-Game?

[Bebpo]

I assume Act 3 is the Post-Game?

No it's the main game.

DQXI is fantastic, but the story is marred by the last part of the main game being dumb. You might like it, I don't think everyone shares my opinion, but I think it basically craps on the story and makes the overall plot somewhat unsatisfying overall. Gameplay is good though. I'm just talking about story here.

[thetylerrob]

Yeah, I've been waiting for the Act 3 reaction. I wouldn't call it game-ruining but it's definitely divisive.

[Hamarr]

author=BIONIC link=topic=30371.msg3087582#msg3087582 date=1675855907]
Is it in anyway like Bully/Persona where you have to go to classes on a schedule or can form “social links” with certain characters?

So far, it seems like the classes are only missions.  There are also side missions you can do.  Most of the class missions so far are for learning new spells, usually with a tutorial.

I’m about 3 hours in.  I think I have unlocked the world now, but am mostly just sticking to quests so far.  Exploring Hogwarts is more fun than I was expecting, but there are puzzles and hidden stuff to find.  I’m hoping the game will get back to the feel of the intro at some point.

[Hamarr]

Metroid Prime Remastered

Played up until the Magmoor Caverns in one sitting. The game is perfect, better than the original even. Gorgeous visuals, rock solid 60fps, great updated controls and QOL improvements. I can't find a single flaw. It makes other remasters pale in comparison.

I picked this up, too.  The updated graphics are pretty impressive.  It plays great with the look controls on the right thumb stick.  I tried to play with the Wii mote before for looking and it wasn’t the same.  I took a few breaks but just got to the snowy area. I’ve never finished Prime but got close with the GC version years ago.  This is the best the game has ever played.  It’s kind of surprising for a remaster, especially one they just dropped like that.

I hope they do a similar update for 2 and maybe 3.  I never played either of those.

[Potato]

I'm definitely going to pick up this one at some point, but 2 and 3 would need some streamlining and reworking for me to buy them again. Some really frustrating design choices.

[MMaRsu]

Hogwarts is really damn good, gonna make an OT today.

[Himu]

 

What he got against bears?!

I swear to God this boy is broken. With dual wield he gets like double his chances to put an enemy to sleep! It's almost a guarantee!

[demi]

Erik is absolutely broken, but he doesn't really pop off until he gets Divide

[Himu]

Got to Arboria. Wow. Tears over here.

So glad I wasn't spoiled. And the character development of the other character is excellent.

[Himu]

I said the game had great money management but now I am sitting on almost 200k gold lol.

Edit: well now. I just spent nearly all of that 200k gold. So I guess money management is still good. Lol only 20k left.

Got to Arboria. Wow. Tears over here.

So glad I wasn't spoiled. And the character development of the other character is excellent.

This part of the game is precisely why the new story additions to the S Edition ruin the story. Because there's an interlude for every character EXCEPT those two which telegraphs hard that something happened to them. Which I figured. Bebpo is wrong that the new additions don't ruin Act 2. They objectively do as a new player.

[Potato]

WarioWare with my son...soooo good.


Starting on LiveALive now.

[Bebpo]

About 1/3rd through Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen. The first 5 hours were like a VN with one small battle every couple hours, but after the intro it seems closer to a normal tactics games with some story -> battles -> etc.. and can grind past fights whenever if needed.

It's good so far, but a bit simple for a tactics game. There's tons of QoL (it's designed by Sting of Yggdra Union/Knights in the Knightmare) and basically every option you'd ever want in a tactics game (FF, rewind, turn order, simulate future turns) with a solid UI. But basically just a bunch of units with abilities and specials attacks and a paper/rock/scissors kind of element system and a special meter called Zeal that builds up when you at or get hit kind of like Super Robot War's morale meter, and like that game it increases damage/defense/evasion and you use it for team attacks. Seems kind of easy so I just switched it over to hard mode. Story is enjoyable, but nothing special.

At this point the series is no Tactics Ogre/FFT/Devil Survivor, but it's a solid B so far. Apparently the first two games are only like 30-40 hours total, so may end up being worth the time investment. B games are fine for a few dozen hours, but not really worth putting 75-100 hours into.

Also this game is the #1 best Steam Deck game I've found so far which helps. Feels like it was made for Steam Deck.

[Potato]

Ok, so, LiveALive is my first 2D-HD game and first JRPG since probably Tales of Symphonia on the GC. First up, I really like the art style. Looks absolutely beautiful.

However, damn I know this game is from the 16-bit era, but fuck if this doesn't have some is the most archaic and dumb gameplay shit I've ever seen. I started on the Near Future chapter and going up and down several unnecessary flights in stairs in quick succession, all for no purpose other than to "our princess is in another castle" me, is really killing my enjoyment. This is really serving to remind me why I hate JRPGs so much. There's very little respect for the player's time, energy or patience. I'm playing with my son and I really want to keep at it to introduce him to more complex games, but damn if it isn't difficult to maintain interest when everything is so fucking tedious.

[Bebpo]

Ok, so, LiveALive is my first 2D-HD game and first JRPG since probably Tales of Symphonia on the GC. First up, I really like the art style. Looks absolutely beautiful.

However, damn I know this game is from the 16-bit era, but fuck if this doesn't have some is the most archaic and dumb gameplay shit I've ever seen. I started on the Near Future chapter and going up and down several unnecessary flights in stairs in quick succession, all for no purpose other than to "our princess is in another castle" me, is really killing my enjoyment. This is really serving to remind me why I hate JRPGs so much. There's very little respect for the player's time, energy or patience. I'm playing with my son and I really want to keep at it to introduce him to more complex games, but damn if it isn't difficult to maintain interest when everything is so fucking tedious.

The problem with LiveALive is that it got like ZERO quality of life upgrades and is just a straight up port of the SNES game with new gfx. Which is crazy considering how some of SE's other releases like the SaGa games get a million quality of life upgrades to get rid of all the tedious. It's super frustrating that the director of LiveALive remake just did not give one shit about improving the game. I'm waiting for the eventual PC port so at least I can throw on some mods to improve it.

If you want to play something similar I'd recommend the SaGa Frontier Remaster which is fast and non-tedious. Though the visuals aren't HD-2D or anything.

[Himu]

The fact Live A Live ever made it officially in English to the point where I see it on store racks at fucking Wal-Mart is nothing short of a miracle. A game like that stuck in limbo for almost 30 years.