Kawa's recent activity
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Kawa Link ParentI really appreciate finding people such as you who are on the same page as me about this. I see a lot of whining and criticism of Playstation controllers for their left analog stick position, but...Xbox controllers placement of the D-Pad makes D-Pad-Based games a lot less comfortable than the native deck controls.
I really appreciate finding people such as you who are on the same page as me about this. I see a lot of whining and criticism of Playstation controllers for their left analog stick position, but for me there's absolutely zero difference or preference in PS or Xbox position for left analog stick while using the analog stick.
However, the effect this has on using the D-Pad is tremendous, and while I love the 8bitdo Ultimate that I currently use daily as my PC controller, I have sometimes pulled out my Nintendo Switch Online SNES controller (it's just a SNES controller that I can connect to my PC basically) for some emulated/retro/indie games because of the D-Pad position. Not that I completely want to retire the NSO SNES controller, the novelty of it is still fun enough that I'll probably keep using it occasionally for emulation, much like how I have one of these and a real N64 controller specifically for emulating N64 games (or playing recompilation stuff!) because I dislike mapping N64 to modern controllers, but I could definitely see myself retiring the 8bitdo Ultimate and using the Steam Controller for both modern 3D AAA type stuff as well as more D-Pad focused games.
I've still only rarely used the touchpads on my Steam Deck actually in an in-game context instead of mousing around desktop mode. I played Va-11 Hall-A on Deck and used them for that, and that's pretty much it. I'm still open to the idea and seeing how I can harness them to my advantage.
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Kawa (edited )Link ParentAn 8bitdo Ultimate (1, not 2) is my current main controller for my PC since May 2024 without any discomfort or complications. I find it a little surprising and confusing trying to consider what...An 8bitdo Ultimate (1, not 2) is my current main controller for my PC since May 2024 without any discomfort or complications.
I find it a little surprising and confusing trying to consider what you're describing regarding the angle of the handles.
May I ask, how do you hold a SNES controller? Do you fit the ends of the controller all the way into your palms, or do you hold it pretty much entirely with the "pads" of your fingertips and thumbs? I would feel pretty comfortable taking a guess that nobody fully palm grips SNES controllers because there's an absence of handles, so everybody who has ever used one should be familiar with the idea of using the controller entirely in their fingertips.
(Sorry I can only show one hand in the photo, other hand was handling the camera of course.)
So basically, I do something pretty close to that albeit slightly different for all modern controllers as well (more contact with the surface of lower joins of my pinky and ring fingers cause they curl around handles when they're present)
Basically the weight of the controller is not "gripped" by my palms but just supported by the fingers on the underside, and usually my hands rest in my lap. Held more horizontally than in the above photo, the base of my thumb isn't making any contact with the front surface of the controller, just the "thumbprint" area. It could explain why I haven't taken to back buttons yet because those backside fingers aren't technically "free" to use them if they don't land exactly where my fingers want to rest. (spoiler: they never do)
Anyway, I couldn't imagine fully gripping any controllers all the way into my palms, even the ones with more angled handles like my DualSense controllers that I have. Maybe it's because my hands are generally on the larger side? If anything though I think all this just supports the notions that there's grip variety and should be more controller shape variety as well because our hands aren't all the same.
I think I'm gonna give the new Steam controller a go, when I can.
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Kawa Link ParentI'm not concerned about that. If I am correctly imagining what you're describing, there'd be sort of an inward twist of the wrists (clockwise for left wrist, ccw for right) to even try to do that,...I'm not concerned about that. If I am correctly imagining what you're describing, there'd be sort of an inward twist of the wrists (clockwise for left wrist, ccw for right) to even try to do that, which just doesn't match how I hold controllers.
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Kawa Link ParentDigital Foundry vid says valve told them the physical port is a 2.1 and that if all that can get solved they could potentially "activate" that on the software side at a later date, just not by launch.Digital Foundry vid says valve told them the physical port is a 2.1 and that if all that can get solved they could potentially "activate" that on the software side at a later date, just not by launch.
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Kawa Link ParentI believe Xbox console controllers use AA too don't they? Surprised I'm not seeing that mentioned yet. I think there's an argument to be made that most users are not servicing controllers with...I believe Xbox console controllers use AA too don't they? Surprised I'm not seeing that mentioned yet. I think there's an argument to be made that most users are not servicing controllers with proprietary, rechargable batteries to replace them, so whole controllers become e-waste if the battery fails in some way, though mass disposal of AAs has its own problems.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 đšī¸â° đēī¸ đ¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Chrono Trigger in ~games
Kawa (edited )Link ParentI can't quite place my finger on it, but something about the pictos and general upgrade system in COE33 felt very "western" to me, like I was looking at Borderlands gun stats or like diablo style...upgrading and crafting and levelling and grinding are not game features that I typically like all that much
I was actually getting better at the game, and my progress wasn't just my character's numbers going up.
I can't quite place my finger on it, but something about the pictos and general upgrade system in COE33 felt very "western" to me, like I was looking at Borderlands gun stats or like diablo style perks or items or something. I don't know, this is a really hard one to point at specific details and make apt comparisons that others will understand, because it's an intangible vibes-based thing, and it's not like Japanese-made JRPGs don't have massive skill trees or progression systems like Final Fantasy X's sphere grid or similar, but something about the phrasing of most of the pictos effects and how the pictos and lumina system worked was one of the factors in that game that is part of what I mean when I said that it shows that the game is made by post-Ubisoft devs.
But anyway, I do quite like progression features. Like with the Sekiro thing you said later about your progress not just being your characters numbers going up, I agree that I like to feel like some element of player skill is rising, but as a Souls fan, I like both. Sekiro is great and didn't feel like a lesser game in any way for not having as much number-go-up as fromsoft's "Souls" games, but the other ones' RPG mechanics and levels and stuff do a lot of work for build variety and replay value. Indeed they are progression systems where my character becomes stronger, but the games are still challenging enough that I have to become stronger as a player, too. So I guess I like both.
In turn-based games, I think it's harder to find a way to enable the player to become stronger as a player. I think without realtime elements the only form of player progression is basically knowledge, which will inform strategy and make the player more successful, but if the systems are too simple, it doesn't take much knowledge to "solve" the game and just keep pressing the solution button over and over again, so some complexity or variety helps, and that's a reason I sometimes choose to seek hard JRPGs (and other genres!) but on the other hand like with Dragon Quest, sometimes I just wanna relax and vibe, and the game being simple is what gives it that "after a bath, before bed" quality that Tim Rogers highlighted in the Kotaku review. Some games just need to be a bedtime story, or have hang-out-itude. Sometimes I seek that instead.
For me, I also experience a fluctuating appetite for difficulty. In the past several years, it ebbs and flows with Final Fantasy XIV's content release schedule because in that game I'm an avid raider who clears battle content at all difficulties and sometimes with very hardcore play scheduling/habits during raid release windows (last Savage raid tier I played 7 days straight of 8-12h days and a 16.5h day trying to clear the raid tier in the first week with party finder pick up groups), my appetite for a challenge is often completely sated by that FFXIV content, causing friction with other games when I'm trying to chill, but run into difficulty unexpectedly.
So I think I naturally strike a balance a balance between seeking easier games (regardless of genre) to play in the weeks following raid releases when I'm all burnt out on difficulty, and seeking harder games closer to the middle of the content gaps in FFXIV where I've neither done too much hard raiding lately nor have new hard raiding imminently releasing.
That said, it also meant that I didn't really explore the combat system fully later on when it probably did get more interesting. I think I used a combo attack a grand total of three times in the entire game. They just never became necessary. I'm sure I could have made it easier for myself if I had learnt all the possible combinations, but when you are selecting things from a menu in a hurry, you tend to go for what you know will work.
Yeah interesting how that played out. The combo techs can be seen in the menu when forming a party lineup though, so outside of combat you do get the time to consider what would be in the menu if you decided to set up for them, though I guess it still matters that you'd have to take the time to try them all out and under time pressure that's not a priority I suppose?
This is actually a bit similar to how I played Persona 5. I know it's in the title of the game, but in my 40 hours or so of playing the game I never really saw the need to change personas, so I didn't engage with the system any more than I absolutely had to. Maybe if I go back one day, I'll need look into it more.
I assume you mean spending a lot of time on fusion, rather than changing the equipped Persona in combat, because the 1 button that pulls up your abilities that hit a known weakness changes the equipped persona for you automatically if you're using that button.
I'm not sure even a higher difficulty mode can help with this case. For instance, if a Persona MC is threatened by a boss because the equipped persona is weak to an element the boss uses a lot, the Persona MCs can simply switch personas mid combat, while Metaphor MC and SMT MCs can only interact with the systems that change their weaknesses outside of combat.
So I think you're simply the exact right type of personality to discover this flaw in Persona's combat design and become displeased and bored by it.
The Persona MCs' ability to basically always walk around with an answer to every problem because they're carring like 5-10 personas at all times and can change them in combat keeps you ready for anything, meaning if you do have a situationally poor matchup equipped going into a fight, you're like a turn away from finding out and another turn away from just changing persona to change away from the weakness.
I know there's a sort of small section of the Persona fandom that swears by playing P5R/P3R on Merciless explicitly in search of more challenge, but I'm not sure how much it improves on the experience for those seeking more challenge, as I have never tried out Merciless.
I guess I'm a simple man. If I see something that works for me, I stick with it until it doesn't. And if a game never gives me a reason to change my ways, I never change. And then I complain that the game is repetitive and unable to hold my interest.
It is what it is, there's no need to worry if the fault is your pattern of behaviour or game design, rather it's just a matter of compatibility. Nothing wrong with moving on if something's not a fit! That's just valuing your time and seeking the experiences you want to have.
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Comment on CGA-2025-11 đ´đĄđĩđĸ INSERT CARTRIDGE đĸ PlayStation WHAT? in ~games
Kawa (edited )LinkI have a PS2 and OSSC and all that to have a pretty good experience if I wanted to go down kind of a real hardware route but I've never fully invested in the kind of stuff in J-Chiptunator's...I have a PS2 and OSSC and all that to have a pretty good experience if I wanted to go down kind of a real hardware route but I've never fully invested in the kind of stuff in J-Chiptunator's comment to run anything aside from real discs on it, and despite the very good breadth of the comment, none of it is frictionless so I think in this case I'll just skip using the PS2 and going with emulation. Per the emulation general wiki Mednafen and DuckStation are the way to go. (EDIT: at the time of comment I thought these were all PS1 titles, so I'm adding mention of PCSX2 for PS2 for PaRappa 2) I'm already familiar with both having tried out the retroarch cores of them on my Steam Deck (though I will set up for this CGA on my desktop PC instead of bloating my Steam Deck with isos I might not keep.)
I think I'm gonna treat this one almost like getting a game magazine demo disc for the PS1 back in the day and just kinda sample these titles without any commitment to finishing them in any way. Just checking them out to see what they're like. The only 2 of these I know anything about are Pepsiman from its GDQ appearances and PaRappa which a childhood friend had back in the day and so I've witnessed the game back then and seen it come up from time to time in internet culture like for example this lightly inappropriate meme (not much to CW just crude humor and genital injury) that I admit to finding hilarious back when it emerged.
Hooray for the first CGA "Arcade Special" have fun everyone!!
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 đšī¸â° đēī¸ đ¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Chrono Trigger in ~games
Kawa (edited )Link ParentThanks, I appreciate your kindness. In other online communities I've got a reputation for saying too much and in too many words, and maybe I've become too self-aware of it. As long as it's...Thanks, I appreciate your kindness. In other online communities I've got a reputation for saying too much and in too many words, and maybe I've become too self-aware of it. As long as it's interesting or helpful though then I guess it was worth typing it all out!
Definitely a fair pat on the back if you're recognizing most of these titles. There's a long history in this game genre, and aside from a few really big franchises there's a lot of really niche stuff that's in kind of a AA space without a lot of big marketing and the genre can be surprisingly diverse in gameplay, all RPGs are games of systems after all. Researching and watching videos and having discussions and stuff is ultimately what will lead you to the ones that work for you, and that you are having fun and finding the ones you can enjoy is what matters most.
I have actually played through Undertale and Clair Obscur. Both are titles that I remember fondly but didn't like that much.
Funny, for me these are two games that I had pretty opposite reactions to. I love Undertale deeply, and would put it among my favourites, but on the other hand I found COE33 combat so utterly repulsive for my tastes, to the point I dropped the game and watched a playthrough instead.
I don't mind my timing being tested, more generally speaking. I love Souls games and recently finished Sekiro so it's not the timing checks themselves but how they interact in a turn-based system. But even Super Mario RPG on the SNES (and I like the Switch remake just fine too) is one of my childhood favourites and I find its timed hits system really fun. In contrast I feel that in COE33 they're overemphasized to the overall combat system's detriment, and I also feel that the animation quality isn't up to the task to serve that type of timing-sensitive gameplay.
Story was alright, has some neat stuff in it, but I have yet to truly understand why it's so revered. The fact was made public in interviews and stuff, but it could not be more obvious from just the game itself that it is a game made by a lot of ex-Ubisoft employees who wanted to do a genre Ubisoft wouldn't do. It shows!
I think that there was a very powerful hunger for a turn based game in a JRPG gameplay style that has "AAA graphics" (close but not quite) with a semi realistic aesthetic, because there's a lot of Ex(?)-FF fans who feel like that franchise left a void when it changed going into the HD era. I feel like it's a good - maybe even great game, in a very "average good game" way, and it absolutely does openly show its budget and team size in the final product, counter to what people like to say. The experience of reading and hearing people clamouring over it as some kind of genre saviour redemption piece that saved gaming this decade or whatever has been kind of frustrating to witness. I'm not even a hater, again it's good or maybe great depending on taste.
it forced me to make poor decisions.
Interesting! I've always preferred CT on Wait mode, because I feel like Active isn't that much in my own concept of the spirit of a turn based game. For instance some of the real-time action JRPGs that I mentioned earlier are where I'd look to seek the pressure of gameplay that is moving in real-time, while staying under the JRPG umbrella, instead of going for an Active ATB mode like CT's Active. I guess maybe for me, I conceptualize menuing gameplay as "strategy" gameplay while like Tales of Vesperia's "B for attacks, A for artes X for block etc" is "action" gameplay, so the former input style is something I don't feel is appropriate under any kind of real-time pressure. Even Tales does pause the action if you choose to go into the item menu, for instance.
Still, the simple explanation that Active kept you away from always making perfectly optimal decisions and consequentially making the game easy is a completely understandable one. I guess for me the solution to that in turn based gameplay is to make the system more complicated so that the possibilities and outcomes are trickier to optimize for, and find ways to make it so that you may not have been prepared with the best options (but ideally still have a way forward) cause you can't have literally every option prepared at all times. If that makes sense and is even possible, I am not so sure of that myself.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 đšī¸â° đēī¸ đ¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Chrono Trigger in ~games
Kawa (edited )Link ParentI'm once again replying to you with a gigantic essay and I'm genuinely sorry about that. This message started small, and its length was never the plan when I set out typing it, I just get carried...- Exemplary
I'm once again replying to you with a gigantic essay and I'm genuinely sorry about that. This message started small, and its length was never the plan when I set out typing it, I just get carried away, I guess.
Dragon Quest's straightforward combat does worry me a little. Which reminds me, are there any JPRGs where combat is much more like turn-based puzzle solving? I'm thinking of games like Gloomhaven, Into the Breach, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes or even Magic: The Gathering, to give a few examples off the top of my head.
Well... before reading the examples you indicated, my immediate thought to your question was the Shin Megami Tensei series by Atlus. But do be aware that I did write some suggestions more comparable to the Gloomhaven/Into the Breach/M&M/MTG examples after the next horizontal rule.
In contrast to Persona which you've tried out, most SMT games (and Metaphor) use a "Press Turn" system. The way it works is once you have 4 party members, you have 4 "turn icons." If you don't hit a weakness, but your attack goes through, it consumes a turn icon and moves to the next character. If you do hit a weakness while you have regular turn icons remaining, one of them will change state (light up in SMTV, shrink in Metaphor, the visual varies) instead of being used. I'll call that a weak turn, and it can be used again for a full action at no penalty, but there's no way to generate further weak turns when consuming a weak turn even if you hit a weakness. On the other hand, if your attack gets nullified or dodged, you lose 2 turn icons (either weak or normal) and if it gets repelled or absorbed, you lose all remaining turn icons and pass turn to enemy. There is a mechanic to pass a character's turn to the next allied character but it's not like Persona 5's baton pass where it's free and confers buffs. Instead, passing turn in Press Turn is at a partial turn cost (1 weak turn vanishes or 1 regular icon downgrades to a weak turn) but can often be circumstantially strategically sound.
So for instance, with 4 characters, you have 4 turn icons, if all 4 characters can hit a weakness, your party could go a combined total of 8 times before passing to the enemy, but only 4 times if you never hit a weakness, and as low as 2 if you get nullified/dodged or even 1 if you get repelled or absorbed. All of these turn gains and losses apply equally to the enemy team's actions against you as well, and it's absolutely possible to just get comboed out if you're not set up for a given fight.
That can be pretty oppressive even in normal mode and especially in harder difficulty modes, but a lot of the time the solution is found in demon fusion, which is functionally the same as Persona fusion but has more profound effects on your overall party setup because instead of summoning a "Persona" (demon) to be your main character's spell list like in the Persona series, instead your MC has their own kit while your other 3 party member slots are filled with the demons you fuse.
So if you think back to your P5 experience, imagine your fellow phantom thieves don't exist, and instead of joker summoning a persona behind him to cast a spell, he fills the other 3 slots with "personas" (demons) and they stay on the field full time. I also should mention you can't travel with duplicates of any demon, so they have to be 3 uniquely different demons, which can make creating the situationally appropriate team more challenging than it sounds. The Press Turn system also favors you less than Persona's 1-mores, yet favors enemies against you more. It can still happen but it's rarer and harder to just clean sweep under Press Turn rules than Persona combat. So anyway the puzzle solving happens outside the fight during fusion, and practically speaking this gameplay experience will often be taking a loss, trying to come up with an idea/plan that works against whatever you died to and a set of demons to execute that plan, and then return and hopefully win. SMT also usually puts you up against stuff with difficult weaknesses to exploit, earlier in the game and more often than Persona, and SMT much more often presents enemies or bosses who have no elemental or physical weaknesses, which could definitely be a form of coverage against your dislike of feeling like exploiting a built-in weakness is the only reasonable option. SMT games also more often allow status effects and buffs/debuffs to affect bosses, which is the exception to the JRPG norm on this matter.
For the record, although Metaphor also uses Press Turn system, it doesn't have demon fusion, instead it has party members kinda like Persona, but they all have a flexible class system so they're more customizable than in Persona but less customizable than SMT demons. Your Metaphor party's class composition is less likely to have full element coverage than SMT going into any given fight, and yet you can still fight it out and win. Definitely more interesting than Persona where the protagonist's multiple Personas mechanic will guarantee you a full element spread all game long. The Metaphor MC can't class change in combat unlike Persona MCs swapping personas mid-combat, and Metaphor MC doesn't have the privilege of really any extra functionality above the other party members unlike Persona MCs, he plays within the same class system as everyone else.
SMT III Nocturne has a reputation for beating the shit out of the player especially in the early game but staying hard throughout. SMT V Vengeance is like the most modern QoL'd title in the franchise.
Also in contrast to Persona, the SMT series is much lighter on exposition. There are stories here, but overall they're pretty gameplay-forward titles while dialogue/cutscene quantity takes a bit more of a backseat compared to the standard for the genre.
Another shoutout from Atlus could be the Etrian Odyssey series. I'm linking EO3 here because by reputation I think it's commonly agreed upon to be the best one. I haven't played these so I don't exactly know what the combat gameplay is like, but I hear it is difficult, and I think it might be more in line with the SMT level of difficulty than Persona. The reason I'm mentioning Etrian Odyssey is actually because of its exploration system, which itself is challenging. These games originally launched on the DS and had a first-person perspective and are dungeon crawler JRPGs, which also draws a through-line back to Wizardry, and probably some inspiration from things like Phantasy Star 1 and SMT 1 & 2 and SMT if... (which were first person grid map games) along the way. Basically, in the DS version, the bottom screen displayed an open grid and set of tools for drawing your own map almost like you might on paper in the games that inspired it, but built right into the game. Getting lost, finding your way, surviving being lost while your resources potentially dwindle are probably the difficulty aspects here. I can't speak for how the Steam versions UX is, I see from the screenshots the map seems to now be an overlay or popout window, and I would hazard a guess you can fill it in with the mouse.
I can say that Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is one of the hardest turn based JRPGs I ever beat, and it's basically an SMT game on DS that was built in Etrian Odyssey's engine (it doesn't even use Press Turn!) but the mapping is filled in automatically by the game as you explore, which is easier but less interactive... and again I'm saying Strange Journey was one of the hardest JRPGs I've completed. You can feel free to assume if you add in being responsible for my own mapping, I'm straight up scared of EO.
However, I haven't even touched on what came to mind after reading the comparison examples you indicated.
The examples at first shifted my mind towards strategy-JRPGs. Titles like Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem series, Ogre Battle, Unicorn Overlord, and Triangle Strategy all fit in here. Maybe even some of the Front Mission games? I'm not that well versed in this subgenre so for almost everything that I've listed just now, I've tried out but haven't finished most of them. But from what I have played, they seem pretty "choicey" in a way that feels like it would last through the whole game.
By reputation, Final Fantasy Tactics is many people's idea of the gold standard in this subgenre, and there is a famous fight to get stuck on in the PS1 version that often walls players who don't keep multiple saves going back far enough to load from and salvage/prep for the fight. The remake might have changes or QoL that minimizes this. Also by reputation, Final Fantasy Tactics is pretty breakable to become OP, but I don't know how likely players are to figure out how to do that on their casual first playthroughs.
I have finished a Fire Emblem game, which in my case was Awakening, and I've dabbled in a few earlier titles like the GBA ones. A key mechanic in FE is all the gear has durability, which does keep you paying attention to sustaining your resources in longer fights especially. More importantly though, Fire Emblem games before Awakening are fully permadeath games, where even when you win a chapter/scenario and advance the story, anybody who died in the fight is permanently dead from your save file. Pretty intense consequence that will definitely keep you engaged and thinking about your every turn. Every move is a risk evaluation in a way that lots of other games aren't.
Another line of thought triggered by the example games you cited is that there's a JRPG series called Baten Kaitos from the GameCube that has a card-based battle system and consequently involves elements of deck building and combo building. I haven't played them and I'm not sure how difficult they are or if the combat sustains being engaging through the runtime of the game.
When I consider your positive remarks on CT's "Active" setting, lots of Final Fantasy games starting with IV up until IX used an ATB system where realtime bars fill up before you can take your turn, much like Chrono Trigger, but I don't know if all of them have the Active/Wait options. I know FFVI does, but I don't remember offhand if any do not, and I think in the case of any that do not give you the option, I would assume they behave like "Wait." They also don't feature anything like CT's dual techs or the same kind of positioning opportunities for techs, and they have random encounters instead of in-world encounters.
However, if you found Active appealing, it's worth mentioning that not all JRPGs are turn-based. The cool thing about some of the action-JRPGs is that in a lot of them you can outplay level deficits and stuff if you get really skilled at the actual moment to moment gameplay.
The Tales video game series has been action-combat since its inception, with the best entry in my opinion being Tales of Vesperia. I quite like Tales of the Abyss as well, but it's PS2 or 3DS locked for now, though a Tales remaster project has been ongoing, and I could easily imagine Abyss getting one someday. Tales of Symphonia is a fan favourite as well but does show its age, while recent titles in the series have felt a bit more hit or miss to me. Tales games have a lot of depth potential in their systems but don't usually require you to understand them much at all for normal mode playthroughs, but hard modes probably strike a nice balance.
Some other action-JRPG series include Mana series, Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, Ys, and later FF games like FF15, 16, and 7 Remake/Rebirth.
Honorable mentions?
Undertale and Deltarune (unfinished, releasing episodically) are turn-based but you are playing bullet hell minigames against enemy attacks during the enemy's turn.
Earthbound and it's sequel Mother 3 have HP displays that spin like the digits are on rollers when the value changes due to damage taken or healed, and can be interrupted. So for instance, say you have 50 hp and take >50 damage, a would-be lethal attack. If you can manage to get through the menuing in time to use a healing PSI or item on the character, when the heal happens it will stop the reels early from spinning to 0, and instead start spinning up for the heal amount from whatever value the spin-down was interrupted at. In other words you can save characters who took a lethal hit due to this! Mother 3 also has a bit of a timing mechanic with some attack types where you can keep pressing A after your attacks land in a rhythm to the BGM to score small amounts of bonus damage.
Mother 3 rhythm mechanic hint
If you find the rhythm ambiguous, putting an enemy to sleep lets you hear a heartbeat that indicates what the rhythm is supposed to be.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is turn-based but you have realtime dodge and parry mechanics based on enemy attack animations during the enemy's turn and active button prompts to boost your own attacks on your turns. Some other games have less numerically polarizing versions of this (COE33 on the defensive side can be very all-or-nothing), like Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario series, and standalone titles like Legend of Dragoon. Characters in FFVIII who use gunblade weapons have an active trigger mechanic during their attacks too, but a lot of these Mario RPGs, FFs, and probably LoD are in the "you'll do a lot of spamming your biggest attack" bin.
Anyway that's all I can think of for now, but there's definitely going to be options for you besides the most simple straightforward turn-based games!!! It's a big genre with lots of options and variations, I'm sure there's something in this giant essay you'd like.
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Comment on What indie competitive games do you play? in ~games
Kawa LinkI once felt like this game was basically airplane dogfighting but with arena-shooter types of wacky weaponry, and it felt like it had a high skill ceiling to me. I played it when it was released...I once felt like this game was basically airplane dogfighting but with arena-shooter types of wacky weaponry, and it felt like it had a high skill ceiling to me. I played it when it was released and there were actually people on the servers. That said, it never had much of an audience, is completely dead today, and I'm sure is no longer under development so I cannot recommend actually buying it. It never felt like more than a quick unity engine proof of concept demo anyway. Same dev went on to contribute to Peak so I'm glad they've hit bigger since.
I sort of struggle to come up with many examples of indies with online multiplayer at all. Towerfall came to mind but then upon checking I reminded myself it's local-only for multiplayer.
I would assume fighting and fighting-adjacent games like Rivals of Aether or Lethal League and their sequels are already something you're aware of if you're asking questions like this, and likely weren't your style as they're not alike to your examples.
Similarly, maybe something like Frozen Synapse? It's turn based though, and I don't get the impression that's the type of skill you had in mind when you said skill based. I also don't know how much of a community it has, I've literally never played it.
Hope you find some stuff you like though.
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Comment on Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles for no good reason in ~anime
Kawa Link ParentThanks for the reassurance haha. There might be an element of pre-excusing myself if the thing I posted didn't land with that aspect of my comment. It just happens to be my first foray into ~anime...Thanks for the reassurance haha. There might be an element of pre-excusing myself if the thing I posted didn't land with that aspect of my comment.
It just happens to be my first foray into ~anime on tildes at all and my first time posting a topic on tildes full stop, only been commenting up to this point. It's not a joke in my bio where it says my bookmark leads straight to ~games so I just didn't know what the ~anime section would be when it comes to industry type topics such as this.
It's good to know the article confirms things that those already in the know more generally already expected. I never heard of Daiz until this article but like I said before that'll be a consequence of my very casual, community-less anime viewing habits. I'm not in the know, so I don't know what the ~anime community at Tildes knows or the broader online anime community's disposition on matters like these either, so that's what I mean by naive, I'm just posting with no understanding of whether this is already a prevailing topic or whether this is new or old to the average reader around here.
Thanks again for your kind reply!
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Comment on Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles for no good reason in ~anime
Kawa (edited )LinkTo most of you, I suspect this is nothing new. I'm not what you'd call a highly experienced anime watcher, I have only extremely rarely tried following currently airing seasonal anime schedules,...- Exemplary
To most of you, I suspect this is nothing new. I'm not what you'd call a highly experienced anime watcher, I have only extremely rarely tried following currently airing seasonal anime schedules, for the most part I watch older stuff based on acclaim and personal appeal, and I have maybe subscribed to Crunchyroll for a lifetime cumulative total of 2 months, probably almost a decade ago.
I didn't really know this was going on on Crunchyroll but I saw this article elsewhere and found it absolutely captivating. The author goes into lots of detail about the behind the scenes industry side of this, the technical details and software of typesetting subtitles, the history of Crunchyroll and Funimation's subtitling and typesetting practices, and ultimately demonstrates how and why they're getting worse. The article itself, almost as if it demonstrates the same values, is presented and formatted in a really pleasing way, too.
My first run-in with really noticing how big of a difference really nice typesetting in subtitles makes was the Chyuu-PAS fansub of Revue Starlight, which I watched. I was impressed with the choice to use these art deco style fonts at a time when I was not even really aware of the difference between official subs and fansubs. Then I wanted to show stuff from the show to my friends, (such as the transformation sequence) which was what I had seen clips from and got me interested in the show. If I've caught your interest in this sequence by mentioning it, you can watch a version of it here.
While looking for clips to share in turn, I noticed how much worse other versions were. (seriously, what the hell is this?) (I'm not sure where those came from or what the official ones on HiDive looked like) I was so disappointed. I mean, Chyuu-PAS did it so well! Look at the name on the chalk board, it looks like chalk and is appropriately matching the camera's perspective of the chalkboard. It's even in the long-shot of the classroom while not being practically readable. It's almost believable that the original animators put it in there, like she wrote her name on the blackboard in romaji also, except that it disappears when you turn the subs off.
Originally it was officially on HiDive, and I know it did not do song lyrics (likely similar separate-licensing-for-music reasons as given in the article) but I can't comment on what typesetting it had as I never saw that version. Today, the official service it is on is Prime Video, which due to the constraints of their subtitle system, would not have any of the typesetting seen earlier in my comment. I don't have Prime, so I can't go gathering comparison shots.
Anyway, I'm definitely straying away from the topic a bit, but really the experience of watching this fansub in particular and that if I tried to recommend Revue Starlight to my friends today, knowing they're gonna see it with Prime Video's bottom-text subtitles only is what primed me to passionately and vehemently agree with and want to share this article.
I hope y'all don't mind if I come off naive sharing this here, maybe none of this is anything new to those of you who hang around and post here in ~anime but I just hope that maybe it sparks a bit of discussion, or maybe for those of you already aligned with this, perhaps by sharing the article I've offered you a conveniently linkable version of a well researched and formatted argument against Crunchyroll's new practices.
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Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles for no good reason
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 đšī¸â° đēī¸ đ¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Chrono Trigger in ~games
Kawa Link ParentSimilarly I first played this game to completion somewhere around 2012 on a snes emulator on a smartphone, as an adult. I probably never made it past the court scene in earlier attempts as a...Similarly I first played this game to completion somewhere around 2012 on a snes emulator on a smartphone, as an adult. I probably never made it past the court scene in earlier attempts as a teen/kid. I do not have a nostalgia-driven judgment of this game.
Same goes for FF7, same thing around 2013, emulated on phone, as adult. I bring it up cause being a fan of FF7 is the #1 attractant of "rose tinted glasses" allegations.
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Comment on Looking for some video game suggestions based off some specific parameters in ~games
Kawa Link Parentadding @Nny By the way, the demo is available again! It features 3 "levels" of journey mode, and 1 mode of online play with matchmaking. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3847360/Lumines_Arise_Demo/adding @Nny
By the way, the demo is available again! It features 3 "levels" of journey mode, and 1 mode of online play with matchmaking.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3847360/Lumines_Arise_Demo/
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 đšī¸â° đēī¸ đ¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Chrono Trigger in ~games
Kawa (edited )Link ParentYeah for DQXI, I think the relatively vanilla turn-based JRPG combat (and DQ is kinda the king of "vanilla" in JRPG combat having basically established it), and the length of the game (not quite...someone who was convinced that I'm just not in tune with JRPG battle mechanics
Yeah for DQXI, I think the relatively vanilla turn-based JRPG combat (and DQ is kinda the king of "vanilla" in JRPG combat having basically established it), and the length of the game (not quite Persona long but not far off either) are the biggest risk factors for that title failing to reach and connect with you, but if it works out it could be really rewarding.
Thanks for sharing about the slime plushies! That's cute haha. Toriyama really cooked when he drew those, I doubt it was originally intended to be a mascot. There is some really cool Slime merch, too!
For DQVIII and XI there were "Slime Controllers." DQXI introduced a PS4 and Switch models of it, and DQVIII on PS2 introduced a regular blue one but also a variant based on the rarer, "metal slime" monster.
In the funniest ironic twist that could happen to these, the blue ones from the PS2 era (not sure about modern ones) suffer from an issue that happens to many rubberized objects where they get kinda oily if unused after some time, like how regular, non-slime playstation controllers left in a drawer unused will develop on the analog sticks, except these slime controllers have a fully rubberized coating so it happens to more than just the sticks. The phenomenon is thought to be depolymerization, or elastomer loss, or finger oils that have entered into the rubber rising back out to the surface, not entirely sure as I'm no scientist! But in short, the slime controllers got slimy.
There's also a Nintendo 2DS XL (LL in jp) that has a Liquid Metal Slime theme that is absolutely gorgeous. I want this thing so bad. It released for the jp-only 3DS port of DQXI a few years back.
There is actually a ridiculous amount of Dragon Quest limited edition consoles. most of which feature slime variations.
There's even a game where you play as a slime, and wouldn't you know it, it has a Chrono Trigger reference!
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Comment on New World is dead: Amazon ends new content updates following massive layoffs, says 'servers will be live through 2026' in ~games
Kawa LinkI've never played New World aside from very briefly in beta, but I know some people who returned to it recently, and apparently this one stings because the game has been in very poor shape until...- Exemplary
I've never played New World aside from very briefly in beta, but I know some people who returned to it recently, and apparently this one stings because the game has been in very poor shape until like literally this month and now they pull the plug.
The game was doing poorly from just after it's initial launch falloff until October 2025 when a recent update of some kind (don't ask me the details, I genuinely don't know what it was) seemed to attract people to return to the game. According to the steamdb graph it's like a 4x increase in concurrent players comparing "before" to a recent peak. Not a huge blowout success story or anything but the sentiment I've heard was that this was finally righting the ship and could've been the start of New World becoming a better game and maybe growing into something bigger. This month's numbers, though, for MMO standards and what Amazon wanted, seemingly wasn't going to cut it. There is a feeling almost like this was decided by executives even before the update, and almost like no matter the outcome of the update that spurned this return to the game, it's fate was already decided.
Here's a screenshot of the past 6 months player chart from steamDB at the time of my comment and here's a direct link to the data. I had to filter to this cause all time's initial launch peak dwarfs the rest of the data so much and makes the timeline too long that you can't really see October's growth.
Sorry to any/all NW fans. Unlucky.
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Comment on CGA-2025-10 đšī¸â° đēī¸ đ¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âī¸ Chrono Trigger in ~games
Kawa (edited )Link ParentThank you for sharing, I'll probably watch a considerable amount of these videos, I appreciate it. The way you spoke about Dragon Quest in the 3rd bullet point leaves me unclear on your own...Thank you for sharing, I'll probably watch a considerable amount of these videos, I appreciate it.
The way you spoke about Dragon Quest in the 3rd bullet point leaves me unclear on your own familiarity level with it as a franchise. If you haven't yet played one, I would highly, highly recommend DQXI to basically anyone interested in JRPGs (except maybe those concerned about very long games), but nobody (not even Square-Enix themselves) sells it better than Tim Rogers did in this review.
The tl;dr highlight of this video that best makes the point is 23:00 to 27:09, for anyone reading this comment without time to watch the whole thing.
One more edit: the part of this video starting at 30:12 specifically touches on Chrono Trigger and is hilarious in the context of this thread.
Yes I'm spoiler tagging for a youtube video.
I haven't played DQ IV, or VII yet and it's still pretty early days in my V and VIII playthroughs. I have finished III and XI. I might actually like XI as much as CT... Feels crazy to say. On the other hand, I think saying III is equally as good as Chrono Trigger is laughable, but I "wasn't there" when it came out and did its thing. I recently finished it via the remake and quite enjoyed it, but it isn't even the same kind of JRPG with the same kind of goals as CT, I feel.
Then again, a big part of the fun of this video is the severe degree of glazing and over-exaggeration, I'm pretty sure we're not meant to take the opinion he presents in this segment that seriously.
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Comment on Microsoft's ambitious new Xbox: Your entire Xbox console library, the full power of Windows PC gaming, and no multiplayer paywall in ~games
Kawa Link ParentAbsolutely going to massively gap the price of PS6, I'm sure of it, unless Sony decides the (relative) absence of competition means its time to crank their own prices. But I think an Xbox at...Absolutely going to massively gap the price of PS6, I'm sure of it, unless Sony decides the (relative) absence of competition means its time to crank their own prices.
But I think an Xbox at $1000-$1200 like some people are thinking this means... For the hardware that might be in it, I think it could be a price that is competitive with a prebuilt PC, and including the ability to play previously owned xbox software for the users who are coming from Series S/X into this, that might be an appealing option if they don't already have a PC or were in need of an upgrade.
For the existing PC market, we'll all pretty much continue ignoring Xbox like we did the past 2 gens. Most PC gamers who ever pick up a console do it for hard-exclusives, period, and that has basically meant Nintendo or maybe Playstation.
As someone prepping a jump to linux (and have daily driven it for years as my only OS in the past, so not particularly likely to be a failed conversion story) the last thing I want would be to become more entrenched in Microsoft's ecosystem, so all the baggage it will bring to the experience will make it even less appealing, not more. The idea of a PC that is an Xbox is a PC that is burdened by Xbox.
My deck is also a launch unit and so I must've had it equally as long so I don't think the problem is necessarily one of time but rather what types of games I'm putting on it.
I've pretty much only got full controller support games on it, that aren't stretching the limits of the traditional set of controller buttons to the point that I'd reach for the PC binds for extra functions.
Like you are talking about playing very classical PC games: an MMO, an FPS, I'm guessing the transport game is like a mouse-centric sim game. The installed library on mine isn't even close to titles like that. I doubt a single title I have installed on it has FPS campaign style quick save or quick load for instance, and a lot of them are the kind of games that don't expect mixing input methods, where if I bound one of the keyboard binds, I'd get the HUD controls displays flashing keyboard controls when I press one until I press a controller input again - not the end of the world or anything but should illustrate the point.
There's like JRPGs, Puzzle Games, Platformers, stuff like that on my Deck. All stuff that also have console versions. I don't think I have a specifically PC-centric game installed on my deck at all.