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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
Played Cult of the Lamb this week for my roguelike podcast (episode releasing Wednesday)
I think the art and aesthetic is amazing, but the gameplay feels very disjointed for me. It's like they couldn't decide between more colony sim heavy elements or more character rpg hack and slash elements, so they tried both and neither feels that great.
The colony management parts feel super grindy and micro-management heavy. If I'm supposed to be a godlike leader, why am I cooking food for everyone? Shouldn't my followers be doing that instead?
The action rpg parts feel similarly "ok but not great". The combat feels especially button mashy and possibly too easy? I'm not really a fan of losing resources on failed runs either. At least with Loop Hero there was a risk reward element.
One of my podcast co-hosts is loving his time with it and rolled credits on Cult of the Lamb, so it will be interesting to see how the three of our opinions collide when we record the podcast tomorrow.
This is one that didn't stick with me. I'm usually a "patient gamer", but all the hype and talk around this one got me, so I picked it up. Definitely feels like it doesn't really do anything terribly interesting, even if the art style and the general aesthetic is really great.
Was sad this one didn't stick with me, because I really wanted to love it.
This reflects my exact feelings on the game. It has such a nice art style that I really want to love the game. I think the one thing that would improve my enjoyment the most would be if the different "automation" buildings you can build actually automated things more. By the end, every time I went on a run, I would have to deal with multiple corpses, vomit everywhere, etc. even though I had built the morgue, undertaker, janitor closet, etc. And shovel poop from the outhouses to poop storage. Just never reached a point where I didn't have to do the tedious manual work anymore, and because I had more cultists, the amount of work was always increasing.
Citizen Sleeper! A really cool sci-fi narrative RPG where you play as a sort of "outlaw" on a space station and do what you can to survive. The story is so, so good. Playing it for a good few hours straight yesterday and barely noticed the time go by!
Diablo 4
I finally finished the campaign this weekend. The world and art style are beautiful. The music is ok, but not memorable. The story is predictable but passable. The gameplay is.... not to my liking. Almost every single monster felt like a bullet sponge, even on World Tier 1 (the easiest mode). I rarely encountered a monster that I could down with 1 hit. The bosses were really tedious.
Now that I have finished the campaign, I feel no direct urge to get into the endgame, and I don't get particularly excited by the idea of rolling a new character for season 1. I will probably skip it.
It's so strange. I love ARPGs! I religiously played Diablo 1, 2 and 3. I put quite some hours into Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Lost Ark and Last Epoch. But Diablo 4 just doesn't seem to do it for me.
Anyone else feel like this?
100% the same feeling for me after finishing the campaign. The game is gorgeous, but that's... about all there is to it.
IMO, the level scaling is what does it in. You never really hit a point at which you truly feel powerful, at least not from what I've played so far. Every single enemy is a damage sponge, period. Every fight is reduced to just kiting a pack/the boss, spamming your basic skill while waiting for your resources to build up again so you can use your core skill once or twice, then back to basic skill spam with some dodging/mobility/buff skills thrown in on top occasionally. The combat just doesn't feel good, and the power fantasy that usually comes along with ARPGs just doesn't ever really come into play.
Granted, I haven't dumped time into grinding past the main story. I get wanting the real power to be in the endgame, so maybe that's just where they've put everything. I'd still expect to feel more powerful even as the story progresses, though. Instead, I just get a new ability every few levels. My level 50ish Rogue felt exactly the same as my level 25ish Rogue did when I picked up the last of the main abilities I needed for my build. Even in Path of Exile, a game defined by endgame grind, you still get major upgrades and boosts in power fantasy all throughout the acts.
Well then I would never play this game, that's the main point of RPGs in my opinion.
Metroid Dread was extremely popular but I really disliked the mid game because at that time an event happens that increases the level of all the enemies in the game so you can't return to early levels and enjoy kicking the butts of the early enemies. I don't know why this "feature" was ignored in the reviews.
Same here. The game has a lot of problems, but to me the biggest problem is the combat is just boring. I was playing a barbarian, and at level 80 with reasonable CDR I still had to wait for skill cooldowns, and it became a hit-and-run loop over and over after I pushed into higher nightmare dungeons, and it was just not fun. Not to mention many dungeons still forced you to walk back and forth opening doors, and it's just so boring.
In my opinion, they need to re-design combat and get rid of the generator-spender mechanism, or only do it for certain skills. They also need to fix the dungeons, minimize walking and maximize monster slaying. All dungeons should have a boss at the end, and here is where they can add some interesting mechanics for change of pace. There are many good ARPGs, I am really surprised that after decades of experiences they still don't have this down pat. Even a F2P game such as Undecember, which I put a good 2,600 hours into, has better game play loop than D4, and that's just quite sad.
Exactly me, and I haven't even gotten close to finishing the D4 campaign. I might try to do that much at least, but right now- this game has no pull for me.
Nearly every other ARPG I have played, I have put hundreds of hours into, D1-3, Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, Titan Quest. I always "get the itch" to play them. There is no itch to play with D4. I didn't even dislike my time playing it- but I didn't like it enough to feel an urge to go back to it like nearly every other ARPG I have played. This is the quickest ARPG burnout I've ever felt.
The game has a segment there from about 35-50 where your power scales are roughly the same as the monster's HP when you level up. It makes for that segment being a complete slog.
Once you hit 50 your power starts out scaling the monsters again so you start to feel powerful.
World tier 1 becomes a pushover by the time you're 55 (and have all your bonus paragon points from completing the zone rep grinds)
I finished the campaign with a Druid (werewolf, then switched to lightning) and decided to give Rogue a try for season 1. I'm enjoying the seasonal content a lot more than the campaign so far. It's a lot easier for me to hop on for 30 minutes, make some progress and hop back off, which was borderline impossible with the campaign because of how long some quests were and the frustrating choice to not save your mid-quest progress at all.
And rogue itself is so damn fun. Caltroping myself out of an encounter and then just bombarding the enemies with arrows is super satisfying. There are some pain points, but if it's anything like Druid, they'll work themselves out by level 30 or so.
But I suspect in a week or so I'll be bored of it and try necromancer, then when I get bored of that call it quits for a while. I play solo and there's only so much repetitiveness you can handle alone. I really wish they'd have a dungeon-finder type thing where you could queue up with people and run content. That'd be a lot of fun and give the game more staying power. idk how the mobile diablo had that out of the box and the real one didn't. It's clear they kind of wanted an MMOARPG, but half-assed the MMO part entirely.
It took me a couple of years to finish the campaign of Diablo 3. I always get bored at some point.
I started a season in D3 a month before D4 and was enjoying it, so I bought D4 and joined a clan. I finished the campaign last week to make sure I have it all unlocked for the season. I finished a few days early and I didn’t bother to log into eternal after.
I started with the season yesterday and it is easier to play short games, but looking at all the things I have to do to unlock level 90 of the battlepass, I’m already demotivated to continue. I guess the seasonal stuff with a deadline is not for me in this game. I do like the skin you get, not that it is very obvious what you are wearing in this game.
Like Disney Speedstorm, games where you have to grind because FOMO against a timer get dropped by me pretty fast. It’s unfortunate because I do like both games.
Back to Star Citizen I guess.
Just finished Dave the Diver. Super fun and cute game that had a lot more content than I expected (was expecting around 6 hours when I purchased, finished the game at around 35 hours). I've also been giving Marauders a shot; it's basically Tarkov in space. Pretty fun so far but it feels like playing it solo is impossible.
Can second this. Dave the Diver is lovingly made, with beautiful moments in the story arc.
also picked up dave the diver recently, it's a lot of fun and I still have yet to finish it. there's so much to do! definitely got my money's worth.
I'm probably a few chapters in, but does the game end? Or does the game allow you to continue exploring and fishing once the story elements are done?
I'm about 15 hours in and don't want the fun to end.
Once the story elements are done you are free to keep diving. Though, the game is nice enough to give you a big hint when you should start wrapping up your side quests.
This is good to hear, thanks!
Factorio: Space Exploration
Just spent like an hour or two refactoring an existing processing block I had setup for turning vitamelange bloom in to usable vitamelange products. Did it in-place, little disruption to production, and managed to increase the production capability, clean things up, made it more readable, and got rid of some redundant lines.
It was fun, just sitting there figuring out an overall plan, and chipping away one piece at a time, seeing what can be improved, then after one refactoring, seeing what else I can do now, freeing up more and more space to clean things up. Entered a nice focus zone just moving over lines of blue belts one by one, figuring out which belt balancers I need at each step, and seeing the whole thing come together and everything run smoothly. One of the best parts of Factorio to me.
I’ve just managed to snag a steam deck over the summer sale and have been playing Persona 3 portable on it. I never know if I should recommend it to anyone but to me the Persona series just hits the perfect social/dungeon crawling/turn based combat combination that I love in an rpg and I couldn’t be happier managing to sneak in 15-20 min of the game before my day starts.
I'm currently in p5R and am loving it, really want to check out 3/4 as well but man is it tough to start a game you know will be 100+ hours long, like looking a climbing a mountain from the bottom. Even exacerbated for me rn since I'm looking at another mountain to climb from the top of the one I'm already on lol.
I might just watch the anime for 4, but p3p has the option for a female protagonist and that really has me enticed to play it, since it would be nice to change up the relationship aspect of the game.
The Persona 4 anime is a great summation of the games story and vibe, and with a pretty funny version of the protagonist.
The game has a ton more fun scenes between the characters, I think more than the other games. There's a lot more time and reason to be attached to the characters that way, if that's important.
I played P3 when it first came out on consoles and I have to say that P3p changed enough for me to feel excited to explore certain links etc
Really need to finish P3P, been playing it for something like 6+ years now and I want to finish the story (even if I can't really remember it), but I'm absolutely bogged down in the upper levels of Tartarus.
Really just need to head back and grind through it, as I want to play P4G, but don't feel like I can until I finish 3, even though there's no relation.
Street Fighter 6 - Really been enjoying this one! SF6 is my second fighting game (after getting into the genre with Guilty Gear: Strive roughly a year after it's release), and I've had a good time learning the game's systems, figuring out how to use links as opposed to gatlings like I'm used to in Strive, etc. Settled on DeeJay after some fooling around initially and am currently in low Platinum. Very different experience than Strive/BlazBlue Central Fiction, but super fun so far. Will it replace Strive as my main fighting game? I'm not entirely sure yet. Being able to just hop into SF6 and play the game without fighting with the servers in addition to my opponents sure has been nice though!
Hunt: Showdown - Hoo boy. Picked this up on a whim at the end of the Steam sale after hearing some good things about it and finding myself somewhat in the mood for an FPS. I went into it fully expecting to not really enjoy the game. The genre as a whole hasn't really clicked with me in the past, and aside from Titanfall 2 (which was an absolute blast) I've largely bounced off every FPS I've tried to get into--especially "battle royale" style games.
Hunt is so damn fun. I've mostly played solo vs trios, but have also played some duos with a friend as well as the quickplay/soul survivor mode. I haven't figured out exactly what clicked this time around, but I think a major element is the slightly slower pace of the game. Playing solo is also perfectly viable, which is a huge win in my book. I've shied away from other games of this style (along with the character-based shooters like Valorant) because of the heavy emphasis on team play and coordination. I don't think it's a bad thing, it's just not my cup of tea.
Pillars of Eternity - Playing through this in anticipation of the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 release. My experience with CRPG style games has been limited to turn-based (Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous), so playing something with no turn-based option has been a nice change. Really enjoying this so far, although I've only just started out.
SF6 is sick, I'm also coming from anime fighters like Strive, BBCF and Type Lumina so I was afraid of the links at first but after getting into it I'm mad addicted.
I haven't booted up any other fighting game since it launched even though I'm definitely not dropping BBCF and and Melty. The game is just so good that I just automatically launch SF6 when I'm in the mood to mash some buttons, might be my main fighter for the foreseeable future.
Pillars of Eternity is a dope CRPG, I hope you enjoy it all the way through. If you really like it you should check out Tyranny, along with the PoE sequel ofc.
After finishing Ys VIII I was kinda in a space where I didn't want to play anything in particular, so I've gone back to playing Morrowind. It's my old stand-by, and the version of it I have is one I built from an enormous collection of mods and my own work. Across really all of 2021 I learned the construction set and set to work building what I termed The Final Loadout. Final, in the sense that this was everything I wanted, no compromise, I would patch together that which was not compatible, and I would rebalance the game according to my taste.
The result, I'm very happy to say, has achieved what I'd set out to do with it, and exists now as a game on my phone I can just load up whenever. I've shared it with a few friends too, to get feedback and make improvements.
Part of that is the ability to recruit party members, which also includes a monster or two, so I've been running around Vvardenfel with my merry band - a rat, a guar, a bonelord, and Jiub. My character, "Wiffleball Brandyfeet", is a "Sorcerer of Fortune", a battlemage of sorts. We are about to head into a dungeon I actually made myself.
The dungeon features a story centered on a group of thieves who stole a bunch of magical items from the Telvanni, which means they can all levitate and shoot arrows/spells at you. The way the dungeon is constructed, you have to make your way through a narrow, spiral corridor and come out at the bottom of a massive cave, where a gigantic mushroom tree grows.
Every time I come back to this I have a great time, because with this loadout I'm effectively playing "Morrowind 2", as it exists in my imagination. An iteration on the original that heightens a lot of what made it special to me, and tries to work against the aspects I didn't much care for. Tons of fun, the work was very enlightening, and the size of the game is such that I'm regularly seeing and doing new stuff even now.
How did you like Ys VIII? I'm in the middle of Trails to Reverie, pretty unfamiliar with the Ys series other than it being adjacent to Trails.
I really, really liked it. It did a really good job of keeping its story grounded in its characters. You do see a lot of jrpg tropes, but they're executed well enough that they can be appreciated again. Kickass soundtrack too.
Unlike trails, you can play any Ys game at any time, they don't overlap and Ys games aren't consecutive. Ys is also built more like an arcade game, they're action RPGs and as you finish up the stories you unlock options for pushing the gameplay further. Highly recommend 8 as a first time experience, it's a big step up for that series and did a whole hell of a lot right.
Hmmmm, interesting! Thank you! I feel a little better about jumping in mid-series now :)
I'm about 2/3 through Disco Elysium. It felt a little slow at first and is 99% dialog. However, the story has really kicked in and some of the revelations about the world of the game are pretty mind-blowing. Can't wait to finish a full playthrough.
Don't forget to buy a map from the bookstore, it can be a bit tedious to go forth and back several times.
Just finished Trepang Squared. Was very solid and didn't over extend its welcome, and provides a good amount of additional difficulty for those who want to take it further
Same! The final boss was tough, but it was a fun game overall, the music is awesome, big fan of the F.E.A.R. games so I loved the references. Definitely not as interesting or polished as those, but in lieu of anything from the fps bullettime genre, it was a delight
Kind of hit a lull at the moment. I was playing a lot of Battletech with the BEX mod and while I love it, with mods the game is just so... Damn... Slow... Granted, it's much faster playing on my gaming machine, but I prefer to play on my laptop or Steam Deck and don't care for streaming, so if I play on either of them without streaming, I'm left with load times in the minutes. It's not wholly terrible once you're into the game proper, but still takes on order of like 3 minutes to load into a mission on my Deck and there are legit micro pauses occasionally when big things happen.
Adore the game, but I think it was built in Unity, which is it's fatal flaw.
Otherwise, I've been putting time here and there into Dragon Warrior 3 on Gameboy, which I've been enjoying greatly. I'm emulating on my Miyoo Mini, so it's great to play one handed and set on fast forward to get through some of the grindier stuff.
But I'm kind of in a lull with both games and while I'm playing them here and there, I'm kind of wanting to play something else, but not really having a lust for anything. I might just look for a new book instead...
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
It's so hard! I have no idea how people know so much about the game but when you beat Yog Dweeza and make it out you feel like a million bucks!
This is the only roguelike I've played that actually feels, to me, like playing the original Rogue (but with modern quality-of-life features). It really hits a sweet spot in my opinion. It feels so satisfying to gradually learn more about the game, and make each attempt that much more promising because of the strategies you've worked out on your own. I think this is one of those games in which it's best if you go in blind and learn on your own how to make the most of what you get, and leave looking at guides for later when you've already got a handle on things. Knowing everything right away is against the point!
This is the first recommendation for any "rogue-like" game where it was actually compared to the original. My interest is now piqued.
It's free on Android (the only IAP is an optional donate button, nothing that affects gameplay) and on itch.io, and $10 on Steam or GOG, so the barrier to entry is pretty low. I played it happily on mobile for a long time before the PC version came out, at which point I bought both it and the original Pixel Dungeon (which SPD is a fork of) -- I figured it was worth it to throw $5 at the original creator as well.
I've been playing this game so much lately but yes, everytime you hit a milestone you feel so good. My greatest complaint is the same as any roguelike, I get tired of repeating the first section, but that just comes with the territory!
I think they've done a good job of making things change enough that even in the first few levels you feel like you are making decisions that will affect you at level 25.
I just beat it with Mage, and did so with Huntress earlier this week. If you have unlimited, or virtually unlimited ranged attacks, it seems to become much easier (or maybe I just naturally take to the Warden's play style). Also, read the wiki. Kind of like a less extreme Noita, it rewards knowledge. Also, you can get creative with things, like throwing a Potion of Frost at a bunch of Mystery Meat to get them all to freeze at once.
You're right about victory feeling good though!
I try and get good wands, but oh man! It's so hard to know all the little things! But that's what makes it fun!!
I got Tunic during the most recent Steam sale, and it's really good. I went in with no spoilers besides
Game mechanics spoilers
the NES style instruction booklet being in-game as a collectible, one page at a time, and most of the in-game text being a fake language you can't read.A sorta mild spoiler
While it's not a "real" language, it is a language and it can be read. That said it's not at all required to complete the game at any level, and it's not really intended that most people would translate it.To be clear, I finished everything without doing so.
Been playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the umpeenth time. It's heresy for some veterans, but it's probably my favourite FE. Can't get enough of the world and characters. Meant to do a no recruit rp friendly GD run no NG+ features, but then expanded that to recruiting characters that had supports with Claude (Petra, Annette, Ingrid, Balthus). Then also recruited the rest of the Ashen Wolves, because it made sense in the story. Every character must have a unique class, no repeats. So only Seteth is lucky enough to be a Wyverd Lord, because I legitimately have no idea what else to do with him.
Concurrently also playing World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore. Hardcore is the first time I've had fun. With WoW in over 6 years. Bought a month's sub with friends, but we play inconsistently, so I'll probably go back to Turtle WoW at the end of the month.
I love three houses! I was always fascinated with the Fire Emblem series but I found them intimidating for some reason. Three Houses was intimidating too but it finally clicked on my third attempt at it at the beginning of the year. I was able to sink like 250 hours into it before becoming a dad. I'm excited to try the other Fire Emblem games when I have more free time.
Three Houses is probably the game I would recommend to any newcomer. It's different than most Fire Emblem, but it's also the game most likely to turn someone into a fan, since the world and cast are so enjoyable!
If you're looking for recommendations, Fire Emblem Awakening is the game that saved the series, and I think it holds up pretty well even to this day.
On having kids, I sympathise. My daughter is two and a half and I'm having more and more free time to myself again as she goes to preschool or with grandparents, so I'm happy that I'm able to play more demanding games again!
I had originally written an essay for my comment but decided against it, not only to preserve the magic and a little bit of the mystique of some of the games, since I do believe going into them blind is optimal, but also to make this an easier read :)
The first game I picked up months ago was Hollow Knight, and even after completing it pretty quickly (for a noob, that is), I still find myself going back to fight the same bosses and explore the same beautiful world I came to love during my playthrough. It really is a perfect game for me, with phenomenal music, a dense world decorated by beautiful art, and what I consider to be a near-perfect combat system.
The second game I ever picked up was Hades, and just like HK, I still go back often for another escape attempt. Similarly to HK, Hades also sports music, art, and a combat system that never gets old, but where Hades shines is that it always has something new to offer, as players with hundreds of hours in the game say that they still get new dialogue (I, myself, only have about 72 hours, but can also attest to this experience). Pair this with solid, character-driven plot, and players are in for a spectacular experience. I highly recommend checking this out since it really does have excellent replayability.
The third game I ever purchased was Batman: Arkham City, a solid throwback to when I was younger and happier. My goodness, this game holds up exceptionally well! I mean, seriously! My standards just might be trash, but for my 2019 base model MacBook Pro to run this at 30 FPS with little to no jitter is mind-boggling, especially when the graphics are so sharp, the world is so dense, and the combat is SO fun. Yes, it can get quite button-mashy, but only if you want it to. This game allows the player to dictate their preferred type of combat method, save for a few instances, and rewards the player for being more creative, say with using stealth, or more gadgets. There is also a particular boss that is still talked about today for being incredibly innovative—I won’t spoil it, but that boss fight alone is worth checking this out for, especially given that it's quite cheap now and goes on sale often. I’m currently on my 6th playthrough and continuing to find more Easter eggs and side missions.
Other than that, I don’t have much to offer. I’m struggling through a whole host of games right now, but not with the same intensity or motivation as the aforementioned ones. These include The Long Dark, Subnautica, Dead Cells, Blasphemous, Celeste, Borderlands 2, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Vampire Survivors, and Life is Strange.
I haven’t played many of these consistently, but I’ll rapid-fire some thoughts on each of them.
TLD: Incredibly fun, but it is very easy to get lost if you are new. I would highly recommend watching some YouTube videos beforehand to familiarize yourself with a few strategies. It also makes dying less frustrating once you realize that dying is inevitable and that each time you do so, it helps you get better.
Subnautica: I played this partially with a relative but haven’t been able to progress due to anxiety whenever I start playing. The story so far has been solid, and the visuals have been decent but have been inconsistent on my potato of a laptop. Gameplay is very satisfying since nothing is really handed to you and is very self-directed, which is enjoyable when done right.
Dead Cells: I finished this quite easily on my phone a decent amount of time ago, so I don’t remember much, probably because I rushed it, but the motion is impossibly smooth, and the music helps the player get into a semi-Metal Gear Rising mindset of "offense is the best defense" and motivates you to tear through enemies at a rapid rate.
Blasphemous: I loved the start of this game but find the mouse and keyboard controls far too difficult for me to get accustomed to; I might need to get a controller. Otherwise, a solid game with a very unique setting and aesthetic, and I am very much looking forward to what it holds in store.
Celeste: Same as Blasphemous, my fingers just don’t move correctly; I might need a controller. Even though I’ve almost completed the game, it’s simply too difficult at this point. The vibe of the story is great, the character development is far beyond what I expected, and I’m itching to get back to it.
Borderlands 2: My computer can’t run this very well, so until now, I’ve been stuck at a small junction and can’t do much. I’ve also realized that this game has co-op, so I might try that since I’m not very good at first-person shooters.
Life is Strange: Pretty decent; it might have been a bit overhyped, but I have enjoy the granular controls and how the story feels quite believable thus far
20 Minutes Until Dawn and Vampire Survivors: Very similar games with small discrepancies VS is very retro-themed and arcade-like, while 20 Min is more modern, with Lovecraftian monsters that make a very smooth-running game all the more fun.
I like Vampire Survivors a lot and love a lot of the clones too.
20 Minutes Until Dawn is even more fun than Vampire Survivors in my book! I love it. You should check out Boneraiser Minions too if you want another quality Survivors-like game. Love its aesthetics and you get to play as a necromancer!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944570/Boneraiser_Minions/
Thanks so much for the recommendation! Unfortunately, I'm currently using a mac, so this'll go on the wishlist until I either get a Windows machine or run a VM through Linux. I agree with you by the way, I ended up grinding out the rest of 20 Min just this afternoon, I guess writing my original comment helped get me back into it. I will say though, Vampire Survivors does have more DLCs as far as I've seen, so that could be something to keep an eye on.
Picked up Elden Ring on Steam Summer Sale and enjoying it a lot.
The feeling of unknown and mysterious atmosphere really stand out in the world of Assasin Creeds hand-holding and such.
It's my first fromsoft game, so I was a bit intimidated at first, but once you get used to controls it actually not that difficult, rather you can choose your own difficulty, since you can always go back to exploration, level a bit, get some upgrades, come back and demolish the boss you've been struggling on. Summons system clearly trivializes some of the bosses, so I try to avoid it, unless I'm hard-stuck.
In any case I'm only 20 hours in, seemingly not even half-way done, but excited to finish it. Definitely on of the better games of 2020s.
I have 87 hours on my main character, and I haven't even beat the game yet. 20 hours in, you might not even be a fifth of the way done lol!
I'm glad you're enjoying it. It's in my top 5 personal favorite games of all time.
I'm in the endgame of my first playthrough. In my 35 years of gaming it's been one of the best overall experiences I've had, so it makes sense that I'm 160 hours in lol. I did fall into the trap of looking things up on fextralife due to my completionist nature but I'm trying to scale that back so I can fully enjoy the rest of it.
The difficulty reputation of FromSoft's game repertoire is largely unwarranted and does more harm than good. It's more about patience, learning, and understanding, than it is about being difficult. Although don't get me wrong, it's challenging and it's supposed to be but the idea is that there's a solution to every challenge presented to you. Don't feel afraid to experiment.
Elden Ring has the most "lol bullshit" moments out of all of them but for the most part still manages to be fair. There aren't many games that give that immense feeling of victory after a hard-fought battle and Souls games do it consistently.
The first half of the game is the most polished and the starter area is so incredibly well crafted that it looks absurd how much content there actually is. The latter half (in all of their games) suffer a bit from time crunch and while in no means bad, they're just not as good.
Oh and don't feel bad about using a guide for any of the quests, there's a very small chance you'll finish any one of them if you don't. Steer clear of content guides, but quest guides are fair game.
Jedi Survivor: Picked this up at launch and the performance was terrible. Shelved it until recently as there's been some performance related patches. It still has issues, but it's good enough. I really enjoyed Fallen Order and Survivor has been a great expansion of the role of Cal Kestis in the Star Wars universe. Worlds are impressive scale and have good details. There's enough gameplay mechanics introduced to you over the course of the game to keep it interesting as well, improv8ng over the last game. Story has been fun. I'm playing on Jedi Master and it's really hard, but expected. Trying to beat Rayvis currently.
I've been playing a step below Master and it's still very hard. The Rayvis fight took me about 90 minutes to clear and I don't think that's even the hardest fight in the game (though it took me the longest because I kept missing parries).
How do you feel about the different stances? I think the only one I haven't used very much of is the dual wield, which is sad because in most games where it's an option, I love playing with two lightsabers.
My main wish is that you were able to swap between the five at any point, rather than setting a "loadout" of two at a meditation point.
It’s hard to want to try other stances. Dual wield I really liked because I could cancel the attacks into a parry.
New game plus is disappointing because it strips a bunch of abilities to keep the sequence gates in place.
I felt really comfortable going single blade + Crossguard for most of the time, mixing in the doublebladed when I know a big group is coming or lots of blasters, and occasionally throwing in the blaster as a secondary. The blaster was actually how I beat Rayvis so I could keep distance on him and easily dodge most of his long range attacks.
I just could never find a good time to mix in the dual wield. Part of it is probably being uncomfortable with the timing on the auto parry.
I didn’t use the auto-parry much. Only if I knew an enemy was about to do a single strike.
I'm headed into the last encounter in Jedi: Survivor (will hold off on story-specific spoilers). I'm not someone who usually enjoys Souls-like games, so liking Jedi: Fallen Order was more based on story than the combat, but I also think in terms of the genre, FO was fairly easy.
Survivor, to me, is much harder. I've gotten stuck on several bosses, story-specific bosses (re: required), where I never really did in FO, except in the climax, and even then it was not nearly as challenging. Survivor seems a lot more punishing if you mis-read your opponent's attack or mistime a parry or even if you get yourself backed into a corner. I've been extremely frustrated at points and even though I accidentally spoiled myself for a plot point toward the end, I would still say I've enjoyed myself. Performance gets a bit choppy at times but I haven't had anything game breaking, and have had no crashes.
A couple things that disappoint me: Open-world style in general is a net negative in most games, and that's true here. There's a big world, especially on the planet where you spend most of your time, but a lot of times it's just there to navigate through. There are some roaming enemies but usually I've just been annoyed by them and have fast-traveled when given the option.
And, as a result (at least, I think), there aren't that many planets you get to see. Honestly, there's basically two planets. You open on one planet which is your tutorial planet, and then the game "opens up" by sending you to the open-world planet where you spend a majority of the game. There's another planet you travel to, and some other smaller destinations, but usually the story goes: Open World Planet, Secondary Planet to learn new info, travel back to Open World Planet to use that new info, and then repeat.
Story is on par with FO, which was its strength, in my opinion. Both games feel very much like worthy entries into the SW canon, but I'm dying for a return to action/adventure stories like Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy.
Coral Island. I needed a break from Diablo 4 and wanted something I could just chill with. Everyone compared it to Stardew Valley, a game that I somehow could just not get into. With CI, it's clear how much the love and effort have gone into the game and I'm enjoying it.
I tend to play two games at a time, one more intensive and one more relaxed for that 30 minute session towards the end of the day.
I've just picked up Cross Code for my new longer form game. It's too early yet to make many claims, but it definitely has potential. It has excellent SNES RPG vibes so far. I've enjoyed the time I've played it, but that's only an hour or two, I've just passed beyond where the demo ends.
My relaxing game is Poly Bridge 2. Maybe it needs no introduction, but that is a fantastic game. You just build bridges and watch those silly cars drive around. It's great fun.
Cross Code is a really nice game that I don't see talked about often. I like the story and the combat feels super smooth while having a really nice progression. You can do some pretty cool shit when you start unlocking more of the tools.
Today is the first day I'm going to really dedicate some time to it. I'm looking forward to checking it out. It's at the recommendation of a friend who hasn't done me wrong yet.
Dredge - a great, short game I can play in short bursts on my Deck before bed. Wrapped it up in a few hours and enjoyed it.
Xenoblade 3 DLC - I always enjoy the DLCs a little more than the main game for the series, this one being no exception, however my partner has been playing Crash Team Racing on my Switch leaving this one on hold.
Red Dead 2 - it's a good game but it's a long one. Every time I boot it up, I usually just go hunt or fish. Hence picking up Dredge after all. I wanna beat it but I was playing it and Xenoblade 3 at the same time.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 - was gifted Like a Dragon but I've had 2 on the shelf for a bit. It's one of those games I never quite feel comfortable playing when kids or significant others are watching, never know when I'm gonna stumble into a bondage side quest. Add in having to read subtitles and I've got to be in the mood. Well, due to having LAD, now I've gotta get through 2-6!
Deep Rock Galactic - essentially always there as a background game alongside Forza Horizon 5. If I feel like shooting or driving, it's there.
I love the Yakuza series and I was momentary confused as to why you did not want to play it in front of your significant other. Then I remembered the weird sidequests have. To which Yakuza Kiwami had one where you go to a shady ass bar with a attractive women, with the catch being she and her goons were trying to drug you to take your money. Or the one in Kiwami where you help a dominatrix being more dominate and less timid (which is the one that you might be referring to). Or the time in Yakuza 0 that you help a parody of Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg shoot a music video, in which you protect Jackson's stand in from zombie attacks. Some of the sidequests are very much different in tone compared to the main story, which makes them even more fun to do and makes the games a lot more enjoyable.
Yeah, pretty much called it on all of those.
I can appreciate the humor of the big, burly man engaging in phone... 'conversations' with women but I really don't feel like explaining why that's funny to me.
Since Good Wood Festival of Speed has been happening, I've been practising some Assetto Corsa lately but before that it was just European truck simulator after playing some American one. Very enjoyable sims. I suggest people try them all out but not all at once.
Got a couple friends into Monster Hunter Rise recently. They had never played a Monster Hunter game, but Rise has crossplay between Xbox and Windows so we tried it out. My first MH game was World, so I'm by no means a veteran, but I quickly fell in love with the formula.
Rise gives you some pretty strong gear right out of the gate, likely to shepherd new players through the main story quickly so they can be sold the DLC, but I think it had an adverse effect. Because this gear was so good, you aren't incentivized to explore different variants of weapons and armor, so my friends were just jumping in, facerolling monsters, amd repeating. They agreed that the monsters were super cool, but it seemed like they were iffy on the formula.
It wasn't until about 10 hours in where the armor starts to wane and you're encouraged to explore other options. Thankfully they're a lot more interested now.
1000+ hours in and 92% achievement completion here in MHR. I never thought the MH universe was something I'd get into, but the gameplay loop is just too good. After sinking 600+ hours in my first MH (World) I knew I was going to stick around for the later games.
The game's much better with friends!
I've been playing MH since freedom unite on the PSP, and boy life was harder back then. Nothing was taken for granted, and in my opinion that made a beautiful game were you had to farm, hunt, memorize combinations, and overall have a great time.
Newer games, as I see it, had to be made easier to appeal to western markets, and that's sad but there is now a huge amount of players online and that's really cool.
Yea, as we were playing I was kinda hesitantly telling my friends we probably shouldn't be using this gear, but they're not exactly hard-core about that kind of stuff and we were having fun so I thought eh whatever.
Stronghold HD for me I saw that they had announced the definitive edition and decided I'd finally beat the campaign on Very Hard which is something I've slowly been poking away at for the last year or so. I'm stuck on Level 9 right now and actually beat it on Normal last night but it wasn't satisfactory so I'll keep on trying and see if I can get through it. I've heard it can be kinda cheesy in the later levels so I may have to look up some strategies to beat it..
Stronghold is great. Somewhere in 2021, I started it after seeing Mandalore's video on it and really loved it. Unfortunately, I put HD down at some point deep into the game and now I'll be damned if I can remember how to actually play the game, especially that I stopped on some mission that has some more involved mechanics (sieging a castle).
I wish you luck if you ever take the plunge back in! I've played it on and off since I was a kid and always enjoyed it. Mandalore's review of it was fantastic and it made me remember I had picked up a copy on GoG. I'd like to get crusader eventually, but one very slow step at a time.
I find with my own poor tactics I usually need more troops than I think I do for seiges.
Arknights
I don't usually play mobile games, much less a gacha game, but the tower defense gameplay made me curious. It acts more like a puzzle on what strategy you can use with your present units rather than forcing you to have a "must have" unit. People are able to make weird gameplay due to its flexibility.
But in all honesty, I'm staying because of the music. They can range from disney princess songs to metal rock. Some of my favorites:
X3-Farnhams Legacy from Egosoft.
I've been playing their 4x space sims since about 1998, and jumping back in is always kind of a warm, fuzzy feeling for me. This one is the best in the series for me, even though the engine is from around 2007 or so. You can play it any way you want to, follow the story or not. It's a true sandbox.
I have been playing Halls of Torment! I love survivor-style games and this felt really good. Some standouts I’ve played are Brotato and Vampire Survivor.
I’ve been into games that let me check out and be mindless for a few minutes!
My favorite survivor-like games is Boneraiser Minions. You play as a necromancer. I love it to bits.
Halls of Torment is really high on my list of games to play thought. That Diablo aesthetic just looks so good.
It’s the aesthetic that drew me to it! I love Boneraiser Minions! The art style and music are awesome! Thanks!
Yakuza 0
Just finished Cyberpunk 2077 and I am on an open world/immersive sim kick. I stopped playing in ‘00 but picked it up again on a whim. It is a fun game!
A bit more straightforward in terms of gameplay but it has enough variety in gameplay and side quests to keep my interest. With a 5/10 being a “true” average game I’d give it a 6/10!
Got some pretty amazing games during the Steam Summer Sale, here's the few I've fallen in love with and spent more time than I expected.
Gloomhaven - had this one wishlisted for the longest time, finally had a reason to get it when a buddy thought it'd be a great co-op experience (and that it was one of the top tabletop games around). If you enjoy being in pain and challenging yourself to the high heavens - this is the game. The satisfaction and fulfillment from finishing scenarios is beautiful. Tough as heck.
Dave the Diver - over a million downloads in under a month from release? This seemingly sleeper hit from a relatively unknown Korean developer has captured me, and taken a lot of my time. Highly recommended for all age ranges, very fun exploring and collecting fishes, with a fantastic story to boot!
Halls of Torment - Vampire Survivors had a baby with Diablo! Similar fantasy theme to Diablo with the game elements of VS, this Early Access game incorporates an RPG/equipment system that blends well with the roguelite survival mechanic. Very good right now even as an EA, and it can only get better as the game reaches final release.
Stacklands - developer Sokpop has popularized this game style, a card merging survival roguelite. Pirated this one years before to see what the buzz was about, finally bought it as the game deserves support. They've fixed controller support since I last played and added a ton more content as well. Highly enjoyable, great for all age ranges too.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - funny as heck RPG (?), playtime is under an hour but so far it's been great. From what I've played this is also an easy recommendation. Crazy characters, incredible situations, and a turnip that refuses to abide by the law!
All of these games (except Gloomhaven!) have received Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam. I would also rate Gloomhaven as OP, it's just too difficult for some people to consider "enjoyable". But if you're interested in these types of games - I highly recommend you try out every one on my list.
My experience with a co-op campaign of Gloomhaven is you have to turn down the difficulty level and be willing to forgive some of the confusing UI/UX stuff with it that can be easily dismissed (or never be a problem) in the board game version.
That said, for all the calculations it does for you and the movement of enemies, etc it's superior to the tabletop version in my opinion.
I've been playing Remnant: From the Ashes, currently at around 180 hours. The combat is super fun, and I've been really enjoying it. Surprised I had not heard of this game until recently due to Remnant 2.
I tend to love hard, slow games that grow on you. Expecially if have strong atmosphere and allow me to explore.
So I am playing The Long Dark (i have 180 hours on that) and trying to survive once again after a pack of timberwolves ate me last time.
And I am playing Below. I really love this game... u go down, through different level and deeper u go harder and weirder it gets. And u start to really fear that a misstep could easily end your run... plus it is the perfect lovecraftian game. The only regret is the protagonist is so tiny i wish i could play on a 65' TV :)
I'm also playing TLD. Again. I've been on-and-off since I got it in mid 2016... yeah, Hinterland has a lot of bug squashing to do with the latest updates, but it's my always come-back-to sort of game. It got me through the stress of finishing my degree while working full time overnights; enough challenge to keep me engaged, but enough chill to help me unwind!
more or less like me, it's a kind of confort vg for me.
When summer strikes i don't play that much, and it also happened i forget about it for months. Then... with autumn i desire to get lost in its white fields again. Sometimes i just wander around trying to survive as much as i can and watch the aurora in some cool location dreaming of going in places like those, one day :)
Final Fantasy XVI
The combat is great. Everything else is an interesting mix of bad to meh.
Game is tediously slow to start. Characters are absolute cliches. Side missions are incredibly boring. You get weirdly designed stuff, like loot pickups in the world are 6 gold? The game is super linear but sometimes it wants to be open world.
It’s just so odd to me so much of the game is hot garbage compared to the combat.
You can tell the people that produced ff14 also did this one and were too scared to try something new.
It's like they had a cool story to tell and a successful system and they were like welp take that system, make it single player and stretch the story out. How should we fill in the rest of world and pad the game play? No idea. Just make sure it's tedious and unrewarding
And while with ff13, the beginning feels like you had missed something like there was something that was released before the game released. And parts of me want to start that one again to see if it does explain how the fuck Lighting gets there in the first place, but other parts of me don't. And the autobattling combat was also a major turn off, like they wanted to do real time combat like in 14, 15 and 16, but decided no. So 13 for me had two major things working against it.
But this is modern Square that we are talking about, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've been trying to play it without wanting it to be a FF game. I like the world, and I actually have been enjoying the combat. But it is very cliche and just feels like so many bad design decisions and misses. It feels so dated having played other modern AAA games. I can't tell if it's like old-school JRPG cliche that they are purposely trying to keep in there for nostalgia's sake.
It’s like they decided to go all in on the combat during development and added all the dumb side quests and awful exploration after the fact. It’s the only explanation I can think of for Clive being barely able to jump one foot off the ground in the open world, but can hurl himself over a house in a cut scene like it’s nothing.
Cid’s VA and lines are also a cut above the rest. There’s a line where he makes fun of Clive’s animation for kicking down a fence. It’s like his lines were written after everyone else’s.
Getting back into Kitty Death Room. It's a puzzle platformer by Raiyumi. It's super difficult. If you want to explore his work, I would recommend you first check out Cat Bird - it's available on ios and android. If you like the base gameplay, I highly suggest purchasing the in-app-purchase to remove ads; it will improve your experience of the game tremendously.
Mechabellum has given me a reprieve from Hyrule this week. It’s an auto-battler that you can pick up pretty easily and doesn’t really have an unbeatable meta yet. I don’t really play many multiplayer games but each match has enough moving variables to keep things interesting for me. It’s still in early access but the UI is very satisfying and readable and the unit customization and graphics are exceptional. The wins feel earned and the losses feel devastating when you realize your mistakes too late.
I'm replaying Night in the woods, I think it's a contemporary masterpiece that in the future will be considered next to Silent Hill 2.
Not in the sense that it revolutionized gameplay or anything technical, but how they were able to create something with such narrative depth while looking like a simple fun indie game a the same time. Visually it's lovely too.
Gameplaywise it could be considered a pretty basic platformer(because it has some verticality) that incorporates other dynamics, like rythm, exploration and small doses of action.
After 9 months, I finally finished the campaign for last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. The game was fine, but I was playing it to finish it more than I enjoyed it. However, I was playing in veteran difficulty so that’s another reason I didn’t like it as much.
Still playing and enjoying the multiplayer as well. It’s a solid game, but I like the 2019 remake of Modern Warfare better.
Been playing Path of Exile for the last few weeks with my brother. We tend to play every Monday night for 2-3 hours, it's mostly just a good way to chat over the phone and catch up. I do think playing it in long but infrequent bursts has been the right way to do it for me and has kept me from just burning out on the game and getting bored after a week or two.
Overall it's a lot of fun though, it's my first game of this type that I've played. The skill tree is massive and combined with the large number of spells, skills, and equipment plus the different classes it feels like my character really is my own rather than picking from one of a few different choices. I've gone for a sort of summoner glass cannon witch build, just spamming raise skeletons and flaming heads and can do honestly ludicrous amounts of damage with no skill. Which is how I want to play tbh. I find fighting gets boring so just being able to summon things to fight while I explore and loot has been nice.
I'll be honest and say I haven't really followed any if the story because we've just skipped through all of that so as not to interrupt our chatting but it seems like it's well written from what I haven't skipped. The gameplay core loop is a lot of fun, the enemies have enough variety to stay engaging. My only real complaint is at times it's felt too easy. I even actively tried not to farm and get over leveled but even still it ended up with us just easily beating everything. We had to speed run one a few dungeons without doing any unnecessary fighting to sort of get the monsters back in tune so there was a challenge.
I have been revisting old RTW games. Rise of Legends, which is a fantastic game. Think steampunk conquistadors vs arabian inspired fantasy faction with dragons vs aztec alien tech faction. It's a really good RTS with some cool features. Campaign is really good. The other game is Dawn of War with the Unification mod. It's still one of the best RTS out there, especially if you like Warhammer 40k. I love playing Imperial Guard or Krieg, and just throw an endless stream of men towards the enemy, while my artillery pound the enemies front line into a fine paste.
After some mentions on Tildes I found a server for the old MMO Star Wars Galaxies. There is a fairly thriving scene of different servers running SWG (both pre-CU and pre-NGE). The server I chose has the content of NGE but the playstyle of the Combat Upgrade.
It is scratching my itch for all the things that made SWG one of the richest MMOs I ever played.
As a short summary: the skill system was amazing. You had 250 points to spend in 23 different classes and you could mix and match as your 250 points allowed. You could be a Combat Medic/Dancer/Sniper/Creature Handler if you wanted. Rarely will you ever see two people with the exact same training (maybe ultra high-end meta builds)
Pretty much everything in the game is player crafted (houses, armor, weapons, vehicles, resource harvesters, droids, even pets and combat pets) using materials that have 6 different stats. Meats with high Flavor stat might be better for a Chef than a Medic, for example. Resources rotate in and out randomly. So this super uber meat highly desired by chefs could be replaced with something really bad or neutral to chefs next week but highly sought after by medics.
I just broke 100 hours in Neon Chrome on PS4/5 and just got the Arena DLC on sale. Something about this cyberpunk dystopia top-down twin-stick shooter has me hooked - I keep going back to it.
This was my replacement for Dead Nation when it didn’t make the jump to PS4. I’m still recovering from the disappointment tbh.
I'm playing FFIX and I am not enjoying it so much. People seems to love it but I see it as bland. Even FFV had more life.
I'm still getting it to the very end. The Chocobo treasure hunt is kind fun at least.
I'm with you on this one. I got it on release all those years ago and felt the same way. I think it was probably the weakest entry in the series until XIII.
I think some of the affection people feel for it comes from context: at the time of its development there was a feeling that Final Fantasy had strayed a bit too far from its roots. They'd hit it out of the park with their transition to 3D with VII, but VIII rubbed some fans the wrong way with its emphasis on a more cinematic presentation and frankly nonsensical plot. And both of those games' settings were a far cry from the traditional swords and sorcery fantasy milieus of the early entries in the series.
In my opinion, Square focused on the wrong elements to appease the fans of the series. They put far too much stock in window dressing and kind of ignored more important elements. I know a lot of people really enjoy the skill system with the gems or whatever, but to me it lacks the ability to develop the crazy synergies possible with VII's materia system, and doesn't allow the sort of deep tactical gameplay that they would implement in X & XII. The characters are certainly familiar–to the point of cliche sometimes–but none of them are terribly interesting or affecting, at least to me. They're just kind of comfy cardboard cutouts.
I've tried finishing IX a few times, but I always end up giving up when I realize that plodding on feels like a chore.
I've been playing quite a few games:
TemTem: A Pokemonesque game that's moderately harder with lots of quality of life changes:
Unfortunately the quality of life changes don't cancel out its big problems:
Yakuza: Like a Dragon: which features surprisingly satisfying turn based combat and an interesting (albeit very Japanese) storyline. It has lots of mini games and many of them are a lot of fun. I'm still working through this game.
Murder by Numbers: A cross between the investigation phase of Phoenix Wright and sudoku with characters that feel a lot like the ones in Phoenix Wright. I picked this up free yesterday on Epic Games and plan to keep playing it.
Ordinary Puzzles: A very simple, free iOS puzzle game that feels really good with every puzzle you solve. I saw this recommended on Tildes and keep coming back to it when I have five minutes spare.
Demons Roots
Continuing from last week's post. The ending gave me hope, tore my heart out, and then gently placed it back with a warm hug. After all the suffering everyone goes through, after all the party's efforts into reclaiming their world, there is satisfaction, ugliness. and finally peace. I'm glad to have played it, though also a little sad because I had discovered it from r/ gamedeals and r/ gamedealsmeta and I'm not going back to Reddit, so I don't know where else to find hidden gems aside from Steam250. People just gravitate towards talking about the big stuff, y'know? I guess I do have the rest of my backlog to play through.
So once more, it's a Hentai JRPG, but with a damn fine story and a PG-13 mode in the options.
Themes - Prejudice, misinformation, rumors, and propaganda - Spoilers for everything
The very first scene is a fairy tale about demons told to children, how weak and pathetic they were after the Demon Lord's defeat with pets capable of defeating them and one specific demon dying by thrown poop. As soon as Deathpolca hears of that, she corrects it: those were newborn demons who dared venture to the surface to ask for peace, and they were mercilessly slain by fearmongering and the White Phantoms. That sets up the rest of the game: people judging by their preconceived notions rather than what's in front of their eyes.
After the initial bloody unprovoked invasion, the demons are given absolute orders by Polca to not mistreat any humans under their territory and life goes back to normal aside from slaves now being treated fairly. Despite this, the Empire's propaganda and false flag operations ensure that countless people are unable to let go of their manufactured hate stemming from their great-great-great(x30) ancestors.
Many of the party members suffer from being judged as well, and not even Polca is free of making wrong assumptions:
Not to leave them out, but Diana is an isekai'd, alcoholic FBI agent and Naje is a comfortably straight, crossdressing prince. I think Polca has accepted all the lovable weirdos with her by this point.After sleeping on it, they do deserve more nuance than that.And that's where the ending comes in.
Ultimately, it's not enough to beat the root of all suffering on the continent or achieve world domination. A human assassin confronts Polca after the climax and shows her the history book from the future: it keeps changing in response to her actions, but the results keep showing the annihilation of demons and humans as long as she's alive. She kept the peace as best she could, but resentment from both sides bubbled up into mutually assured destruction. Whether the future can be changed again is irrelevant because despite the assassin's utmost respect for Polca, she believes that the information from the future and the hatred between species is inevitable; that is why she already coordinated with the resistance to attack demonkind during the assassination. As Lily places herself and Polca into a healing stasis, a war log scrolls up the screen showing the second war between demons and humans with the demons being annihilated in 948, 12 years earlier than the first projection of demons being defeated in 960. Through their efforts, slavery has been abolished but the goal of freeing demonkind has ended in ruins.
Except...
Centuries later, Polca awakens and is greeted by the surviving demons and the descendants of the party members who protected them. Her efforts haven't gone unrewarded; her story of liberation and sacrifice was passed down for generations as a lesson in equality and coexistence. It took time, but peace became a reality, unmarred by prophecy or the sins of the past.
Loneliness is also a theme, except I didn't catch that like a dumbass until they kept repeating the word for certain people's backstories. Anywho, the party members were all alone before, but found each other, the end.
As far as gameplay, battles with standard mobs have a bit too much HP and all the party members officially join at level 1. Didn't really go hunting for hidden items or obtain the OP ones from the R18 zone, so that may have affected my experience. Otherwise it's standard JRPG combat. There is a story difficulty that also unlocks all the scenes upon completion, but regular mode enables in-game achievements and New Game+.
It's also a game about beating the absolute shit out of corrupt old bastards and their loyal stooges who force suffering upon others for personal gain, so that's a plus.
Light Fairytale - Episode 1
It's not often I can say I'm dropping a 4 hour game, but here we are. It feels like someone only had a surface-level understanding of Final Fantasy VII, copied everything, and then changed their homework enough to make the characters and plot utterly generic.
They also apparently have no understanding of how to make an RPG; the only two attacks the party knows is basic attack and Materia Thunder and the mage can only cast it 4-5 times before running out of MP. It just honestly doesn't feel good to play.
Neon Sundown
This is a mindless podcast game, but it does have me thinking about the difference between horde twin-stick shooters and Survivor-like games where you can aim because I like the former more than the latter.
The design between skill and consistency vs RNG and knowing synergy paths? Not to say there aren't elements of both, just that games in the Survivor genre generally have more game-specific knowledge checks for item combinations and builds. Horde twin-stick shooters do have character differences, but it's usually about building up your ideal weapon and stats whereas Survivor-likes are all about the characters being different and forcing the right build to match them.
Survivor games also have a trend towards including meta-progression; this I'm not sure if it's because Vampire Survivors did it or if it's a modern trend as many roguelites also include similar meta-trees and boosts. I've read many a comment about the feeling of progression or not having a wasted run, but I grew up in the SNES/Genesis era where you just turn the console on and get good so it's always an alien feeling to be forced to grind to in order to play the actual game and not be stuck at noodle damage/HP/movement speed, especially if there are leaderboards that ask you to grind to the max.
I suppose the timer is more prominent in Survivor games? It's important in both genres to measure your power against the difficulty curve and to know when mini-bosses come in, but Survivor games generally aim for a specific time to end the game while horde twin-stick shooters let you go as long as you can.
Thinking about it, the Risk of Rain series is also about having game knowledge to gather the right items and become an unkillable god for how many hours you can tolerate. Then again, I always activate Glass+Command artifacts for infinite HP infusion, so what do I know?
I'm chipping away at Hyper Light Drifter for the first time. Love the games aesthetic a lot. I've unlocked the fifth path and am just wrapping things up before I go to what I think is the final area. The game was a lot shorter than I had anticipated though and I'm not crazy about the chain-dash mechanic.