What Are You Playing?

[Dar_Klink]

I finished Final Fantasy XVI ...

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I just finished it the other day and while there were some gripes I had here and there I loved the experience. I'd say my expectations were exceeded in regards to the music, atmosphere, worldbuilding, and boss fight presentation and they were met when it came to the story, characters, and the action gameplay.

Gameplay I say only because of the sidequests being such a mixed bag as you said. The game needed some minigames or some variety to the formula for the amount of sidequests they give you, but the stories for them were all good. I also wish the crafting system was a bit deeper, most of the loot you get is crafting mats that you get way too many of for the amount of stuff you can craft. Something I sort of craved was a MGSV/Peacewalker base building minigame where you equipped and sent Cursebreakers out on missions as a way to break up the fetch quest style of all the sidequests. The actual combat was great and the Eikon fights, while heavily scripted, were amazing. It's basically DMC-lite plus Asura's Wrath. I would have liked some stuff like elemental weaknesses, status effects, and all that plus stuff like actual puzzles and larger dungeons but I think they really didn't want to spread themselves too thin or overstay their welcome so they kept things fast-paced and action focused.

The Song of Ice and Fire/GoT(TV) influence was extremely obvious but I think it's fair to say that they did it well on top of a big influence on the staff being Yasumi Matsuno who was doing that style of story before ASOIAF started/before it was majorly popular, let alone before it was a TV show. Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy 12 were big influences on everybody on the staff and the main writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro, worked on FFT, Vagrant Story, and FF12, so I think the DNA for gritty political fantasy was already there even before GoT TV gave them the idea to insert some modern swearing and obvious direct elements(found wolf pet, big nitwit guy with his nan, childish prince clinging to his mom, childhood friend that's almost a sibling who is a ward/hostage to stop another country from attacking them again, etc etc)

As for the story itself it did tread a lot of the same ground as previous Final Fantasy games, especially some stuff that 14 did after the writer left 14 to go work on 16. I do wish it went a bit more in-depth on the stuff going on in the later parts of the story and I wish that some character interactions were more fleshed out Mostly I would have liked to see Clive/Joshua have more of a reaction to their young half brother being taken over by Ultima and dying and that there would have been some dialogue between them and Dion in relation to that and their mother. I would have also loved to see more Jill related story stuff. Her section of returning to the island felt a bit weak and her getting kidnapped twice and having to be rescued felt cheap. I also feel like there should have been something going on with her original family in the north, they're never even mentioned or given any thought in the story.

The characters themselves were almost all great and I especially liked the way the game handled all the NPCs in the hideout that you get slight interactions with over time. Gav, of course, was a standout. The part where Clive tried to awkwardly hug him was so fucking funny and then the way their bond changed over time was a great emotional payoff. . Clive himself I liked, not a ton to say about him but it was cool to have a 30+ year old main character, he's an old man by JRPG/FF standards lol.

The music was so good, I'm glad Soken is getting more mainstream praise since his work on 14 was already beyond top tier, I'd even put him on the same level as Uematsu. Favorites were Titan, Bahamut, Typhon boss themes, Find the Flame, and Away(the one from the big ending event for the prologue/demo). I think some of the other stuff will grow on me more as I listen outside the context of the game or replay.

I really do hope they do some great DLC. I want to see more Titan/Bahamut level fights.

In any case... I will shill FF14 more to you now that you enjoyed 16 lol. With FF12 is your favorite one especially since Matsuno himself wrote some story content for the game that includes Ivalice as part of the world and even extends the story of Final Fantasy Tactics. The beginning of the main story quest is a bit dull but the first Expansion Heavensward was done by a lot of the staff that moved to 16 and then the 3rd and 4th expansion (Shadowbringers and Endwalker) are my favorite Final Fantasy stories outside of 6 and 9, and that's with full-on nostalgia pushing them up. The music is also just straight-up amazing. If you liked 16's OST then 14 is not just more of the same but way more expansive and varied with the same level of quality. Basically most boss fights are like the 16 ones with lyrics fitting the theme/mood/story on top of being a wide variety of weird genres that also fit that particular fight/story/atmosphere.
Some that wouldn't just be giant spoilers at a glance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3LcQqK2Tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXhr8ch8Mk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Aa_LtzrdA
https://youtu.be/ghqZ4Cc0xZg
https://youtu.be/gRXXXiQdQew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9amwbTX7zZs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnmXeIyyvsg
https://youtu.be/3cKy5Qk0QMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcS1SF66NfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBIRYjP1NNM <--------------- this one is one of my top favorites
This isn't an exhaustive best-of but I think shows some of the variety without major spoilers.

But yeah, it's an MMO that requires a monthly sub and 100+ hours of playtime to do even the bare minimum of the good story stuff... hard to justify that commitment, but Shadowbringers and Endwalker really do reach peak fiction levels(Gobolatula and Grail will back me up :Y)

If I was ranking the FFs I fully finished:
6>9>Shadowbringers > Endwalker > 7 > 16 > Heavensward > 4 > 10 > 8 > Stormblood(14's 2nd expansion that had great gameplay additons but a kinda wonky story that pulls itself together in the lead-up to Shadowbringers) > 14 base game > 1 > 2

12 I enjoyed a ton when it came out but never fully finished it. I have the Zodiac Age on Switch so I should get in there and play it again. 11 I actually went to give it a try last year but it's not the same as when it was new and you had to actually put tons of effort into partying up and being extremely careful in the game world since they added in stuff to make it soloable. I wish I could have tried it in its prime. 3/5 I just never got super far in. 13 and 15 I played and dropped kinda quickly. I do want to try to give them another chance some day but 16 definitely feels like a return to form for single player FF in terms of quality even if it's not turn-based like a lot of people would want.

Anyway, long post done, think I'm gonna play through Ghost Trick next and then finish Tears of the Kingdom which got put on hold for FF16.

 

[Lawliet]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I just finished it the other day and while there were some gripes I had here and there I loved the experience. I'd say my expectations were exceeded in regards to the music, atmosphere, worldbuilding, and boss fight presentation and they were met when it came to the story, characters, and the action gameplay.

Glad that you enjoyed the game too. Given its (understandably) polarized reception, it's nice to see it winning over old (and new) fans. I'd say my expectations and how they were exceeded/met were similar to yours I suppose, except they were exceeded when it comes to story (only because I expected the story to be absolute garbage though). Sorry, it's the FF15 trauma talking

Gameplay I say only because of the sidequests being such a mixed bag as you said. The game needed some minigames or some variety to the formula for the amount of sidequests they give you, but the stories for them were all good. I also wish the crafting system was a bit deeper, most of the loot you get is crafting mats that you get way too many of for the amount of stuff you can craft. Something I sort of craved was a MGSV/Peacewalker base building minigame where you equipped and sent Cursebreakers out on missions as a way to break up the fetch quest style of all the sidequests. The actual combat was great and the Eikon fights, while heavily scripted, were amazing. It's basically DMC-lite plus Asura's Wrath. I would have liked some stuff like elemental weaknesses, status effects, and all that plus stuff like actual puzzles and larger dungeons but I think they really didn't want to spread themselves too thin or overstay their welcome so they kept things fast-paced and action focused.

Agreed that they should have added more variety, for sure! I don't know about a base-building mini-game though. Depends on how they would have executed it I suppose. A lame numbers-on-a-screen approach like, for example, when you sent out your fleet in AC Black Flag, would have just been pointless filler. If sending out Cursebreakers contributed to the base in tangible ways though, that's another story. Imagine if you could send out folks and then seeing the people you sent out doing their assigned jobs if/when you visit the regions you send them out to!

In any case, I'm glad they cut the fat and gave us a lean and tight experience over including things they would likely have not been good.

The Song of Ice and Fire/GoT(TV) influence was extremely obvious but I think it's fair to say that they did it well on top of a big influence on the staff being Yasumi Matsuno who was doing that style of story before ASOIAF started/before it was majorly popular, let alone before it was a TV show. Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy 12 were big influences on everybody on the staff and the main writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro, worked on FFT, Vagrant Story, and FF12, so I think the DNA for gritty political fantasy was already there even before GoT TV gave them the idea to insert some modern swearing and obvious direct elements(found wolf pet, big nitwit guy with his nan, childish prince clinging to his mom, childhood friend that's almost a sibling who is a ward/hostage to stop another country from attacking them again, etc etc)

Exactly! FF already had political intrigue done before, so it was especially funny (and kind of sad) how much they took from ASoIaF! Not just plot elements and characters either. The influence goes down to basic phrases and nomenclature. Phrases like "the Realm" (ugh), "bend the knee", "nameday", "lord commander/husband/uncle/etc..." and so on crop a lot. Even the world map kinda looks like the GoT opening map. They didn't need to wear this influence on their sleeve so much.

Oh well, I'm just glad they didn't borrow too much, in the sense that we don't have siblings fucking or any of the other sick shit you get from GRRM

As for the story itself it did tread a lot of the same ground as previous Final Fantasy games, especially some stuff that 14 did after the writer left 14 to go work on 16. I do wish it went a bit more in-depth on the stuff going on in the later parts of the story and I wish that some character interactions were more fleshed out Mostly I would have liked to see Clive/Joshua have more of a reaction to their young half brother being taken over by Ultima and dying and that there would have been some dialogue between them and Dion in relation to that and their mother. I would have also loved to see more Jill related story stuff. Her section of returning to the island felt a bit weak and her getting kidnapped twice and having to be rescued felt cheap. I also feel like there should have been something going on with her original family in the north, they're never even mentioned or given any thought in the story.

Agreed. There was a lot of uncharted ground they could have covered.

The female characters were especially underdeveloped. There was so much more we could have gotten from Benedikta. And yes, Jill's part in the story could have been done a lot better for sure. Even our bitch mother could have used some fleshing out, so we could at least understand why she's so goddamn awful haha.

And yeah, the theme of humanity abandoning its servitude to "gods" has been done to death already, both in FF and in JRPGs in general. I get to some extent why they're obsessed with this theme, with "gods" symbolizing the societal systems that have in some ways oppressed the Japanese people, but man seeing this plotline being done over and over is getting boring. After all the political intrigue, the story simply boiled down to defeating another god-wannabe and letting humans decide they own destiny *yawn*.

By the way, they really need to move on from Sephiroth already. Ultima was clearly modeled after him in a lot of ways; hell, when you encounter him in the final battle the guy is floating in the air with one wing!

What did you think of the ending? I personally dislike ambiguous endings and didn't appreciate how they left Clive's fate unknown. Fuck that stuff. I've heard compelling arguments for and against his survival, but I wish they would have just went for a clear ending. It would have been nice to see Clive enjoy the results of his work, and a life with Jill too.

The characters themselves were almost all great and I especially liked the way the game handled all the NPCs in the hideout that you get slight interactions with over time. Gav, of course, was a standout. The part where Clive tried to awkwardly hug him was so fucking funny and then the way their bond changed over time was a great emotional payoff. . Clive himself I liked, not a ton to say about him but it was cool to have a 30+ year old main character, he's an old man by JRPG/FF standards lol.

Yup. I appreciated how they took the time to give weight to even the minor NPCs. It added a lot to the world and the stakes. I really liked Clive too, though he had the potential to be fleshed out a lot more.

The music was so good, I'm glad Soken is getting more mainstream praise since his work on 14 was already beyond top tier, I'd even put him on the same level as Uematsu. Favorites were Titan, Bahamut, Typhon boss themes, Find the Flame, and Away(the one from the big ending event for the prologue/demo). I think some of the other stuff will grow on me more as I listen outside the context of the game or replay.

Soken blew my mind. All the tracks you mentioned were total bangers. I will definitely check out more of his work!

I really do hope they do some great DLC. I want to see more Titan/Bahamut level fights.

I'm in for a DLC, especially if they deal with the issue I mentioned above.

In any case... I will shill FF14 more to you now that you enjoyed 16 lol. With FF12 is your favorite one especially since Matsuno himself wrote some story content for the game that includes Ivalice as part of the world and even extends the story of Final Fantasy Tactics. The beginning of the main story quest is a bit dull but the first Expansion Heavensward was done by a lot of the staff that moved to 16 and then the 3rd and 4th expansion (Shadowbringers and Endwalker) are my favorite Final Fantasy stories outside of 6 and 9, and that's with full-on nostalgia pushing them up. The music is also just straight-up amazing. If you liked 16's OST then 14 is not just more of the same but way more expansive and varied with the same level of quality. Basically most boss fights are like the 16 ones with lyrics fitting the theme/mood/story on top of being a wide variety of weird genres that also fit that particular fight/story/atmosphere.
Some that wouldn't just be giant spoilers at a glance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3LcQqK2Tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXhr8ch8Mk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Aa_LtzrdA
https://youtu.be/ghqZ4Cc0xZg
https://youtu.be/gRXXXiQdQew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9amwbTX7zZs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnmXeIyyvsg
https://youtu.be/3cKy5Qk0QMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcS1SF66NfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBIRYjP1NNM <--------------- this one is one of my top favorites
This isn't an exhaustive best-of but I think shows some of the variety without major spoilers.

But yeah, it's an MMO that requires a monthly sub and 100+ hours of playtime to do even the bare minimum of the good story stuff... hard to justify that commitment, but Shadowbringers and Endwalker really do reach peak fiction levels(Gobolatula and Grail will back me up :Y)

You make a good case for FF14, and I can't say I'm not tempted, but as you said MMOs are a big commitment to make. Maybe I'll give it a try, especially if it's as good with its storytelling as you say (I got a code for a free trial with FF16, so that's a good way in).

Thanks for the tracks, I will be sure to check them out!

If I was ranking the FFs I fully finished:
6>9>Shadowbringers > Endwalker > 7 > 16 > Heavensward > 4 > 10 > 8 > Stormblood(14's 2nd expansion that had great gameplay additons but a kinda wonky story that pulls itself together in the lead-up to Shadowbringers) > 14 base game > 1 > 2

Nice. I see you have 16 in fifth place too (if we count FF14 as one unit). Seems like a good place for it; it has a lot of what makes FF awesome before while also not being FF at its best either. Still, I'm optimistic about the future of FF now.

12 I enjoyed a ton when it came out but never fully finished it. I have the Zodiac Age on Switch so I should get in there and play it again.

I jumped back on it after finishing 16. Glad to say it aged pretty well! You should definitely give it a go when you have the chance / mood.

11 I actually went to give it a try last year but it's not the same as when it was new and you had to actually put tons of effort into partying up and being extremely careful in the game world since they added in stuff to make it soloable. I wish I could have tried it in its prime. 3/5 I just never got super far in. 13 and 15 I played and dropped kinda quickly. I do want to try to give them another chance some day but 16 definitely feels like a return to form for single player FF in terms of quality even if it's not turn-based like a lot of people would want.

I can imagine 11 being hard to enjoy after you've played a basically superior version with 14. It still bugs me that they're mainline FF games btw; they could have just labeled them differently. 3 and 5 I never played, hence their absence from my ranking. 13 is just embarrassing, so I wouldn't recommend it. Do try 15 though, as it was a good game despite the awful story and the fact that it wasn't nearly worth waiting a decade for.

And yeah, like I said above, I'm optimistic for the future of FF because of 16. I think the turn-based format is just hard to go back to now, at least for me. I still enjoy turn-based every now and then (e.g. Yakuza 7), but I can't imagine myself being excited for such games releasing.

Anyway, long post done, think I'm gonna play through Ghost Trick next and then finish Tears of the Kingdom which got put on hold for FF16.

Oh, I've a lot to say about TotK. As soon as I get off my lazy ass to write a chunky post about it haha. What a game that was!

 

[Griffith]

Diablo For? - Kinda sucks, though the entitled complaint culture in gaming now is actually worse (lots of experts out there on game design and even marketing =), but I'm level 81 and still competing with my dad for 100, even if neither of us will admit it.

MK9, MKX, MK11 - Gotta get ready for MK1! Shang Tsung in 11 is so fun and really speaks to me, and I can do major damage with my Reptile'd Scorp. Reptile is great in X, and I'm trying out Shinnok, basically a stronger(!) Shang in that game, there and Sub-Zero in MK9 because I don't have a lot of subs in either of those (the benefit of Reptile being left out of 11 was I tried a lot more variety of characters).

 

[Rhombaad]

GTA: Vice City: This was a lot more like what I thought GTA III would be, but that may be because the only GTA game I played before embarking on my quest to play all these old games was GTA: San Andreas. Regardless, I had a blast with it, even though the controls feel out-of-date, and I'm not a fan of timed missions. I enjoyed the setting and time period more than GTA III's, and the music was basically what I listen to most of the time when I'm driving in the real world. I'm not sure what else to say about this one, since most of you've probably played it at some point.

Ratchet & Clank: This one felt a lot like Jak and Daxter, which isn't a bad thing. Both play like old N64 action-adventure games, of which I'm a fan. Pretty standard 3D platformer/action-adventure fare. The graphics look gorgeous even now, so I can't imagine what it felt like playing the game when it first came out. I obtained as many of the Gold weapons as I had patience for. I might go back one day and try to get everything, but I'm less into doing that as I get older. Plus, I've got a lot of other games to play.

Metroid Prime: One of the big ones I missed back in the day. I was too cool for school for Nintendo when I was in college, so I missed out on a lot of fun GameCube titles, Metroid Prime being one of them. This was one of those games I didn't want to end. It was so immersive, atmospheric and engrossing, even when you're just running around not fighting anything. I loved everything from the way it handled to the fact that your visor acquires condensation when passing through waterfalls to the fact that you can see Samus' reflection whenever a big explosion or burst of light appears nearby. The boss fights were grand and exciting, and I loved the way the team behind it basically translated Super Metroid from 2D to 3D. I've heard its sequels aren't as good, but I'm still looking forward to playing them.

Metroid Fusion: Ah, classic 2D Metroid. What more can I say? While not as good as Super Metroid, and far more linear, it was also a joy to play.

The Legend of Zelda: The Winder Waker: Another huge title I missed back in the day. It turns out, before taking on this video game time travel task, I'd only ever beaten one Zelda game: Ocarina of Time. Now, every time I reach a new Zelda title on my list, I'm overjoyed. I loved this game. I know it was rushed; I know it's incomplete; I know they padded it with the hunt for the Triforce pieces; I don't care. It's amazing. From the cell-shaded characters to the deeper narrative to the final battle with Ganon, I never felt bored one second. Even traveling the seas above Hyrule was a joy (kinda relaxing, too). I'm glad they returned to a cell-shaded universe with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, because I'm sure it was something Zelda fans missed over the years. I myself was a little opposed to "toon Link" when The Wind Waker was first announced back in the day, but boy was I wrong. A truly unique video game experience, and one I'll always treasure.

 

[Lawliet]

Blasphemous II is kicking me in the ass.

Armored Core VI is cool so far. Chaotic AF.

 

[Griffith]

Mortal 1 Kombat (beta) - I played the beta last weekend, put every character through the towers and I liked something about each of them. Then there was so much info breaking every day this week, some cool like the Rulers of Outworld trailer and Invasion mode, some more questionable like the return of a certain character that definitely undermines the fresh start, that I never got a chance to really write out my thoughts. Anyway, My first impression was the game feels a little slow and deliberate at first, but you'll soon get past that and I think there's a method to the madness there (more on this later).

Again, I liked something about all the characters, surprisingly I even really liked Kitana at the end, I was considering skipping her because I heard she was the weak link, but, her basics and mobility are fun. She wasn't slow, has a decent projectile with high damage. Not a lot of her fancy stuff worked naturally for me though.

Li Mei's specials and combos are fun and have potential, I like her general movement actions (actually flips in the air, not just a standing neutral jump that goes back and forth =) but she also feels a bit slow on foot. I think part of that is you really gotta use your moves for mobility and to get around effectively in general, like her rushdown attack, Johnny's shadow kick or Sub's slide, but I don't know if that's really going to please UMK3/MKX run button speed freaks.

With Johnny I miss the underhanded throwing ball, but his combos are nuts so I see why they took it away. Honestly, it might be better for opponents if the Johnnys out there got in a rut throwing a mediocre projectile instead of trying to maximize their combo potential all the time (ugh, Johnny with Frost; last thing he needed was a sneaky freeze power!). His fatality is like some disgusting serial killer shit too, shades of "American Psycho."

Liu moves ok, has cool combos and nice projectiles, kind of best of all schools, seems like he's good at everything, as usual. I didn't put too much time into him though, but with more practice he could be lots of fun. The Liu Kang and Li Mei projectile cheese in general feels so good after all the fucking ice strategy you need for Sub, and they work in the air (though Liu's literally leaves you hanging if you whiff)!

Kenshi was potentially awesome with his ancestor attacks but really different to use, might be broken if you mastered him, but again, didn't have time for that, but he was fun in my playtime with him. Basically, all the characters feel powerful and fun as you learn them, which brings me to my main for this exercise...

Sub-Zero with mainly Sonya Kameo and some Frost Kameo at the end for extra freezy cheezy (her low freeze and his slide set them up for my overhead combo starter nicely, or they can just eat those and get it). He is somewhat slow and challenging to use properly at first, though effective, comfortable and "safe" once you know how (to make your opponent's life a frozen Hell =). The only other character I tried online was Li Mei against another Sub/Li Mei player and it did not go well, as I didn't practice her buttons, moves and combos nearly as much as Sub-Zero. He just has so many cool little tools in his kit from his past incarnations and even some Noob stuff with the ice clone projectile, it's really a lot to take in and I only feel like I scratched the surface with sone basics and essentially one go-to 25-30% combo I came up with using his overhead launcher, slide and the Sonya Kameo (it was a pretty pathetic little combo honestly, but got the job done).

Oh, and I basically suck at Kameos, it's my new throw mechanic, "Oh yeah, I should probably use this!" At least I finally learned to use block after 30 years. =) But I think that's why things move deliberately the way they do, because there's so much going on it's actually all coming at you much faster than a regular 1v1 fight and you can find yourself kind of becoming passive, or overwhelmed, and just playing as your guy if you don't keep up and pay attention to everything. So, that's why they didn't go full tweaker MKX but it's actually going to move fast once people learn the characters and how to play in general.

There was already some crazy broken shit with certain characters and Kameo combinations (I already heard people claiming 4 of these characters were broken, so they all must be pretty good =), and it's going to be fun to see what people can unlock in time. I've heard Kameos compared to the Variations in MKX/11 except now instead of being a few variations or customizations specific and each character, its a whole other roster worth of Variation move sets you can now apply, and combine, to any character. We'll see what the results are in another few weeks

 

[Lawliet]

I finished Armored Core 6 twice so far (one more playthrough for ending 3). Here are my thoughts:

The game is fun. A lot of fun, actually. Typical of From Soft, the action is intense and epic. For all their gargantuan size and scale, the battles between these mechs are anything but slow (though you could opt for that if you want to design a heavy AC); they feel like deadly dances. The back and forth and the split second decision making and the dodging and so on...it doesn't get old.

However, it was also a very frustrating experience, at least for the first time (playthrough 2 was significantly better for me). Here are some reasons why:

1. The game is very, very unbalanced. It's unbalanced to the point of being erratic. The difficulty of the missions (and the bosses) ranges from being trivially easy to being grossly cheap. The chapter 4 boss in particular was just awful, and he comes at you at the end of a mission that starts out with a pair of easy bosses. There is no gradation in the levels, no gradual rise in difficulty that culminates in a strong boss. You're a badass mech swatting your enemies around like flies in one second, and in the next you're getting your ass handed to you. The game can't make up its mind.

2. I understand the appeal of tweaking your mech and changing your specs to meet mission requirements, but here it is done to the point where the parts you choose to equip matter more than your skill piloting the AC. You can't just have a lightweight, fast build and expect to play the game all the way through with it. Some missions will force you to switch to other builds. As an example, in my second playthrough, I mostly played a lightweight build where I overwhelm enemies with speed, but some missions forced me to change my mech into an actual tank just to survive. At least, this was my experience with the game (more skilled players may avoid such problems?).

3. The game allows you to equip OS Chips to your mech, giving you upgrades from more health to better defense and so on. It also lets you reset/re-spec your OSC configurations, but instead of being able to remove certain number of chips at a time and placing them elsewhere, you have to reset all of your chips (and it costs you money to do so, at increasing amounts the more chips you have) every time. If you're going to spend significant time redesigning your mech, it is very annoying to have to re-assign all the chips over and over, especially if you just want to perform minor changes here and there.

So yeah, while the game did grow on me and is really fun when it works, it wasn't a pleasant experience all the way through. Still, I can see myself returning to it, especially if they release DLC later on.

I also finished Blasphemous 2 and really enjoyed it. Recommended for those who enjoyed the first one!

 

[Ishtli]

A while ago I played some Lost Ark with the specific purpose to make a Casca look alike...I'm pretty content with the result :]

Gyazo

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Gyazo

gyazo.com

Gyazo

gyazo.com

(sorry for the weird links, idk what sites are allowed for direct image upload)

 

[blodvind]

A while ago I played some Lost Ark with the specific purpose to make a Casca look alike...I'm pretty content with the result :]

Gyazo

gyazo.com

Gyazo

gyazo.com

Gyazo

gyazo.com

(sorry for the weird links, idk what sites are allowed for direct image upload)

Good job! She looks amazing. :)

I am playing Tom Clancy's Rainbow6: Siege. What a great game though it is difficult to learn for me who haven't played a lot of FPSs before.

The game has several layers so it is not enough to be mechanically gifted. What I like the most are the many possibilities you have for modifying the environment to your advantage through destruction. There are several characters each with their own abilities. My favorite weapons are a machine pistol and a shotgun. :)

 

[Patrick]

Currently started Jedi Survivor - and so far loving it. Recently got into Star Wars in the past couple months and decided to check out some games in the meantime. Before this the only other games I played were Battlefront 2 (Ps2) and Lego Star Wars.

Fallen Order was a whole bunch of fun too. I had to play that game on pc to load up a mod to remove the spiders (I'm a pansey I know) and that game was also fantastic. It seems like Jedi Survivor has improved on almost everything from the first game. Glad I waited as long as I did since the performance problems that people had with it seem to be fixed.

On another note. I don't know how I'm going to juggle early 2024. With Yakuza 8. Grandblue Fantasy Relink, P3R, and FF7 Rebirth all coming out within a month of each other is insane. Rebirth is the priority for sure, but before that? I don't know which of the 3 I'm gonna pick.

 

[Dark Emperor]

I’ve started playing Final Fantasy XIV again. I’m currently not playing anything else right now, and I need an excuse to catch up on what I missed since I last played (which is A LOT).

 

[Rhombaad]

As I said earlier in the What Are You Reading? thread, I'm a little short on cash at the moment, so I've been going back to play some of the games I started with on my list for various reasons.

I replayed Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 2, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Final Fantasy, because I used save states to beat them the first time around. At the time, I didn't see anything wrong with that, since I was trying to get through my list as quickly as possible, but my opinion changed after beating Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden. The rush I got from those experiences made me want to replay the five games I mentioned to beat them on their terms instead of saving and resetting every time I got stuck, lost a life, etc. I'm currently playing through Sonic the Hedgehog for the same reason.

I also played Dragon Quest I and II for the NES, since I've only played their remakes on my iPhone. I plan on playing III and IV on the NES, as well.

 

[guuuuuuuuts]

I've started playing Super Metroid for the first time and it is amazing. Wow, what a game. So much variety and polish all around.

 

[hsvfan-jan]

Yesterday I finished Sekiro. What a game, LOVED the combat. It was not as hard as I thought due to the many infamous discussions one comes by on the internet. Instead, it was the dream of what dex users in other FromSoftware titles wish for - elegant, fast, beautiful rhythm. The story was nice and I liked how it differentiated itself from the usual FromSoftware storytelling. That being said, it made the world a bit less interesting and I think I prefer the aesthetic enemy design of their other titles more. I hope they'll eventually come back to it as the

Spoiler

journey to the west

ending I got leaves the possibility for it open. Although I wouldn't mind a prequel playing as the sculptor, as well. Just give me more of it!

Next I might either return to where I started with Cyberpunk 2077 (I'm not very far into the game and heard good things only about the 2.0 update) or continue with Planescape: Torment (stopped playing after 20mins as I didn't really like the controls with the controller but I guess I'll have to live with that).

 

[Vampire_Hunter_Bob]

Whoops haven't updated here recently.

Blasphemous - I finished this in September. I enjoyed it. Great art, fun enemies, excellent gore. I wish the game made it easier to understand what endings you were getting locked out from, I completed all the steps for the DLC ending but missed one final step which gave me the standard ending. Fun game, will play again.

The Chant - I played this during October with the goal of finishing it before Halloween. You play a woman visiting her friend on an island inhabited by a new age style hippie commune. Almost immediately, thing just happen and you're tasked with saving the island.

Despite some flaws, the game is fun. I like the limited scope of the game's story and how many crafting mechanics there are, which are all very unusual weapons that are inspired from woowoo culture.

I thought the final boss was fun. Endings to the game were... So it is split into three endings: Mind, Soul, Body. Depending on what enemies you fight and what you read in game, you will get a different ending. The endings are along the lines of a Shudder original movie ending where the ending is normally "oh you thought this was going to be over, think again!"

This is by far the funniest note that I have ever read in a video game:

When you find this it will be too late for me. I am afraid that the study of prismic science has left me too weak to continue[.]

Dead Space Remake - Finished this in October. Lots of fun.

Elden Ring - Still going on the second replay and going for the Age of Order ending.

Haunted Halloween '86 - Fun retro game. I get that level passwords are part of the retro charm, but just have a save file. Despite enjoying this, having to restart the game because I forgot a pen and paper kills my mood with playing this game.

Party Animals - Very cute. Very fun.

 

[Domeniko]

Whoops haven't updated here recently.

Blasphemous - I finished this in September. I enjoyed it. Great art, fun enemies, excellent gore. I wish the game made it easier to understand what endings you were getting locked out from, I completed all the steps for the DLC ending but missed one final step which gave me the standard ending. Fun game, will play again.

I beat both Blasphemous games this year as well. Great games. Right now I'm playing Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze(on the switch lite) it is a truly magnificent experience. Always been a DKC fan. Since I was very little, I never owned SNES tho, had to use emulator. Back then I doubt many people had the SNES console in my broken down country. Once I beat these 2 I might check out some other ones, or play the original Donkey Kong with Mario

 

[Draculoid]

I beat both Blasphemous games this year as well. Great games. Right now I'm playing Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze(on the switch lite) it is a truly magnificent experience. Always been a DKC fan. Since I was very little, I never owned SNES tho, had to use emulator. Back then I doubt many people had the SNES console in my broken down country. Once I beat these 2 I might check out some other ones, or play the original Donkey Kong with Mario

Hell yah man! You're you're prepping for Donkey Kong December! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvDsT4sRzU

Finished Alan Wake 2 and Mario Wonder this week.

Alan Wake 2 had me captivated the whole way. On a technical level, this game is amazing. The atmosphere and lighting, the facial animations and sound design are probably some of if not the best I have experienced. The game play is usually pretty fun and serviceable, but after coming off of RE 4 Remake in the third person survival horror department, well yah...it's tough haha. The main thing that kept me glued to the game though was just the entire vibe, the story and the writing. Its not perfect, but it's just so awesome how confident this weird ass game is in itself, it's infectious.

Mario Wonder, well what is there to say here. It's an awesome Mario game! It was so cool how each and every level has it's own unique mechanic that only really exists in that one level (there are a few that are a bit derivative of others). I finished the main story and got all the wonder seeds, who knows when I'll bother to get all the purple coins and tops of flag poles.

 

[Domeniko]

Hell yah man! You're you're prepping for Donkey Kong December! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvDsT4sRzU

Haha yeah.

Finished Alan Wake 2 and Mario Wonder this week.

Alan Wake 2 had me captivated the whole way. On a technical level, this game is amazing. The atmosphere and lighting, the facial animations and sound design are probably some of if not the best I have experienced. The game play is usually pretty fun and serviceable, but after coming off of RE 4 Remake in the third person survival horror department, well yah...it's tough haha. The main thing that kept me glued to the game though was just the entire vibe, the story and the writing. Its not perfect, but it's just so awesome how confident this weird ass game is in itself, it's infectious.

Mario Wonder, well what is there to say here. It's an awesome Mario game! It was so cool how each and every level has it's own unique mechanic that only really exists in that one level (there are a few that are a bit derivative of others). I finished the main story and got all the wonder seeds, who knows when I'll bother to get all the purple coins and tops of flag poles.

I tried playing Alan Wake 2 but unfortunately my machine is far too weak to run it. It's a shame cuz I'm a massive fan of Alan Wake 1. Played and beat that one multiple times.

 

[Draculoid]

I tried playing Alan Wake 2 but unfortunately my machine is far too weak to run it. It's a shame cuz I'm a massive fan of Alan Wake 1. Played and beat that one multiple times.

That fucking sucks man. I hope you find a way to rectify this situation but I guess that would only be between buying a better PC or PS5/Xbox. I got lucky that my new laptop I got last year could JUST play it (I got a warning every time I booted it up that my GPU was too weak but I powered through). I'm in the same boat as you with Spider-man 2 and FF16. Don't got a PS5 and no PC release, they've locked me out .

 

[Walter]

The trend in AAA game development for a while has been live-service games, where constant content updates fully satisfy a player's appetite, and they stay in one world instead of wandering to the next game. Well, the scale may be much different, but that's precisely what it's been like for me playing Walkabout Minigolf on the Quest (VR) for the past 3 years. It's been the only multiplayer game I spend time on, and the company has been regularly supplying new DLC courses for years. Defying the odds of being on a never-ending content cycle, the courses are getting more interesting and the worlds they depict more complex and, most importantly, fun to explore.

I've lost count of how many different DLC courses they've done. Maybe 15 at this point? And they've done collaborations on Myst, Labyrinth (the 80's movie) and most recently some crazy art museum. Here are a few of the more visually appealing ones.

Every new course means 36 new holes (18 easy + 18 hard), a fox hunt (hidden item/puzzle minigame that rewards you with a unique club) and 18 missing golf balls (I have like 200 of them at this point). And while playing minigolf is of course the core of the game, the biggest perk of Walkabout isn't something you'll find in its description. This developer has been creating 3D worlds in VR that are incredibly fun to explore. And for the past year or so, they have continued to outdo themselves. They've been on something of a streak lately. You can fly around them and find all sorts of secrets, jokes, details in every level. They're made to be examined. And the level of care they've put into each is staggering.

So I know that getting into VR is cost-prohibitive these days, but honestly for me, Walkabout alone has made the purchase worthwhile.

 

[guuuuuuuuts]

Dave the Diver

It is excellent. I hear the mini games are similar to Mario Party. It is a unique game for me: swim around (Ecco the Dolphin) and catch fish for your Sushi restaurant during the day, then run the restaurant and improve things to attract more customers. As you are able dive deeper you encounter Cthulu like creatures in the deep.

Very lighthearted and I am stoked to delve deeper underwater. It is also exciting to learn how to catch sharks and such. The pixel artwork is perfect for me, but my favorite part is running the restaurant. It is very satisfying to offer improved sushi recipes and turn the business around.

 

[Maco_2000]

Just yesterday I finished Cry of Fear. It's a free horror game on Steam. It's unassuming but I assure you all it is a masterpiece. As someone who has little to no experience with playing horror games on my own, this game hooked me in like no other game in recent years.

Obligatory warning: this game is incredibly depressing, and the main theme that it covers is suicide, depression, and panic attacks. It's also very violent, although its very dated graphics make it hard to be repulsed by the gore.

The atmosphere is incredible. As I said before the graphics aren't that impressive as it's a game created by a small team of developers, not to mention that the game originally started off as a mod for Half Life, but that only adds to the experience. I mean that. It's a very depressing and dreary game, one in which you're always on edge. But sometimes the real beauty of this game shines through in the form of soothing, melancholic guitar background music playing, the occasional emotional cutscene, and glimpses into what's really going on in the main protagonist's mind.

Some of the enemies in this game are very freaky. In my personal experience, a lot of horror media, especially horror games that I've seen or played, don't scratch my very specific itch of what is a truly scary enemy. I won't say every monster in this game is scary, as you get used to them, of course. But there are some that are genuinely freaky, such as the crazyrunner, whose rapid breathing makes me panic every time.

There are 4 endings + 1 secret ending in this game, so 5 endings in total. It was yesterday that I finished my first playthrough, and I'm now playing through the game a second time in an attempt to get all of the endings. The ending that I managed to get in my first playthrough was one of the saddest, most depressing things I've witnessed in any piece of media. I guess that's kind of fitting for a game like Cry of Fear; if you've heard of this game before you've likely heard people say that it's a very good allegory/representation of depression. At first I was confused: "does depression feel like wandering through an abandoned city, killing zombies all over the place?" but I promise everything ties together in the end in a way that makes sense. For a game as cold, unwelcoming, and harsh as this one, it surprisingly becomes a very emotional experience along the way.

Check this game out.

 

[Parkus]

Just started playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and I was missing out, the gameplay reminds me a lot of Asura's Wrath, just less repetitive when it comes to combat. I've never been a huge fan of Metal Gear games but this one is getting me hooked, might just play every single Metal gear game

 

[Aazealh]

Just started playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and I was missing out, the gameplay reminds me a lot of Asura's Wrath, just less repetitive when it comes to combat. I've never been a huge fan of Metal Gear games but this one is getting me hooked, might just play every single Metal gear game

Spoilers: the other protagonists in the series aren't as cool as Raiden, just letting you know. You might want to stick to Metal Gear Solid 2 after this one. @Griffith can back me up on this.

 

[Parkus]

the other protagonists in the series aren't as cool as Raiden, just letting you know. You might want to stick to Metal Gear Solid 2 after this one

Well damn, this just ruined it a little, I'll for sure try out MGS2 though