What Are You Playing?

Been really enjoying Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, it's challenging but not unfairly so. Great Castlevania 3 homage with some Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden touches. Going for a 3rd run
on the murder your allies path.

Got the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy for Switch. CB2 was my first Playstation game back 20 years ago and I played it a lot. Got the first one a little later from my older sister. Never had the third but I remember playing some levels on the demo discs I had from Pizza Hut.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Hollow Knight for Switch (finally) came out around E3, so I've been playing that about 1h a night, sometimes with my kid watching. It's a pretty well designed game that takes some of the lessons of Metroid and the Souls series and stirs them together with a dallop of Tim Burton. It's also supposedly pretty long (20-40h?) so I'm happy about that.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
Hollow Knight for Switch (finally) came out around E3, so I've been playing that about 1h a night, sometimes with my kid watching. It's a pretty well designed game that takes some of the lessons of Metroid and the Souls series and stirs them together with a dallop of Tim Burton. It's also supposedly pretty long (20-40h?) so I'm happy about that.

Good game, I've played it for only a few hours but it felt like a lot more considering all that's going on and that you can do in a short period of time (before I checked I thought I'd played it for like 20 hours). I think I stopped because I missed a portal somewhere and I can only tread the same ground on a giant map so long looking for that exit I missed or whatever. I should get back into it.
 
Johnstantine said:
Got bored with DS3, so now I'm venturing into Persona 5 territory!

I beat that not too long ago. If you want a classic ass-kicking, tear-drinking Atlus experience, play on hard mode, 'cause normal was way too easy for me.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Johnstantine said:
Got bored with DS3

To expand on our PM convo, I'll admit I've lost a lot of respect for DS3 since getting into Bloodborne, it's basically a watered down version of BB they regressed into a Souls game, and it may be boring by comparison, but it's not bad. It's pretty damn exciting coming off DS2! And maybe all you "bored" guys just can't get to the good stuff because I'm noticing it's usually pretty early in the game people drop it. If it's so boringly easy just rush it (Puss =)! Anyway, I acknowledge it's basically a greatest hits remix compilation of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne for better or worse, so not exactly fresh like any of those transcendent classics are, but a loving sendoff/tribute if that's all she wrote for the franchise (I don't think it was meant to reinvent the wheel like Bloodborne or Sekiro, more like give DS fans without a PS4 a nice treat). I was actually replaying it just before I started Bloodborne but haven't played it since, so it will be interesting to go back and see just how different it feels (I kind of want to start over again with a Bloodborne build since BB is basically just forcing you to play DS the "right way" =). I hadn't finished Dark Souls: Remastered yet and trying to go back to that the other day was like playing at 15 fps and putting a 2 second delay on the attack button. I looked like a PS1 game too. Waste of time (still put in 65+ hours so far =). They should have remade it in the DS3 engine or not bothered. I'm just going to free Gwyn from it and be done.


In addition to my never ending Souls quest, I also fired up Cuphead and Sonic Mania this weekend. Cuphead is obviously gorgeous, and hard, but the tradeoff is it's more like a boss rush mode with a few "run n' gun" levels in it than a fully fledged side-scroller (it's hard because if it wasn't it wouldn't last long at all). Still, it's literally like playing a classic hand drawn cartoon. Very Cool.

Sonic Mania brought back a lot of fond memories and adds some new wrinkles to classic stages and ideas, along with new ones (much like DS3, it's basically a mashup of Sonic 1-3 and CD), but it might actually be more frustrating than Cuphead! How is that possible? The save system will only save the zone you're at, not the act, and the game's pretty stingy with 1 ups so you can't build up a reserve starting again from a zone. So, say you have a couple a cheap deaths on traps at the end of later levels. You could spend 20-30 minutes playing some long ass remixed Sonic levels and die twice and have to start over. It's not THAT bad, but it's not fun. Maybe I'm taking Sonic too lightly after these other games, but it's not like the game is stimulating in its challenge either. =)
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Phantasy Star II yesterday morning. It was very impressive for being an RPG from 1989, although the battle mechanics weren't my favorite. The story was decent for the time, and I enjoyed the "twist" at the end. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the series at some point.

Now, it's time to play The Revenge of Shinobi!
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rhombaad said:
I finished Phantasy Star II yesterday morning. It was very impressive for being an RPG from 1989, although the battle mechanics weren't my favorite. The story was decent for the time, and I enjoyed the "twist" at the end. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the series at some point.

My god man, I can't believe you are braving through something like PS2 in this day and age, and NOT for nostalgia reasons. This little trip you're on has become pretty profound. Honestly, you should write up your overall experiences of this trip back in time through one of gaming's glory days, not specifically each game, but the overall feel of these games. What have we lost that these games have, or conversely, what have we gained that these games lacked? I think that'd be a pretty good read. :daiba:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Walter said:
My god man, I can't believe you are braving through something like PS2 in this day and age, and NOT for nostalgia reasons. This little trip you're on has become pretty profound. Honestly, you should write up your overall experiences of this trip back in time through one of gaming's glory days, not specifically each game, but the overall feel of these games. What have we lost that these games have, or conversely, what have we gained that these games lacked? I think that'd be a pretty good read. :daiba:

Yeah, when I initially started doing this, I was just going back and playing the games I'd heard of when I was a kid and never got to play (or play all the way through). It eventually evolved into me hunting down most of the best-reviewed games of all time and creating a list of them to play that is currently hundreds of titles long. (When I told one of my best friends about this, he said "You will die unfulfilled.") :ganishka:

The main reason I played through PS1 and PS2 (and will play through PS3) is to get to PS4, which is considered one of the best 16-bit RPGs ever made (at least by critics).

I think once I make it past all the 8- and 16-bit titles on my list, I'll write a piece like you suggested. I've been really enjoying this process and it's given me renewed appreciation for the art and design of these older games.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
What have we lost that these games have, or conversely, what have we gained that these games lacked?

The ability to break the game and fuck yourself, for one. I just talked to a co-worker the other day how I almost prematurely ended my Bloodborne run, and DID in Demon's Souls, and he relayed a story of wiping out an enemy village in the middle of Ultima III that he ultima-tely needed to broker peace with to finish the game! He even called Origin to ask if there was anything he could do and they basically told him the same, "You're fucked." :ganishka:


What you're doing is pretty remarkable, Rhombaad, particularly playing earlier iterations in series just to have the proper foundation for "the good one!" :isidro: I can't even get into modern classics like The Witcher 3, let alone it's forebears from just a few years ago. There's been a few times I've gone back and played a transcendent classic I missed for the experience, but for the most part I've just come to accept that I missed the boat because I'm probably not going to get into it at this point. Play 'em all for me, Rhommy! :ubik:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Griffith said:
The ability to break the game and fuck yourself, for one. I just talked to a co-worker the other day how I almost prematurely ended my Bloodborne run, and DID in Demon's Souls, and he relayed a story of wiping out an enemy village in the middle of Ultima III that he ultima-tely needed to broker peace with to finish the game! He even called Origin to ask if there was anything he could do and they basically told him the same, "You're fucked." :ganishka:

That kind of thing happened to me once, but in the strangest way. I was playing Final Fantasy VII for the umpteenth time in college. I saved right before fighting Diamond Weapon, but when I exited the menu it started the fight immediately (I must've entered the menu while still moving slightly towards the enemy character). During the fight, the game froze (I was playing it on a PS2), so I restarted the system and loaded my save file, only to discover that Diamond Weapon was no longer on the screen. In other words, there was no way to progress in the game, so I had to start over. I called Sony about it and the support person I spoke to said he'd never heard of this happening before. We laughed about it a bit, then I started from the beginning.

Griffith said:
What you're doing is pretty remarkable, Rhombaad, particularly playing earlier iterations in series just to have the proper foundation for "the good one!" :isidro:

Thank you, Griff! It's just how my brain works. It'd feel "wrong" to just play the "good" ones (I've had fun playing the previous iterations, so far). :serpico:

Griffith said:
Play 'em all for me, Rhommy! :ubik:

Will do! Though if I'm not enjoying playing one, I'm pretty quick to move on to the next game on the list. After all, I have a lot left to play. :void:
 
Rhombaad said:
I finished Phantasy Star II yesterday morning. It was very impressive for being an RPG from 1989, although the battle mechanics weren't my favorite. The story was decent for the time, and I enjoyed the "twist" at the end. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the series at some point.

Now, it's time to play The Revenge of Shinobi!

Have you played Wizardry: Forsaken Lands on the PS2?
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Death May Die said:
Have you played Wizardry: Forsaken Lands on the PS2?

I haven't. Is it worth playing?

I finished The Revenge of Shinobi yesterday morning. I had a great time playing it. For an early 16-bit side-scroller, it was pretty cool.

Next up is Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse!
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Got back into Nioh after a long hiatus. I tried taking the opportunity to switch to one of the game's default control schemes but it only made things worse and I lost a ton of Amrita (equivalent of souls in this game) because I couldn't effectively dodge, heal or attack against even the lamest enemy on hand! Anyway, I switched back to my totally broken and half-assed Dark Souls scheme but switched heal to the triangle/Y button ala Bloodborne to cut down on confusion between the two and that got me through a couple of bosses and to a third that I'm not expecting to be too bad. Still fun, but I just want to get it completely over with at this point. I'm at what I think is the last DLC level and unfortunately it's like a pagoda with multiple former super-fast humanoid bosses, the first of which took as many if not more tries than any boss fight from Bloodborne (they're not better fights, they just require more perfect memorization). I'm putting every level I get into life because it feels like everything can kill me with 1-2 hits. Greeeat!
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos over the weekend.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse might be the hardest game I've ever played. Block 9 filled me with such hopelessness that I abandoned the US version of the game and played an emulated version of the Japanese game, Akumajou Densetsu.

Akumajou Densetsu was a lot more balanced and forgiving, without being a cakewalk. It still took me forever to beat Block 9, and many, many attempts to beat Dracula. I don't know how anyone beat the US version, but I bow to those that did.

I'd heard that Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos was a little bit easier than the first game, but I found it to be significantly easier. I beat it in less than a day, and it took almost a week of near non-stop playing to beat Ninja Gaiden. I enjoyed it, but felt more satisfied when I beat the first game. (I plan on skipping the third one, unless I can find an emulated version of the Japanese game.)

Next up is Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom!
 
Never played an Elder Scrolls game before but I just got Skyrim on Switch since I’ve been wanting to play an adventure game other than Breath of the Wild.
 
Rhombaad said:
Next up is Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom!

My very first RPG back then and my favourite Phantasy Star (with the fourth).
I don't know if you have played it but you should try Sword of Vermilion.

I'm playing to Octopath Traveler at the moment and having a good time.
I finished Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon many weeks ago and had a great time, I've been surprised by this "little" game.
I also did the backer's demo of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and felt a bit disappointed... The gameplay and musics are great, but damn... those backgrounds... everything looks so empty.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
The Beast of Darkness said:
My very first RPG back then and my favourite Phantasy Star (with the fourth).

Cool! My first was Final Fantasy VII.

The Beast of Darkness said:
I don't know if you have played it but you should try Sword of Vermilion.

I haven't. I'll have to check it out one day.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Rhombaad said:
Cool! My first was Final Fantasy VII.

Oooh, that's a pretty big one for your first outing. I think mine that I played to completion was actually Mario RPG followed by FF6, FF7, and Chrono Trigger in some order (unless we're counting Zelda, Deadly Towers, or shit like Populous =). I don't know that I ever beat Deadly Towers because after playing all day to reach the boss my mom turned off the game(!!) so we could go to church or some shit. She was not expecting the subsequent complete freakout that would not have occurred if I'd just been playing Mario or something... oh, and it's the reason GOD IS DEAD! :ganishka: To be fair, Mom wasn't an anti-game lame though, she beat Mario 3 before I did and could even hold her own in Mario Kart! :isidro:


Edit: I beat Sonic Mania, which was a fun blast from the past that's based on and will remind you of every classic 2D Sonic game, so 1-3 & CD, but which actually has largely new and original level designs. It'll start as a classic Zone, but after the familiar opening they're pretty much brand new... there's some others I'd have probably included like Casino Night, but they actually have another spin on the concept. Anyway, a cool new game that feels like a bunch of old games but is actually much bigger and deeper (a lot of Acts will take you almost the total 10 minute timer to complete if you dick around). Now I'm either going to go back in for Chaos Emeralds or not bothering because the bonus stages from Sega CD are too hard/annoying (like all Sonic bonus stages; inexplicably more challenging than the main game =).
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Griffith said:
Oooh, that's a pretty big one for your first outing.

It was, but I loved it. I first played it at my friend's house, since he owned a PSX and I owned an N64. I remember getting through Midgar and making it to the world map, with him telling me I'd barely made it into the first disc. I was pretty astounded.

Griffith said:
I think mine that I played to completion was actually Mario RPG followed by FF6, FF7, and Chrono Trigger in some order

Nice! I played all of those, aside from Mario RPG, a little later in life. (Mario RPG is on the list, though!)

Griffith said:
Edit: I beat Sonic Mania, which was a fun blast from the past that's based on and will remind you every classic 2D Sonic game, so 1-3 & CD, but which actually has largely new and original level designs. It'll start as a classic Zone, but after the familiar opening they're pretty much brand new... there's some others I'd have probably included like Casino Night, but they actually have another spin on the concept. Anyway, a cool new game that feels like a bunch of old games but is actually much bigger and deeper (a lot of Acts will take you almost the total 10 minute timer to complete if you dick around). Now I'm either going to go back in for Chaos Emeralds or not bothering because the bonus stages from Sega CD are too hard/annoying (like all Sonic bonus stages; inexplicably more challenging than the main game =).

I've heard nothing but good things about that game. I'm sure I'll get around to playing it in the next ten years or so. :ganishka:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Rhombaad said:
It was, but I loved it. I first played it at my friend's house, since he owned a PSX and I owned an N64. I remember getting through Midgar and making it to the world map, with him telling me I'd barely made it into the first disc. I was pretty astounded.

Shit man, that brings back memories. I got super sucked in and pulled an all-nighter getting out of Midgar and by the time you do you're so used to the parameters of world of the game up until that point, and already had a game's worth of narrative, that I basically felt like that was the climax right there, to the point I didn't even know what I was looking at when I saw the World Map screen, like, "WUUUUT?" Yeah, that was a great aha moment.

Rhombaad said:
Nice! I played all of those, aside from Mario RPG, a little later in life. (Mario RPG is on the list, though!)

Definitely play Mario RPG when you can, it's classic Square and Nintendo working directly together, and it lives up to those expectations.

Rhombaad said:
I've heard nothing but good things about that game. I'm sure I'll get around to playing it in the next ten years or so. :ganishka:

I like how self-aware this endeaver has become. You should probably be doing a Youtube show on these first-time classic playthroughs. =)


So, I guess I'm going through with a BL4 run now that I got the Platinum Trophy in Bloodborne. I still have reservations about this, especially after Gascoigne gave me some trouble (mostly, it turned out, because I was trying to use the Music Box when he transformed and that fucker doesn't work half the time! :mozgus:) but once I stopped fucking around and just fought him straight up like I would Koss or something it was ok (lol). I took down the Cleric Beast no problem and got to Amelia last night but I'm probably going to load up on upgrade materials before I take her on. Pretty invigorating, and it's keeping me up again playing way too long!

I've messed around with all the starter weapons but so far only upgraded the Cleaver. I thought about the Spear for serration in both forms and the poke, but it's a bit weaker, slower and less versatile on the first strike. Am also considering if I want to upgrade the whip for AOE crowd control and range or the axe to replicate my Ludwig playstyle. I know the whip is useful and probably viable, but don't know about the axe, so it may come up short. I was pretty good with the axe, but I just don't know if it's going to hit hard and fast enough without scaling to make sense over the Cleaver's DPS and defensive advantages; like, am I just going to lay myself out there in situations where I literally can't get hit and for little return on offense (which won't matter if I'm dead =). What I'm saying is, despite liking the axe, I'm probably going with the Cleaver/Whip for utility. You really do have to consider all the mechanics of the game on BL4.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Griffith said:
Shit man, that brings back memories. I got super sucked in and pulled an all-nighter getting out of Midgar and by the time you do you're so used to the parameters of world of the game up until that point, and already had a game's worth of narrative, that I basically felt like that was the climax right there, to the point I didn't even know what I was looking at when I saw the World Map screen, like, "WUUUUT?" Yeah, that was a great aha moment.

Right? I remember seeing commercials for it at the movie theater talking about how it was on three discs and no cartridge could handle such an experience. Which made downloading it in less than five minutes when it was released on the PlayStation Network feel really weird the first time.

Griffith said:
Definitely play Mario RPG when you can, it's classic Square and Nintendo working directly together, and it lives up to those expectations.

Oh, I will. It, Star Fox and Yoshi's Island are the main reasons I bought the SNES Classic Edition.

Griffith said:
I like how self-aware this endeaver has become. You should probably be doing a Youtube show on these first-time classic playthroughs. =)

That's not a bad idea. I'll think about it. :serpico:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Rhombaad said:
Right? I remember seeing commercials for it at the movie theater talking about how it was on three discs and no cartridge could handle such an experience.

The commercials for it were AWESOME. I don't even want to look them up because I'm sure they'd seem quaint and cheesy now but at the time they were most effective at making it seem like this amazing, otherworldly experience. I love the old console war propaganda mixed in there too, "Cartridges are for LOSERS!"

Rhombaad said:
That's not a bad idea. I'll think about it. :serpico:

I'm delighted to hear you like my proposition; I'll only require a "Created By" credit and a small, small percentage. :carcus:
 
Oh man FF7. I spent a great many hours on my PSX playing around in that game, i played disc one to the end of hell because i never knew i was supposed to put in disc 2 after i exited midgar.
I was like 12 at the time i think, so you have to understand how stupid i felt, not to mention that at one point i basically grinded for the 1st boss till i could one hit it with limit because of the disc being scratched up from extended use, and its scope move would freeze everything, later on i even discovered i could put in the other disc DURING the fight sequence to unglitch enemy moves.
I also had to do this for specific cutscenes too, i had quite the extensive experience with that game, along with Dragon Warriors 7 (its dragon quest 7 but it wasn't localised.) That game was the shit too. Both gave me extensive years of entertainment, and i went back and played them again as well.
And now square has released another amazing RPG in octopath. They're truly a blessing to us gamers.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
The commercials for it were AWESOME. I don't even want to look them up because I'm sure they'd seem quaint and cheesy now but at the time they were most effective at making it seem like this amazing, otherworldly experience. I love the old console war propaganda mixed in there too, "Cartridges are for LOSERS!"

I distinctly remember seeing a Junon Cannon billboard in Atlanta around 1998, and it was fucking surreal. For me, FF7 was just a cult kind of thing, and very special to me. Prior to its release, I can't remember ever being more invested in a single game. This hype was mostly because I was a huge fan of FF6 (still my favorite game), and the fact that Square was riding the crest of their career. Everything they sent stateside had been solid gold for years.

I had followed its release closer than any other game (to this day). In an age when game news sites didn't update every day, I would still check extremely frequently. Square would regularly release CG stills of environments, and also character info / designs in a trickle fashion up until the Japanese release (I remember Sephiroth was the last). I would print out pictures and tape them to my goddamned wall like some kind of serial killer. I ended up importing the game at the Japanese launch, and modifying my PS to play it — a hardwired solution, not the disc swap. I played through most of the game blind at first, and then with a guide. I also ended up memorizing a few kanji and hiragana/katakana just to navigate the menus and spells. But by the time the US version hit, and the FULL scope of the story had settled into my teenage brain, it really didn't live up to my expectations. What possibly could? I had ruined my experience with the game by treating it like it was supposed to be a transcendental experience.

For anyone who lived through that time, this is an incredible article on the game's creation and the people and personalities behind it: https://www.polygon.com/a/final-fantasy-7

Gamehowitzer said:
i played disc one to the end of hell because i never knew i was supposed to put in disc 2 after i exited midgar.

Disc 1 ends much, much later than Midgar, after a certain character's death.
 
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