@“cass”#p88753 I loved that game and thought it was a real good dinnertime experience with its neat episodic format. Keep playing because it gets wild.
I finished The Case of the Golden Idol, and had a rather good time with it. I only had real difficulty with one scene, the poisoning. Of course once I had the “a-ha!” moment everything seemed obvious, but until then I was about 4/5ths of the way complete but just couldn't finish it off.
Also, there was one term in the last (pre-epilogue) scene I had to trial-and-error, I just didn't see the clues (and even after the fact feel it is rather tenuous) that (this is going to be a spoiler for the last puzzle in the game, do not click unless your name is yeso (or you've also played and finished it)) ||the "small but important" matter in the morning was that he wanted to _kidnap_ Mary||.
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I have now just started Hob's Barrow, and immediately am presented with a disappointing stat regarding the global player base:
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/9euVyxl.png]
I thought that choice was gimme as well lol, especially with the close up the moment before
@“sabertoothalex”#p88391 Oh boy, prepare your emotions, that one messed me up for awhile but I think I'm just about ready for the side stories or whatever they are.
I've been scarfing down a lot of that Tinykin.
Man, that's a real cool game, it's really cool how they make it feel like you're doing things in a way that was unintended.
Lately I‘ve been playing Astlibra Revision. This game has flown a little under the radar but it’s a really interesting one. Big ol ARPG with a lot of systems under the hood. Interesting art style. It‘s a cleaned up retail release of a Japanese indie game that was in the works for like 14 years or so. I was aware of it from scrounging around sites like Freegame Mugen as it had a demo version released a few years back, but apparently the full release hit about a year ago. Then they got some money and hired some people to add widescreen support, HD graphics (with redraws done by Shigatake from Vanillaware), and an english translation. It’s a pretty cool game, and one I think a lot of people on here would be interested in checking out. One caveat is that the english translation is super stiff and at times just not great at all. Playing on Steam Deck though and it works great.
Also interested in playing Kamiwaza, although forty bucks is a real tough sell for a PS2 port. I mean it's a whole new localization/port but uh... the game's almost 20 years old. I could get Judgement for $40.
I‘m playing through Polarium Advance. It’s a GBA game based on the DS game Polarium, It even released after it I think.
I got it because I was wanting a Picross game for GBA but there aren't any other than Hatena Setana which is only in Japanese and has more mechanics mixed in (a.k.a I don't now how to play it).
Polarium Advance is cool, it's got that early DS extra clean feel, very little colour and good sound design. I'm going through the Daily Polarium stages, definitely not limiting myself to one a day, and having a good time. I'm at puzzle 87 out of 365, and they're starting to get tricky to perfect. Sometimes I do better than perfect by not using all the moves.
It's a good game to have while waiting for something. Sort of like what smartphone games used to be.
I just played through Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster and found it to be my best play through of it ever. I still rank it below most FF games, but I think I would put it above Dragon Quest 3. I don‘t know if the balancing was adjusted for the Pixel Remaster, but it did feel like I did need to think and have a small strategy for most encounters instead of just auto-battling through it all. The game didn’t really slow down during a brisk 20 hour 100% achievement run (except trying to Warmech to spawn for like 20 minutes in order to complete my beastiary).
I decided to boot up the STRANGER OF PARADISE demo to see how it compares and if I would want to play that next, and something about being in the Chaos Shrine and kicking Tiamat's ass within the first 5 of the game felt iconoclastic. I get that Jack Fantasy is supposed to be a philistine, but FFI is so elegant that the edgy tone just turns me off. I like that Stranger of Paradise commits to the melodrama but Jack being such a non-serious person cheapens it.
I played a lot of new best game of all time, Kamiwaza, over the weekend. I got a good ending but not the best ending.
It really is great.
You're a thief with a dying daughter in a poor village. You need to steal loads of stuff from different targets around the open world (but separated by loading screens) and then choose to exchange the loot for money at the thieves bathhouse or give it to the poor and needy. Exchanging it will give you money for your daughter's medicine and items but giving it to the poor will make them love you and they'll help you out in different ways, making your life easier.
On your first playthrough there is a really good push and pull between the competing objectives and every mon you earn matters. In new game plus you can break the entire thing over your knee and pursue different story branches.
The game has a lot of routes and it is up to you how you engage with them. I know I missed a bunch of branches and characters so I'm enjoying new game plus.
The game has boss battles but no real combat. Instead, because everyone in this game is obsessed with thievery, you must pickpocket everything a boss has on them and then they pass out/leave in the shame of being robbed. It is silly and fantastic.
Kamiwaza is very Acquire. It sets up loads of systems, doesn't tell you about a lot of things you can do and then just lets you figure it out. This port has added more tutorials and hints to help you out but a lot of them are on loading screens that are too fast to read on PS5. Entire facets of the game are explained in a text box that you may get lucky and catch a glimpse of.
I had a wonderful time with it and will probably play more to see more branches. It would be hard to recommend to a lot of people as it is a mid tier Japanese PS2 game with Acquire's inscrutability but Insert Credit is probably the target audience for it.
Playing that game SCORN. I‘m loving it and encourage anyone in this community who is interested in the game to ignore all the reviews and try it. Specially all the weirdos who are into extremely idiosyncratic and highly specific games. The art direction it’s the closest I've been to a playable art book and the amount of vibes is almost overwhelming.
https://twitter.com/JoJoestar/status/1582135047825784832
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yes, the reviews seem over-concerned with “gameplay flaws”, but grudingly praise the elements that matter. #gamers just not able to appreciate an aesthetic object without EGM review-braining it as usual. Hopefully the lukewarm reviews don't sink it
i blasted through the first bayonetta on easy mode on sunday. i can't believe they put little bits of >!f-zero gx!< in there! very good stuff.
@“yeso”#p88951 My take is that this is a game about alienation: weird controls, restrictive combat and lack of direction are the WHOLE POINT of the game.
I mean, imagine getting to play a HR Giger and Beksiński crossover game and not feeling weird and lost. Mission markers and a quest log is what this game is missing, sure.
years long creative effort laser focused on strong artistic vision
game "critics": "the shooting is bad"
shouldn‘t be surprised at this point, but I get frustrated especially with rock paper shotgun. They did the same thing with the Pathologic 2 review where it’s: this is an incredible and unique experience and obviously brilliant, but I can‘t recommend it because the “gameplay” is bad. Stop doing that shit, the medium is never going anywhere positive if criticism is ultimately a Consumer Reports review. Don’t mean to be too harsh bc everyone is getting paid $1 a month, but as long as you're at it….you know?
There is a whole conversation to be had here with the way this medium is built around the idea of having to cater to the players. From difficulty options and on-boarding tutorials to how every mechanic is presented, there is this huge fear on the game and the developers part that the player is not going to “get it”. This ultimately dumbs down every effort to do things differently and severely cripples every game wanting to explore more nuanced and granular territory. We can't have good and expressive art if everything has always to be so clear cut, transparent and, ultimately, easily consumable.
right, and you get critical acclaim for TLOU2 in part because it‘s functional at shooting people, doing stealth, upgrading your sniper rifle mechanics, etc in parallel to presenting something like a “competent” narrative that’s recognizable at a prestige tv level of quality. A game like Scorn that‘s closer to like an actual thing rather than a software media product is stupidly judged against a rubric it’s not attempting to satisfy. annoying!
I give Vermeer‘s Girl with a Pearl Earring a 7.2/10 because, while being masterfully done, I don’t really like the 2003 movie about it and it didn't taste very good when I licked it.
Still working on overcoming the inertia of not really playing much for the past couple months. I decided to cut my losses and zoom to the bottom of this thread to see what‘s in the zeitgeist and gave The Case of the Golden Idol a try. Made it a few scenarios in–what a delight! I’m a sucker for an Obra Dinn-like, which seems to be the correct modern evolution/incarnation of the point-and-click adventure (at least, for my current attention span). Digging the Devolver-ish style, especially the lo-fi dithered 3D effect used for the rotating idol.
I brought my switch along on my cross country flight and made the perhaps ill-advised decision to try out _Disco Elysium_. Perhaps the cramped, droning atmosphere was not an ideal venue, but the slow (literally and conceptually) intro really didn't hook me. I also found some of the VO used for the character's inner monologue to be grating with it's eye-rollingly over-the-top delivery. I haven't written it off, but I'm going to have to come back to it.
Anyway, I switched over to play a few runs of _Spelunky_, which was once travel gaming comfort food for me in it's Vita incarnation. While that game sure holds up, my skills certainly don't!
Going to try to get back into SMT IV at some point--though I'm a little concerned I'll have trouble picking it up after being away from it for a while. I also grabbed Soul Hackers 2 on a Steam sale recently, so that's on deck. (As an aside, just now noticing that it's listed solely as "Soul Hackers 2," no SMT or Devil Summoner branding on there whatsoever...interesting!)
Didn't pick up much in terms of software at PRGE--the only game I came away with was _Four Heroes of Light_ for the DS, which I always regretted not buying new at the time. Will I play it soon? Ever? Who can say!
College continues to have me fairly busy but over the past couple weeks I've cut out small amounts of time to play some games.
Last week I played through **Mega Man Zero 2** which either had a more agreeable to me difficulty curve compared to the first game, or I was a bit more prepared for it. I had a real good time with it but still didn't care for the weapon grinding locking some aspects of the game, making it essential to do.
After that I went through **Freedom Planet**, which took me a bit to get used to. Story I could have done without, but it was fun to play. Decent combat, fun levels to explore. It's neat to consider in the context of starting out as a Sonic fan game as aside from some of the way movement works at times, it's hardly apparent. Like you can see if when you're running along and hit a loop de loop, but that's essentially where it ends.
I also just finished **Mega Man Zero 3** which is definitely the best entry in that series to this point. I dabbled in the games around when they came out so never gave them a proper shake, so this has been very fun to explore. This one finally did away with weapon grinding and it feels so good for it. I kind of miss the Forms from 2 but the customization you get from chips for each body slot gives enough freedom once you get things for them that I can forgive them dropping it. The final sequences of battle were some of the best these games have done yet, with the final reveal and the battle that follows hitting incredibly well for me. If I'd played this when it came out at 17, it would very likely be one of my favourite games.
I also started **Sakuna** around when school started and have slowly been plugging away at it, it's real nice to play but sessions feel like they need to be longer so shorter games have taken precedence for now.
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@“beets”#p88919 It’s a GBA game based on the DS game Polarium, It even released after it I think.
Indeed, it released a few weeks after the Game Boy Micro (Autumn 2005) with that specific console and audience in mind, roughly one year after the first Hitofude/Polarium which was a launch game for the DS (November 2004).
https://youtu.be/zVFqkdhWPzI
Most interesting thing about this version is how it was designed to be played with a single hand (using the L button) in public transports.
https://youtu.be/IdAsnZlmQtM