(Archived 2022) The thread in which we talk about games we are currently playing

video games
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I poked around a bit on Blasphemous last night.

Hey, do you think the folks who made that game have heard of _Dark Souls??_ Maybe?

I'm not totally sure how much I actually like it. I can't speak much on the macro world design, but the ground level, uh, level design, leaves a whole lot to be desired. It feels very... cookie cutter.

It could be a consequence of it being the beginning of a _Metroid_-like as well, but the way the little grimdark Catholic guy moves and controls feels... _fuddly._ Making up a word, here. Some of it feels nice and responsive and chunky (that parry is nice). However, some of it feels fuddly--fiddly, and muddy, like there's weird input buffering and/or animation lock of certain things that just makes me feel like I'm maneuvering a big boat through a small channel. Doesn't help that _Megaman X_ has permanently embedded an expectation in me that if a 2D character can do a dash, you can jump during that dash and maintain that same speed into a jump. Perhaps it's an overly personal thing to nitpick but it really was one of the reasons it took me a really long time to really get into _Hollow Knight,_ and anything that made that dash feel better was always a priority for me to acquire/keep equipped. Also part of why I loved _Celeste_ so much, gotta be one of the best dash jumps in the biz.

Anyway a good example from _Blasphemous_ is its dash attack. For whatever reason, inputting the dash attack requires you to _hold_ the attack button during a dash, rather than just press the primary attack input during a dash. The dash is already on what feels like a weirdly long cooldown already so it just feels _fuddly_ to perform a dash attack at all.

Well, I'll keep trying, maybe if I get some more core abilities that make it feel like more of how I like 2D action-platformers to feel, I'll start to enjoy it more. It's tough at this point though. Everything feels like The Penitent One is just too weighed down by Sin... actually maybe this will be more fun if I pretend The Penitent One is literally just Jesus of Nazareth (of New Testament fame). All the absurdly Roman Catholic imagery is just hilarious to me, in a good way.

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I always forget about Blasphemous. I even kickstarted it years ago!

Haven't played even a minute.

Weirdly, this reminds me of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, which was the first book I ever pre-ordered. Over a decade later, I still haven't opened it.

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I got back into Witcher 3 to finally do the DLC and have been really enjoying Hearts of Stone so far. The wedding story is such a nice change of pacing to low stakes freaky fun featuring some of the most overtly funny dialogue in the game.

Hardest thing going back after years is getting used to the controls and interface again. My mind had completely wiped the sheer amount of shit in this game. An endless cavalcade of numbers and equipment. After about an hour of futzing around exclusively in menus it felt like most of it came back at least. The character controls sure are not the best, another thing that I didn't really remember. You get used to it but they're very very loose and hard to reign in sometimes.

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@ā€œGaagaagiinsā€#p91300 I felt very similarly about Blasphemous at first however, I did get used to it and really enjoyed it! Been meaning to play some oā€˜ that extra content theyā€™ve released.

Mainly been playing some Midnight Fight Express and that's a pretty silly little game about beatin' up fools. Early on I was a little skeptical cause it felt like just another Arkham-style combat game (which is not bad), but it's not too long until you're able to do a lot more and make it pretty much as complex or un-complex as you'd like.

Also started up Monster Rancher Battle Card GB for the first since I was a kid and yeah, that game's still pretty good. Maybe a little slow for me these days, but thankfully I can speed it up through the magic of emulation.

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@ā€œedwardā€#p91309 Weirdly, this reminds me of Haruki Murakamiā€™s 1Q84, which was the first book I ever pre-ordered. Over a decade later, I still havenā€™t opened it.

I am in fact the world's biggest hater of that book

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@ā€œrejjā€#p91270 I also realised that I just wasnā€™t having as much fun with the turn based combat compared to other Yakuza titles. There are moves that require specific positioning for party members, and the game gives exactly zero control over movement and positioning.

I'm like 30 hours in (Chapter 10) and have really warmed up to the battle system (although this is my first Yakuza game and my qualms were mostly about how tediously easy every battle was; but spending time swapping jobs a lot for shits has kept things fresh and challenging).
Iā€™m a sucker for turn based games with a timing element (a la Mario RPG) and something about the randomness of movements/enemy placement combined with the extreme power of hitting a knocked down enemy (especially when weapons are set to replenish MP for a regular attack) while navigating the potential to be blocked (and take damage!) if someone happens to be in your way feels like a pleasantly unique battle system that is pushing me towards a kind of anxious speed better than an Active Time battle system (even if there's often no need to rush and you probably _could_ sit around and watch enemy positions adjust to your liking); although I still wish it had a true hard mode so I felt driven to do more side quests earlier for the sake of actually improving instead of just doing them now for fun.

Also: Iā€™m pretty enthralled in the story (even if sometimes its feels way more ā€œtellā€ than ā€œshowā€ as most plot developments are just characters in a circle explaining the plot), but some of the plot motivations seem pretty weak, a long stretch of the game thus far is driven by || allegiance to their one-time boss Nonomiya that everyone was so reluctant to work for in the first place? The last like 20 hours I keep hearing how youā€™re there to avenge your boss, who was just some toss-off shit-head. Like, Iā€™m invested in the greater plot but it feels goofy every time itā€™s restated that _thatā€™s_ Icbibanā€™s driving motive. ||

I am similarly feeling I _should_ be liking this somewhat more, but I also do have moments thinking back on my experiences and just really fond of the setting and vibe of the whole thing; maybe lends itself as more one of those games more fun to think about than really play to some extent? Or I just need to jump to mainline Yakuza?

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@ā€œsoapboxā€#p91408 You might find that some of the postgame stuff will do more for you with regards to the challenge, although, you might also have inadvertently set yourself up to have super OP party members from that preparatory job switching too, and you wonā€˜t get that feeling of being challenged until youā€™ve gotten really deep into the later postgame stuff.

The job switching in _Yakuza 7_ was quite far from my favourite implementation of that concept, partially because it often compelled me to want to take myself out of the regular flow of the game to work on new jobs for an entire party's worth of characters, rather than have that be something I'm working on with 25-50% of the party at once while just going about my regular business. That's probably largely my idiosyncratic compulsions, though.

Not exactly a spoiler, but a warning against letting your guard down too much with the difficulty: ||Your experience may be completely different, and they may have even adjusted things in a patch more recently as well, but I ran into sudden and unexpected spikes in difficulty in some big boss fights in the game's later Chapters. Some of it was exciting and it made some of the game's mechanics feel like they were paying off, but some of it just felt unfair, from like a numerical disadvantage level that was not possible to overcome even with totally optimal play. So, you may want to lock in your party composition if it's working really well for now and focus more on doing fun things in that regard after the main story has concluded.||

A little more precision in detail on the above:

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Again, hard to say if this still is the case as I played the game pretty much at release and there could have always been balance adjustments since then, but thereā€˜s a very purely difficult boss fight in Chapter 12. At least where I was at, I felt I was coasting, and then I got Icarused by this boss fight, to the point where I was so numerically outmatched that I was forced to go and grind and come back. Also because of the story implications of that event, that meant I either laboriously exit and re-enter the area and re-do the story sequence because I had no way to level up, or I had to re-load an earlier saveā€¦ either way I had to re-do that section after grinding just go get through it, and it wasnā€™t a pleasant experience. I canā€˜t remember how much of that was due to me not taking the gameā€™s difficulty seriously, but that was definitely a contributing factor.

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There is another very strong, very numerically spike-y feeling boss fight in Chapter ||14ā€¦ but there is actually a way to basically cheese it (but not really (but kind of, just in the sense of how reliable it is)), by exploiting a particular quirk in the bossā€˜ AI routine.|| A cryptic hint on that: ||Chivalry.|| Honestly, one of the gameā€™s ||weirdest in-jokes.||

I dunno, I liked _Yakuza 7_ a lot, but in many ways, it couldn't help but feel like they were making a normal brawler style _Yakuza_ game, and then decided to spontaneously pivot the game into a turn-based JRPG after the reaction to the April Fool's trailer that presented it like one as a joke, which... is what they _say_ kinda happened. But it's unclear how exactly true that is. More than a little of the jank absolutely suggests that is at least partially the case. The "moves that require specific positioning for party members [for which] the game gives exactly zero control over movement and positioning" as @"rejj"#455 pointed out really suggests this to me. In that light I can't help but feel like it's kind of a small miracle that it (more or less) works as a JRPG at all.

The best way I have summed up my thoughts on _Yakuza 7_ specifically as a JRPG is that while it isn't completely bereft of interesting JRPG design elements, it made me wish I was instead playing _Yakuza 8_ lol.

3338

Due to the persistence of @MDS-02 in the Secret Best 3ds games thread, Iā€˜ve played a few hours of Fantasy Life. Itā€™s delightful. Iā€˜ve started my Life as a cook and am going to transition into a combat related Life next. The cooking mini-game is incredibly simplistic - you perform a different amount of the same actions on every recipe, but in a randomized order. Iā€™m delighted by the idea that I can cook an omelette by stirring a giant, bubbling stock pot 4 times.

I made a rash decision and bought _Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord_ yesterday. I played all day (I've been sick), and I have yet to regret it. These kinds of sandbox, set your own goals kind of games can simultaneously appeal to and aggravate me. The world building and the illusion of moral choice both seems really thin in this game, but I don't really mind at this point because I'm enjoying what seems to be the meat of the experience: collecting a gang of fighters and leading them in battles. I love the way NPCs cheer at the end of battle. I love chasing down a roving gang of looters. I suck at the game - I've ended up imprisoned multiple times - but I'm laughing the whole time. Failing to intimidate the leader of a large gang of ruffians, getting ripped off trying to fence some stolen goods for an unscrupulous merchant, struggling to pay my army.

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Zelda II is the Dark Souls of Zelda, and I might have been really naĆÆve to think I could get through it without rewind and save states. I really wanted to play the game on my 64 with Krikzzā€˜s FPGA-based NES emulator, but I donā€™t think I can devote the time it would take. I almost got to Death Mountain today like three times.

Is there maybe a rom hack where you can pick up your lost exp from the screen you died at, Ć  la soulslikes?

3340

When I donā€˜t feel like drawing 80+ watts playing FFVIIR on my pc, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memes pairs extremely well when I just want more of that good square action rpg juice. Iā€™m playing it on GBA hardware and it's remarkable how well the PS2 experience was translated to that underpowered portable.

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@ā€œtreefroggyā€#p91463 afaik the GBA version was the original game! The PS2 port was released later.

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@ā€œGaagaagiinsā€#p91335 hard to believe considering the length and volume of the groan my wife let out when she finally threw that thing down on the table for the last time. just brought it up and was met with a disgusted sneer; she calls it ā€œperverseā€ and ā€œdisturbed.ā€ (I've never read it.)

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@ā€œJoJoestarā€#p91481 Iā€˜m referring to the original PS2 game, kingdom hearts. it was translated to GBA nicely in chain of memes. The PS2 remake youā€™re mentioning is something I donā€˜t even consider, since Iā€™d 100% rather play the original GBA version, being on GBA is a huge plus for me. I have very little interest in playing a depopulated PS2 game that is a GBA game rebuilt 1:1 in a PS2 3D engineā€¦ Iā€˜m glad itā€™s there for those who require it but the hand drawn pixels of this game are so good.

Like I said when I replayed KH1 in 2020, for the first time since I was a kid in 2001, I like to imagine KH1 was the only, weird obscure game in the series, and no sequels were ever made because it was rightly a commercial flop for how weird and ambitious it was. going forward, I will consider playing KH2 but decided to dip my toe into what was the true first sequel, and ignore all rereleases, for the purest context. I was wholly aware of the game when it released, after all. I was subscribed to nintendo power in 2004, haha. Plus there are only a few games by Squaresoft on GBA, and this is a AAA action rpg for the system. I especially like how they ported over the title screen music and menu sound effects, which are so perfectly engineered and extremely nostalgic.

So partway through the game, I am enjoying it enough on gameplay alone, but may still wanna keep KH1 safely isolated in my headcanon, because Kairi was awesome and perfect as a dear friend, and in this one they're already literally forgetting about her and replacing her with someone else who I don't care about. We'll see where this goes but I think the lore is already becoming too silly for me, the first game was beautifully vague in an appeal to pre-teen feelings of confusion and wonder.

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@ā€œwickedcestusā€#p91482 hard to believe considering the length and volume of the groan my wife let out when she finally threw that thing down on the table for the last time. just brought it up and was met with a disgusted sneer; she calls it ā€œperverseā€ and ā€œdisturbed.ā€ (Iā€™ve never read it.)

With all due respect to your wonderful wife, I must at least insist that we are tied for first.

I'd go one step further and say that to call it perverse and disturbed is almost giving it too much credit. To me it just comes off more as puerile and provocative--making a point of manufacturing disturbing perversion, but doing so little to actually make it mean anything to the narrative, that it just comes off as pitiful. It's disgusting, to be sure, but like, it'd make more _sense_ if it was motivated by perversion.

It's got more of the kind of energy of someone who is just bored and unaware of their own level of unexamined unconscious cruelty, and thinks it's a meaningful thought exercise to ask something like "what if you had landed on a giant asteroid on a crash course for Earth, and a team of scientists planted a nuke inside it, and you have to arm the nuke with a special code and then make your escape to save all life on Earth, but because one of the scientists was a white supremacist, the code word is the N-word, would it be racist to type in the code?? What about if you had to say it out loud instead??"

I really just have no respect for that book at all. None whatsoever. And I thought that _A Wild Sheep Chase_ was absolutely brilliant. But _1Q84_ just feels to me like it was written that way to test the boundaries of creative licence. I'd be fuckin _relieved_ if it was written to troll. I'd actually respect it a little (still not much but a little) than if it was written that way for some serious internal purpose.

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@ā€œGaagaagiinsā€#p91495 Itā€™s got more of the kind of energy of someone who is just bored and unaware of their own level of unexamined unconscious cruelty, and thinks itā€™s a meaningful thought exercise to ask something like ā€œwhat if you had landed on a giant asteroid on a crash course for Earth, and a team of scientists planted a nuke inside it, and you have to arm the nuke with a special code and then make your escape to save all life on Earth, but because one of the scientists was a white supremacist, the code word is the N-word, would it be racist to type in the code?? What about if you had to say it out loud instead??ā€

This is one of the funniest paragraphs you've ever written (and that's _saying_ something)

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@ā€œwickedcestusā€#p91500 This is one of the funniest paragraphs youā€™ve ever written (and thatā€™s saying something)

**_SO_** disappointed it has to be adjacent to that goddamned BOOK

3348

I've recently been getting WAY into Devil May Cry. Been playing 5 SE and actually trying to learn combos and following guides, learning jump cancelling etc.

Its a slow process for me, as I've always struggled to learn similar tech in fighting games and stuff but I've definitely been getting better at playing the game on the harder difficulties and its been super rewarding and fun!

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Making progressā€¦

**Immortality** is a very interesting interactive experience as well as an impressive endeavour as well as an endearing love letter to cinema as well as pretty clunky game design. My most valuable learning was that apparently every second assistant camera (i.e. the people holding the clapper) in the History of Cinema was pretty hot.

**Card Shark** is a delightful little game. I had been warned it is in fact an adventure game disguised as a card cheating simulator so I went in with the right expectations. The overall structure and pace remind me a lot of early Nintendo DS and especially Cingā€™s adventure games. Methinks this could have been a hit in 2006, released somewhere between Hotel Dusk, [Magic Taizen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Illusion_(video_game)) and Professor Layton.

**Pompom: The Great Rescue** is the best use of the Joy-Con pair in a while. Very simple idea, clearly intended for the PC mouse but works well enough with one-wristed^ļ¼Ÿ gyro and triggers. Would be perfect for kids if "they" (I think itā€™s just _one_ solo dev behind the game) had not hidden difficulty options under a rather unintuitive menu, but maybe the tutorial pops up and explains how to balance the challenge if you die too much. This game would be prime for a level editor and user-generated contents. The authorā€™s next game [Go Go Kudamono](https://youtu.be/SBpTM71c1gg) looks amazing as well.

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I played the final 30 minutes/boss fight of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart last night after what was according to the PS5ā€˜s dash, a hiatus since May. Itā€™s a pretty good game. I think that it suffers from the same challenge that many games do as they age and their fans age along with them. The fan base is looking for something more and itā€˜s something that the game just simply doesnā€™t provide. Thatā€˜s not Isomniacā€™s problem in my opinion. It's hyper-competent Saturday Morning Cartoon action adventure game. Recommended.

I also finally finished _Returnal_. Game of the year for me in how much I wanted to engage with it and push forward. It is also just too hard. I suspect if two people are playing together, it would become more approachable and may even be extremely fun, but I haven't played it with anyone. There is so much interesting writing, and world building, and game design hidden behind an impenetrable wall of difficulty. The game is very rewarding if you can get into it.

Also finished _Metroid: Zero Mission_ for the first time in 20 years. There's a lot to like, but _Metroid 4_ is better.

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I checked out Play NYC yesterday with @LoBFCanti and got to play some cool indie games! Apparently the event wasn't nearly as big as in prior years, but I only made it to the tail end so I only had time to try out a few demos.

The standout was probably [_Scrapeboard_](https://scrape.nugget.fun/), which could maybe be (poorly) summed up as battle DDR on a skateboard deck. Check out the video below for a better visual explanation than I can provide in words, but the general idea is to line up the metal contacts on each side of the board with two of four metal plates on the platform in order to dodge and/or inflict damage. I'm no sk8er boi, so I was risking life and limb to play this one, but I managed to beat the novice boss (bootleg Kool-Aid Man) and earn a nice little sticker of the lizard player avatar! I'm not sure if/how this would ever become a widely available experience, but if it's ever set up at an event nearby I would recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spzM9XGLwWk

Another favorite was [_LOW FIGHTAZ_](https://twitter.com/Playcrafting/status/1584590032857632768?s=20&t=78XTRszjxhJ5lCcqQthf1A), a one-on-one lowrider fighter where your main action verbs are extending either the front or rear hyydraulics on your car and flapping your hood/trunk (which you'll need to flip yourself back over if necessary). The feedback for taking damage could use some work, but this was some dumb fun in the vein of _Super Pole Riders_. Canti might not be as enthusiastic about it, but I think it's just because I roughed him up with Shadow (black and red car, of course, probably OP lol).

[_Rushdown Revolt_](https://www.rushdownrevolt.com/) was a pretty polished smash bros clone. The controls were really tight and well-tuned and it definitely nailed the smash feel (if you're into that sort of thing!). I didn't do so hot, but I'm just going to blame that on picking one of the gimmick characters--some kind of cross between Ice Climbers and Rosalina/Luma, but aesthetically more like something from Skylanders.

It was certainly no Day of the Devs (hopefully I'll get to play _Demonschool_ sooomewhere before it launches!) but it was a real fun time :)