@“yeso”#p93733 that’s disappointing to hear…included in my (long) list of issues with The Outer Worlds was the heavy-handed railroading into making decisions that I wasn’t particularly invested in, just so they could throw a big “gotcha!” at me afterward. I was kinda hoping this wouldn’t be the case for Obsidian’s next project. I hope the experience improves as you play further, I still might want to check this out eventually.
@“yeso”#p93733 I finished the game already and while I think like the theme and the mechanics were fine, I agree with you that the outcomes are too much engineered to my taste. It has a lot of good qualities, but sometimes I felt it was too scripted.
Also, for those who will end up the game or just want to see spoilers ahead:
|| Some of the ideas and murders were too predictable, and while I didn‘t predict everything and knowing what is going to happen is not inherently bad, it surely leaves a bad mouthtaste in the third act. It feels like the overly scripted story clashes with the idea of people wanting to wrap up everything. I didn’t like most of the things happening there and the scripting made sense, but was very frustrating ||.
I don't know which is the game I'm going to play next now. I have Deathloop there, but there are a bunch of others, and also I tried Weird West and it seemed really fine. Possibly I'm going to keep playing both Norco and Yakuza 0.
@“yeso”#p93733 I’m not too far in it but I’m enjoying it so far. I like the writing, love the aesthetic, and it’s fun making Andreas be an absolute dick to these monks. Kind of sucks to hear it starts to feel predetermined as it goes, but I’m enjoying the ride. ||Fuck Martin||
>
@“leah”#p93735 norco. all likelihood that’s my goty - it definitely reminded me of kentucky route zero and night in the woods, but it feels more grotesque, less twee than either one
100
@"kory"#p93737 the heavy caveat is that there are many or plot threads/mystery solving leads to follow than there are hours in the game day, so maybe I'm just doing a bad job of attending to critical paths. e.g. I hooked up with a nun for example rather than working on solving the murder. But in my defense the game does seem to funnel you into overly-determined dialogue choices that clash what you might be thinking and hoping to accomplish as a player and as the character
Lots to praise about the game though, I'm just surprised that the _Alpha Protocol_ and _New Vegas_ writer seem to have fenced in the narrative at critical moments
@"xhekros"#p93740 stick with _Norco_ you'll like it!
I‘ll retract my SpecOps comparison it wasn’t quite correct. I think what Pentiment does differently is that the moral compromise stuff is placed on the character of Andreas, not on the player as a participant or voyeur or whatever. It‘s just jarring to be seeing and thinking through most of the game as Andreas, then the narrative punts you out of that. I don’t know if that‘s a mechanical outcome, meaning it will be less dissonant of you’re good at solving the murder, or if it's meant to be of a piece with the larger themes the game touches on (inescapable class and gender roles, the brutalities of religious dogma)
Grinded Riku up to the recommended level so I can casually beat the game and rewatch the ending on different GBA hardware and photograph this jpeg 3 different ways
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/t0URzII.jpeg]
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/wjow6UB.jpeg]
My head canon is that Roxas’ pants are Carhartt Firm Duck Riveted Double-Front Utility Work Pants, and he works at a skate shop and listens to third wave ska. This is implied by his two tone fashion, and the rivets are visible in his textures. Cosplayers have been getting it wrong by wearing nylon pants. It’s straight duck canvas. Again this is just my head canon.
AS part of logging of Twitter forever and finding something to do with my mornings instead of doom scrolling, I fired up Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel on XBO and actually got into it. It starts off VERY slow, but I have come to enjoy it as a first person drawer checking simulator with horror elements mixed in. There is VERY little combat / jump scares and I really enjoy that. I feel like that is out of the norm for most person horror games?
I 100%'d Harold's Walk (2020), ending spoilers below!!!
>!
I finished that Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone expansion and got so thoroughly absorbed into the back half of it that I finished it all in about a 5 hour sitting. I haven’t played a single game session that long in quite a while! Some of the stuff it does in there, >!the haunted house section specifically!<, really threw me back into feeling what I loved so much about the main game. Emotionally resonant stories, sick set pieces, good characters, beautiful to look at, funny as hell, tragic. So good. Going to wait for the next gen upgrade to get to Blood and Wine and I’m real real real excited for it.
@“connrrr”#p93771 that ending genuinely made me emotional when I played it
@“yeso”#p93746 Yeah, THAT was the moment that threw me for a loop and not in a good way, and the third act in general is very weirdly constructed.
As for Norco, I saw @"leah"#p93735's post and was pretty hyped up after playing it a little. There have been several great narrative games this year and the few minutes that I played Norco I felt this was something special.
I just started and completed Inside yesterday and I thought that was pretty neat. Most puzzles I thought were pretty cool, and I'm always a suckered for a story told completely through gameplay.
Played a little bit of the demo for Betrayal at Club Low and if you think that game looks cool I highly recommend checking it out. Love rollin me some dice and being a silly lil short king.
I finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon before jetting home for thanksgiving, and while I've already discussed some of the battle system on here, I was left with the feeling that I hope they continue to focus on the turn based system; which I think has some awesome aspects! But it just needs better balance/pacing since what felt like a single moment of difficulty spike ~ 80% into the game was honestly the only time I felt truly challenged (especially since so many side quests are focused on early game when I would have liked to use side quests to grind levels instead of dungeons being the only option late game; not many late game side quests unless I was missing them! Also I never gained enough money to reach level 4 of weapons crafting, yet all those weapons seemed to be inferior to ones I was already finding via dungeons). Again, so much promise that I think can be nicely tightened up later (even if it felt pleasantly janky now).
Also: regarding the final battle did anyone else >!expect Ryo Aoki to use one of those hypodermic shots he uses to gain enough strength to walk in the intro to become superpowered and thus offer an actual fight? There was something fun of just easily beating the man's face in for the final battle, but also a slight let down that there wasn't a more powerful final boss? Still loved the story and the ending though.!<
Nearly 60 hours has me pretty Yakuza'd-out although I'm tempted to start Yakuza 0 here when I get home after thanksgiving to try a "real" Yakuza game; otherwise I knocked out 2/3rds of William Gibson's _Nueromancer_ on the flight home so likely will be "playing" through his Sprawl trilogy, new to Gibson but totally buying the hype for his stuff; who cares about "prescient", I can't believe how psychedelic this book is!
@“Syzygy”#p93955 he finally grew into his shoes
I wonder if their ID card thing is cute, I spent way too much time putting detail into mine even though I’m an absolutely generic nooblet 🌱
@“mtvcribs”#p93879 I thought the game flopped because of their mechanics, but damn, if this has also went well I'm going to try it at some point.
PS: Norco so far has been a disappointment. I still think it's pretty good, but I remember that in a recent IC episode they were asking about the kind of game that felt designed and tailored for me, but ended up not clicking for me. Well... I can say Norco is that game. Sorry :(
@“xhekros”#p94125 I started norco, I‘m no further in than the living room of the protagonist’s house at the very start of the game after the prologue – and I've let it sit on the side while I check out other things instead. It came so very highly recommended to me, I can recognise its merits, but still… those first 10 minutes did not grab me.
I intend to come back to it, but not before I've played a few other things I know I want to see. I need to get back to my started game of 428 Shibuya Scramble, I need to check out Clannad, I need to continue Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
Norco struck me as a game I felt like I was _supposed to like_ rather than something that I immediately _did_ like. That may change if I give it another hour. Maybe.
I‘ve been replaying The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening the past couple of days. The 60 FPS mod cleans up the single issue I had with the remake and firmly plants it as truly one of the absolute best games ever made. I’ve been beside myself just reveling in what a thoroughly wonderful experience this game is. Today it reached a boiling point when the rabbits in Animal Village, being tiny themselves, start calling Marin “Little Marin.” My friend you are the little one!!!
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/cBHxEg7.jpeg]
there is a bit in the resi 8 dlc that is really creepy and cool, just when i was getting to the point of feeling like it was dull and boring. good stuff, even if the 3rd person perspective doesn't really suit a lot of the resi 8 environmental and encounter design if you ask me.
@“rejj”#p94152 Yup. I had exactly the same feeling, and it irks me out because there are a lot of things I fancy about Norco, but it‘s some part of the mixing in there that shoves me out from totally enjoying it.
On the other hand, I returned to Yakuza 0 and man, I’m growing fond of that game. I feel like this might be possibly my favorite Yakuza because it‘s very similar to Like a Dragon in the sense that the MC is imperfect and there are a lot of goofy side moments, but the minigames are very enjoyable and there are a lot of memes hidden around there. It doesn’t shy away from being stupid when it wants to and the characters are really charismatic also when things get serious (although I prefer Kiryuu).
Finally hitting the climactic chapter of Live A Live and almost kinda wish I was reviewing it professionally because I feel some Actual Things to Say About It bubbling up. Gonna dash down some notes and see what I end up with but short version is it’s a very 6-7/10 game whose mechanisms are dated (and in some cases made newly awkward by this polygonal voice-acted QoL-improved “faithful” remake) but whose tossing of the gauntlet as far as what a “Japanese roleplaying game” can be, mechanically and narratively, is still fresh if not downright mandatory brain food for aspiring RPG developers.