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

video games
787

I booted up Oninaki, which I'd first heard of when Tim bright it up in his Fantasian stream. Played the demo and liked it ok, but I started over with the full game and I LOVE it now. It just took me some time to adjust to the action-rpg-ness versus action-ness, being a fanatical Dead Cells fan.

I've also been playing Deadly Premonition for the first time, and I find it pretty enjoyable, except for some of the side quest acquisition. It feels to me more like an episode of Criminal Minds than Twin Peaks, but I've only seen about 70 minutes of Twin Peaks, and over 300 of Criminal Minds. I'm excited to see the story continue to unravel

ALSO
Picked up Road Redemption on Swinch some time ago and that game is a blast. It feels like it's exactly what Twisted Metal was aiming for, and the Roguelite structure makes it really easy to pick up. I kind of don't like driving/racing games too much, but the various action elements of this really sell it for me, as well as the overzealous Australian compatriot encouraging you along the way

788

@ā€œJoJoestarā€#p37973 I wonder how much of silver case's weird controls are bc of ps1 era 3d space navigation clumsiness vs deliberate choice. I think it works especially well in the reporter sections, you really feel the tedium of trudging around a shitty apartment getting more and more paranoid

789

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@ā€œdylanfillsā€#p38003 Iā€™ve also been playing Deadly Premonition for the first time, and I find it pretty enjoyable, except for some of the side quest acquisition. It feels to me more like an episode of Criminal Minds than Twin Peaks, but Iā€™ve only seen about 70 minutes of Twin Peaks, and over 300 of Criminal Minds.

I came to Dead Prem as a diehard Twin Peaks fan and enjoyed the heck out of it, but it's interesting to me that it seems to have developed such a cult following among players who mostly aren't familiar with the show. I base that on having read so many reviews and blog posts raving about it but admitting they're not familiar with TP. Most of the things people love about it really are TP homage, albeit through a Japanese game lens, so I strongly recommend diving into the series properly after you get done with the game (assuming you continue to enjoy it!)

790

@ā€œconnrrrā€#p37450

@ā€œdylanfillsā€#p38001

Oh no! PokĆ©mon White/Black is my favorite and Iā€™ve been with the series since Gen 1. Iā€™ve completed and enjoyed them all upon release though Iā€™m not a hardcore player who rushes through to get to the post game competitive scene.

Battles feel succinct and the animations express this. Active front PokƩmon scales in experience when leveling up, allowing for plenty of party rotations throughout the journey. Leveling is like Suikoden in that regard, ultimately respecting your time. PokƩmon in the box are not wasted, they will be rotated a bunch. Iirc I had like 20 in rotation because of the way experience scales.

It does not baby the player with a modern day exp share. I feel that modern PokĆ©mon games lost that personal touch with PokĆ©mon... like in PokĆ©mon Go, itā€™s all about catching them all, multiple ones, and releasing them. And in the new ones, you keep a PokĆ©mon you never use in your party forever in the back, and in itā€™s first battle may be level 70 or so in the end, and itā€™s just weird! Black and White is the last generation with that intimate connection with PokĆ©mon. Every PokĆ©mon you get will get time in the spotlight, and will actually need time in the spotlight to level up, but itā€™s not grindy at all! The balance is just perfect.

Thereā€™s so many beautiful scenes too, multiple vast bridges, a spiraling world wonder of a tower that plays Zelda and Chrono Trigger music (depending on what game you grew up with), nightly Ferris wheel dates, basketball PokĆ©mon trainers, and in the sequels you get access to an exquisite aquarium tube, all over mastered pixel art. Itā€™s just so memorable to me a little more than a decade later, especially compared to past games. If Castelia city isnā€™t your type of city, you get to visit Village Bridge where talking to musicians spread throughout the city add tunes to the game music, culminating in this relaxing zen state of existence where nothing matters except watching grass gavotte with the wind, time an endless ocean, and Life, tolerable.

https://youtu.be/Gju6j3f2xTc

Speaking of Zen relaxation and philosophy, the story gets all philosophical with master slave morality, as well as the clash of truth and ideals. Story is interwoven with the Elite 4 this time around rather than in past iterations, and thereā€™s much more weight to the final battle. Several companions travel with you on this journey and there are scenes with character emotional moments throughout. Also, It feels much more satisfying defeating trainers of a self- righteous cult in Team Plasma than just a Bad person. It even acknowledges the old philosophical PokĆ©mon Generation 1 question: ā€œare PokĆ©mon slaves?ā€

https://youtu.be/WxPOSrrWjJY

Itā€™s so unfortunate that people just write this game off because of ice cream cones and garbage designed by a westerner but really, imagine if this PokĆ©mon was in real life!

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/VL2OAhs.jpeg]

791

@ā€œyesoā€#p38074 Must be intentional at least to a degree, considering killer7 pulls the same shit in an era where early 3d clumsiness was no longer a thing imo.

The whole structure of Silver Case was really well done, with the police segments being overly weird and the journalist clearing some of the stuff up before starting a new chapter where it became super strange/supernatural again.

792

too few games willing to portray burnouts wandering around apartment complex parking garages at 1:30 pm on a weekdayā€¦

793

Had a game filled weekend. I wrapped up Asha in Monster World. Itā€˜s a fun enough time that doesnā€™t linger. I did get sick of the ice area though. I didn't realize there was a character in town that collected mail and ended up reading a horrific backlog of letters from family members panicking about other family members disappearing in one sitting before the final area. Oof.

I've also been playing Vice Project Doom thanks to [a recommendation from chazumaru over in the secret switch games thread](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/952-secret-switch-games/25). It's got all the action sequences from cheesy action movies of the time. Lovin it so much, I'm planning on checking out other Aicom games.

Lastly, I got destroyed in Puzzle Fighter.

794

Bought the Steam port of Chrono Trigger. Itā€˜s actually not bad! The only real issue Iā€™m noticing is I think thereā€˜s a slight pause before defeated enemies disappear which I donā€™t remember being there in previous versions

795

@ā€œGigaSlimeā€#p38160 this would bother me a lot!

797

Iā€˜ve been working my way through Persona 5 Strikers P5 musou over the last week and even though I have easily had my fill of these games over the last few years Iā€™m not feeling the fatigue that I usually get from these games - at least not after around 25 hours of progress. The SMT demon roster lends itself well to having a consistent variety of enemies to deal with between each dungeon.

The action itself is great too. Once you get to the point of having a half-decent SP pool and you get used to building combos then most battles make you feel like you're swatting flies *if* you engage with its systems. There are a couple of sub/mini bosses that feel like sponges but they are fairly few and far between.

That said there are still a few things that bother me. Some of the dungeons are frankly too big and take hours to finish. This isn't helped by frequent story beats, and a need to replenish SP - both forcing you to exit the dungeons and sit through loading screens. In the case of replenishing SP you have to sit through those screens just to accomplish that, and it gets tiresome as hell.

Still, decent overall and the story and characters are engaging enough if nothing special.

798

some photo journeys from my recent games

Skyward Sword HD: weirdos, creeps, shit, and fun duck stuff
https://imgur.com/a/cPl0S9t

bonus because love a Goron:
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/qiBnMuj.jpeg]

a comprehensive collection of No More Heroes loading transition screens
https://imgur.com/a/Lh11V5q

bonus:
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/uGVCy8C.jpeg]

Nocturne HD freak collection, one of whom is in love with me:
https://imgur.com/a/U054m2N

799

@ā€œyesoā€#p38149 you really need to get around playing INFRA asap

800

@ā€œJoJoestarā€#p38181 I will do so. In fact I played the beginning through the powerpoint presentation, then spent about an hour walking through the office building to the parking garage. Had a whale of a time

@"Syzygy"#p38164 we've got tons of "stealth" games, but no "skulking" or "loitering" games wtf???

801

@ā€œcaptainā€#p37966 nice.

802

@ā€œX3N0Sbiozā€#p38120 You know what, I can empathize with that position. I actually liked most of the mons that you get later in the game, but the first few just do not appeal to me. I do remember thoroughly enjoying the structure of the elite four and how that intermingled with the plot. It's very hard for me to look past the beginning, unfortunately. The gym with the monkey PokĆ©mon, and the bit with Munna just bore me to death.

803

@ā€œX3N0Sbiozā€#p38120 Thank you very much for the heartfelt gen V endorsement! I'm really looking forward to Blanche and Blanche 2.

I'd forgotten that Hearthome City's gaijin gym leader Fantina sprinkles two or three French words over her dialogue in the English version. Doesn't really sell it to me.

In the French and Japanese, this was English, and it's way more intense:

https://imgur.com/a/bbXTvl4

It's too bad the English localization team had to pull their punches, or that there aren't resources spent on separate American English and *everywhere else* English localizations (like how Zelda games get different France and QuƩbec versions, even with re-voiced lines in BOTW's case), cause I love this kinda shit and would play a game entirely in Chiac if one offered it.

804

Iā€˜ve been playing Balan Wonderworld and rather enjoying it. I think it suffers from the same problem as NiGHTs in that it does not teach you how it wants you to play and also is too similar in aesthetic to a game it is not. In both cases Mario 64. But Balan is far more an exploratory 3d puzzle adventure than it is a 3d platformer. If you approach it that way, then it makes sense that you canā€™t jump all the time. And Iā€˜ve yet to run into a situation where i was stuck because I couldnā€™t jump. My biggest complaint is that even looking like a Gamecube game, it runs pretty poorly on my XBO. Not even slow down, but like BIG frame skips. Entire actions just not shown. It seems to be almost random. The only saving grace is that the game is very forgiving so you rarely are in danger of loosing any real progress. It $20 most everywhere now and that seems like the right price for this game.

805

Love those NMH loading screens. I love NMH1 so so much. I wish it had been more influentialā€¦. What a work of art.

I'll be the first to agree Black & White / Black & White 2 are absolutely beautiful and moving at times. I'll be the last to admit that I am always most interested in replaying Gen 1 in various new forms, patches, and challenges. Last, because, well, people like me (gen 1 lovers) have been so vilified. Gen 1 is just the best in my opinion. I'd play Gen 0 prototype if it was available. I like the much darker, post-apoc tone with uncensored violence and adult themes like the earliest stuff had. Fandoms are just extremely dumb and always oversimplify stuff and exaggerate what they like/dislike. Black and White 2 are very awesome.
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/RSpJ45h.jpeg]

806

@ā€œdylanfillsā€#p38345 Lol, I just love talking about PokĆ©mon BW at any opportunity! Itā€™s fair, you did mention your circumstances when you did play it, anyways!

@"connrrr"#p38356 Thanks! I hope I donā€™t overhype it though, itā€™s still a PokĆ©mon game at the end of the day. I gotta replay Diamond as well, forgot a lot about that game!

@"robinhoodie"#p38359 the cutscenes in that game are very pretty! Love the way storytelling in that game is as well. Itā€™s just all showing without telling. So many games these days have a bunch of expository cutscenes and dialogue, Balan is such a breath of fresh air and does things differently.

807

@ā€œconnrrrā€#p38356 These screenshots are cool.

Wonder how translation teams (and the original writers) decided which parts of the sentence to write in English/French, and how different the English parts are in the FR vs. the JP version. I would assume based on doing zero research that the English in the FR version is different from the JP version because of differences in syntax (though "isn't it," "n'est-ce pas," and "恧恙恭" do nicely swap out for one another, don't they).