(Archived) Here we are again: the thread where we discuss the games we are playing in 2024

[Yim]

I love Shining Force. I think I prefer the first game to the second, though I don’t remember exactly why. More focussed, maybe? Maybe because the first time I played SFII I didn’t figure out how to use the wagon to change party members and was stuck with who I had. Maybe it’s Shade Abbey, a really effective sequence, that makes me like the first game more.

Regarding distributing experience, and this maybe will spoil things if that’s what you’re really enjoying, you can use the MC’s Egress spell to restart battles and so it is possible to grind. But you don’t have to.

Anyway, I came to this thread to post about Rolling Bird, a Rolling Thunder-em-up I played today. I thought I’d heard about it on here but I can’t find any posts on it so I dunno. It’s very much directly inspired by Rolling Thunder, a game which made an impression on me when I was a kid and which I still love (particularly the jumping animation moving between height levels) despite having completed the near impossible task of playing it from start to finish (on PSP, so I had infinite continues but not like save states or anything). Rolling Bird has simplified graphics and maybe stage layouts (I haven’t made it very far in, but haven’t seen any pits or vertical scrolling yet, for example) and maybe moves a bit faster, but the main difference is that it’s randomised. I played Rolling Thunder essentially as a memoriser - I can’t find the post now but on another forum after I beat the last stage I posted its map and then described from memory how to beat it, every turn, jump, enemy, door to duck into and so on (probably wasn’t great reading, to ve honest). Randomising it turns it into twitch action, which is a pretty different experience and may prove basically impossible for me to get very far in. But it’s a fun game built on a solid foundation.

[Gaagaagiins]

@Yim

on another forum after I beat the last stage I posted its map and then described from memory how to beat it, every turn, jump, enemy, door to duck into and so on (probably wasn’t great reading, to ve honest).

That rules even if it wasn’t great reading

[Gaagaagiins]

I’m finally playing Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken, aka The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, as part of the twopack on Switch.

I suppose I have kind of been expecting this for many years, because, in fact, I had heard this from someone who, many years ago, had contributed to the fan translation. But, this game is kinda mediocre… so far, anyway.

It is very Baby Mode. I feel very led by the nose to all of the conclusions and mysteries. I don’t know if this is because the game is too anxious about me getting stuck, or if the mysteries are just less mysterious, or whatever. The writing/localization and the setting are all perfectly charming and feel fleshed out. Also this dude is so babygirl:

…but I want some noodlescratchin’ already. It’s tough to feel invested in the drama without really feeling much pressure surrounding what the game is trying to get me to figure out.

[LeFish]

I’ve been playing an awful lot of Rise of the Ronin recently - I don’t think I’ve seen anyone really talk about it here but apologies if I missed anything.

Other than it being an open world Team Ninja action game I didn’t really know what to expect from this game and I’ve gone into it sympathetic that it isn’t going to be Nioh or Nioh 2 - games that I have profoundly adored and devoured - and have expected the game to come off the back of the difficulty and other tweaks that have emerged from Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Strangers of Paradise, both games that I liked but wasn’t enamoured by. The general difficulty isn’t rock hard, even on the hardest available difficulty at the start of the game, and more often than not you’ve got buddies helping you in missions.

Which leads me onto the open-worldiness of the game. From what I can tell there are three distinct chapters in this game each with its own large, open area. I’ve only reached the first two so far but I would imagine that it’s just one more core area remaining. On top of that there are discrete missions and submissions that are more akin to a small stage in Nioh that take place in a slightly altered version of the general overworld - maybe the environment is on fire or something. Some of these are linear, others are a little more free form. I like it.

Typical of open world games there are a bunch of nonsense icons that are drip fed depending on other activities completed in the immediate area, how strong relationships are with different characters and how strong your relationship is with pro or anti shogunate factions. I know some people will hate this but I don’t mind it too much because you can also just stumble across the things that icons represent without having to trigger the icons actually appearing for the most part. The diversions are pretty short and are for the most part entirely optional.

Visually speaking there’s a mix of “this is legit PS5” and dated PS4 stuff. Urban areas are pretty dated but natural elements look really nice; foliage and water looks great in particular but a lot of the other stuff looks distinctly last generation. It doesn’t bother me at all but you can tell that the studio has focused on making some things look better at the expense of others. Characters are a real mixed bag too. Generic enemies are as basic as they come but the main and secondary characters look nice, and the character creator is as ridiculously granular as Nioh 2 and Wo Long.

Combat is as what you’d expect from recent Team Ninja games - tight, responsive, crunchy with a really satisfying feeling of steel clashing. It’s sumptuous. The game is much more grounded in terms of anything paranormal though; there (so far) aren’t any yokai, demons, whatever. All of the enemies so far are people, wolves and warthogs - the most avant garde of the regular people enemies is a guy that I can only describe as a cross of Street Fighter’s Vega and Soul Calibur’s Voldo. Sure, there isn’t the spectacle of previous games but it’s functional and visually performative enough to read when to block, counter etc.

More unusually for Team Ninja games is the RPG aspects of game. A lot of the exposition is told through conversations with characters via quests and side quests, and there’s a fairly shallow relationship / gifting system to build bonds and gain rewards. I didn’t and wouldn’t expect this to be any deeper given the heritage of Team Ninja games and I’m glad that these aspects are mercifully brief and often optional.

Within the pantheon of recent Team Ninja games, I’d put it under both Niohs and above Strangers of Paradise and Wo Long. I have wildly high opinions of both Niohs but I like Rise of the Ronin a lot despite its flaws; it has the stuff that I really wanted (the action) and the way it’s all stitched together is satisfying for what I’ve come to expect. Heck yeah.

[Yim]

I found it, if you’re interested. Turns out I wrote it before I beat the last level but after I’d reached the boss:

Speaking of true pain, Rolling Thunder is excellent but basically impossible. After being stuck for approximately the length of my life to date on level 8 I cleared 9 pretty quickly and felt like I might see the ending pretty soon. I’ve reached the last boss, but I can’t beat it yet.

This map’s from vgmaps, by the way, with the letters added by me. So here’s how this goes:

You start at A. Immediately duck and shoot then walk forwards to hit the yellow crawly guy before he jumps at you. Then switch to the top level, walk forwards to just before the opening on the lower level, duck, and start shooting all the enemies that jump up. Move above the opening below, jump down and move to the back. Shoot the guy there if he didn’t jump to the top earlier. Go in the door (B) for extra bullets, but be sure to enter the first half of the door so that the crawly guy who’ll appear while you’re in there will walk off the left of the screen instead of turning back and messing it up. Walk forwards to just past the second opening. Another crawly guy will go past. Move forwards, switch to the upper level, and jump forwards over the edge. On landing, duck and fire four or six times depending on whether the yellow dude has moved to the background. If he has, wait for him to walk past the opening (D), then go through it. Move forwards to the door at E, shooting any guys that come through the two doors on the way. Go in E for 80 machine gun bullets.

At this point you’ve got two choices: carry on and face the boss with the pistol, or re-enter the door a couple times to get machine gun ammo. I’ve died against the boss several times with the pistol, so I’m currently trying the latter option, but for some reason I haven’t been able to clear the second-last room (S) with the machine gun so I haven’t been able to take the boss on with it. Anyway, if you’re gonna try with the pistol, then skip the next paragraph, and make sure to stop in at all the bullet doors for the rest of the level. If you get the machine gun ammo, skip the bullet doors because you won’t need them and you’re at risk of running out of time.

If you want more ammo, you need to move far enough from the door that it refills. I’ve found that point C is far enough. Go left, killing any enemies that might have appeared, and switch to the upper level at about point D, then move left and jump down. You’re aiming to land on the crate at point C, then immediately walk off it to the left, duck, and fire twice to kill the purple guy. If you overshoot the crate, you’ll land on the purple guy and die. I find jumping at the second last yellow bar works. Then turn around and shoot the orange guy that’s probably appeared. Duck his bullet if necessary. Shoot a few times to stop any foreground enemies shooting you and jump over the crate, then shoot a couple more times and move to D again, go through, and proceed back to E for more ammo. Go back to C again to get one more fill so that you have enough to reach the end of the level.

Once you’ve got some machine gun ammo from E, move forwards to F, go to the foreground, and move forwards to G to scroll all the enemies behind you offscreen. I’ve found that if you don’t enter the door at E as soon as it’s possible and do the same at F, the enemies will catch up to you. At G, watch for two enemies who will move over the crates to you. Once they’re gone, jump up between the purple guy’s shots, and shoot him and the other guy that’ll come on screen as you do. If you’re lucky the front one will only go back a short distance and you can shoot him again. If you’re unlucky he’ll fall into the gap between the four crates and the single crate and stay there. He shoots out of sync with the other enemies here, so the next part will be harder if he’s down there. Jump to the upper crate (H), then jump straight up. This will cause the enemies to lose sight of you and stop shooting. Move forwards one crate, duck, and shoot a lot to take these guys out, then move down, shoot some more, and move forwards. Watch out for the guy who jumps down to I.

At point J a guy will come through the door. Shoot him, then duck and shoot a few shots and move forwards then duck and shoot again. There are three crawly guys and two walky guys to take out. Then move forwards to K and jump to the upper level. If you don’t do this immediately a guy will start throwing grenades making it harder. From the upper level, wait for the grenade guy to turn and walk away then drop down next to the crates and shoot him and the guy that comes through the door. If you wait in this area briefly the guys at M will move forwards and hopefully jump to the upper level. Jump up at L, shoot everyone up there, watch for guys coming through the doors, jump down at M and shoot the guy to the left if he’s still there then turn to the right, shoot a couple times and move forwards. After jumping over the crate at N, try to get to the next one before firing or ducking. This will stop a purple guy appearing to the left. If he does appear, stay ducked. If you try to turn while ducking, you’ll stand up and get shot, but if you fire and then quickly turn you’ll stay low. Move forwards, shooting before jumping over the crates to take out the guys about to appear, and move to the upper level.

At point O, wait on the edge for the crawly guys to turn and walk off the right side, then drop down, duck, and shoot the crawly guy that appears and the walky guy that does the same. If you’ve got the machine gun you can try dropping earlier and shooting the crawlers, but I don’t recommend it unless you’re low on time. From there, shoot a bunch to take out the guys that’ll appear and move forwards. At about point P three panthers will jump from above. Duck before where they’ll land and shoot them as they do. At Q two purple guys will come at you, just jump to the upper platforms and avoid them. At R wait before dropping down for the crawlers to clear out, then drop and shoot the guys that appear.

Now the tricky part: At point S a hidden guy will appear when you get near. Shoot him. He takes four bullets to kill, or he might turn around and walk off. Another four of these guys will appear, one on each of the steps and two on the last step. You gotta get close enough for them to come at you, but avoid getting hit when they do, then shoot 'em. The last two are the worst. High jumps from the steps seem to be the only way to get them to move, but you’re stuck in the animation for so long that they often hit you when you do.

Now the boss: Drop down at T. If you have the machine gun, just shoot until he dies (I think, I haven’t managed to get here with it yet). With the pistol, shoot a bunch, but stop in time to jump over him as he runs towards you, then turn and shoot and jump over again, repeat until dead (again, I haven’t managed this yet).

Slip up basically anywhere and you die. I wrote this from memory, so maybe that tells you how many attempts I’ve made.

I’m playing this on PSP, which lets you save after each level. How anyone would ever beat this on an arcade cabinet that limits how many times you can continue I don’t know.

And the follow up post:

I did it. I’m about ready to take out the UMD and smash it with a brick, but actually I still really like Rolling Thunder. I just don’t think I’ll ever try to beat it again.

[mack41]

Weekly free time to game spent exploring the DS1 DLC. Artorias fight was fantastic, thrilling, great lore, great animations, one of my favorites so far. Manus has been beating my tukus rather thoroughly but I feel pretty close to cracking him. Thus far none of the bosses (aside from S&O) have given me an amount of trouble that felt insurmountable (unlike Laurence in Old Hunters), but I do know there’s some tough ones ahead. Finally have a lazy weekend to look forward to, hoping to spend a nice time in Lordran and possibly see the credits and cap off this epic journey.

[Herb]

I’ve been bouncing around different games for the moment. Mostly been playing Xbox stuff because for whatever reason I feel compelled to not neglect it.

Jusant is interesting, but not much in the way of fun for me. Old man complaint, but pressing on the triggers of the Xbox controller is a bit straining on my fingers so I’m gonna have to give up on it for that reason alone. I do like the way it gives considered, somewhat tactile interfacing to more basic movements similar to Death Stranding. I like the idea of making movement fun and it not coming in the form of fifteen-foot-high jumps.

Blast Corps is still decent fun. The Rare Replay version just feels wrong though. The game has such low detail and poor art direction that playing it in pristine HD makes everything very uncanny valley-ish. I feel like this game needs to be played on like a CRT with an rf adapter, the more grime and fuzz the better. It’s an ugly game that needs to be played ugly.

I never did play Final Fantasy XIII, watched it plenty via friends playing it back in the day though. Gave it a shot, I’m sorta split on it. I think the combat is supposed to be decent, but I’m not feeling it about an hour and a half in. I’ll keep giving it a chance, but the combat has to show me something because I know the story won’t be enough to carry me through. Sure is an amazingly good looking game for being nearly fifteen years old.

Tee Lopes, Jonny Atma - Panic in the Sky! | TMNT: Shredder's Revenge Official Soundtrack

Played a few more levels of TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. At my established pace I may finish it within a year. TMNT, please don’t leave Game Pass any time soon like most every other game I play on the service does on me. More than anything I really love the soundtrack to this game, constantly find my self bobbing my head to the tracks. I applaud any game that has original songs with English vocals and doesn’t turn me off. This strikes me as a dessert game. Very pleasant in small doses, but not something I want to devour for extended sessions.

[sapphicvalkyrja]

@Herb

I think the combat is supposed to be decent, but I’m not feeling it about an hour and a half in.

So, the one thing I will actually admit FFXIII stumbles with is how slowly it opens up in letting the player engage with the actual depth in its combat and advancement systems (which combine into my favorite Final Fantasy battle system). That too-careful approach the game takes to parceling out its intricacies is absolutely to its detriment

You’re close to opening up additional roles for the party members and Paradigm shifts if my footage from my play-through late last year is any indication, and then you’ll get at least a hint of where things can go with it in the sections that follow. Hopefully that will be enough of a taste for you to keep going!

[diogo]

good post

[穴]

After it being the winner of the initial post of the “what to play polls“ thread, I played Suikoedn for like 3 hours on the MiSTer but fell of cause i dunno i was liking it. I started a new job last week where my commutes are about an hour and 20 minutes each way (i only work 6 hours so it evens out kinda) so i restarted my playthrough on the psp via a psp eboot of the origina rom and I’m really enjoying it. I’m about 6 hours in and realy enjoying it. It is nice to have designated times to play video games as my commutes are proving to be.

the psp is the perfect middle spot for it wouldn’t hurt that much if it was stolen (i think phones are way more stealable so i don’t worry that much but i wouldn’t take my switch with me on the bus) so i have a lot of ps1 and psp rpgs ahead of me.

i’m looking into snes emulation on both psp and 3ds to see which one is better cause i’m considering doing a thing where play one suikoden followed by one breath of fire until i reach the fifth installment on both series.

edit: didnt remember that snes virtual console injects exist for new 3ds so 3ds is the way to go

[sabertoothalex]

I am also playing Suikoden and have gotten further than I have in past attempts to play and am pretty enthralled with it. The recruitment and castle mechanics, the multiple types of battles, it’s such a big game and feels impressive even by today’s standards for what “big” games should be. I am following a guide to make sure I get all 108 characters lol

Had contemplated waiting for the HD remasters but they got delayed indefinitely and looking back at the trailers compared to the PS1 game, the new look doesn’t actually do much for me.

[yeso]

To the Suikoden players:

who’s in your party?

[Skellingtor]

i played thru all of Norco yesterday, just knocked the whole thing out in less than 6 hours. nothing like some dystopian magical realism to give your brain a treat. also, i made a cat fly through the roof by petting him too much lmaooooo

now i’m mopping up the rest of the achievements i missed

[robotoboy]

Playing Dragon Quest XI S on PC with mods (it’s like my 9th playthrough of the game at this point, so I thought I’d go hog wild). Looking forward to Sand Land and a host of indie game coming next month. (Also Paper Mario!)

Been in a weird game mood though, and started up Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space in preparation for the Devil’s Playhouse remaster. I’m planning to play Boku no Natsuyasumi this summer, and maybe Chulip.

Oh, also playing Mars after Midnight, and Oracle of Ages on my Gameboy PoCo.

[mack41]

Needed to step away from Manus for my own sanity so headed to take care of the Four Kings…before I dropped into the Abyss to realize I had already taken them down lol. Kept going from the Archives thru Crystal Cave, Demon Ruins, and up to the Bed of Chaos clearing all the bosses along the way with relative ease. They all feel like mini bosses vs Manus lol. Taking a break but hoping to thru the Tomb of Giants tonight. The locations are really impressive and connectivity is back compared to the linearity of the DLC.

One note of frustration: I hate Titanite Demons and the one on the bridge in Lost Izalith has already killed me at least a dozen times. UGH. The worst enemy in the game for me. Will kill him soon, would like a +15 Heater Shield to take on Manus with on my next go (may try again without it after getting thru the Tombs).

[穴]

As many girls I can have on my party after they force a couple of characters in there.
Cleo, Camille and Eileen mainly

[sapphicvalkyrja]

This felt like a good one for today’s festivities

So many little things about this game still impress me all these years later, like how intuitive the boundary between what you can and can’t roll up

The soundtrack still rules, too

[Tradegood]

I played through The Unfinished Swan, and I have some mixed feelings about it. As a Cuter Shooter it definitely succeeds, however as a cohesive experience it fell a little short for me. It game is at a huge intersection of my interests and recent threads I’ve started – as a non-euclidean puzzle and walking sim about shooting bubbles… but I don’t think this game has the impact it had back on the PS3.

Visually the first area can look striking, but once you get past it, the shooter-ness of the game loses focus. The puzzles that follow are hit and miss… I like when the ink balls are used to create platforms, but I did not like sections where it’s there to move objects. The way the environments respond to your presence is great in some areas, but almost frustrating in others. They had a lot of creative gameplay ideas in its short 2 hour runtime, but I didn’t love the pacing or direction of the last couple zones. The story was a little shallow and failed to pull everything together for me personally.

The ending is delightful and imaginative, and I think the journey to get there is worth trying for yourself, even if some elements didn’t work for me.

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And then I learned they added Hatsune Miku to Crypt of the Necrodancer, so naturally had to check that out!!! Now this is profound:

Crypt of the NecroDancer: Hatsune Miku Character DLC Trailer

[stardusty]

I finally gave Dragon’s Dogma a shot after owning it roughly three times on three different consoles. (It’s way cheap these days) I might’ve bounced off of it again but I’ve been terribly sick the last 6 weeks and so had more time to just sit and hang out with something.

It is very… weird? But also not? The systems are weird but the narrative and world is actually very very normal and boring. Such a curious mix. It is screaming to be a multiplayer game but then it’s totally not.

It is mainly a stack of systems struggling to find a soul or personality. Which is why I’m basically done with it after attempting the first real boss fight. (where you finally fight the eponymous dragon) I assumed this was the end game, but evidently it’s more or less the halfway point. I’m told there is some kind of crazy “twist” at the end but I’m not sure I can be bothered to make it that far.

Before this fight the dragon gives me a choice to either fight him or sacrifice the princess in order to stave off the end of the world. The princess was offered to me as a sort of half baked romantic interest halfway through this game, but she is frankly, ugly and obnoxious, so I immediately grabbed her and offered her up to the dragon, which disappointingly only ended up in a game over screen.

[sabertoothalex]

Forced party right now and would very much like Cleo to tag back in asap