Anyone played entropoly? It's pretty interesting as a meticulous recreation of another games movement mechanics but put into the context of a game with completely different goals. Some aspects of it work really well but other times you really feel that the game has been kind of frankestined together. The game is undeniably one of the best 2-d platformers for letting you play in a way that “looks cool” but is neither fast nor practical.
@“leah”#p114755 I believe you for sure, I was so into it (and also using guides to avoid too much very slow trial and error) until that desert mission with Ms. One Hitter, which left me with an extremely clear sense of “I cannot do this as is.” You picked the right situation for it; despite the strangely breezy tone (for a war), it does seem to require full-on dedication, which I wasn‘t prepared for – but I liked it enough up to then that i’ll pick it up and try again if they ever release a version with a single accessibility feature
@“tokucowboy”#p114708 Yup, Diablo II rocks, and the music does a big part. Also, a thing that I always enjoyed as a kid is the secret level and playing this with friends (my class was Paladin lol).
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@“tokucowboy”#p114708 Wings of Darkness (2021) Spent two hours on this one and it passed through me without a lick of desire to return. Something curious about that Clouded Leopard Entertainment, yeah? Quite slick Liberation Maiden-style simple mech battles, but lord I swear one day I’m gonna interview a bunch of people who know better (maybe some of ya’ll) and find out why Japanese pop storytelling is the way it is sometimes, specifically in two extremely unsatisfying areas: telling rather than showing, and the regular, on-the-spot creation of magical logic to progress the narrative (“she didn’t die, because our spirits fused!”). Anyway, this game is half visual novel, and all of the visual novel is the former type of storytelling. I appreciate the polish here, they’re really trying to do something with a mid-range budget, but any genre in which half of the title is “novel” just can’t get by on scenes that walk me through character growth by way of dry description (“I didn’t like her at first, but then we were paired on a planning project and I began to understand her, now we have a deep respect for each other”) and expect an investment. Have you heard of DIALOGUE, BRO? I’ll look at it again because it’s only a couple hours long, and I am the Patron Saint of stupid and bad research
As for this, I am very fond of anime storytelling and this hurt my ears. The aesthetics are not terrible per se and the fights are grungy and I don't know, but they feel really good in a sense, but goddamn it, the story is really annoying and without any kind of raccord. It's just not only telling everything upfront, but also without any nuance, interesting things to say or expose and I really left it really quick, which is a shame.
PS: I'm being more tired of the second episode of Coffee Talk. I don't mind continuity, but damn, the vibes are somewhat off when you're telling me everything so upfront that it sometimes throw me off the experience, and it's sad because it has some nice archetypes going there.
Been mainly IRL-posting around here lately, because botw is all I’ve been playing, and what is there to even say about this game that hasn’t been said? It’s good.
Started Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (or whatever it‘s called) and the tutorial was sort of like running into a wall five times in a row on accident, but I’m already so excited for this style of game. Why didn't anyone else make tactics games where you marshal an entire battalion?
@“edward”#p114876 Yeah, Ogre Battle is so cool. I haven‘t played Tactics Ogre, which I’m sure is great, but the idea of it has always excited me less, since I already more or less know what a tactics game is. The first time I played Ogre Battle it felt like there was nothing else like it. I have now played other stuff sort of in the same vein (e.g. Romance of the Three Kingdoms), but I guess due to nostalgia Ogre Battle feels the most special. Just talking about it makes me want to play it again.
@“saddleblasters”#p114877
I know! I‘ve never played March of the Black Queen but I played Person of Lordly Caliber probably five times when I was a kid, and I’ve always just wanted more of that.
I was playing Fallen Order and I‘m in the big cave-forest on Kashyyyk and I’m scaling a wall with those annoying creeping vine flower things you can‘t kill, and Cal says “those things give me the creeps” while I’m running out of time trying to get around some and I shout FUCK OFF at the same time as BD-1 blipped and blooped something to which Cal then replied “strong words coming from you!” Is this emergent gameplay?
Also the ganking in this game is fucking horrible. It's never clear which of my force powers are strong enough to work against whom.
Also also I keep calling force pull "force bring" lmao I've tried but I can't stop.
I did enjoy the heavy purge trooper who sounds like Ryan Reynolds doing Gray Fox.
i really like reading this thread and playing games vicariously through all of you.
i'm slowly making my way thru ffxiv (just got to heavensward) and yakuza 4 (on the kiryu arc). not much to say about those classics, but if you're like me and need a good push from an online stranger to dive in to something that's been on your radar, take my advice and play those games.
Been on a visual novel kick recently, and have been playing/reading Wonderful Everyday: Down the Rabbit Hole and Raging Loop, both of which are games I’m constantly asking “what is happening” for two completely different reasons.
I played Attack of the Friday Monsters…. and I hate it. I hate when adults are condescending to kids or don‘t respect their intelligence, and it’s a very strong ludonarrative theme in this game.
I went in wanting to love it, but I recognize I was only interested due to the aesthetic and _the idea_ of it. A slice of life game with an ambiguous story and setting sounds amazing on paper. In reality, the game didn't really do anything to earn my attention. It has good art and ok music and strong prose at times, but the end product goes nowhere. I couldn't get wrapped into the story. More power to you if you enjoyed it, I just couldn't relate.
I didn't care for the story or the characters orbiting the main character's life. Everything felt very surface level. Even when the game tries to be a little quirky with the character of Frank, it just feels very unnatural. The game tries very hard to capture an innocence or nostalgia, but it didn't earn it from me. I know I'm not the target demographic but I am very open to empathizing with any character, they just didn't give me anything to latch on to.
The pacing is a major problem due to the gameplay. Every 2 seconds walking and picking up a card **sucks**. it just doesn't feel right, especially since you can't see the shines half the time so you can't avoid bumping into it. The card game is bad. Rock paper scissors didn't work for Alex Kidd (possibly my least favorite game ever), it doesn't work for Ayabe Kaz either. There's no actual discovery or problem solving to be had, just go to points marked on the map in the order its presented. Something like scaring the bullies could have allowed for player choice or at the very least, challenged the player to figure out that they need to yell into the other end of the pipe, but instead it just instructs you to go from point A to point B then back to point A. _Riveting_.
Also the fact every conversation "unlocking" or "advancing" a new chapter feels very unnatural and like when a gatcha game is playing a dishonest psychological trick on you. Why does this exist? To make the game feel like it's moving along faster? Because it feels more like it's slowing the game down unnecessarily.
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Anyway.... that Forspoken DLC looks pretty sweet.
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@“Tradegood”#p114960 Something like scaring the bullies could have allowed for player choice or at the very least, challenged the player to figure out that they need to yell into the other end of the pipe
I remember that part and trying to yell into the 3DS microphone, the only time I thought to try doing so to solve a puzzle without a game spelling it out for me that that's what I needed to do… and it didn't work!!
it’s a picture book contorted into a video game yeah. And the Millenium Kitchen design works better I think when it’s more spaced out in the proper Boko no Natsuyasumi games, meaning there isn’t the same density of shit you have to pick up off the ground etc, and the meta-narrative is more sparingly applied so less overbearing. Friday Monsters is too brief for its flaws to carry much weight imo, but you’re not wrong!
Every new stage of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen just makes me happier. I don‘t know what it is about this style of game that I love, but I can’t believe there aren't more games like it.
I started Judgement.
I last played Yakuza 6 in 2020. It feels good to be back in this setting after like 3 years.
I tried to play with english voices tho since I imagine the voice acting is great, but couldnt make it far and had to switch over to japanese. Like... these games just feel like they have to be played in Japanese. So sorry to the English talent :(
I started playing White Knight Chronicles based on Tim‘s recommendation in a recent episode. (Or maybe an old episode. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between ancient and new episodes) I happened to own it and evidently never even got as far as the first battle the first time I tried it.
The story is mushy fantasy trash fast food, but the gameplay is slick as heck! And the graphics are gorgeous! The world is so down to earth and pretty. It's very refreshing after playing all these wacky nouveau jrpgs. I wonder why they didn't market it on the homey, comfy feel of the game. The boxart is also terrible.
@“edward”#p114876 I was always intimidated by the Ogre Battle games, but they‘re actually so simple and elegant, despite how much is under your control. The little sprites also look so cool. There’s nothing else like it.
I’m playing tears of the kingdom, not posting any spoilers for now, but I am posting vague thoughts and feelings and predictions.
I‘m playing GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon and it’s pretty good, mostly. I was confused as heck for the first couple of hours as a few things are poorly explained and those first couple of hours are advisable to grind upgrade materials than push onwards as if you die then you lose all of your collected materials on your current run, similarly to Mystery Dungeon games. The game has a slight push-your-luck element to it and the loop seems to focus on going further and further to collect materials and upgrade the meta systems.
Once I got over that though I've since enjoyed it a lot. Combat is fun and there's a decent enough weapon variety without it being overwhelming. The star of the show is the art style though because it looks absolutely gorgeous in motion - it's sumptuous.
Cool game. Definitely going to keep at it.