(Archived) The thread in which we discuss the videogames we are playing in the year 2023

video games
107

I just replayed The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the first time since it‘s release. I’ve always had a soft spot for the 2D portable Zeldas, and needed something simple and familiar after the holidays to chill with.

I mostly had a pretty good time working my way through the dungeons, and exploring the overworld but man did I forget how small the world of this game is. I felt like I could walk across the whole map in a matter of minutes once I'd gotten all the traversal related items.

The art style is still fantastic and reminds me of a pixely version of what they were going for with Wind Waker. Looked pretty good emulated and running on the 5.98in 1080p display of the Ayn Odin.

The final dungeon had a bunch of time based puzzles involving the multiples of Link, and maybe I'm just old but I really struggled with some of them. Getting the timing right was a real pain, and the only real issue I had with the game overall.

Definitely had a good time revisiting this game, only took me about 12 hours to get through and was a chill time.

109

I am doing my run through on The Adventures of Little Ralph (Chippoke Ralph no Daibouken) on Normal after beating it on easy. Here is my advice to anyone considering playing the game. You kind of need to play it twice. So many of the challenges feel like GOTCHA!s the first time through that you miss out on all the cool things the game is doing. Knowing where they obstacles are in my second run I am having a vastly better time. It‘s game design that was fine in it’s time, but requires a brain adjustment to get back into now.

110

5 hours straight if DQB so far today. Taking a break to pick up mail. Will probably play until bed time.

Edit: played on the bus too. Golem fight coming up

111

I played ElecHead and Picross S in between Bayo3 stages, and both games are great!!

Picross is too addicting, need to cold turkey stop playing this for reals.

ElecHead was wonderful, but I beat it pretty easily.

So... thanks to subscribing to PS Extra during Black Friday, I downloaded The Pedestrian on my playstation for another easy game to play in short bursts.

yo... this game sucks lol. The presentation is great, but actually playing it just is not fun, especially after the last two puzzle games I played. Nothing in this game feels clever and gives you a satisfactory feeling of progress and achievement... it just feels like a very bad, albeit very pretty, game.

also the desert stages in Bayonetta 3 suck too!!! Platinum ranking these stages are just no fun :(

112

@“Chopemon”#p99580 I did a utility run on Way of the Samurai to do the kill 100 dudes challenge to get some easy money then killed the four Kurou dudes near the start to get better swords, did a blacksmith upgrade then left the mountain pass to end the playthrough.

Better equipped, I have done another couple of playthroughs that are wildly different and had a wonderful time. Ending 1 culminates with some sequences that are very similar to Ending 5 but they have completely unique scripting, dialogue and events. Very impressive game. I might do another run but I'm happy with what I've seen of the game and it is definitely brilliant.

113

This year I am going to go back and beat some Genesis games I had growing up. I started Landstalker yesterday it‘s really good so far! My only complaint is that some of the platforming is kind of confusing and unnecessarily difficult. Music is so good. I have been taking a break from Radiant Historia but I do plan on going back to finish it, I enjoyed what I have played of it. I also started playing Death Stranding a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if I’ll stick with it, modern action games are kind of overwhelming to me! I really like the parts where you‘re just quietly walking through cool landscapes. Tree Froggy’s posts are making me want to check out DQ Builders.

114

hmmmm the Danganronpa talkin in this thread has got me thinking I should revisit those games. I played the first one as soon as it got ported to Vita, and had a grand old time. Never could quite crack the second one for some reason. Tried a couple of times and never got past the first couple of hours. Always been curious about the third.

As for what I’ve been playing… Xenoblade 3! In very small, periodic bits. It continues to be just very competent at everything it does, and not at all cringey, still! I’m having a shockingly (for this stupid series) unconflictedly good time.

115

I haven‘t been able to stick with any one thing lately. Even through I’ve enjoyed what I‘ve played of Elden Ring and Disco Elysium, I’ve felt more inclined to start something new than to keep playing those.

Still playing a bit of _Hyper Gunsport_ here and there. Just going through the circuits. It's a real good time.

Last night I started _[Tales of Bistun](https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/tale-of-bistun)_, which I really like so far. It's a bit of a walking simulator that takes you through a gamified version of a 12th century Persian epic poem. The voice acting is charming, the actions all have snappy animations, and the art is colorful and dreamy. Shohreh Aghdashloo narrates the opening cinematic, she rules. The developers advertise the game as an action-adventure, and that's where it kinda falls short for me. I walk along the narrative path, hear more of the story, and sometimes hit baddies to break things up. It's nicely paced, just not very action-y.

116

>

@“LeFish”#p99795 Valkyrie Elysium

I've been curious about this game and kinda waiting for someone on here to mention it was worth checking out, seems fun! I didn't play any of the original games so don't have the (apparent) disappointment of it not fitting the style of the older games, but every review keeps hovering around a 7 and the video I've seen of it looks pretty sick so...

appreciate the details, might have to check that out!

117

lol well all of the Danganronpas were on sale on the (Japan) eShop, so i bought the trilogy. guess i'm locked in!

started the first one up last night, and played through the prologue. it was like slipping into a comfortably hot bath. looking forward to finding a spare hour or so later this evening so that i can play (read, really) more.

Dangranonpa rules. at least the first one does. it's so trashy and sleazy and proud of it. i think i'll try and get through all three of them this year.

118

After bouncing off all the stuff I previously talked about I started Dragon Quest 8 and have stuck with it!! I love it. I tried previously to play the 3DS version but I’m doing PS2 now and have gotten a lot further than I had previously. I like that it, so far at least, focuses only on four party members! Really like how tight it feels. It also sorta feels like 11 is this game cranked up all the way. I know DQ can feel sorta samey sometimes, in a good way usually, but these two seem very linked.

119

>

@“mindleftbody”#p99850 Tree Froggy’s posts are making me want to check out DQ Builders.

don't haha it's ruining my life haha
I'm scared to pick it up for chapter 2

120

# GOD HAND

121

finished beautiful desolation - enjoyed it the whole time EXCEPT the ending, which feels like a total nonevent. very weird choice there. good game though, might replay it sometime, its worldbuilding and presentation are so compelling.

also finished _valkyria chronicles_. ooof those difficulty spikes. some of these missions seem nearly impossible to complete without a guide - the second naggiar plains mission and the selvaria fight in particular - though it could also be that i’m just bad at the game. that said i was and am impressed by how seamless the overall package is, and how well it handles its tone. it’s a little irritating but also kind of brilliant, i’m glad i got around to it.

started _oneshot_, which i’ve been interested in for awhile. i’m enjoying it - the whole rpgmaker feel just works for me, and i like that it shies away from the cute/grotesque combo that fuels similar games like _omori_, which imo is a little played out. it’s trying to do its own thing, more melancholy than spooky, and it reminded me of _anodyne_ somewhat. it feels underdrawn at points though, like its world is a little too small.

122

>

@“rejj”#p99806 I highly recommend you seek the anime, which is genuinely Danganronpa 3. It is in two parts that are intended to be watched interleaved. Hope ep 1, Despair ep 1, Hope ep 2, etc.

Just wanna reiterate this for anyone playing / replaying the Danganronpas -- _please_ watch the show after finishing 2 and before starting V3

123

Wow, I finally bought Danganronpa for like $2 this last year and hearing it talked about so fondly in here is pretty motivating. Maybe I'll just play that dang game, too, I love an Insert Credit book club.

Speaking of Spike Chunsoft, I've also been poking my head back into Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate lately. This is a game that I love to play for two solid weeks at a time, drop cold turkey for stretches of approximately 9-18 months, and then return to completely cold. It's also maybe one of the worst games you could possibly choose to do that with. My last run ended because I forgot how shopping worked, accidentally stole a bunch of shit I intended to buy, and got merc'd by a gaggle of shopkeepers. It's great and I hope to finish a run one day, possibly years from now.

Anyway, _Hot Front Mission 1st: Remake Update_: While the ending sequence was one of the shoddier parts of the remake (replacing pixel art with bad digital paintings will never be the move), the thematic/narrative content of Front Mission's ending is aces, especially for '95. So I got to the 1st part of the game (not the first part, the _1st_ part, which is the second part of the game that was added to the first game 8 years later). It's an additional campaign that debuted with the PlayStation port, was then included in the DS version and is now in this remake, wherein you play as a squad on the other side of the war. And against all odds, I am liking this Forever Entertainment product even more. I spent a good 25 hours finishing the first (not the 1st) campaign and really thought I'd save the second (1st) till Front Mission 2: Remake was coming up. Then I thought, well I'm a curious man, let me just peek at it. And here I am full-assed stuck in again.

It's totally sensible when you consider that this is a 2003 product following a 1995 product, but I'm pleasantly surprised at how much more this feels like a small sequel than it does a campaign expansion. The mission variety has expanded, the maps and base locations are much more diverse, and the characters, dialogue and relationships are so much more robust. It moves the needle just a bit more toward the "visual novel between battles" side of things, and I'm liking that. So much so that I guess I'm playing through Front Mission 1st now, with no break between it and the first (not 1st) Front Mission.

Also, I mentioned elsewhere on the forum that Pocket Card Jockey just got released on Apple Arcade. And that means that someone publicly said the words "Pocket Card Jockey." And that's all it takes for me to start playing Pocket Card Jockey on my 2DS again, which I did do until 4:13 in the AM the other day. I've already raced and retired some fine fillies and colts like Mr. Drippy, Tapatio, Jad the Taff and Bubsy 3D, currently racing my protégé, Uncle Grippy, in the G1 bracket. Once again, I'm imploring everyone who wants to just zone out -- bliss out even -- on solitaire, very light sim elements, dumb horse names and endlessly charming writing to get this on their Apple stuff or just pay the $6.99 for the 3DS game while you still can, it is a form of self care even at 4:13 AM (~do ~not ~do ~that ~part)

124

Keep seeing people talk about the Danganronpa trilogy but it is really a quadrilogy. Ultra Despair Girls rules! The story handles some very serious stuff in a gross and clumsy way and the dialogue seriously needs an editor BUT the gameplay is like puzzle combat Resident Evil 4. I love it! Don't overlook it! It has core story in it!

Which reminds me, the Danganronpa End of Hope's peak anime is the conclusion to Danganronpa 1, 2 and Ultra Despair Girls.

Weird to think if you go the distance with the series, you really are involved in the deaths of a lot of children!

125

@“Chopemon”#p99933 Second all this, it’s an exceptionally clumsy game that is a blast to play but boy some of it sure is weird in a bad way

126

@“rejj”#p99926 I’ll try to keep this in mind!

127

I played a little bit of[size=36] GOD HAND [/size]last night in between watching Ruby and captain and Gaag (did anyone else jump in??) stream it!

Apparently I'd cleared the game on normal twice and and had a fresh ng+ raring to go. Empty space missing where a file 2 would be, and I was certain I'd finished the game on hard mode back in the day, hmm. I got up to the exit and final mook before leaving the area where the poison chihuahua is and then got it handed to me.

It made me also want to maybe try streaming the game somehow, from my PS2 splitting the signal between my TV and laptop (but I don't have any of the kit to do this currently).

----

I'm really liking Ladykiller in a Bind. Someone on [Dan Olson's let's play of the game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8GB8RNgE3w) sums it up: "Twelfth Night with bondage." Oddly my favourite character might be The Nerd/Lieutenant, this uptight grump who may or may not have a crush on the student council president she assists.