finished grim fandango last night. between this and chrono trigger it’s been a very auspicious start to the gaming gregorian year for me!
tbh i think i liked grim more. maybe because chrono trigger inspired a whole cottage industry of chronolikes and grim, because it’s more archaic, did not, and thus feels more idiosyncratic to play now. i just found it very beautiful and intelligent about its own gaminess - there’s something very moving about how it uses adventure game structure to explore disaffection and decay, particularly as that kind of game was on its way out.
I’m playing Earth Defense Force 2017 (2006) as my first EDF because it was super cheap and reddit said it was one of the bests.
Really loving it so far but right now I’m thinking I should be playing EDF 2025 (2013) because it feels more correct for the year.
It costs twice the same but still extreamly cheap because of forgotten argentinian prices (0.5 usd).
Should I? (haven’t finished 2017 yet, not sure how long it is)
EDIT: wrote this as a “games I’m thinking about playing” post but it works both ways
Well, putting down Rise of the Rōnin didn’t last long. I ended up with some free time today and not wanting to start up something else just yet, I decided to boot it up and do random open-world things. That included using the game’s “time travel” mechanic to go back and complete some quests and fix up the romance stuff that I missed (which was good!)
I quite like that time travel mechanic for games with choices and the like, particularly with games like this one, where a full new run doesn’t have quite the same appeal of a full on choices matter RPG. It also lets you revisit cutscenes as well, which is handy for a refresher
I’ve advanced the story some and also learned that there are apparently more women I can flirt with, so…I might as well finish it, right?
Started Metaphor Re:Fantazio a while ago and have reeally been enjoying it. It’s definitely doing more for me than any ATLUS game has since Persona 3. Then I set it aside to play through that DQ3 HDTootie and now I’m back! But my wife also got me Unicorn Overlord for Christmas, so I’ve started that too…I think I’ll need a break from these massive turn-based games soon.
as alluded to elsewhere, i dug out my old 3ds and put a bunch of games on it. as also alluded to elsewhere, i’ve been working a lot so i haven’t really carved out the time to onramp to one of the juicy rpgs i have my eye on.
with that in mind, i’ve been playing a ton of rhythm heaven megamix! i missed out on rhythm heaven on my first go-around with the 3ds, so it’s all new to me. it’s a great time. it has a sort of “emptiness” to it that i think is indicative of it being a handheld title, but the variety and life in all the one-button rhythm games is, dare i say, a delight.
and while i’m not playing it currently, i played a little bit of early access game rhythm doctor on steam over the holidays, which was good but it tries a bit too hard to charm the player and more importantly the music kinda sucked imo which makes it hard to play. i mention it here because some reviews compared it to rhythm heaven, which i guess i understand in that it’s a “quirky” one button rhythm game, but idk.
A buddy of mine gave me his PS4 after he got a PS5 and I’ve been playing some games on it. For context, before now the latest console I own is a Switch and I don’t have a PC, so now I’m almost caught up to modern gaming. I started with those Spider Men because I needed a palate cleanser after my delightful Dragon Quest. These open world, icons on the map kinda games are what I call potato chip games. It’s very easy to keep reaching for more and eat the whole bag. I enjoy it in the moment, but I wouldn’t consider it a meal. The swinging is fun and I like collecting costumes, but I turned the difficulty all the way down. The combat was instantly uninteresting at the normal difficulty for me. Spiderman should be able to knock out regular goons in three hits anyway. It has some really bad stealth segments, but they’re thankfully mostly optional. Neversoft’s Spiderman for N64 and PS1 was a formative game for me so I’m glad to play this Spiderman for that reason.
On to the real stuff now: Bloodborne
This is such a great series to play in release order. I’m really enjoying seeing what From tweaks and changes game to game. I could feel Dark Souls II starting to push me toward dodging more than blocking and that training is paying off for Bloodborne. Since there is no shield, I went for the big axe and dumped some points into strength and we’ll see how I do. I’m going in mostly blind, but I did look up how to level up and what Insight is. I did not know you have to pay to play online, but I guess that makes sense. I’ll just have to look at fextralife occasionally in the absence of player messages. I beat the first couple bosses and I’m fully in the souls loop. Oh, and I love how some enemies are all like, “Bloomin’ 'eck! What’s all this then!” Great game.
I played Rabbit & Steel with two friends today. Each player selects a class to play. Each class has 4 skills and then you go on a co-op boss rush with bullet hell elements. You can upgrade your skills, level-up and get items between stages.
My first impression of the game was “This looks like Final Fantasy 14 boss fights in 2D” and I feel like that’s a pretty accurate pitch if you know what that means. I actually know the two friends I played with from my FFXIV FC. We all bought the game independently from each other thinking “this might be fun to play with the other FFXIV folks”.
Had a fun 90 minutes so far. I believe there’s a tutorial as well but I struggled myself through the first round without knowing what was going on and by the end I already picked up a bunch of the mechanics. The second time around I died much less and did better DPS. I will return to this. It’s fun and very much worth the humble price point.
Just rolled credits on CloudPunk. Definitely a 7/10 cool vibes experience.
Overall I enioyed it. It took me a while to realize I was bumping into other cars so much because I wasnt staying on the right side of the road. There should have been lane lines, but also I should be smarter.
My least favorite bit of jank: By default, pressing right on the D-pad toggles the entire UI. The D-pad can also be used to navigate the UI when shopping or managing inventory. Why did they do this? My experience was so much better once I moved the UI toggle to right-stick-click, which is not used for anything else by default. Highly recommend any new player do this first thing.
My favorite bit of jank: You can open your inventory during the closing credits sequence:
I finished Chained Echoes! Almost made me cry. I haven’t and probably wont do all of the side stuff despite doing as much as i could throughout the game. Once again, can’t recommend it enough. Very engaging turn based battles and fantastic story. Lots of heavy subjects and themes throughout.
Since i finished it though, a friend talked me into downloading Marvel Rivals. It’s pretty solid! I think playing with friends will make it more fun too, but overall i had a pretty good couple hours trying out the characters and stuff. If you want a hero shooter, give it a shot. I haven’t gotten into one since Team Fortress 2 back in the day.
I’ve been playing Hole. You enter and exit small levels through a microwave. Masked gunners in suits are in there with you. Each mask color is a team, and you’re up against all of them. Gunners drop money and glowing refrigerators provide resources which are used to build out your base. Taking on in level tasks reward you with upgrades and maps.
I think this all adds up to what’s called an extraction shooter. I’ve been kinda interested in Escape from Tarkov, but the steep learning curve as well as the focus on multiplayer has kept me away. Hole is simpler, single player only, and is designed to be played in short sessions which works for me.
In Dragon Quest III, I gave one of my party members (a Merchant) to a man who wanted her help building a town. Now she’s there selling two items. I don’t know if I can ever get her back. I have recruited a fourth party member now, but their stats are quite low compared to the rest of the party. We will see how this Priest does.
I rolled credits on Panzer Dragoon Saga yesterday.
I had a week off work so I had a brilliant time with it. I was honestly feeling a bit lukewarm on the RPG genre just with how much of a time commitment they are. But PDS is short and really effective. The combat is simple yet engaging (or elegant) and the music is on another level. Despite the Tower being a little bit of a slog the ending is still rather visually impressive and worthwhile so super glad I grabbed a copy of this game.
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. I went into the game without any knowledge of it, and no one else I knew had played it - but everyone who has, including me has summed it up the same way you have. It’s not an amazing game but it’s a cool game! If you have the DLC it’s worth playing, not as good as the main game but a nice second story which adds to the world.
And there will be life sim game based on the world (with better looking characters) due out this year too:
which I am very excited about, as my favourite thing about the game was the actual world itself. I’m not usually a life sim player, but this has me ready to take the plunge.
As promised, I have increased the maximum poll options to 50 to accomodate your list for the next game you play. Please set it with a timer on the duration so I can move it back down to 20 after it’s done.
Spoiler alert - I’m voting for Vagrant Story as I haven’t properly played that myself and need to an excuse to/discuss with someone about it. Plus it runs incredible at 4K on the Steam Deck!
My last couple hours in Nine Sols have been exploring and jumping around with only a brief boss fight (which was a repeat with a lower ceiling). I ran into my Spectre buddy again, but I was so deep in the Factory area that I never ran into him again; I ended up exploring in a different direction and just kinda never got back around, and now I don’t remember where he was.
I finally got the air dash that it felt like I should have had since the beginning.
Now I’m on my way to fight Yanlao. His really paranoid area kinda freaks me out.
Oh! And Shennong rules and I love drinking with him and feeding him poison.
Just to warn you, the lowest point of the game (the scripted bossfight loss and mandatory stealth section) is coming up for you after the Yanlao fight. It’s much shorter than it would initially seem, and the game hits some incredible highs right after.
