I am also curious about this one since I couldn’t get into Ghost of Tsushima’s protagonist and Rise of the Ronin has character creation
Giving me PTSD flashbacks of the Soul Matrix from Soul Hackers 2. Don’t know if you played it. Most sadistic dungeon design I’ve ever seen, three seperate dungeons that were all just floor upon floor of teleporter pads. Look how stupid a single floor can be:
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Soul Hackers and Soul Hackers 2 are on my list. Excited to be killed by more dungeons; that looks like an absolute nightmare.
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It is with some regret that I admit I may have fallen off Persona 3 R is the very final stretch. I absolutely demolished P3FES in '19 but something about Reload just finally wore me out. And I love P3!
I think trying to remake a game that isn’t Persona 5 as Persona 5 is just… too loud. Hard to articulate.
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(Whaha, this new forum interface is going to take some getting used to!)
I started a new play through of Labyrinth of Refrain this past weekend and it’s been every bit as good as I had remembered. It’s not going to be to everyone’s taste (NIS + dungeon crawler) but for folks who like at least one of those things (I’m not a NIS fan per se, but I really love dungeon crawlers) it will probably be quite a bit of fun.
It’s interesting for me because as an Etrian Odyssey appreciator I always assumed the bit where you draw your own map was an essential part of the fun (and it is in fact fun for me) but it’s also really nice to not have to deal with micromanagement of mapping for once. The only drawback is that there don’t seem to be any ways to make notes in game about map details that aren’t mapped for you, so I’ve resorted to keeping notes, a thing I probably haven’t done otherwise in like 30 years.
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Thus far 2024 has been a rough one for my game-liking.
LAD: Gaiden followed by LAD: Infinite Wealth were great gameplay times but, boy howdy some miserable politics, racism, sexism, and homophobia ramp up that’s made me swear off RGG stuff till some changes happen. Which is a shame cause I love Ichiban and an RPG that stars adults in modern day.
Then I did Sea of Stars and The Messenger. Sea of Stars was fine. Never clicked with the combat timing stuff and that soured it for me. The story had some interesting things initially but was ultimately just safe. The messenger I had such a bad time with.
Most recently I wrapped up Unicorn Overlord. Which big story wise was simple, didn’t take any risks, but lots of really nice side character stories with some really sweet moments. Gameplay I really liked. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how this game is too easy to overlevel in and you need to go full hardcore mode for a challenge, and I dunno - the novelty of being able to repeat an activity, have guaranteed chance to improve, and that to directly influence your ability to succeed elsewhere? What a refreshing escapist fantasy. I loved it. It rules.
I think next, since I really wanna have some wins after how many miserable experiences I’ve had this year, I might go back to In Stars and Time to do another run and pick up get the last few scenes I know I missed.
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I’m think I’m personally comfy saying that Unicorn Overlord’s characters are an overall miss for me. The core narrative is banal 45 hours in, but I’ll wait to call that when it wraps (I don’t expect much). There are some affable moments here and there, but it’s mostly the experience of having a new character introduced every other battle that’s killing it for me – thematically, it’s cool that you’re recruiting an army and get to peek at the humanity of your soldiers, but logistically, the result is that I do not have any idea who 75 percent of these people are. Which makes it hard to invest in them talking war or eating stew or having heart-to-hearts. Like I didn’t play for a few days and legit had to look up whether some of these guys were unique characters or just generic dudes I had recruited from a fort.
Still, though, when that battle > pick up garbage > do sidequests > kit out your units > do battle loop hits, it really hits. The characters had me slogging a bit the past few hours, but then a sidequest/general TCB cleanup session had that dopamine hitting, and I’m back in
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Recently, I’ve mostly been hanging out with some friends in Animal Crossing:NH who all seemed to get back into it (or start) around the time I reset my character last month. I hadn’t engaged with many of the online features before, but they’re the best! We’ve been jumping into video chats, hanging out and catching up — it’s been a nice option for some quick socializing on a weeknight.
I’ve also been continuing my first playthrough of I <3 Katamari in short sessions on my stationary bike and I’m still continuing to <3 it more and more. It goes off in so many surprising directions using that core rolling mechanic — it’s really… silly… and I like that.
I think I’ll be finishing that up soon, so I’ve been thinking of shifting gears and picking up Lisa: The Painful / Joyful while its on sale on the eshop — Has anyone else here played it? I love the music that I’ve heard and the story / characters seem engaging, but I’m not very good at RPGs and I’ve heard maybe this one is kind of punishing.
EDIT: Oooo we can upload videos?
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Exactly. Doesn’t make sense when you’re always being presented with new characters and not getting enough time to get used to them. I didn’t care about all the characters in the last continent.
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Lisa is punishing but it generally gives you more stuff than it takes, if that makes sense. You can also save-scum if you’re really worried.
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LISA rules so much. It’s extremely punishing, but probably not in the way you’re thinking. There are no random encounters (with one or two exceptions), so battles are pretty well balanced as a result. It’s just that, through the narrative or because of a really unfortunate attack, your party members may die forever. They often die forever.
But! The game will usually give you enough dudes and stuff to be mostly okay. But it’s important to the experience to feel that pressure.
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Okay, cool — I sort of got this impression from a friend, who has been recommending it for years. I’m down for difficulty in a narrative sense. I didn’t realize all (most) of the encounters were scripted, I like that a lot.
With RPG’s, I mostly just worry about hitting a wall late-game and being forced to grind.
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i’ve been playing so many games but so little is sticking. the game i want to play is saturnalia; last time i booted it up i noped out as soon as i saw the monster, this time i made it past that first encounter but i’m still too scared to go back into it. something about that game is really stressful! i’m thinking it might be more bearable on a console instead of my computer, somehow, but i’m not sure why. it’s frustrating because it looks really interesting. my partner and i have been taking yoga classes at a cathedral downtown, and being in there last night made me think about the church in this game, and i realized how cool it was to frame that first monster encounter within the church.
i’ve also been playing [deep breath] gurumin 3d, final fantasy: four heroes of light, kirby and the forgotten land, and that new prince of persia. i got back into umurangi generation long enough to roll credits on it (but not finish the bonus levels), and i did a full replay of smushi come home (as a bedtime game because it’s literally like 3 hours long). i feel that my gaming energy is a little too splayed out in different directions; or it’s just that nothing is really hitting the way i want it to.
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Lisa: The Painful is good yeah. The dev added a “painless” difficulty setting for the console releases to make it more accessible
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Painless was also added to the Definitive Edition on Steam, which I think is the only one you can purchase anymore.
Adding this text so that it’s different from what I just deleted because the reply didn’t work.
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been plugging away at Final Fantasy XIII for a little bit now. just got to the open world halfway point. i maintain that this is a fantastic mobile game. i still don’t really care about anyone or anything going on. you’re so briefly in any one place and then it’s just the same railroaded combat-exclusive play so no event or location is any more memorable than the last. that’s fine, i like the predictability. i do hope that XIII-2 is more of the same but with a little more active variety beyond pressing play on linear media. Fang is cool. the plot is an interesting enough concept. there’s just not enough meat on the bones. by meat I mean a bunch of disparate, goofy shit strung together. i think. developing.
also finally found a data cable to rebuild my ps4 database so’s i can play MGS5. you can’t remap the buttons in any meaningful way. the Midge Ure cover was a great choice. “I thought you died alone a long long time ago” performed by a dude that’s not the originator of the words…this guy ain’t the fuckin’ Boss. who knows? not me. developing.
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I am currently trying to chow down on SOMA before it leaves Game Pass. I went in knowing the twist. I could have seen the twist coming after an hour of gameplay. But dang if it ain’t cool to walk through a museum of nightmares. I hope the game can sustain that feeling.
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Still plugging away at PC-88 Ys 2. I want to do a screenshot showcase at some point, but in brief:
- I finally figured out that as I visited each statue, I was giving away or losing a tome in my inventory. Progress. I also figured out that when I press A I am using the currently selected item in my inventory.
- I found fire magic. Blasting stuff from a distance is a game changer. (I also found another magic, but, uh, I don’t know what it does yet.)
- I love the sensation of going really deep and feeling lost, but sort of getting my bearings through trial and error. Each area seems just big enough to get lost in but not so big that it’s hopeless.
- I fought this boss who is on the wall next to a door. After dying a lot, I figured out a good loop for how to hit it without taking damage. Then, I realized I wasn’t actually doing damage with each fireball. Whoops. So I got some levels, bought a longer sword, and then came back to beat it.
- Did the smith give me 3000 gold for some ore? Yes. It was funny how intuitive that sequence of events was, even without reading Japanese: “Do I have to pay 3000 for some new item? No, wait … I got 3000. Check inventory … yes, rock is gone. Must have sold it.”
- Eventually found a weird head thing that made music when I used it. I trialed-and-errored back to town and to the basement, where I used the head to open up a den of monsters. After they murdered me a few times by sheer mass, I was able to kite around and get them.
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Adding to the pitch: if you feel status abnormalities in RPG battles are usually annoying or perfunctory, in Lisa they are vital.
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