I’m a serial game not-finisher (at least lately) but this weekend I finished playing Another Code: Two Memories from the recent remake on Switch.It was fun! Maybe not quite as much fun as it was when I played the DS version close to 20 years ago, but still, a pretty good time. And Ashley is compelling as a character, but I have to be honest: she ends up having to put up with SO MUCH BULLSHIT from just about everybody in this game. This came though so much more in this playthrough! I think part of it is the stilted writing, and part of it is just par for the course for how folks treat 13 year olds.
So now it’s on to Another Code: R, which I’ve never played. I expect it should be a longer game, and hopefully it’s a little more kind to Ashley? I’m not holding my breath for that.
Anyway! These are nicely made games, and I’m glad they’ve gotten a remake/rerelease. It was the right thing for me to play at the moment, when I’ve thoroughly burned myself out playing a bunch of RPGs from the 2000’s!
I’ve only become aware of this in the last couple of days, seemingly being completely oblivious to it up until now. I agree, it looks really hot with some nice ideas thrown in. I’ll be checking it out too.
It’s a nice bonus that it’s being sold at a diet price rather than a full fat one.
I’ve been super busy lately, but things are cooling down so I decided to finally pop on Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. My understanding is that this game tends to get massively overshadowed by its masterpiece sequel (Hm… Sounds familiar), so I’m relieved to report that this game is already pretty amazing on its own!! (… Sounds familiar!!!) I’m kind of astounded at the quality of the writing considering it’s - at this point - a standalone SNES RPG from 1993. I think of circumstantially similar RPGs on that system from that time and I think of Secret of the Stars, Paladin’s Quest, games like this… Not ones especially beloved for their writing. I’m only about five hours into Lufia and have already felt a pretty wide range of completely authentic and honest emotions. Of course there’s that master class of a cold open, but the character dialogue once the game starts properly is so consistently charismatic and human. Incidental dialogue, story cutscenes, all of it is remarkably polished. There’s one single line of dialogue from a completely innocuous NPC that was more effectively anxiety-inducing than my entire playthrough of Clock Tower - any fans of this first Lufia, I wonder if you know which line I’m talking about, lol.
Also - who was going to tell me that Wild Arms has secretly been a Lufia fangame this whole time?? It’s kinda eerie how similar these games are presentationally, and there’s even been some suspiciously similar plot beats so far. I wonder to what degree that will continue. I’ve loudly shared my love for Wild Arms around the forum in the past, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I started loving Lufia. And again, this is all for the quieter, back-of-the-class original game; if Rise of the Sinistrals really is the masterpiece everyone says it is, it very well may become a new all-time favorite. Any improvements at all on this first game would have me floored. In the meantime, I’ll continue enjoying this one before it becomes hard to look back.
Playing current 2024 games has become a bit difficult for me. Primarily because of a lack of interest on my part. Helldivers 2 is a lot of fun but I have taken a long break and plan on returning when cross-save is available.
I’ve been playing Dark Souls 2 on the Steam Deck. It’s a good game and playing it for the first time since my playthrough of Scholar of the First Sin on PS4 back in 2016 I have to say the original DS2 is better. It also confirms for me that DS2 is, to me, a little more consistently good compared to DS1
I started playing through Elden Ring again. I played 120 hours back in 2022 on PC. I tried a couple of new characters since but ended up disinterested after a couple of hours. Since Shadow of the Erdtree came out my interest has piqued again. I picked up the PS4 version because I recently bought a PS5 and I saw on Digital Foundry that the PS4 Pro version of the game runs much better on PS5 than the PS5 version. Elden Ring is still great! I think I like it more than Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. It is a silky smooth 60fps on PS5 with the PS4 version. I am still in Limgrave so maybe that 60fps won’t be able to keep up but I’ll have to wait and see. The PS5 right now is kind of the best system to play Souls games on. Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring can all hit 60fps without any hassle a PC can create.
i played through cavern of dreams and enjoyed it. the spooky-solemn-colorful tonal balance is really fun and its puzzles felt well-tuned - not so easy that they’re brainless, not so difficult that they pushed me off the game. its level design and moveset allow for some boundary-breaking shenanigans which i always enjoy, and it gives the whole game a nicely fragile/slippery quality, where it feels like it’s always a step away from collapsing. i liked the overall slow pace and exploratory vibe, and the lack of combat. buuuut i also don’t think it fully articulates what its mechanics can do - there’s a momentum-based aspect to it that i never felt was useful when the game moves so slowly, the worlds are all interconnected but it doesn’t feel meaningful, and the final levels sort of settle for an artificial inflating of difficulty (timed challenges, small moving platforms, etc) instead of using the mechanics in more interesting ways. i sort of wanted to call it a crunchy platformer but i think the crunch is like… incidental to the game, instead of being an organic part of its design. like the ideal form of it would be smoother. but i like it more upon reflection, because its atmosphere is so captivating and it has some really cool ideas.
after that, i played through the thousand-year door remake. i rented the gamecube version back in the day and enjoyed it - i got up to the hooktail fight, though i don’t remember if i beat it or not. it was interesting returning to it with years and years of accumulated gamer knowledge that this one was The Best Mario RPG… i thought it was a phenomenal point and click adventure game but as an rpg it’s just okay. it makes sense to me that the paper mario games after this would start to mess around with their mechanical structure because it felt like battles in ttyd were just things to do in between plot points, not opportunities to expand my connection with the narrative and characters. if that makes sense. i think this is in sharp relief because i’m still sort of playing final fantasy: 4 heroes of light which is a real rpg-ass rpg.
i briefly picked up dragon quest iv, i have very little experience with these games but it seemed cool. got to a place where i needed to grind a bit and, since i’m in that spot with 4 heroes too, i decided to come back later.
now i’m playing penny’s big breakaway and i think it is cool! this is a weird thought but i love the way the levels are set up in relation to the camera, even if it makes controlling the thing a little awkward sometimes… it’s like, i’m standing on one corner of a cube and constantly looking at the exact opposite corner of the cube, but the paths criss-cross back and forth over that vantage point. it makes me want to find the most direct route. i have no idea if that makes any sense outside of my brain.
i decided it was time to try out that riven remake. i don’t usually pc-game though…
i go to gog to buy it and, first, i have to register, so i know things are going to suck. it took a lot of convincing to prove i’m not a robot, but i can’t blame the site too much for that-- people who’ve met me face-to-face wonder if i’m perhaps a robot.
but then it gives me this error:
i wonder two things:
why is this a possible error state? how wrong is what they’re doing with passwords that this error would ever be thought of?
why did it not validate my new user form before it put me through the ringer identifying bikes, motorcycles, and crosswalks?
i try a shorter password and get the error again. but then the third time’s the charm.
so now i’ve downloaded and installed an app to download and install the game. i hate this world.
and i know something’s going to shit its pants because my monitor is in portrait.
the absolute state of pc gaming…
i didn’t have any issues getting dr. robotnik’s ring racers running. maybe i should never pay for a game again… maybe that’s the lesson i should learn.
I had a similar experience that I wrote about a few weeks back brought on by finally completing Persona 5 Royal. I cycled through a bunch of games and am still kind of struggling to land somewhere. I ended up making a list of the games in 2024 I had skipped after spending so much time in finishing longer games and bought the new Shiren game.
I’ve been playing it at least once a day until I die and then go on rescues for other players while I wait on my own. I think that to your point, playing something that I have been looking forward to has kept me engaged but I have yet to find the next thing I’m ready to go deep with.
I’ve been playing Vampior Saviors: Lord of Vampire (Darkstalkers 3) and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix all week. It finally clicked and I’ve been sticking to a couple of characters and trying to get their specials down consistently — It’s been a lot of fun making slow progress. I switched out the square gate for an octoganal one on my arcade stick earlier this year, and I think that helped a lot (though I know this might have some disadvantages for certain movements).
I’ve been sharing my excitement with a friend of mine who grew up playing these. We’ve been nerding out over the animations together (this was a fun read). Plus, I’ve discovered that part of the joy of cracking into a mid 90’s fighter is discovering ancient fan sites that are filthy with sprite gifs, like The Fighters Generation.
The collection has a bunch of development art as well. It’s gorgeous and really inspiring. I love how effortlessly these sketches are rendered.
Been playing a whole bunch of stuff and trying not to feel guilty about the stuff I’m not finishing. To touch on that a bit… I think it’s been said many times here before, but we really shouldn’t feel guilty about games we don’t finish. I play games when I’m in the mood for them, even if that means shelving a 100 hour campaign right in the middle of it to start something new… live it up!
Anyway… I started Death Stranding a bit ago and am having more fun with it than I thought I would. I’ve never been one who finds babies particular cute or anything, but I feel a strange need to protect this baby. The game is adequately spooky and carrying stuff around mountains and rivers and whatever is more engaging than I thought it’d be.
I also started the first Ape Escape for the first time ever and it’s so much fun! I love catching them monkeys! I also loves games that really take advantage of a controller’s features in a really gimmicky like using the right analogue to point your various tools and stuff.
This thread inspired me to get Ridge Racer 6 on Xbox One for $9.99
It’s my first RR, and I’m definitely enjoying the positive vibes and environments. Took me a little to get the initial hang of the drifting but am now winning the early races. Feels good to play! I can imagine myself playing a few races here and there. I like how the cars are called machines.
I bought this recently and I am very happy with it.
I came from a lukewarm first few hours with Forza Horizon 4. I had what I can best describe as a “craving” for a fun arcade racer, and Forza wasn’t it.
Finished Project Wingman a few days ago. I started back in April and really wasn’t feeling it at first. Those early missions were fine, but I felt really detached from the game’s world and story for at least the first third of the campaign.
But god damn – there’s definitely a turning point in there where they absolutely floor it and never look back.
I’ve been chasing that high over the last week. I started Ace Combat 04 again after learning that the latest nightlies of PCSX2 have more or less smoothed out the emulation bugs from years ago. Still love that one dearly and was really happy to play it again.
What has always bumped for me with FFXIV is wanting to play the highest level stuff, but frankly the MMO nature of having to do stuff I have zero interest in doing to get there (for me that is usually having to play a crafting class).
I’ve level capped through I think Shadowbringers (is that the Japan expansion with the Ivalice raids?) and the dungeon stuff is super fun, but I can’t really bare having to do things I don’t wanna do to get there.
