Happy New Year everyone!
How were your holidays? And how is your new year starting? Any resolutions for this year?
My gaming resolution for last year was to play through some of the oldest games in my wishlist, specially smaller indies and JRPGs. Cleared (completed or dropped) some 42 games last year, so that was a big success.
For this year, I plan to catch up on all first party Nintendo games (the ones that are on Switch). I am generally a patient-gamer, but I make exceptions for Nintendo games, even then, I have many games that I missed, like Astral Chain, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker to name a few. Other than that, also want to catch up to latest installment of the some series I am playing, like Yakuza or Ys.
So, what I played over last two weeks:
I got stuck at the second dragon boss in Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout, and after looking it up online, it seems I was rushing through the story and should slow down and work on alchemy, as there are quite a few things that I should have at this point that I don’t. So, putting it on backburner for a bit, will just play it slowly as a cozy game.
Started Astral Chain, always meant to play it finally getting around it. The game is really fun. Love the urban environment and the fast paced combat. I have unlocked all but one legions, and am probably somewhere around halfway through. This is currently my primary game. Will probably finish it over the weekend or the next week. Let’s see.
Over at PS side, started and finished Yakuza 6: Song of Life. I played Yakuza 0 last year (23), and was originally planning to replay 1-5, but then just gave up on that and watched a recap to refresh my memory, and started 6 directly.
What a game! This was probably my favourite story in the whole series (yet), though I played older games a long time ago, so it could be some recency bias, but even then, great story and character development! Combat was a bit simplistic from older entries as there’s only one combat style this time around, other than 3 in some of the previous one. I enjoyed it though, and won’t mind if they keep it like this.
Tried Saints Row, the new one, it was one of the free monthly game for PS+ Essential a few months back. Dropped it soon enough though. I had very low expectations so was enjoying the game in the start, but the combat is pretty meh, failed a mission few times because of this and just gave up.
Started Nier Replicant , love the fast paced combat, and the world building, but the fetch quests are too much. I am trying to do most of them, but some of them require some rare items which are not easy to come by, so not completing all of them.
Still on my first play through, just started the second part. This is my secondary game, for when I don’t have access to Switch.
Epic gave away Vampire Survivors, so downloaded it when I was a bit bored and Switch was busy. Playing it a bit here and there, unlocking stuff. Really enjoyed it when I unlocked weapon synergies, makes you almost invincible. Just going to play a run or two when I get time, nothing serious though.
Phew! That was a long post. I didn’t realise I played that much. Until I wrote all this down, I was under the impression that I didn’t really play much over the holidays.
So, what about all you? What have you been playing?
A rerun of Witcher 3. PS5 update this time.
Why is Witcher 3 suddenly popular again? Not counting 2 people in this thread, know a few people IRL who are also replaying Witcher 3 these days. Just a coincidence?
Maybe after the Witcher 4 teaser drop? I’m just getting around to the upgrade they released.
Diablo 4. This is the first season that I’ve ever found a mythic, and I found the two BiS, so I’m pretty excited to push the pit as high as possible.
I’ve been completely sucked into the warm embrace of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I absolutely adore this game. Think Morrowind (with just a touch of Skyrim) plus player skill-based combat, lockpicking, etc.
And the sequel comes out next month, so I think I’m going to be busy for a while.
My only complaint about that game is that the pace of the main story doesn’t match the pace of the game world. Everything else about the world, particularly in hardcore mode, really suits roleplaying but the main quest doesn’t give Henry enough opportunies to do other stuff. You are forced to play out of character and ignore the urgency of the main quest if you want to take your time and enjoy the slow and relaxing atmosphere. Still a great game though, I will complete my second playthrough this year in preparation for the sequel.
EDIT: (As this is a Nintendo community, I should point out that I am playing on PC.)
I agree 100% with this and have thought the same thing. They built a huge sandbox full of interesting things to do and see, then put an enormous amount of pressure on you to play their story urgently.
By the way, I’m playing on Xbox. I don’t think platform matters for this particular recurring thread; I’ve asked about it before.
As you can guess by my list of games, in this weekly threads, we don’t care about the platform. This is just a general discussion of what we are playing on whatever platform.
About KC: D, I agree with you, but that’s a problem with most RPGs, you are either a “cozy” game, or there’s doom and gloom going on.
About KC: D, I agree with you, but that’s a problem with most RPGs, you are either a “cozy” game, or there’s doom and gloom going on.
I kind of disagree, I think it’s definitely possible to write a mainline story in a way that it allows for downtime for exploration and/or side quests. Cyberpunk 2077’s quests often have breaks where you need to wait for an NPC to contact you or you are required to meet them at a time and place that allows for some flexibility. Even just in terms of the way dialogue is written, you can have a quest assigner ask you to meet them in a certain spot when you’re ready with a warning that you shouldn’t take too long, rather than just instantly progressing the quest. I think Kingdom Come: Deliverance actually did this at some points, where characters would meet you at a different location if you took too long to join them for the journey there. There are ways around it through clever writing, though obviously most RPG’s will also have urgent moments where it doesn’t make sense to wander off.
I’d like to finally finish Majora’s Mask this year, 24 years after I started playing it. The furthest I’ve made it was Ikana Castle, and that was back when I was a kid. My current save file is at the Pirate’s Fortress but I haven’t touched it in over a year. My struggle to complete this game started off as not being very good at it, then I got a bit older it turned into this thing where I didn’t want to finish the game because I didn’t want it to be over and now I’m just so bored of replaying the same bit that every time I attempt another completion I lose interest before I get to the new stuff.
I just need to sit down and force myself to get into it again. I know once I get past the Great Bay Temple I’ll start enjoying the game again but there are several hours of tedious gameplay before that.
Yeah, that’s worse. This is my issue with Company of Heroes. I have played first few missions on my various potato PCs many times, but would get tired of visuals and performance and give up, now I want to play it completely but can’t get myself to play those starting missions.
Playing Metaphor: ReFantazio!
Yes, a non-Switch game! Since this is from the Persona team and had very positive reviews I was quite interested in the game, but I’m so disconnected from the Playstation/Xbox world nowadays that I assumed this was only out for the PS5! 😆 But I learned that it has a PS4 version and even a physical and multi-language version in Japan, so I dusted off my old PS4 Pro, got the laser which I knew was broken since earlier this year fixed, and decided to give this one a try.
I came into this mostly blind and was expecting a more traditional JRPG, so I was surprised when I saw all the classic Persona elements like calendar system, social stats and social links. But it does provide some very welcome changes - the calendar is very compact, with only 5 months in-universe, the social links are shorter and no longer need “grinding” affection levels, each day is better used with events on the night from the beginning, social stats grow faster.
There’s plenty more to love in this game. The art and music are fantastic, though the UI is too busy and can be distracting. They’ve definitely crafted an interesting world, so much that I even spent time reading in the in-game encyclopedia to learn more about the different races and places. I also love the way they incorporated travel into the story with campfire events, beautiful locations where they just stop for a short breather, random encounters at night - all of this adds a lot to the feeling of adventure.
That being said, there’s also some pretty massive flaws in the game, with the biggest ones being related to dungeons and combat mechanics. The dungeons are a slog - they are boring, stupidly long, full of enemies that have tons of HP even on normal. It’s clear that the developers wanted to make it harder for players to complete them in a single day, but they took the worst possible approach here.
There’s also issues with the combat mechanics. It uses a similar system to Trails though Daybreak where you start battles using action combat to kill weak enemies or stun stronger ones then move into turn-based. But this time enemies can also get advantage over you if you don’t dodge properly, and the action combat is very clunky so this ends up happening way too often, with the difference between who gets the advantage being potentially as big as “win without taking damage” vs “getting a full party wipe”. They also start using Repel/Drain effects way too early in the game, and this is a Press Turn system game which makes these incredibly punishing, plus for some reason they decided to not include items or skills to scan enemies for vulnerabilities, all of which leads to frustrating trial-and-error gameplay where you can accidentally hit a Drain and lose your entire turn.
Finally, the UI definitely could use improvements. There’s a lot of QOL features that could and should have been added for better inventory and skill management - both very important things in a game where you’re juggling 10+ weapon types and 20+ jobs with different skills.
I know I spent a lot of time on negatives, so I just want to emphasize that despite those problems I’ve been playing this game non-stop and having a good time. But there’s a ton of frustration mixed in because I think this game could’ve been one my all-time favorites with a bit more polish.
Playing If My Heart Had Wings!
Slow progress between holidays and Metaphor. I’m enjoying Aoi and Kotori’s dynamic quite a bit now, but it definitely feels more sibling-like instead of romantic. Twins still haven’t joined and I’m curious to see how they are so maybe I’ll give this one a push during the weekend.
Playing Crimzon Clover - World EXplosion!
Attempting to get a 1CC on Novice, so far I made it to the stage 4 boss.
I have heard great things about Metaphor, though they will probably release a Metaphor: ReFantazio Royal with fixes and balances by the time I get around to it, so will just play that.
Good luck with Crimzon Clover! I haven’t tried any of the games from shmup category, will probably try some after finishing Astral Chain.
I have heard great things about Metaphor, though they will probably release a Metaphor: ReFantazio Royal with fixes and balances by the time I get around to it, so will just play that.
Hopefully so. This is the first Atlus RPG in a long time where I feel a fixed/improved version is necessary.
