Games You Played Today: 358 Threads Over 2

King of Posters King of Posters 2000
5074

The Steam release of Monster Rancher 2 lets you search through a CD database to regenerate monsters instead of using physical media which is cool, but if you lack the requirements to regenerate a monster, then you’re sent back to the Town menu instead of back to the Shrine. This is how the original game operates and in both cases it never made much sense. Ideally, in the original game, it’d send you back to the Shrine menu, and in the Steam release, it’d either take you back to the search results or the Shrine menu. Or, better yet, for the Steam release, it’d just gray out what you lack the requirements to regenerate.

Here’s hoping this is something they’ll patch.

3 Likes
5075

played the ff7 remake, not really enjoying it much so far. to me the whole appeal of those old ps1 classics is almost entirely how they look and sound so this or a theoretical chrono chross remake or whatnot are not really cause for excitement for me. but this one I at least thought it’d be good for the novelty of seeing midgar in high fidelity but it’s making it really difficult. the music is worse and there’s kill rats sidequests. and all this sephiroth and ghost bullshit, I don’t think they have the self control for this task. also shinra making the reactor blow up more than anticipated, fuck off.

12 Likes
5076

Densha De Go PS4 has a mode where you just watch the yamanote go around in a loop with no input and just talked with a friend while it did that and it was extremely chill and good.

11 Likes
5077

Natural Doctrine (currently $4 on PS4 during the holiday sale) is a standard, by the book TRPG that uses line of sight and 3D positioning as an extra layer of tactical depth. basically, it’s grid-based, but a single square holds a maximum of four units, and each unit moves freely on the map, so long as they don’t exceed their grid range. It’s like a nice halfway between Final Fantasy Tactics and tabletop wargaming.

tight balance based on individual map encounters means it’s easy to pick up and play, and there really isn’t much “RPG” to speak of. you can allocate skill points to change which actions to take in battle, but otherwise it’s a fixed campaign with fixed party members. the characters having EXP just means you can choose to grind and make the combat easier if you want, but I haven’t run into any encounters that aren’t winnable with the basic character loadouts.

for now I’m considering this a sister game to Crimson Shroud, a game that I’m reminded of such that I keep wondering how Natural Doctrine isn’t a Level-5 game. both are kind of minimalist and present short and meaty combat encounters to the player with enough wiggle room to explore the maps for extra rewards.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA is mush, it is gruel, it is hot oat porridge without any added flavor, the dialogue is cringe, perfunctory, meaningless. I’ll recount my adventure this far:

DOGI: Hey, Adol. We are on a ship. You love adventure. This is great, because it’s like we’re adventuring.
ADOL: [SILENCE]
DOGI: Heh, that’s just like you, Adol, always the silent type, always loving adventure.
(THE SHIP IS ATTACKED BY A KRAKEN AND CREW AND PASSENGERS TOSSED OVERBOARD BECAUSE IT IS YS.)

Then everyone wakes up on an island where they will live for the rest of their lives. how to maximize your enjoyment of this game: skip all the dialogue and overworld enemies. I’m playing this game on hard, rushing between map objectives and bosses while mashing the FUCK out of my basic skills and occasionally hitting the dodge FLASH MOVE button, and it’s still like, relentlessly boring. I’ve skipped all the words and movies and rushed through the first three bosses and I’m still on “chapter 2” and I am just gonna take a wild guess and say the number of chapters is over 20.

what caught me off guard is how much this game is like Ys 6/Oath/Origin, except those games are actually built around the shallow combat, and this one’s built to be long as fuck. I’ve never played an RPG that felt this padded, seriously. I know this is like, a Vita game, but I feel like it’s trying to sell me something more than that. should have just used bump combat and removed all of the cutscenes.

9 Likes
5078

I don’t think it’s over 20 chapters, but YS VIII is very long. I’d say the story and setting get pretty wild by the end, but it’s a real commitment to get that far. And it takes a long time to get going. If you’re not enjoying the combat or exploration or presentation now, those don’t really change much. I doubt you’ll feel it pays off to see the game through, even if you are rushing it along.

2 Likes
5079

It’s horrible but almost felt like playing it again because it’s garbage and my end-of-the-day state is well suited for garbage as opposed to a good game.

3 Likes
5080

I’ve been waiting for this piece of shit to be almost free for a while, thank you

5 Likes
5081

it’s 20 years since I got a ps2 so after being disappointed in ff7r I played ff10 for the first time since back then and enjoyed the fixed camera angles and how bizarre it is and how good the besaid island theme is. maybe like the first time I played it I’ll come back to it months later at that part having completely forgotten the opening

9 Likes
5082

Mario Party Superstars is actually pretty great, at least while it’s still novel. The QoL they’ve added since Mario Party 4 (the last one I played) really makes the game less tedious by far, specifically telling you what spot you’ll land on at every crossroad and which one is the shortest path to the star helps tremendously.

I’ve played 3 rounds with Alicia and it’s a good time! We’ll see how it feels after we’ve played on all 5 boards - I’m guessing we’ll drop the game pretty fast honestly. But that’s fine!

I’ll break it out the next time I have a party (lolololol)

5 Likes
5084

managed to finish ff3 in ten hours, i imagine you’d spend twice that grinding in the famicom version

8 Likes
5085

i would totally watch you stream that fuckin’ thing

2 Likes
5086

Been playing Dragon Quest Builders 2 which so far is a huge improvement in every which way except the writing. I thought DQB1 was surprisingly well-written while this one is like…

:slightly_smiling_face: Bleedin 'eck! Let’s go find some silver ore! Geddan!
:slightly_smiling_face: 'Ang about! 'Ave a butcher’s, it’s bleedin silver ore, it is! Luvvly jubbly!
[player] found a nugget of silver ore!
[player] came up with a new recipe!
Silver Bar: A bar of silver ore. Used to make things.
:smiling_imp: Wow [player]! What’s that grey lump? I guess it’s silver ore, huh? I bet you can make all sorts of stuff with it if you turn it into a bar!

Even in the more purely ‘story’ parts there’s just like 50-75% too much back-and-forth that doesn’t really entertain or endear at all. It’s a shame because the building is super fun and the townspeople are more sims-like than in the first one (taking care of their needs if you build stuff like baths and kitchens, going to work at farms or foundries etc) and all the dialogue accomplishes is annoy me that it’s getting in the way of building stuff.

18 Likes
5087

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is pretty damn good. The word I would use is “balanced”, because it excels at walking a tightrope between sincerity and self-aware corniness, carrying itself and its gameplay ideas and story beats while knowing when to emphasize what it needs to and when to say “enough”.

Things I like:

  • BJ himself, who has just enough vocality to not get in the way of anything, and to be both motivating to the abstract player and inspiring to me, personally. I got a good dose of goosebumps when he went “Ignore the pain. You’re not dead, so keep moving.” Like, damn, BJ, I may not have the the pursuit of global liberation on my shoulders but I can still get behind that mentality while paying my car insurance.
  • the diverse and absurdly likable cast of supporting characters. I haven’t played any of the other neu-wolfenstine games (except for a couple hours of Old Blood (which is kind of ass tbh)), but the game got me on board cheering for my friends pretty immediately. Set is probably my favorite character so far, as he’s probably designed to be, even just filling the role of Funny Jewish Scientist Man which is like, perfectly fine amount of depth for a video game side character.
  • weapons and armor are nicely balanced to encourage shifts in tactics, engaging you in long range firefights one second, and then urging you to rush in while overhealed for a few quick takedowns. Even when the enemies bottleneck and force me to sit still and take potshots, I still feel highly involved like I’m always making forward progress.
  • combat levels are perfect length. they really haven’t dragged at all yet, and each time I’m rewarded with a cutscene that I actually give a shit about. seriously didn’t think I’d have the attention span to enjoy a AAA shooting game, but I guess I slept on this one.
  • walking around home base is fun. the NPCs have cute dialogue and it doesn’t feel as forced as I expected. I like getting to snoop around everyone’s living quarters, learning osmotically about them based on the shit they have on the walls. the journal entries and written collectibles are actually interesting. Yeah, I actually do like reading about what some guy had for lunch before the nukes hit. Most of these letters and diaries feel written by humans.
  • level geometry is really cool, hyper-detailed and stuffed with visual intricacies and collectible goodies, but the superb visual design and lighting make it really easy to navigate. I’m the kind of person who has trouble making out important details and silhouettes in these kinds of busy-looking games, but Wolfenstein has some good color contrast and good use of spacial composition.
  • on the visuals note, I’m impressed with how good this looks while running at 60 on the PS4. I was blown away by RE8, and Wolfenstein is a pretty heavy competitor for a game that’s 5 years older. Skin and hair look way better on the RE engine, but I think this game beats out RE8 on environmental fidelity.
  • minigames are cool. Wolfstone 3D gave me a good chuckle. I like that you can do a score attack for previous missions even though I will never actually want to do that.

Things I don’t like:

  • The difficulty options suck and the game feels balanced for mouse controls. The difference between the default “Bring 'em on!” and next highest “Do or die!” is staggering, and a wave-based level frustrated me to the point where I had to lower the difficulty back to normal because I could not conceive of how to possibly kill 10 dudes in a small room before they could kill me. I don’t have the skills on a PS4 controller, but if I was playing it on PC I could MAYBE have finished that level on hard. But there still being two higher difficulty levels than that is bewildering. I don’t understand how you’re supposed to play like that.

That’s kind of it? I don’t have any other gripes with the game so far. I’m still in the early parts, but it’s overall just wholly enjoyable. $8 is a hell of a price on sale, definitely go for this one. Thanks to everyone here who recommended it otherwise I woulda slept on it.

18 Likes
5088

caused a couple of seconds of big slowdown in streets of rage 4!

roo’s star move summons a clown with a whip, and if you have multiple stars, you can do it multiple times with no recovery. also, in survival mode, one of the powers you can get is “tactical star”, which makes 4 missiles rain from the sky whenever you use a star move.

i had tactical star 3 times (so 12 missiles are summoned each time), and i quickly summoned four clowns straight after each other. so i got a couple of seconds of slowdown and killed two bosses almost instantly

12 Likes
5089

I beat it on hardest my first time through and the courtroom scene (which I’m almost sure is what you’re referring to) is legendary, took me a couple dozen tries probably, if not more. But yes, it’s heavily mouse-dependent, unless you’re one of those children who played CoD in the womb

4 Likes
5090

Turok never prepared me for any of this

5 Likes
5091

same and that was a very fun evening of repeatedly reloading (though I think I was on second hardest)

1 Like
5092

Realized I probably streamed this; turns out I did. You can see my struggle starting at 2:55 or so

2 Likes
5093

how is it when they let you run around the midgar slums it’s just daylight the entire time, what were they thinking there. you need nighttime lit by mako lamps to set the mood and feel of the place. might as well just be a bethesda fallout game. just boneheaded decisions left and right here. definitely not a Creative Business Unit 3 work here

14 Likes
5094

ah… shit

14 Likes