Games You Played Today ##RELOAD

:leans against wall, tips hat, puffs cig, accidentally falls into hell:

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i guess another thing to take into account here is that games are expensive and these ones in particular are notably expansive, so however interested i (and probably others) have been any excuse to not take the plunge has sort of been a blessing

fair enough. up until the recent reprint, Yakuza 2 in particular was way more expensive than it had any right to be.

I really hope they remake 2 at some point. I mean, hell, they have the basics of the assets from 0 just sitting there.

also “play this expansive PS2 game” is extremely unappealing advice for most

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I watched a playthrough of the PS3 HD remaster of Yakuza 2 and it’s what convinced me to check out Yak0. Didn’t know the Western release of the original was so sought after though, it was like 250 yen at a Book Off bargain bin when I was in Japan in January.

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I have many games I could be playing right now but I am playing Fallout new vegas again and am trying for a different ending from the NCR one

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I’m considering trying to get a hold of Yakuza 3,4&5 at some point, which I will probably have to get off Amazon or something. I like seeing characters and stories evolve radically over time, so if Goro ends up being a complete crazy 180 degree spin from his portrayal in zero, I am fine with that.

Seems most people say to skip the third game? Is it bad or just inferior enough that it is recommended to skip to avoid burning out prematurely on the rest of the series?

I am guessing I should just wait for Kiwami first anyway?

Getting near the end of FEF Conquest, I think. Chapter 20ish. I’m gonna have almost none of the babies and I’m fine with that. One of my characters died and it was right at the end of a long battle so in my laziness I set him free. :’( First unit I’ve let die in this series. In my defense, he was not going to continue to be useful. He was a “Jagen” type as the faqs say; starts off a powerhouse, ends up kinda useless due to diminished leveling up returns. Still, I shall miss him. I’ll probably still see him in cutscenes since nu FE refuses to acknowledge permadeath, but…I’ll miss him.

Also also I continued on Night in the Woods. But there’s a thread for that.

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I mean, 20 hours is probably more than it takes if you just do the story in them. Also, like, you are getting into a series of JRPGs, so I don’t think expansiveness should be a problem for people.

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Played Rhythm Doctor’s demo again after seeing the Greenlight trailer. I don’t remember the chopped-and-screwed level being in the three-years-old demo in the slightest (compared to the double-time and polyrhythms readily evoking memories), but it’s oddly enough the easiest and most satisfying executions of the seventh-beat gimmick by retaining a response consistency underneath the obvious signal gimmick.

Went looking around for pieces of what was apparently a mailing-list-based closed beta. The only WIP stage absent from full gameplay recordings is a boss song that my current fragile state has become emotionally fixated on anyway-

(a snippet from a gameplay trailer does connect the syncopated lyrics to the game’s beat system, too)

I absolutely feast on rhythm games with extremely simplified controls and actual connections of input to purpose, I guess, between this and Rhythm Heaven and Necrodancer. A different generation’s Parappa / Lammy / Gitaroo Man, maybe.

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Yeah, Sega didn’t print this off enough copies of 2 because they took such a bath on the west release of 1, due to the voice cast and such. Someone did a reprint of one and two recently, though, so they are almost reasonable prices now.

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See, this is what I was getting at. It isn’t a 180 spin from how he is characterized in 0. It’s all there in zero, with specific incidents that push him towards it, but if you don’t know who he is later, it’s really easy to not notice.

So I been playing this kairo game, and it’s pretty disappointing. Oughta be tailor made for a guy like me. The architecture is often pretty cool, which I suppose is mostly the point but the graphics are like HL1 bad, and they are not “simple” enough to make it work - horrible textures. I set FOV up to 80 in the menu and anytime I have a wall next to me I can see through it. Movement is absolutely atrocious, like skating in molasses.

Will still beat it. Game obvious has a couple superpuzzles hidden with all the normal puzzles, but I’m not sure I’ll bother with them rather than reading a FAQ and youtubing whatever secret ending there is.

yeah kairo was a massive disappointment and I’m such a sucker for the abstract architecture walking sim

But it’s not a walking sim! It’s a puzzle game. With lame, simple puzzles. Either be Myst or be an interactive art installation, I’ve played literal Half-Life 1 mods that are more eerie and interesting than this

Yeah I got a little ways into Kairo myself before I took a break and never came back. Just not compelling in aesthetic or execution. The pieces seemed like they were there to start with though.

I don’t use walking sim as a pejorative, I think the central game conceit of Kairo and other games like it is that you walk around and admire the pretty visuals

Like I consider it separate from a myst-alike where pretty visuals may be present but the conceit is solving puzzles and exploring a place like it is a real place.

Me neither. Point I was trying to make is that instead of being a walking sim (which it would fail at, because it is not pretty enough), it ends up being a halfassed puzzle game, and it does neither the aesthetic nor the puzzling side well.

Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku doesn’t really have an expansive story they have a circular story. Kiryu is drawn back to Kamurocho. There are many many double crosses. He will fight almost everyone he meets. It will end with haruka on top of Millenium Tower begging to be rescued.

You will do many many sidequests you didn’t intend to do.

I think 1 and 2 aren’t worth playing from a mechanical stand-point and I’m sure there are 2 hour youtube videos that show the “plot.”

I played 3 in Japanese, so I might have missed a few things, but it is not the PS2-3 leap it needed to be. It has the most meandering “who cares” plot. A lot of people will cry about the stuff removed for the US version but with the magic of future, all that stuff was left in for 4 and Of The End and 5 so you can experience it there. Like out of the PS3 ones, 4 is the best. Yes it does have a bad structure and a real cutscene heavy first 2-3 hours. I think all the protagonists are worth getting behind.

I’m trying to remember what even drags Kiryu back to Kamurocho in 3 and…oh wait now I remember.

The problem with 5 is it is way too big for it’s own good. It is probably better if you play it over a long time, which is not really how people play games now. But they you are going to be confused what exactly is going on in the plot. Also the cutscenes drrraaaagggggggggggggggggggg. Talking 20-30 minutes between pressing buttons. Everyone has to say everything at least three times and then there are like 3 or 4 twists and turns and at the end you just want to punch/dance someone and you really don’t know why.

I just realized I havent’ seen it at all, so apparently the biggest success of zero is maybe a bit of “brevity is the soul of wit.” That has been the real problem with every game in the series is they do not know when to just stop talking.

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