Hey folks, what is everyone playing this week? Are you trying something new or returning to a previously played game or genre? How are you liking what you’re currently playing?
I’m playing Witcher 3: Blood & Wine, Dragon’s Dogma and Tunic.
Damn, that’s a lot of adventuring! How’s Tunic? I’ve never heard of it
It’s a bit of a souls-Zelda-like. It’s quite nice, especially because nothing gets directly explained.
I’ve been playing Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the first time. This is my first experience with the Dragon Quest series, and my way of dipping my toes into JRPGs. I’ve completed the first two chapters and I’m enjoying it so far. It’s pretty straight forward gameplay and doesn’t require much thinking. The story isn’t exactly riveting yet. The translation is a bit rough, but that makes it kind of humorous. Thankfully it’s still easy to follow what the characters are saying. I’m not seeing much replay value in this one though.
I absolutely loved it. I wanted to try each of the Dragon Quest series and started from the 1st (single-player), then 2nd (three dedicated characters), and 3rd (party-based with classes), and watched like the development of how they handled keys (single-usage & type, up to dedicated & multiple types), and inventory slots (to shift something you have to give it to someone else, or else everything below it to someone else and then back again), and so on. 4 was the culmination peak of it all before moving to a different console iirc in 5, with such an enormous storyline moving over several chapters each with entirely different characters, until they start merging later on. The auto-battle feature was truly horrific and you may want to read a guide or else you can get stuck in the final battle, like I am talking full-on idiocy i.e. casting insta-death spells at the final boss, entirely uselessly. For someone who likes grinding and story though - and why would you play an “older” JRPG like that if you do not!?:-P - it is a fantastic game. Poor graphics, especially by today’s standards, but a fascinating into the past when it must have all been so “new”. On the other hand, everything I am saying here is in regards to the NES game, so if you are playing a re-release somewhere, a lot of that could have been improved.
If not, other alternatives to get a feel for JRPGs without needing to grind as much are Chrono Trigger (very short game, heavy story, very easy progression that makes grinding entirely optional, one of if not THE best game of all time in fact! bad gfx but think of it as a “choice” as in comic book style and it makes it more bearable, plus it’s even true b/c they were really bad even for its day), or Dragon Warrior/Quest 7. Another thought that does require a bit of grinding but is still old are the Lufia series.
You could also try Suikoden I & II! Cult classic
Thank you for the suggestion! I tend to like more adventure types, like Breath of Fire or even Zelda, more than war-themed ones (although I made an exception for Destiny of an Emperor b/c it’s based on real historical events, even if loosely), but I see where this game was done REALLY well, so a very solid thought!:-)
I see why you mentioned it: the intention behind it does seem exactly like the Lufia series, really putting in the time to tinker and make it RIGHT, like it tries to go beyond a mere “game” for enjoyment, possibly crossing over into a master of its CRAFT (whether it actually reached that lofty ideal seems highly debatable, but in any case the attempt alone is worthy of some respect imho).
I am just leaving this out there if anyone wants to learn more: Suikoden II - The Best RPG You Never Played.
I’d like to bring your attention to Crystal Project on Steam. It’s honestly one of the best jrpg games I’ve played in the last 5 years. It’s less story driven than the DW/DQ series, but it is platformy and very exploration based. I haven’t played since the balance patches, but the game was about everything I could possibly want in an exploration jrpg. It’s more Final Fantasy like, but it scratched a deep itch I didn’t know I had.
I don’t even have Steam installed on my computer, but maybe I should do that just to check this out, thanks for sharing!:-)
FF5-like job system, on steroids - woot!:-P video review.
NFS Heat and Kaze and the Wild Masks. Both games are fun enough but not my favs.
Remnant 2. Still haven’t got every item.
Had to hit pause on it this week, but recently I have been working through Final Fantasy IX, the PC remaster on Steam w/ Moguri Mod. Started my playthrough in early September, and I just got the boat and entered the grindy minigame hell portion of the game.
Factorio
I just finished Cassette Beasts, which was pretty good. I picked it up during the last sale not knowing if I’d like it since I’ve never been a huge Pokemon fan, and surprisingly really got into it.
I also started playing Toca Race Driver 2 since I’ve been itching to play a new (to me) simcade racer after the new Forza Motorsport bombed. It holds up really well and it’s fun seeing where the GRID series started. It’s also depressing how little the racing genre has progressed in 20 years. I’ll probably start Toca 3 immediately after finishing this one.
Just finished the main storyline for Pokemon infinite fusion. Great game, highly recommend. There are a lot of custom sprites for fused Pokemon so the product end up looking pretty goofy/creepy/cool/cute/weird depending on which Pokemon is head and body.
Next up is probably going to cyberpunk 2077 or Nier Replicant.
Been on parental leave, for a couple of days. I hooked up the PC to the living room TV and I’ve been casually playing No Man’s Sky. It’s utterly cathartic to fly around space with a 5 day old sleeping, his chest on my belly.
Hey, congrats. Ours is due early next year so I’ll be doing similar
Thanks! It’s my second, the other is 6yo now. It brings me back to my first parental leave - I played through The Witcher III with my first sleeping on my belly in a similar manner haha
Congratulations to you and the mom!
Nice! How do you like No Man’s Sky? I’ve heard it’s much better now than when it was released
Can’t speak for your interests obviously, but good enough for me spending a good chunk of 10h on it in the last 2 days. I’m a huge space nerd though, so the interstellar travel alone is worth it for me. The storyline is mostly a pretense for exploring, trade, mining stuff, which I don’t mind at all given how pretty it can be. I also really like playing alone lol. I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but it’s scratching an itch for the time being!
It lost its appeal for me… Every world is similar, or was when I was playing. There was no point exploring.
Same minerals everywhere, so no point going looking for something interesting either.
I guess I was hoping it would be more of a “explore and find really rare things, trade them with others at high prices” kind of a thing.
Just started Dragon Age Origins, I’m still at the tutorial level but it looks like a game I’d enjoy.
This is another one I’ve been meaning to play but I haven’t had the energy to start it and really enjoy it
Just got around to beating Titanfall 2 for the first time. It was a great plaaythrough, and not that long at all. You can beat it in under 8 hours, no problem. I think it took me 6 or 7 hours. Def recommended if you’re into scifi shooters with mechs and kick-ass set pieces.
I’ve been meaning to play the campaign for awhile. The online gameplay didn’t particularly appeal to me, though I haven’t even tried it
After hearing the release of Ac mirage, I replayed the og AC. Its quite fun, but some things didn’t age well (like the blue filter on the game).
Its funny how in “returning to roots” they took the worst parts of the game, the investigations. Which could work, but finishing thw tatget them 5 mins after meeting them is not great for characterization. The idea of doing more sidequest means more info for the finale of the chapter is nice, but most of the infos are really trivial, like “Guard gonna close the castle gate after alert” or that the scolars can get past the guard, which is the main way of getting into the city itself, and is also tutoriaized.
Theres some dumb shit you can do, my favorites were synchronizing while hunted, and the guards just stand around you on the roofs, dumbfounded, or fooling around in combat and realizing the hidden blade can instakill even after alerted, if they are on the ground or you are behind them. So its possible to run aroun 6 guards and backstab them one by one.
Core Keeper with a friend mostly
Back into Monster Hunter: World on PC! There’s still a small community of players filling up the servers, and it’s been fun.
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Java Minecraft will always hold a place in my heart. I picked up Valheim recently and found it scratches a very similar itch, but it’s different enough to not feel like a clone at all