What games are you playing?

[Kleetus]

I've been messing around in Flashpoint and have been playing Mega Miner, a simple motherload clone where you play as a drill machine and mine ore. It's calm and a nice time waster.

I've gotten into a Team Fortress 2 mood, which happens every year or two, and as some sort of flex, decided I would get the rarest achievement in the game. You might be thinking to yourself "Kleetus, what is the rarest achievement found in Cohort Defense Bastion the Second, the one that only the top tier of mega ultra gamers have the skill to attain?"
Could it be incredible grind of Process of Elimination?(Win 140 rounds on the map cp_process.)
Could it be the ball busting test of skill that is Specialist?(Heal 10,000 points in one life as medic.)
Could it be the oddly specific lightning in a bottle event of Got A Light??(As pyro ignite a spy while he is taunting with the disguise kit as his active weapon.)
Could it Blockbuster? An achievement that is actually impossible to attain legitimately because it relies on a no longer supported third party service.
No, it's none of these, its freaking Jackpot!; win 10 rounds of the "PASS time" mode. As it turns out this achievement is so difficult to attain simply because of how few servers run PASS time.

[KobaBeach]

i bought persona 5 royal on ps4 and valkyria chronicles 4 on switch today because they were like €29,99 and €19,99 respectively.

but instead i just played sega ages phantasy star for like 5 hours because i payed €1 for it (€3,00 minus the 200 points i got from the valkyria dl code which were €2,00). got myau and odin and im trying to find the sweet cuppin cakes shortcake cave. i accidentally did the skeleton cave first oop

[raekuul]

well jin now you've done it

[KobaBeach]

phantasy star - got the shortcake, gave it to the governor of paseo, had sleep paralysis was attacked by a SACCUBUS [sic], bought a magic lamp, went through maharu cave, recruited noah, went through gothic, saved dr. luveno and got his assistant, purchased the polymeteral, got hapsby, got the amber eye, and bought the landrover. now i gotta find the hovercraft and then head to drasgow for the gas shield.

the walkthrough im using said the landrover was a waste of money but. c'mon. it goes over antlion holes. also i had a surplus from playing in ages mode wwwwwwwwwww

lunar 2 eternal blue - did the serekam (serak) palace in laqueral (raculi), rescued mauri, watched some emotional scenes with mauri and ronfar and went through the painful red dragon's cave. both games really do have some painful ass red dragon caves what the fuck. also the red fiend wasn't as cute in this one? no mai pina fluff, no buy.

i don't know if that was from me having played the Working Designs macekre'ing but the "ruby is conflicted on whether to go full dragon" scene felt a lot more emotional since nall actually informs her of how, as an adult dragon, she'll have eternal life, and thus outlive hiro and everyone else, like nall did with the previous game's team. it's honestly super precious, and she comes to terms with the fact that they'll live forever in her memories and in her heart and aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh <3 <3 <3 best game

summon night 2 - did chapters 9 to 11. nesty basically went out and said that leonard is not gonna find a way back to los angeles since his summoner is die 5ever. leonard did appreciate my (toris') cheering him up though. acab but he reminds me of columbo. continuing on, we tried to search for amer's grandma's house, as agluvain told her, which was in the forest east of tridra and north of fanan. sadly we only found lu. got into a little skirmish with her, she thought we were bad guys, not sure which faction.

we then went in deeper in the forest, because the shock of discovering agluvain might have lied about amer's familial relationships shook her a bit. cue a battle with some demons. a demon then utters a word (didn't look up the translation, i'm sorry!) that just froze toris on the spot but my boys elzine, ES-G-LD and kaina from the first game showed up!!! kaina was so happy that she finally found keina even with her amnesia that she, ES-G-LD and elzine are travelling with us a wee bit to help with her memory.

we then headed up to tridra to meet with folte's acquaintance, an old friend of his, shamrock. minis was like "yeah i bet ur lying " but at this point i was just fast forwarding through a lot of it because. no offense to visual novels as a genre, i just don't get along well with them. we found shamrock in a battle with the deigleyan forces. skipping a battle with ioth and zer-fi-LD, so i can recruit some characters down the line, we beat up binna (pronounced like binyot, biña) and shamrock's knocked out, so we retreat to lu's house so he can recover.

now in chapter 12 we're gonna head to the three fort city of tridra to get into a fight with qura and rigor.

along the way there was also a small diss battle involving minis and kelma because of some shit, likely rivalry between both of their families, but we got some cute ass interactions with kelma and kazamine so it was worth it. paffel made it safely out of the fortress, yuel also found silvana's necklace, but refused to give it back due to problems she had with humans (she's a beastperson), then nearly got in trouble for stealing fish from the fanan downtown shops, but a nice lady offered to give her food since yuel doesn't know how to work more or less, she has the mentality of a child.

rocca was also worried minis was too young to be in an adventure with us but toris was like "yeah nah". sion also showed up for a quaint chat with toris in his soba stand and offer some advice.

[KobaBeach]

playing phantasy star 2 with vivify's improvement patch and it cannot be overstated how much fast walking, rebalancing the characters so they all have their own niche instead of just being there for the most part, and slight edits to equipment for a more balanced armor set for the cast makes a difference in this game.

i've also applied the x2 exp patch and the faster battles/no flashing patch packaged with it and as someone who did not like Phantasy Star II at all, it's honestly the SEGA AGES Phantasy Star II i've wanted since i started playing Sega Ages PhSt1. the level gains actually feel relatively balanced to the actual game's difficulty, apart from the occasional dq-style grind here and there.

i bothered to give everyone a shot in the party since vivify changed everyone's tech/magic skill set, so i had to grind their levels, current party is

rolf/rudo/kain/shir

, might play around with anna, hugh and amy soon, hugh and shir were even given healing spells, amy being the central healer.

i don't know how much of it is also me wising up and making sure to get every star mist i can find in the wild (i think three, rest have to be stolen from shops by shir which Hah, No.) and using "using armor = spell cast" special effects more, which makes me feel bad because it feels like i haven't properly rated the original phantasy star 2....... but i also really don't want to replay it, too much grind and too much bullshit for not enough reward for your efforts.

[raekuul]

I'm not sure which is worse, trying to track down specific monsters to fight for affinity nodes in Xenoblade 2 or dealing with Hard Campaign in Advance Wars Dual Strike (up to Lightning Strike, somehow I'm having trouble grokking how the AI reacts to things. also auto CO keeps turning itself back on after failures/yields which is not helping)

...actually, AWDS is worse. XBC2 at least gives me something to explore.

[KobaBeach]

finished lunar 2

too many feels.

[raekuul]

I don't usually replay phoenix wright games but case 1 of Apollo Justice is very different once you've beaten the game. Talk about "Once More With Clarity"

[KobaBeach]

okay i haven't played summon night 2 in a while before today so im gonna recount what im able to piece together from my terrible memory. i was waking up at terrible times and going to sleep at worse hours, couldn't even anki

we headed to tridra with shamrock to meet with the king, Rigor, for asylum. turns out he was conspiring with Qura to acquire the holy maiden, or "she who is the key". might have been in exchange for tridra's safety, either way rigor was fucking turned into an ogre by qura, there was a fight and shamrock had to mercy kill him. its much more emotional than i make it seem.

chapter 13 was a filler episode. we got silvana's pendant, kelma and minis had their decisive match, then i went on a "date" with nesty. also paffel knows assassination arts somehow.

chapter 14 was normal, sion found ruug, we nursed him back to health, and yuel was set free from her asshole summoner, kraus, who was using her to assassinate people in a sidequest. she's now with us and so is paffel. we're planning to head back to relm village, where amer lived, maybe find agluvain. currently training for the upcoming battle with ioth.

EDIT: oh what the fuck the lowen fort free battle gives less exp than the thurzen fort free battle??? that's homophobic, i don't care about baum, they give almost the same amount. (place names are not official anglicizations)

[KobaBeach]

at chapter 16 in summon night 2. long story short we met up with agluvain after reaching relm again, headed back to zeram. nesty explained that his problems with not wanting to go to the forbidden forest is that he was ordered to kill toris (or magna if you're playing as him). this is explained further when we get the angel's feather from agluvain and head to the forbidden forest. in there, there is a sort of mechanical ruin, where, from what i can gather, they basically make living summoner weapons, i assume it takes the essence of a summoner to do so?

and basically...

nesty is from loreilal, his real name is nesty lyle, not nesty bask. he is from a family of summoners in loreilal, even being partly mechanical. toris/magna is also from a family, theirs being the crisment family. amer on the other hand is the reincarnation of the goddess arumine. she has some fabulous ass wings

after accidentally releasing some magical robots out, they end up beating them up after exiting it post being transported in there by the ruin. after that it's basically a huge convo trying to figure out what's going on. toris was even pretty shaken up over the revelation of the whole thing. long ass cutscene though, break for now.

-------------------------------------

i've also started summon night: swordcraft story 2 because i couldn't help myself. at day 3 (counting the prologue where you choose the guardian beast and whatnot as day 0, like happy days and a guide on gamefaqs do). so far it's a really cute game, i get similar infectious sugary feelings that i got from lunar 1&2. my only complaint is that lynn/rinri is overly sexualized. like yeah there's gonna be edgar, who i picked as the protag, calling her a babe and all. little kids y'know.

but then you have her showing off her breast size, a weird out of left field instance of arno (my guardian beast) calling her "a hot tomater with gams that go up to here", which i just laughed at because of how ridiculous it was... the game even acknowledged how awkward and nonsensical it was, so?

there were some instances of gayness in my edgar/edge playthrough, with gabriel/gabrio (my current avatar, adorable little olful/wolf boy, thought he was a cat) and orin/orca, notably. it's just them blushing but it's kind of cute. even if orin's a few years older than edgar (orin's 19, edgar and aera are 15). it fits with the original swordcraft having blatant lesbian romance baiting with pratty and sugarette and slightly pratty and sanary/razzy.

atlus changed a lot of names and it's interesting. i don't hate the new names, but i can imagine some weeb would. the game is also weirdly harder than og swordcraft? had to grind a few times in the woods, which seem to be the equivalent of the trial labyrinth here, along with the whole disassembling and creating new weapons and using arno's magic smartly.

currently heading to the lost woods (mayoi no mori boyee) and the lightning fortress. nina nina is a really adorable character and im glad they did a joke with her name in the dialogue, no idea if it's english only but it's good. she is mostly naked though which is sus. tatiana's really adorable. the boss encounter against orin in day 3 was also really fun.

today's gender of the day is: child of the wind

[Catabo]

I've been giving Lagrange Point another chance because it recently got a new English patch (I played a bit of it in Japanese before, but just didn't bother to get very far). Not sure if I'll see it all the way through, but I'm glad to have seen what I have so far. It looks good for an NES RPG and the FM synth music really sells the otherworldly sci-fi esthetic. Thing is, the gameplay's nothing special as far as I can see. The main gimmick of the battle system is that you have to manage BP (the MP-analogous stat), which decreases with regular attacks as well as technique use, and if it hits zero you can barely do damage anymore until you fix that. You can effectively convert BP to HP with healing techs, but not the other way around (as of yet, at least), so BP is the be-all/end-all. Thing is, money is scarce in that you don't actually receive money gained from battles until you visit the equivalent of an inn (in-game lore is that it's your reward for defeating killer robots/bio-monsters/etc), and after you do that it's likely you're going to gobble up that money with healing and equipment, never mind consumables because getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with no BP is a death sentence. I assume money will get inflated in typical RPG fashion and I'll have plenty of it later, but until then I've never been able to successfully run from a battle (there may be a trick to it I haven't found out, but the game sure hasn't told me anything), so I'm stuck fighting all of them no matter how disadvantaged I am.

But the immersion! In addition to the general presentation of the game, there are terminals everywhere that you can read lore (sometimes encyclopedia-like, sometimes broadcasts from characters somewhere out there in the world) from, which leads me to believe there was truly a sci-fi ethos behind the writing in addition to the esthetic. Someone had to have been pouring their soul into fleshing out the world behind those terminals. I can't not give a few more chances to a game that does that!

edgar/edge

Oh my goodness he's called Edge in Japanese? Shout-out to whatever member of the localization team changed that to something not quite so on-the-nose. Altho if the Daemon Edge is called the same thing in Japanese, I suppose it makes sense.

SNSS2 is a fun bop and I adored both guardians (Arno and Exeld) I've played the game through with so far. I'll be playing the game again at least two more times someday to experience the others. Might also revisit SNSS1 for the end goal of making a patch that instrumental-izes its music to be more like 2's (yes, the square waves are part of the charm, but half of it's a "because I can" thing).

adorable little olful/wolf boy, thought he was a cat)

what. mind blown

[KobaBeach]

edgar/edge

Oh my goodness he's called Edge in Japanese? Shout-out to whatever member of the localization team changed that to something not quite so on-the-nose. Altho if the Daemon Edge is called the same thing in Japanese, I suppose it makes sense.

Aera is just named Air so I have no idea. Going by the (offline but archived) site, it might be named majin (EDIT: 魔刃), as in, "demon edge/blade"?

SNSS2 is a fun bop and I adored both guardians (Arno and Exeld) I've played the game through with so far. I'll be playing the game again at least two more times someday to experience the others. Might also revisit SNSS1 for the end goal of making a patch that instrumental-izes its music to be more like 2's (yes, the square waves are part of the charm, but half of it's a "because I can" thing).

Summon Night is so good and i wish it had more english translations...

adorable little olful/wolf boy, thought he was a cat)

what. mind blown

I only found out by going on the archived official site's character page

Only like SN1-6 have pages remaining now, I think all the others got taken down.
Ex-these was even like a flash site so I can't even access Fighfar (fire lion)'s character page on archive.org easily. Goddamnit Bamco

[Bean]

I started up Yakuza 0 just to see what the games are like for myself. Basic arena brawler for the fights which is fine, main story does nothing offensive other than looooooong cutscenes which I knew about it going in, but the substory stuff is kind of on the embarrassing side at times with sophomoric humor being around in like half of the ones I've done so far. I don't know. I didn't think this stuff was all that funny when I started up GTA IV, and that was 2008. By now, it's just making me scratch my head.

So fun game for now, okay plot, hit or miss side quest stuff.

[Slimeman01]

I started up Doom Eternal recently, and even though I've just completed Mission 6, man oh MAN this game is an absolute banger. Difficult, but in a very fair way. I'm only playing on medium and I'm still getting whooped, but it's never discouraging. Finding secrets is also super fun, my only gripe is the length of the stages makes collecting missed objects kind of a pain, but it's still worth it. 10/10 dude oh my lordy

[KobaBeach]

Heading to the Pirates' Hideout in Lidal in Lufia: The Legend Returns. I don't think I've talked about it here but, it's a really fun Lufia sequel. I'm pretty sure expectations of like a Lufia III: Ruin Chasers (that's what it was gonna be called before Nihon-Flex died, good night sweet prince) that'd build on Lufia II as a base and be like a Wild Arms+α would be sky high, but this is almost as good for me. And also early Wild Arms existed, being a sort of spiritual second Lufia series, if for anything, then by sheer coincidence.

The 9 battle position slots and Spiritual Force synergy mechanic is kind of unwieldy but the game is friendly enough to let you bypass it a bit for a better experience, letting you use IP Moves at a higher cost if the synergy isn't ideal, like the requirement hasn't been reached. There is a lot of playable characters from what I can tell, including

Artea's sister, Milka

from Lufia 1 and 2 which. Wow, that's a deep dive. Characters are not as fleshed out, especially since it's a handheld game with 9+ protags. But do you really play Lufia for the fleshed out characters??

Dungeons are also turned into little mystery dungeon type deals, with randomized layouts and loot. While people have complained about it being repetitive in reviews, I feel like it's a situation similar to Zwei!! in that it's kind of inevitable for a mechanic like this. Other people have also complained that you can just go up and down stairs until you get a map with stairs next to you and I think that's incredibly stupid, because you're missing out on loot and EXP and generally making the game harder for you because you're being a stubborn bitch. But that's just me.

Bosses are also incredibly hard, it's very stupid, but I kind of dig it. Makes beating them a lot more fulfilling. They also have better AI than like. FF Legend 3, where they just spammed partywide attacks. Grinding is an option, including grinding to stockpile on loot exclusive to dungeons, including the precious Miracles (basically full HP Revives) and later in the Lidal Continent, I might have to do so for Sanity Rings in preperation for Amon.

Which btw, every Sinistral is the climax of an arc in its own little island continent. It's neat. They're also huge pain in the asses to fight, but you can also try and beat them before you're "meant" to and. You'll still get rewarded? And that's super cool! I'm not doing it but. I love when RPGs do that. You can beat Gades in the first continent the first time you meet him with just Wain and Seena if you're batshit enough, and you'll get a cool armor piece, it's great. And on top of that there's some nice sidequests: Optional randomized dungeons, fetch quest type things, Ancient Cave, the Egg Dragon sidequest from other Lufias,

you can even recruit the Egg Dragon once you've wished for everything! And he's completely maxed out!

.

Speaking of stupid, the dialogue is incredibly dumb, but so human in how dumb it is that it feels like Lunar? Or if you're more of a fan of 'em, I guess Toby Fox's RPGs? They're not as bizarre as Itoi's work, though. Sorry, subliminal memories from when I wrote the latter part of the post. It's more blunt than those three though. The characters are incredibly stupid and dumb, but they're incredibly likeable. Wain gets constantly called stupid, but he's like, the ultimate sword himbo. Dekar would be so proud. It's a very cute RPG and I love it so much.

I honestly expected this one to be one of those games that are like too weird to be properly enjoyed, like Unlimited Saga but. It's honestly up there with Pokémon Crystal. Of the two GBC RPGs I've played so far I can't decide whether Pokémon Gen 2 or Lufia 3 is better! There's also Pokémon TCG 1 and I guess Telefang 1 but I haven't played those since the 00s, so let's ignore em for now.

Telefang 1&2, mark my words, your day will come. Pokémon Diamond GBC, you motherfucker. Actually own the cartridge these days due to my dad's dumpster diving habits, only played it in ROM form before. Somehow don't own any Gen 4 Pokémon game though, I dropped out due to getting a PSP at the time instead for Sonic Rivals, and I'm not going near eBay and Amazon prices. Shit's like €50 in box.

but the substory stuff is kind of on the embarrassing side at times with sophomoric humor being around in like half of the ones I've done so far.

I've only seen a bit of it in a friend's stream and from what I can tell at least it's not punch down humor? Like even in the

dominatrix

sidequest, for lack of a better term, while her shyness is part of the joke, the sidequest is about helping her stand up for herself, which includes

being more dominant

.

Or even the

yankii band

sidequest, where you have to help adorable preppy nerds seem like they're hardcore badasses to their fanbase. Again, their wussiness is kind of the joke, but iirc they're never really humiliated for it like an American comedy would, at most,

Kiryu just accidentally makes one cry due to speaking too loudly

.

I'd honestly compare it to like Toby Fox or Itoi's RPGs, but with more swearing. It's jokey, but it's the nice kind of jokey. I've heard some Kiwami remakes even rewrite sidequests involving trans NPCs to not be offensive. You're free to dislike it though, sorry if I'm coming off as pushing my opinions on you.

[HatKid]

Yakuza 0

I haven't actually played Yakuza 0 myself, but it was the first Yakuza game to really be mostly jokes and humour. There always was humor, but 0 takes it to another level, to the point that I have seen more than a few people criticize the "later games" (as in, later in numbering, but not necessarily in release) for not being as funny as 0 and for being "too serious." Humor is subjective of course, but that's just what I've seen people say.

-----

Finished Super Robot Wars X. Overall enjoyed it, but not my most favorite entry... not like there's many of these games I've finished lol. I kinda prefer the OG games anyway, but fingers crossed I'll be able to play Alpha 1 in English before I die (bonus Alpha 2 and 3, but that's wishful thinking). I do have SRW T now, so I can finish off the VXT trilogy some point, probably next year. Sad that I won't have early Gespenst, but nothing I can really do about it, besides like, pirating the Switch version and the DLC and I really don't want to do that lmao. I don't want it that badly.

Been slowly going through Shin Megami Tensei V. Game is really pretty and fun, so I've been enjoying it. I hear the writing gets pretty poor so that's fun!

[raekuul]

second time going through Xenoblade 2 (started a fresh new game instead of going into New Game Plus), this time my first rare blade was Dagas (Fire Greataxe) which is hilarious on two counts (1) Dagas has a long-enough development arc that you want to pull him early instead of late and (2) launch art on Rex before even rescuing Nia (though without New Game Plus you still need Nia for her Break Art if you want to try for a full Driver Combo that early, and if you're playing without DLC you don't get a Smash Art until two chapters later when you're ready to head for Mor Ardain)

also I picked up Disgaea DS again; mostly just dawdling around in that before bed. The story battles are short enough that I can do it a little at a time, though I'm not sure how I'll handle even the required trips into the Item World (my 3ds's card slot is... inconsistent, so I can't rely entirely on clamshell sleep).

[thatguyif]

So, been doing stuff the last month or so, thought I'd update on games I finished

I started my Metroid project by playing through, well, Metroid. It is very much a game of its time (i.e. 1986). Very interesting ideas and concepts, very early interpretations of exploration that felt repetitive (plus the start is really hard if you don't know where you're going). I understand why Nintendo remade the game 18 years later. Still, good to analyze this game for what it's worth especially in the broader context of what follows

While taking a mini-vacation to DC, I played a platformer called Planet Alpha on my new Switch OLED (I gifted my old Switch to my actual sister). A very pretty game with a clear non-verbal story that was worth following. But it lacked a lot of gameplay substance, since it was just, you know, platforming with no action, with some puzzle segments involving either stealth or the ability to switch between day and night. Very short as well. Still, if this is the team's first attempt (though it may be they came together for this particular project and then split), it'd be nice to see what they do next

I also started up Hob: Definitive Edition, and at first I enjoyed it. It's a Zelda-like biopunk(?) game, involving a techno-organic person given a mech arm and retractable sword, reviving a world and clearing it of its malaise. Very pretty, exploration was mostly interesting, combat mechanics were fun-ish (though wireless lag kind of screwed me on a few too many occasions). However, it suffers from extremely poor signposting, not helped by the fact that the game's story, like Planet Alpha's, is non-verbal, but also very very esoteric. I got lost at one point and decided to put it down for a few weeks because I was frustrated on not knowing where to go next. Eventually I figured out the bottleneck when I came back to it, and kind of had to drill down in my head that the game is far more linear that I gave it credit for to advance. Even then, I got stuck on one last quest bit because of the lack of signposting that took me over an hour before I gave up and looked at a longplay to find out the solution. Still, it was a decent game overall

At one point before Thanksgiving, I decided to do a replay of Darwinia, a game I hold very near and dear. It was just fun bopping around that game again, though once again I failed to remember the 4.0 versions of key programs (and thus wasted precious research). Blazed through that game rather quickly (in comparison to some of the others here). It was just fun indulging in that rather than committing to specific games because they were in my backlog.

Finally, after starting it 10 months ago, I finished up Bully: Scholarship Edition. What a great game. Probably as good as Vice City in terms of Rockstar's "3D era" open world games. Excellent writing and storytelling, fun gameplay in general, all the little details being nice, amazing music, a very compelling setting I could relate to (growing up in that region) in a time before the current times. And being Jimmy was just fun. My only serious quibble was the motion controls being overly sensitive, but that may have simply been a consequence of using a Wii MotionPlus (while the game's controls were probably designed for the original Wiimote, which is less sensitive). I also did not 100% the game (reached 98.11%), but that was mainly because of: A. Biology 5 and B. Several minor pranks you had to do repeatedly for percentage like egging cars and doing wedgies. Considering there is no reward to 100%ing the game, I decided to call it a day after finishing the main storyline. And I'm fine with that. It is a game that I enjoyed, a game I know will never get a sequel (because high school has changed a fucking lot in the last 15 years and I doubt there's really a way to make a game out of it), and a game I hope will never get the Definitive Edition treatment

In any event, moving forward...I've begun playing Metroid II: Samus Returns tonight. This is the linchpin of my little Metroid project. More on that at some point. I intend to also restart Rebel Galaxy. According to Steam, I played it 5 years ago on my 2015 MacBook Pro for over 18 hours, and I do remember enjoying it. But I remember stopping because the soundtrack suuuuuuuuuucks to the point of making it unbearable. Like I get that the game was trying to convey a sort of rustic (American) working class vibe, but the choice of butt rock made it feel like caricature and extremely annoying. The PC version, thankfully, has a launcher where you where you can add a custom soundtrack. (This is lacking in the MacOS version). I intend to replace/combine it with the FTL (ironically) and Surviving Mars soundtracks so I can at least have fun flying on my space boat! But that requires organizing, sooooo...

And soon, very soon...nearly 3 years after buying it at the Manhattan Nintendo Store...Hyrule Warriors...

[Bean]

I haven't actually played Yakuza 0 myself, but it was the first Yakuza game to really be mostly jokes and humour. There always was humor, but 0 takes it to another level, to the point that I have seen more than a few people criticize the "later games" (as in, later in numbering, but not necessarily in release) for not being as funny as 0 and for being "too serious." Humor is subjective of course, but that's just what I've seen people say.

My problem with the humor in Yakuza 0's side quests is that it goes more into juvenile territory, which is okay on its own, but it's mixed with creepiness more often than not. Like I said, I was tired of this stuff in 2008 with GTA IV. This game goes to a level that's around or above that sometimes, so eh.

The actual main game and most of the minigames that don't involve hooking up with women are pretty fun. Currently nearing the end of Chapter 5 outside of a few more side quests to get through and at over 45%. Pretty sure I can get that number over 50% if I can get more into the real estate part of the game since that's where the huge boost in completion percentage has come from tonight.

[thatguyif]

I forgot to mention that I did check out a couple demos over the long Thanksgiving weekend to gauge whether I should get them at some point (or not)...

Humankind: The guys behind the Endless series of 4X games made a Civ game. I played about 60 turns of it. In many ways, it's a radically different approach from Civ: For starters, you aren't a nation but a culture, and you can choose to change cultures with each new age, complete with different units and structures and abilities to leverage. That's huge, and greatly resolves the issue Civ has had throughout its series of civs being anchored on a specific age and no further. It also treats cities a lot differently through a kind of territory-based system. On top of that, issues of the later Civs such as anti-stacking are missing here, which is a nice boost. Plus, it does have interesting ideas around building both in the city and outside it, which is quite useful.

Still, I feel eh about the game from my play of it. It suffers from a slow start much like Civ VI does, but for different reasons: While Civ VI had the issue of being harassed by buffed (compared to previous Civs) barbarians, Humankind suffers from dysfunctional growth. Both of my cities struggled to grow because every time I hit a certain population, it would decline because instantly, too little food was being produced. On top of that, creating cities is much more expensive in Humankind, as you have to first create an outpost (which takes multiple turns), then spend Influence to convert the outpost into a city. And each new city gets several times more expensive than the previous, with my attempt at a third city costing more than buying a claim on a wonder. This game feels like a very good first try, but it's a first try nevertheless.

F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Tech: This is a Metroidvania made by some dev in Shanghai I've had my eye on. It's a game that wears its Chinese-ness on its sleeve, but definitely has an aesthetic similar to FFVII's Midgar (whatever that's called...atompunk? dieselpunk?), with some bits of Fallout going on. The characters are anthropomorphic animals, which is usually a turnoff for me. But they actually look like animals as opposed to the cartoonish, childish depictions I typically see with furry shit, so I'm unphased by it.

The game itself is really good. It plays really smoothly, and the movement is exceptional right off the bat. Everything just clicks, and even my crippled hands can handle some of the more precise movements with practice. Combat's also really good, though difficult in parts. It was a highly enjoyable experience, and I wishlisted it when I finished. Probably won't get it for a while, given my big backlog, but maybe it'll be a pickup next year.

[Slimeman01]

Finally beat the main campaign for Doom Eternal, and man oh man oh man oh man oh man, this game is still a banger of a video game.
Spoilers in here:

The final few stages where you're thrust into hell and can't escape rule man, a gauntlet of 4 stages in a row including the final boss, challenging as all heck but an amazing experience. The Icon of Sin as the final boss is so cool to see, even if I thought it did was a long as hell fight, though that may just be me being bad at shooters, considering this is my first one ever. Still had a blast murdering him, and the feeling of finally crushing him is amazing.

This game is my first real experience with the FPS genre as a whole, and man, I couldn't've picked a better starting game. 11/10 game dude
AND I STILL HAVE THE DLC TO PLAY, LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Bean]

Slowly chugging along in Yakuza 0. Trying to get through Majima's half of the big business goals right now and even learned how to play Mahjong to an extent during some much-needed breaks away from it. I'm on Chapter 7 at over 80%. I'll probably finish around 90% if I'm doing my math right on the minigames and all that I actually feel like doing in this one.

[Bean]

Slowly chugging along in Yakuza 0. Trying to get through Majima's half of the big business goals right now and even learned how to play Mahjong to an extent during some much-needed breaks away from it. I'm on Chapter 7 at over 80%. I'll probably finish around 90% if I'm doing my math right on the minigames and all that I actually feel like doing in this one.

Yeah, never mind. Once I got the Mahjong game done with, I started powering through all those completion percentage goals. 95% now and on Chapter 11. With all the side quests frontloaded, there's really not that much left to do even with a decent chunk of the game left.

[KobaBeach]

Been playing Megami Tensei 2 and Star Ocean 1 over the past few days (not yesterday, too tired to turn on PC, chronic fatigue?).

MT2 - Heading to Ikebukuro rn, depetrified Atlas too, I forget if I beat Virala in... Kourakuen? Super fun game, that feels just right. Apparently the level down enemies people meme about are in the Demon World section of the game (ahead of the furthest I've ever reached, Bael's Castle), so I'll be dreading them. Rwars on Discordhaus already warned me about the Succubi, which I appreciate. Apparently level down enemies were also in MT1 but they got completely flushed out of my mind like a bad turd. I also haven't played it much in like 5-6 years so oops, last time I tried MT1 again I made it to like... The second area? I think it was Valhalla.

SO1 - Sort of a comfort game now, even if the story is a bit mid. Last time I was done with the Trial Labyrinth in Van I Il (or Van I II as westerners sometimes call it because the OG translation patch had no difference between uppercase Is and lowercase Ls in the font. gj) for the Van Emblem, so I moved on to Sylvalant for the Sylvalant emblem, recruited Millie (since I had gone with Ashlay instead of Cyuss), recruited Pericci, did the Portmith Armory dungeon for the Moore Emblem, got the Bunny Whistle (best part of the game ), got the Astral Emblem, levelled up Peri and Mill to Lv30 and did the Abandoned Cave at Mt. Metorx. Doing Sylvalant Ruins, but I'm gonna keep Mavelle in my party. I might savescum just to see the cutscene. Current party (First Departure name localization): Rodd/Ilia/Ashl/Rony/Mave/Iosh/Mill/Peri.

[KobaBeach]

i beat star ocean and its good