What games are you playing?

[KobaBeach]

Mahou Gakuen Lunar! - at skull island in chapter 5. so like, not only are the dumb maze dungeons back, but the encounter rate is astronomical (probably the worst i've ever encountered and i've played vay, phantasy star 2 and earthbound beginnings) and the presentation has been taken down to a budget variant of lunar 1&2 for some reason? what the fuck. gcmatome calls this a kusoge (i was wrong they call it a rekkage which is basically like a worse port or remake, literally "deteriorated game") but i dunno i feel like it's just mediocre to me, but i'm also using kizyr's walkthrough on lunar-net.

not a fan of ellie undressing entirely to get healing runes tattoo'd on her left arm and torso, that's blatantly cheap cheesecake, on a 14 year old character no less (granted the biggest part of my problem is that they chose an underage character). same shit with chris in the legend of heroes 3 remake, also on saturn. what the fuck is this. her also just being able to fly sounds absolutely ridiculous even for lunar, noted NSFW Retweets+Cryptic Shitpost Twitter Account of the jrpg world

i'm glad that sam from icarly lena is still a high quality character and so is senia, ant is also still a little bitch. blade is... I don't hate him but he feels like a less charismatic kyle. but so far i only did one chapter with him, and it was entirely a "girls can be strong too" aesop. when's that cute little doofus winn getting back into my party??

no caps because this game doesn't really deserve it lol

EDIT: okay the ridiculous encounter rate is because of a slayers game esp published that got shat on for only lasting like 10 hours, might have been royal? also studio alex was working on mahou gakuen until around the middle where bits laboratory came to finish it. "source" is some rando on 2ch who might have worked on the game

Goes to show I'd rather randomly wander than be stuck on a day-to-day schedule to do everything like P5R.

i think that's everyone unless they're really into micromanaging style dating sims like tokimemo
shit like that just makes me rely extra hard on gamefaqs and/or procrastinate playing the game

at least majora's mask let you restart the time loop

[raekuul]

P5R: In the name of the moon, I shall punish you! ...or something like that. I should have pushed Guts more before 5/2, now I have to spend yens to build it up. Tycoon is a fun distraction from the main plot at least, but all in all I'd like the option to enable/disable Royal additions from the main menu.

Xenoblade 2: oh right I'm supposed to be going to Fonsett.

Xenoblade 3: still debating how much class uncorking I want to do in Postgame vs in New Game Plus.

[KobaBeach]

Mahou Gakuen Lunar! - Just beat Chapter 5 and 6, and into Chapter 7: The Blitzkrieg Grand Operation 2 (they didn't even do the Blitzkrieg Grand Wedding pun from the game gear version, deplorable) and I gotta say, Chapter 5 was probably the worst so far. Lots of going back and forth, especially if you're going for most magic, which means extra encounters and nonsense dungeon exploration.

Chapter 6 was pretty bad but the chapter itself was much shorter, the biggest problem I had was trying to read Kizyr's directions, the text was organized with like 2008 computer screens in mind and were at like. Size 6.

All three bosses were also fucking stupid. The Storm Garter was a bunch of hot air, but the Master Poltergeist and Sea Monster were absolutely abysmal. They had so much HP, and they hit so hard it was really fucking stupid.

Chapter 7's gonna involve like. Going through the bowels of the Coastal Cavern so it'll probably involve going through five floors of Demon Castle D, which, mother of god... I don't know if I can binge this like I did the Game Gear version.

I actively start trying to run away from battles like an idiot to just get shit over with and then giving up on the third attempt at running, and just resorting to fighting for real. This game is poopoo.

I said I wasn't gonna do caps but whatever

[thatguyif]

Super Mario 64 is done. 120 stars. Man, that became painful. I knew Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride would be awful, but it was just such hot garbage. I feel like a big part of the game's problem is that you never feel really in control of Mario, whether it's the awkward camera, the overly sensitive movements, the overuse of momentum, and so on. I never really felt confident playing because a jump would not do what I'd want it to do, or because I'd die because I'd accidentally run into a wall and bounce back sent me careening over the edge. This was definitely a game that needed to exist, if only because all the flaws that it showed in 3D platforming were very apparently then. This is likely a game I'll never play again. Still, I will play Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy at some point. Just not sure when.

Going to write a bit, play that demo Crow mentioned. Then, as promised, return to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and do my replay of Metroid: Samus Returns.

[Bean]

If I'm looking at my list right, I've done every Side, Hero, & Ascension Quest available to me in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 before hitting up the final dungeon. Guess that's where I'm going next after putting it off the last 10-15 hours. Level 68 for the party, so I should be ready for it... not that I won't just bail when I get there to get one specific quest out of the way.

[KobaBeach]

Phantasy Star II - Did the Blue and Green Dams, escaped from Gaila and I'm at Skure, in frosty Dezoris. I'm just wondering how best to organize my recovery tech/magic items: GiRes (Crescent Headgear and Aegis Shield) and Res (Truth Sleeves), and my attack magic items: Wind Scarf (Zan), Storm Headgear (GiZan), Green Sleeves (Shinb) on my main game party (Rolf/Rudolf/Anna/Amy) for Dark Falz and Mother Brain, and the random encounters, respectively. I guess I'll just get a feel for it as I continue with the game. You can leave all dungeons anytime (final dungeon requires the Neisword, everything else is basically a Hinas tech or an Escapipe item, and a Ryuka tech or Telepipe item back to civilization).

I also should keep up a nice stack of Trimates, like I did during the dams just in case, especially with Rolf using Megid during most of Mother Brain's battle later down the road.

Misc.: Man, I still wish I could try a CalorieMate out of bizarre fascination, but I bet they just taste like ass. Mono, Di and Trimates are named after the PelorieMate item in PS1, I think it was localized to a Burger, which, if you know what CalorieMates are, they're basically basically energy bar biscuits... Quite the increase in fat there. But in PS1 they are sold in a Fast First Food Shop in both JP and English..... :thonk:

also no they did not fix the first food mistranslation in the switch release lmao, in tectoy's br portuguese translation i think it's also loja de primeira comida too which oh my god, need to play that

Super Mario 64 is done. 120 stars. Man, that became painful. I knew Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride would be awful, but it was just such hot garbage.

It's definitely a game where you need to get used to the messy controls (this isn't me saying git gud btw). I can get most of the stars on keyboard but I've been playing it since a young age and, I will not lie that SM64 has aged like milk in spots, especially compared to games like Jumping Flash which are arguably more primitive. Sunshine I remember hearing was somewhat slippery(-ier? I didn't notice it), and Galaxy's camera has its moments but it should play better.

Level 68 for the party, so I should be ready for it... not that I won't just bail when I get there to get one specific quest out of the way.

*twin peaks Man from Another Place rubbing his hands dot gif* that's that good "stupid missable sidequest" shit

[Bean]

There are zero quests that can be missed in this game. Instead, this one goes with the "very obtuse, hope you have a guide to know when and where they activate" kind of deal instead.

[thatguyif]

It's definitely a game where you need to get used to the messy controls (this isn't me saying git gud btw).

I appreciate you putting it that way. Some chump somewhere else was all "maybe you suck" today when I mentioned my troubles, and I kind of wanted to slap him because it was so annoying

[raekuul]

P5R: It helps that I have A General Idea Of What's Going On so that I can speed things along but wow is this guy an ass (there's going to be a lot of this type of comment in my future).

Super Mario 64

I picked at this scab a little when NSO N64 launched but yeah it really suffers from the generation gap. I'll probably feel better about the NSO N64 selection in general once I have a controller with dedicated C-buttons again (which should happen inside a month if all goes well). I'd say the Zeldas fared a little better as time wore on but they really didn't (as much as I'll bitch about MM3D changing the boss fights it really needed the tech improvements, and OoT3D is just *chef's kiss*), they just feel better due to later Zelda games falling hard into Adventure Line Syndrome.


Xenoblade 3DS: wait, what do you mean "there isn't a dedicated Chain Attack button"?

[Bean]

Flew through the entirety of the last area in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in one swoop last night and stopped just shy of the final boss. Should be beating that game either tonight or tomorrow depending on whether or not I want to take down some more unique enemies or not first.

The main character's special sword ability getting pre-charged to 90% right at the start of a battle along with having his normal techniques instantly ready right off the bat is absolutely destroying non-boss enemies in this place. He's basically ready to do a devastating solo four-hit combo within about 20-30 seconds on anyone, bosses included, and you have enough time to pull that combo off two or three times. On top of that, the game's been fun throughout.

[KobaBeach]

Dragon Quest II NES - just playing bad sequels these days ay ay ay

Went from Hamlin during the middle of last night, recruited Moonbrooke, bought some Dragon's Banes, went all the way through to Leftwyne, through Charlock to get the Sword of Erdrick, got the first four crests, got the keys, got the rest of the Erdrick equipment for Midenhall and the Falcon Sword for Cannock, duplicated the Water Flying Clothes for Cannock and Moonbrooke, and exploited the American only Staff of Thunder bug for Shields of Strength (casts Healmore when used). Unlocked the water gate at Tuhn and I'm gonna head to the Tower of the Moon next. All in roughly one day, some grinding included.

I'll gain one or three more levels first though, before continuing. Dragon Quest does grinding somewhat well, it helps to have good EXP gains, possibly the goal amounts aren't too high either until the late levels?

Hargon's Castle completely ruined me last time so I'm preparing myself as much as I can, thus the bug exploits.

[Crow]

finally finished off freedom planet 2 100% so now it's time to play

okami again. got the switch port, my first time playing with motion controls and it's... an experience alright

[raekuul]

Xenoblade 3: started new game plus (oy is this game a drain on the batteries in handheld mode); now the question is do I go with the exceptionally silly route of 'use the postgame heroes eveywhere' or the more practical 'six Strategos and a Lost Vanguard'?

[KobaBeach]

Dragon Quest II - Did the Tower of the Moon and the Sea Cave, and got the Charm of Rubiss. The Sea Cave is a terrible dungeon, Stepguard doesn't even protect you from the lava tiles in the NES version. Levelling up from Lv24 to Lv30 as Middenhall before moving on to the Cave to Rhone dungeon. It'll take a hot second but it'll be worth it (currently Lv26). Though we'll see if it'll turn into poverty grinding or not.

I might go hog into Lv35 during the Rhone grind, just to make sure Moonbrooke and Cannock have all their spells, even then, the final boss and the bosses before it are a huge pain though. I think the max is Lv50 for Middenhall, who I'm focusing on? The others just level up as we go along, and they have different maxes (45 and 40, Cannock and Moonb.) so.

Distracting myself by making SMW stages for myself first though (i don't know if i'll be able to make one for AAT without worrying about dragging the project by slacking off)

[thatguyif]

Per Crow's suggestion, I played the demo of DoubleShake. I played it for probably longer than I thought I would. Part of it was that, for about 20-30 minutes, I had no idea what to do next. Another part was that I kept dying a lot, checkpoints were few and far between, and you have actually turn on auto-save (an odd choice, though I think I understand the reasoning). For what it's worth, the game was all right. It definitely wears its Mischief Makers heart on its sleeve (especially given one of the secret items you get in the post-demo(?) is a Mischief Makers costume), and there are also heavy influences of Pac-Man World and other 2.5D platformers of the era. Had some weird issues (backing out of a menu, for example, causes Loam, your character, to perform their kick...), but nothing too serious. Again, not my thing, but it was fine.

In other news...

I finally finished the Art Wing of the Museum in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

After playing nearly daily for the better part of 6 or 7 months, it's over. I got the last art pieces (the last half of Fujin-Raijin-zu, Ajisai Sōkeizu, and Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte (which happens to exhibit at a museum near where I live)) over the last two weeks.

Did I use time travel manipulation to finally get these last art pieces? Certainly. Did Redd, whose RNG is terrible, deserve it? Abso-fucking-lutely.

(Also finished "investing in" Harv's Co-Op, but details)

With that, I'm putting ACNH on ice for a little while. It'll be a bit of a relief to not have to play it just to get specific things. I might do a couple things to get Turkey Day items, possibly to get my HHA score up, but otherwise, the next day I will truly start playing this game again is December 1, when I will try to get the very last Museum item, a stringfish. I might start Happy Home Paradise afterward, while also spending time making...some effort to get my island possibly 5 stars.

Got some writing to do, but continuing Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is definitely on the docket now. Like to get that done before the end of the year. Definitely doable, but I want to be sure of it.

[raekuul]

P5R: I'm not sure but I think this game might just possibly be easier than P3FES and P4. Maybe.

[Bean]

Beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and all of the extra bosses last night thanks to a well-timed bonus experience point drop at a rest spot. All that's left to do are a few more post-game side quests. Looking like it'll be an 130-hour playthrough overall. Yeah, this was a fun first dip into the series, but I probably won't play any of the others in the near future.

[Ashan]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity had a sale going on Amazon around the time I was finishing BotW, so I ended up buying that, so not too long after I was done with BotW I decided to hop into that.

And then I finished the campaign today. I wasn't super hyped going into the game, I don't remember much about the original Hyrule Warriors -- I bought it on Wii U like a year after it came out maybe, played through the campaign once, and never touched it again. I remember it being rompy and not feeling like I ever really understood how it worked. But I'm actually surprised how much I enjoyed Age of Calamity!

Again, because I don't recall much about the original game, I don't know if there's something mechanically that changed that made me enjoy this more, or if it's just my tastes changing. But I found the combat pretty fun. Well, as Link anyway. I also found some uses for Zelda, Mipha, and King Rhoam, but it still felt like the game was meant to be played as Link. He'd pretty much always be like 20 levels ahead of the other characters cause I was mostly using him. I discovered that you could unlimited backflip into bullet time, which not only slows time but makes it so you can aim directly for enemies' weak spots, and on top of that it actually does some decent damage. So it's fine to just spam that at an enemy even if it's not vulnerable to have its stun gauge drained. I also don't know why they took the time to give him 2 alternate weapon classes (spears and 2-handed swords) because once you get the Master sword it feels like there's no point of using any other weapon unless you put some item farming seals on them to get a particular item. Who knows, maybe there's some meta strategy to fighting with those other weapons that makes them better, but the sword beam at full health with the Master sword is too good to give up.

Now that I'm done beating the game, I kinda feel like I might just go all the way for 100%. I didn't plan to going in, but the non-story missions make for something good and mindless to play while listening to podcasts. As long as you ignore the dialogue that pops up during real-time gameplay, which I never really understood how you're supposed to read while paying attention to the enemies you're fighting.

Also I feel like this is... perhaps the first Zelda game with a kind of good story? Maybe not story but it's the first time I kinda felt anything for any character in a Zelda game. Link is as dumb as ever and it's still as awkward as ever to have this mute guy amongst a bunch of characters that are voiced. But the stuff showing Zelda's past, her frustration with her duties, etc was actually pretty well done! I even liked the little R2D2 ripoff robot by the end of the game!

And was also sad when I had to kill him and they revealed its history with Zelda. And while I'm in spoiler territory, boy was that sad when it shows King Rhoam taking her robot away after establishing that it was Zelda's only real emotional connection to someone/thing after her mother died. Legitimately pretty heartwrenching stuff for a Zelda game!

But uhhh... yeah, if you're like me and passed over this game when it came out, maybe give it a shot. I'm having fun with it!

[raekuul]

P5R: So I really want to rush the third palace and complete it on 6/26. This has less to do with being impatient and wanting to plough through to spoiler time and more because the first palace was run on 4/26 and the second one was run on 5/26 and I want to keep that going as long as possible.

[Bean]

Oy, spent a few hours redownloading a giant patch for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night since I wanted to replay it in my own time for Halloween. Very rare for me to replay a game on the PS4, but here we are.

[KobaBeach]

basically pirated every RPG Maker but 95, since it probably doesn't run well on Win10 (and Simulation RPG Maker, since i have SRPG Studio), messed around a bit with 2000 to practice, installed the ancient font patch from the olden days (hate mushy fonts), and I tried out an older game from the community to see how the "pros" do it, taking the recc from a Felipe Pepe post on Medium (very good CRPG historian, though he's too cozy with Avellone).

A Blurred Line (RPG Maker) - Past the Rat Tunnels dungeon. If I had to complain about one thing it's that I've only seen one of any sort of Inn, and just relying on items for healing pre-saves is a bit annoying. The rips blend pretty well with the original? stuff and the CG in the battles is super cute, very Y2K. It's a bit childish in its writing, but there haven't been any edgy slurs yet, just a bit of silly comedy here and there. I honestly enjoy this little dorky game so far.

VIP and Wall Mix 2 (SMW hack) - Beat Worlds 2 and 3. From カギのつかいみち (The Way of Using a Key), to being parked outside くらげのすむみずうみ (The Lake of Jellyfish) in World 4. The bubble stage isn't too hard once you realize that most holes have warps but also, the big trick to getting the secret exit without the cape, which is never explained in-game and is a huge dick move. lol. The Living with a Rock stage was a huge pain but I hope the dude who made that wasn't really... Y'know, during that earthquake around 2007 and that instead he just never used the Living With A Rock handle again and is just vibing in a shitpost thread about vtubers or whatever. Or works for a big company like Smitho being an artist on Aikatsu or wahtever

Massimo (SMW hack) - Really nostalgic, atmospheric hack, that I didn't enjoy in its time. Beat the secret exit of Massimo's Hole, the first stage. Very chill.

Dragon Quest II - Gained one level. Taking my time to not burn myself out like I almost did with Grandia. Still preparing for Rhone. Aiming for 175000 EXP next with Middenhall.

I also downloaded Zelda Classic to mess around in and see if I can help with a zombie release of the AZCT remnants on my own time, I'm using a nightly build though, will probably have to download an older build. Maybe I should practice Game Maker, SMBX and Godot too for personal, private games to make just for fun... But I can't let SMW get forgotten... Maybe check out Mega Man and Sonic hacking too.

Might boot up the AAT baserom soon, to work on a few levels.

[raekuul]

P5R: agh why must plot happen all i want to do is return this book i borrowed. Also the Akechi/Kasumi conversation was intriguing - neither of them are wrong in the grand scheme of things (Akechi is right in that it's functionally brainwashing, and Kasumi actually calls out what happens in Bad End), but within the context of P5R the Big Palaces are like unclogging clogged pipes - not only is there an Outside Force keeping half of these palace masters in place in society, but the palace holders themselves are in positions of power such that the Average Person can't do anything to be rid of them. The message board requests (and the Moon social link) are 100% people not dealing with their problems by themselves though - seriously, just report the yandere to the police and be done with it.

[Bean]

Finished up my quick replay of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. 12:30 total time with 99.5% map completion. Wasn't doing all the secret stuff or shard collecting this time around since I had already done the platinum ages ago. Taking the trophy grind out of it made it both more focused and fun as expected, and it was already a real fun game.

[thatguyif]

So I made a lot of progress in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Completing everything that is possible after finishing Story Mode in the first two episodes of the Sequel/Disney/Rey trilogy, I'm now at...85.99%. Not great, but not awful either, considering I cleared a quarter of the game's percentage just clearing everything up. The nice thing is that, outside maybe the two locked challenges, every planet outside the sequel trilogy planets are completely finished. So all I would have to do is clear the remaining planets (locked behind Episode IX) of their open world items, full clear the Story Mode levels, and do those last two challenges, then I'm done.

For what it's worth, the game opened up considerably. I was under half-complete for all the side missions when I started the trilogy. Now I'm about...75, 80% done with those? What's interesting about that is that it's opening up and connecting the Star Wars universe in a way that the films didn't. Lucas' focus on the archetypal hero journey meant a lot of his story was highly linear. Of course, he also recognized the importance of connecting the universe as a whole—I understand why my friend once said Episode III was a really good film if only because it established a firm connection between the two trilogies. Abrams took Lucas' linear narrative and gave it steroids: None of the worlds in the Sequel/Disney/Rey Trilogy are connected in any reasonable way to rest of the series. So there's a limited-to-no connection to the various worlds the series explores. The game does a good job establishing those connections, albeit in its own goofy way. For example, there was this mission chain that was a fetch quest collecting artifacts, but actually made use of the lore to make connections...Like the texts are all Jedi texts found on planets where the Jedi made a home, the figures are in planets with ancient ruins, and so on.

The game has gotten a little better as a result. It's a bit more enjoyable. That said...game feels more buggy than it used to. Not Switch-level buggy, but things have gotten a little frayed as I get close to finishing it. Still, I should be done before the week is out, hopefully.

An aside:

Now that I'm seeing it clearly, game is not hiding what 100% unlocks, given that there are 5 remaining planets I've yet to visit, but only four listed in the Missions tab of the menu, and The Slice (which contains two planets) I've 100%ed despite only having access to Kashyyk...

[raekuul]

P5R: stop showing off, wakaba.

EDIT: More P5R: Yay I can fuse Alice now (I went out of my way to have Death as the first completed Social Link Confidant (I get why they changed the name but it's really not any different in practice since it's actually cultivating friendship and trust). On the downside I've heavily neglected the PT social links (only Moon and Chariot are where they "should be" for August). Also aoghawprquph game stop throwing forced time at me I have DVDs to return