What games are you playing?

[Crow]

working through souldiers, a pretty sizeable and pretty fun metroidvania, a bit heavier on combat/exploration than platforming but it does all three well & the game just looks beautiful too. admittedly feels smaller than it actually is because i only got done with aeterna noctis a few months ago and that game was bonkers huge. but yeah no this is the good stuff

also started tinykin a few days back but streaming it for a friend and they've been busy so i haven't been able to get to it in a few days... really fun 3D collectathon w/ minor pikmin elements, doesn't seem like it's gonna be that terribly long overall but it's also super fun for what it is

man, video games are neat

[raekuul]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Still dicking around before advancing Chapter 3. I found (but can't activate) the Battlescar Ferronis Hulk, but that's about the limit of where I can go in Aetia at the moment (everywhere else is actively gated by higher level monsters guarding narrow entrances) so I'll work on Fornis now (I did the Colony Gamma stuff so now I can climb sand so I should actually be able to explore Fornis now). I think my favorite thing about the battle system so far is that I can advance Break Combos during a Chain Attack (now all I need are Break arts that don't depend on positioning and/or can be set to the left-side buttons).

Pokemon Crystal Randomized - finally remembered to turn off battle animations; the rest of Mahogany Rocket Hideout flew by as a result. Debating whether I want to uncork Whirlpool first or just go straight back to Glitter Lighthouse now and activate the Amphy storyline. I'm hiking back either way though.

Age of Empires D.E. : Ascent of Egypt Learning Campaign: Wonder Built, now for the last scenario in the campaign (which based on the name looks like it'll just be a straight-up deathmatch? This one wasn't in the original version so I don't know what to expect).

[EllenHouraisan]

Started playing Baba is You for some god forsaken reason.

Puzzles are hard.

[KobaBeach]

Shin Megami Tensei - Finished grinding for macca to get some armor and weapons in Ikebukuro, killed Ladon, saved Cerberus/Pascal, rejiggered my alignment back to Neutral in Tokyo Destiny Land, killed Haniel and Echidna, killed the Four Heavenly Kings, saved the Turtle, got Masakado's Blade and I'm at the Tokyo Government Offices right now to beat up Vishnu and Ravana.

[camwoodstock]

been playing yume nikki & even doing a few attempts at speedrunning it! may sit down & try and speedrun it more sometime, our current PB is just over 14 minutes. aside from that been obviously messing with the same idlegames as per usual, and most importantly:


we speedran a terrible mcdonalds game

[KobaBeach]

quick update on Shin Megami Tensei - Currently at 4F of the Cathedral to beat up Raphael. Gonna go back to fuse and recruit some demons after this to prepare for Michael, and by extension Asura in the basement (10000 HP each jesus christ). Gabriel is a punk ass bitch for not allowing me to merc his ass with Masakado's Blade.

[HatKid]

Finally finished Popful Mail on SEGA CD after playing almost the entirety of it a couple years ago. The final area was getting kind of exhausting, but at least in this case I knew I was stopping right at the end. I had a lot of fun with the game, but being someone that is only fluent in English, I'm kinda stuck with the English version... I've always had an interest in the SNES version, really only because it's on the SNES, and from what I recall it does Ys III's gameplay, but better? But since it was in Japanese I never played very far.

Thinking of actually starting Super Robot Wars J (I played the first level like a year or two ago) but idk. We'll see.

[GenesisJames]

More Twitch streams games of note:

Xenogears is more or less the same as usual. Story is still cool and expanding, though the current part I'm in is a bit of a lull in the action. Gameplay still taking a backseat to the story. Enemy/boss encounters are really starting to get tougher; I'm missing attacks more often and bosses have more gimmicks that really make you have to build around them. Once you do that it's generally no big deal, but going into a boss just for you to realize you're not properly equipped to handle that specific fight so you have to start over is not that fun (especially since you can't skip cutscenes/dialogue in this game).

Xenoblade 3 is going great and I'm loving it so far. Just beat Chapter 3 and holy shit the mindfucks are getting real now. I'm probably gonna start playing this twice a week just because I want to see what happens next lmao

Nier: Automata has been completed, though I'm going back to finish the sidequests I missed. Super fun game; loved it a lot and I'm definitely into the series now. The themes and general vibe were just super cool, and there was also quite a few mind-bending moments here and there that were REALLY interesting.

Genshin Impact also continues to be my more relaxing game of the week, though I recently finished Chapter 1 and there were some surprisingly cool moments, especially at the end. Still have SO MUCH to do, especially with the new update out, but it's a nice and consistent presence in my week that I appreciate!

[KobaBeach]

Shin Megami Tensei - Complete! Super fun game, I'm just glad Asura and Michael weren't too hard. Didn't fight Beelzebub, but oh well!

[Bean]

Just been playing Among Us again ever since beating Three Hopes. Haven't really been in much of a gaming mood, and schedules aren't meeting up with my bro to play that Cowabunga Collection game yet.

[KobaBeach]

okay this one is really funny

Thousand Arms - Okay. So. I was trying to get most magic from all girls forged into everyone's main weapons, right? This means lots of dating to increase their Intimacy Levels, lots of forging, a decent amount of minigame spamming to tank their Intimacy to help get others up to speed. What does this mean, to be more precise? Lots of MP. And what increases the amount of MP required to forge? The disparity from the member's current state to their weapon's current level.

So I was grinding MP to get everyone up to speed and preparing to get Kyleen and later Nelsha. And everyone kept gaining levels. The motherfuckers just kept gaining levels. And as a result the forging requirements reached like 1000+ MP. Which takes a hot second to amass, which means more grinding, which means more levels, which means the forging requirements go up. And it reached a point where Wyna's Hammer required like 2300+ MP to get it up to speed, when I was trying to get Kyleen's magic done.

And I just said.

No.

Fuck no.

I literally murdered the difficulty curve by sheer accident for the sake of my OCD. I spent like 10 hours, in-game, grinding for no point as the goal posts kept shifting to make me grind more. This is anti-fun. I just said fuck it and decided to just facetank everything up to now. And I'm at Dianova in Disc 2. I do not care anymore. What the fuck is this game.

[KobaBeach]

Thousand Arms - Kept freezing at the final boss. A fitting end

[raekuul]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - explored Dannagh Desert; reactivated the Desert Hulk and ran across a couple of Puzzle Doors. Still exploring Dannagh Desert (but I should be close to done? There's a unique monster on the jutt outside of Colony 4 that I want to try and take down but I need to remove the other monsters first)

Age of Empires: D.E. - Ascent of Egypt Learning Campaign completed. The final scenario (Siege in Canaan) isn't exactly a Deathmatch setup but it may as well be since the objective building is behind all of the military and economic buildings. On the plus side, if conversion is your thing then four fully kitted Priests are virtually indestructible.

[KobaBeach]

Persona 1 - Grinding outside Black Market, went through the parallel world St. Hermelin High School, the Subway, Kama Palace, and the Lost Forest. Made sure not to trigger the Teddy Bear boss battle (not sure about its English name) and am going through the good end route. Just trying to get proper equipment and later, Personas.

[Bean]

Played the Genesis version of TMNT: Tournament Fighters and pretty much save scummed my way to a hard mode clear of it. One round, saves put at the start of fights, and just went for it. Yeah, I don't think the SNES version has anything to worry about. Once I beat the NES version of that, I'll have beaten every game that was included in the Cowabunga Collection. Not all on the collection version, but in general. I don't have that much energy to play all those old TMNT games. Ha-ha.

Also, the online is atrocious for the games that have them. If you'd rather play a TMNT beat-em-up with friends and the like, I'd recommend Shredder's Revenge instead. Has a few hiccups, but at least it's not slowdown central.

[raekuul]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - I kind of just stumbled into Chapter 4 last night? And my hackles are hella raised right now between the End of Fornis cutscene, the Chapter 3 boss fight, and the Chapter 4 intro.

Revelations: The Demon Slayer - oh right I was working on a couple of text mods for this game maybe I should finish and publish them. Started a new game, planning on my usual Speed-focused builds.

I picked up Disgaea 1 for Switch (I already owned the DS and PC versions), maybe this time I'll stick with the game past chapter 2 (I keep getting pulled into other games during Pre-Chapter 3, which coincides with the first forced Item World run).

[KobaBeach]

Persona 1 - Done with the grind and did Castle Mana. I was thinking of doing the Haunted House, but I might do it either in a few hours or tomorrow, depending on how tired I get in a hot minute. EDIT: I did the Haunted House and Deva Yuga lmao

[Bean]

Got through the two TMNT: Tournament Fighters versions I had never played on the Genesis and NES from that Cowabunga Collection and very briefly started up Shantae: Risky's Revenge before some actual work came up. Once I get a day of rest next week, I'll just try and plow through it since I read this one's pretty short.

[KobaBeach]

Persona 1 - I burnt out. Super hard. On Pandora?? Because I was drastically unprepared and underleveled to properly get spellcards and whatnot to fuse into good Personae, that the only thing I had left was to grind for like 8 hours until I reached the mid 60s, maybe early 70s?

So I started the PSP version once I came back from my doctor's appointment (fatty liver confirmed, must lose more weight and talk to my psychiatrist about changing my medication).

I don't know if it's from playing in Beginner, but, it feels much easier right now, even without all the adjustments the PSP version did (more Agastya Trees and whatnot in dungeons). I am using savestates to help manage negotiations, and I'm taking care to max out my Personas ASAP. I'm also aiming more towards the support skill ones.

I'm currently heading to the Kama Palace but I might take a pit stop to grind a bit and do some fusions first. When I got out of the alternate St. Hermelin there weren't really any Personas that interested me, but it could change.

[raekuul]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: oh hello there agnian break art

Disgaea 1 Switch: so the terminology is ass-backwards (the teacher learns from the pupils instead of the other way around? ...why??) but now my Laharl knows heal/fire/wind/ice. Now to actually work on Chapter 1.

Revelations: the Demon Slayer: started over again, going for mixed Speed/Luck on El this time (because my weapons are more important for regular attacks than my Strength stat is, and El doesn't get the "best" heavy-hitter spells). Still going for mixed Intelligence/Speed on Kishe and Endurance/Speed on Uranus.

Persona 1

I wonder if the PSP versions of the SMT-likes will get ported to Switch as well? It'd be neat to play 1 and both 2's in their 'definitive' version without shenanigans.

[KobaBeach]

Grandia - Dusted off this game and made it from Rangle Mountains to Luc Village.

Persona 1

I wonder if the PSP versions of the SMT-likes will get ported to Switch as well? It'd be neat to play 1 and both 2's in their 'definitive' version without shenanigans.

Will add that I'm using the PSX music patch because I like that soundtrack better

[Crow]

still working thru souldiers tho admittedly my enthusiasm for this one has waned... making pretty solid progress and it's fun enough but like... idk, the combat feels good but it doesn't feel -great-, there are a lot of tools i'm just not finding practical uses for and the platforming, while also solid, isn't deep or complex enough to carry the game

mostly it's just... a lack of personality? the game looks -good- for a 2D pixel game but the aesthetic itself is very... generic. idk, like it's a good game yet i'm just not... excited? about it?

anyways i also picked up taiji, a 2D witness-like. it's very witness-like in fact almost to a fault but jon blow can blow me so any substitute is an acceptable one and the game's very fun and clever so yeah sure

[KobaBeach]

Persona 1 - Grinding a bit for the rest of the game and to get some more Personas before Haunted Mansion. Did Kama Palace, did the Lost Forest and did Mana Castle, all half blindly (residual memories). Focusing on getting Protag to Lv50, then working on the rest of the party one by one (Maki/Mary, Nanjo/Nate, Mark, Brown/Brad).

Grandia - Did God of Light Mountain, Misty Forest East and the End of the World. I had to give myself a checkpoint in End of World because there was this one battle with 1x Clay Bird 2x Emerald Bird and it was just Destroying me. Maybe I was underleveled/understat'd? But I just gave up in my 6th try and just resorted to special attacks and that turned out to be the main strategy intended. Super good game but it's not hitting the Special Feels part of my brain yet.

[KobaBeach]

Persona 1 - Still levelling. Apparently there is level decreasing attacks in the game, should have suspected from one of the spells having a "restoring LV" effect. Just have Brown left, Mark can stay as is at 48.

Torneko no Daibouken: Fushigi no Dungeon - Accidentally beat the Trial Dungeon. I'm getting addicted.

[EllenHouraisan]

Outside of still grinding gear on DFO and grinding my brain on Baba is You, I've been playing Genshin Impact as of late. I mostly wanted to check it out for the novelty and because I love a lot of the characters from that game, and honestly, didn't expect to be pulled in as much as I got. It's such a fun world to explore, I love how you can climb almost anything, I love gliding around and seeing all the shiny things for me to interact with, and it all got me very immersed in this world. Beautiful game, too. Of course, I have plenty of gripes with it, it shouldn't be always online, the stamina system is dumb (if my game self has less stamina than my chubby, leg-problem-having irl self, that's a problem), the combat is super poopy and, of course, the gacha elements bring the game down some. I'm also not a big fan of how you need to meet a level treshhold to unlock new story quests, especially when those unlock new areas. I just want to explore, goshdarnit! Still, for all of my gripes, it's a very hard game to put down once I start playing. Let's see how long that lasts.