What are you currently playing?

[Hawki]

Is it cause its got silly anime bullshit? Cause there are like 3 or 4 things I can see that could freak someone out, depending on who they are.

Anime bullshit, yes.

Or to be more specific, the fact that I'm fighting a giant robot maid doll, and that this is accomplished by my robotic maid doll being even more maidy and dolly as a form of character development, because...I dunno, weebos?

 

[Gordon_4]

Random thoughts:

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2

"This is ridiculous" says the kid with a claymore lightsaber.

 

[Chimpzy]

Well, I noticed that there's like one character who you can go back to a certain scene, do something different and get a different sequence of events, though others basically just sent you back down the other paths the next time you do it anyway and man does this feel wierd and trippy at times.

Yes, there's actually a couple characters whom's route has this Groundhog Day-ish structure, where days seem to loop, but you get a different outcome because of your actions. There is actually a (meta) in-universe explanation for this. It'll make sense, eventually, tho you've still got a good way to go before that'll happen.

Also, I have no idea why doing story bits gets you money to upgrade your mechs and weapons but since I ended up doing a bunch of story bits first I went into my first battle with a metric fuckton of money and thus upgrades. Not that any of these battles have been hard because the battles have a clear "Hey, this mech/weapon works best against this type of Kaiju" dynamic so if you're not a total dummy(trying to use Melee vs flying enemies, for example) you should do fine. To be fair, I'm playing on normal difficulty because the story is what's got me here.

I found ithe extra scratch kind of helpful tho. Let's you get a bit of a head start on unlocking new weapons and early upgrades. Not enough to really get far up the upgrade tree, but you can (and should) at least add some versatility/variety to your mechs. And yeah, the main campaign battles aren't very challenging, even on hardcore difficulty. At least until you get to the final battle, which was imo a massive difficulty spike. Perfectly doable, but way harder than anything that came before. Again, there's sort of a (meta) in-univese explanation for why you get money from both story and battles.

Oh speaking of which, we've got Time Loops, Terminator Androids and NANOMACHINES involved now. I'm concerned Kojima might have snuck into the writers room at some point considering how often I'm starting to hear NANOMACHINES NANOMAHCINES NANOMACHINES. Though I'm also getting distinct Evangelion vibes from some of this, notably the whole setup that the teens mentally connected to their mecha need to play defense in every battle because the unknown enemy is targeting a vast underground structure and if any of them get through it's an instant game over, though Shikishima(?) also seems to be playing the role of NERV/SEELE here. To be fair I haven't seen that much mecha anime so it's entirely possible these are common tropes and I'm the one with the small reference pool.

No, you're not wrong, I also drew the Evangelion connection, amongst others. The game's inspirations are obvious and likely very intentionally so, because once more, there's a kind of (meta) in-univese explanation for the whole sci fi anime tropes smorgasbord thing.

On a lesser note, I'm gonna throw out that Natsuno spends ton of time wearing tiny little shorts because.....fanservice I guess. I get she's a track and field kid but man they keep finding reasons to keep her in her stinky gym clothes(and yes, people do comment on it, but still). It's not nearly as egregious as Ms Morimura who quite often wears a form fitting catsuit for no particular reason and always seems to have the Butt and Boob pose going. Stay classy, Japan.

I don't disagree. "Buruma" are period appropriate gym wear for girls for the 80's, but it is kind of annoying how much of Natsuno's story segments start her off in the changing room but she never actually changes. Like you said, it's fanservice. Kind of like that dark blue school swimsuit you always see in anime. Both got phased out in the 90's and are now only really worn as fetish wear. As for Morimura, got nothing. My best guess is she's more or less depicted as a femme fatale spy type, so obviously she gotta wear a catsuit.

Also you get this awkward thing from the 1940's character when they find out Japan lost the War 40 years prior and bemoaning how awful this is and how they wish they could use the mecha to change history. Yeah, I get the nationalism thing but OTOH, there's the whole Japanese Warcrimes thing that's kinda not being acknowledged here. I've visited both China and the Philippines and one thing I learned firsthand is that neither of those nations are particularly sad Japan was beaten back to the home islands. The population of Nanjing would definitely have strong feelings about this and those 1940's characters might wanna remind themselves exactly who Japan was allied with during WW2. The "poor us" card feels a bit hollow here, just saying.

Unfortunately, there's a rather strong sentiment of "they were just following orders" or even an equivalent to Holocaust denial among Japanese when it comes to Imperial Japan's less than glorious exploits. Don't know whether Vanillaware and/or Atlus share those sentiments. Tho even if they don't, chances are very good they wouldn't bring the warcrimes thing up anyway, just to avoid controversy on the homefront.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Yes, there's actually a couple characters whom's route has this Groundhog Day-ish structure, where days seem to loop, but you get a different outcome because of your actions. There is actually a (meta) in-universe explanation for this. It'll make sense, eventually, tho you've still got a good way to go before that'll happen.

I found ithe extra scratch kind of helpful tho. Let's you get a bit of a head start on unlocking new weapons and early upgrades. Not enough to really get far up the upgrade tree, but you can (and should) at least add some versatility/variety to your mechs. And yeah, the main campaign battles aren't very challenging, even on hardcore difficulty. At least until you get to the final battle, which was imo a massive difficulty spike. Perfectly doable, but way harder than anything that came before. Again, there's sort of a (meta) in-univese explanation for why you get money from both story and battles.

No, you're not wrong, I also drew the Evangelion connection, amongst others. The game's inspirations are obvious and likely very intentionally so, because once more, there's a kind of (meta) in-univese explanation for the whole sci fi anime tropes smorgasbord thing.

I don't disagree. "Buruma" are period appropriate gym wear for girls for the 80's, but it is kind of annoying how much of Natsuno's story segments start her off in the changing room but she never actually changes. Like you said, it's fanservice. Kind of like that dark blue school swimsuit you always see in anime. Both got phased out in the 90's and are now only really worn as fetish wear. As for Morimura, got nothing. My best guess is she's more or less depicted as a femme fatale spy type, so obviously she gotta wear a catsuit.

Unfortunately, there's a rather strong sentiment of "they were just following orders" or even an equivalent to Holocaust denial among Japanese when it comes to Imperial Japan's less than glorious exploits. Don't know whether Vanillaware and/or Atlus share those sentiments. Tho even if they don't, chances are very good they wouldn't bring the warcrimes thing up anyway, just to avoid controversy on the homefront.

Fun fact, even Hitler thought the Japanese were a bit insane back then (and they could be incredibly brutal), but not enough to overshadow his admiration of their nationalistic prerogatives. His elation over the Pearl Harbor bombing and nearly immediate declaration of war on the U.S. that followed the news is also said to have sealed Germany’s fate, as Roosevelt would’ve had to convince a timid congress to declare war on Germany at that point. Hitler foolishly made it easy for him to do so.

What’s also kind of ironic is that despite Japan’s rather appalling set of their own atrocities and being allied with Germany, they seemed to have harbored some compassion for Germany’s Jews, and even offered refuge for thousands of them during their persecution in the war.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship - "Ahhh yes, this is the series that doesn't stop you from pulling a burnout over the starting position before the countdown timer ends" was my first response on my first race as the game added a 10 second penalty before the race even began, prompting a heavy, shamed sigh and a decisive restart leaving only 4 out of 5 chances left. And if you turn off the game during the last try, it renders your whole race DNF which basically screws you entirely for the rest of the event. It's a tough love. Maybe not even love. But it's intense and feels good to play. Though to play with any hope of doing well, you gotta listen to those pace notes while throttling it, so all podcasts must be stopped, all people must be escorted from the building, and the cat? Well the cat is a chaotic factor we have to deal with when (and it's always when, not if) the floofums occurs. Luckily the pause button exists at least. Races are regularly scary from how quickly and easily you can ruin yourself from a mere accidental twitch, leading either off a cliffside corner, flipping from a badly judged cutting of a corner, or turning slightly too early straight into a stubbornly murderous lamp post. Good stuff!

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. It was a lot of fun and I rather appreciated how it felt like Silas was becoming more drunk and unhinged the further into the story you get. The fact he can't keep details straight anymore in his stories and the audience is calling him out on it over and over again. At one point, one of the people listening to him says "My uncle got hit on the head with a tree branch once. He spent the rest of his life talking to dogs" as this nice passive aggressive diss at Silas's loosing grip with reality, or at very least, how unbelievable the stories are becoming. It leads into a bit in the final mission where Silas starts fighting the ghosts of all the famous people he'd ever dealt with in a graveyard, a very on the nose metaphor for how he'd spent his entire life as a bounty hunter with no friends, family or relationships on a revenge quest against 3 people who wronged him a long time ago, but also just him wallowing in the violence that his entire life has been. There's no subtly there but the whole game is tall tale and it just works.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Leyndell and its underbelly are cleared, as far as I can tell. Unless there’s other big bosses besides Mohg, Godfrey and Morgott. They were all either pretty big pushovers too or I was overleveled in the span of 112-115, because they all fell in half a minute or less using a +9 Meteoric Ore Blade and +10 Mimic. I died to Mohg once though, initially unaware of the health drain on his AOE attack. But it’s a string of examples of how easy this game can feel when using its tools to good effect.

What a majestic location though; one of FROM’s best in my humble opinion. They tweaked the strangeness of some of their best DLC to fit perfectly into this beautiful fallen cityscape. Next is the Mountaintops, but finding a path to the Rold Route and activating the lift is currently a bit perplexing. I have the Rold Medallion but apparently also need the Haligtree one, with the left half yet to be found. Eh, might be time to check the wiki.

Also tried a rebirth since I wanted to see what Morgott’s Cursed Blade was like. Looks kinda cool but I’ve gotten spoiled by the speed and power combo of my katana. Plus for something with the slowness of a greatsword I’d rather stick with one that can be infused with stuff. I also tried power-stancing a pair of Omen Killer Cleavers, fire and cold infused. Pretty fun but not necessarily as mainstays. Will probably revert back to my original stats which has worked well so far.

 

[Dalisclock]

Leyndell and its underbelly are cleared, as far as I can tell. Unless there’s other big bosses besides Mohg, Godfrey and Morgott. They were all either big pushovers or I’m overleveled at 115, because they all fell in half a minute or less using a +9 Meteoric Ore Blade and +10 Mimic. I died to Mohg once though, initially unaware of the health drain on his AOE attack.

You're way overleveled. I went through Lyndell around level 80 or so and I took Godfrey down in one try and Morgott took a couple attempts.

Though some of the bosses from here on out are a bit more difficult. The Fire Giant took me a bunch of tries but I was trying to use the wrong weapon on him and Wolf Boy was a giant pain for me because he jumps around like a giant sword wielding monkey on crack. Ironically a certain notorious twosome I blundered into their room running from mooks in the area and took them down in one go(with help from the mimic) and no I'm not sorry because I hate those particular enemy types.

 

[Worgen]

Have a bit of time till things start coming out again, started playing Dawn of War 3 again since I never got around to beating it. Pretty fun so far.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

You're way overleveled. I went through Lyndell around level 80 or so and I took Godfrey down in one try and Morgott took a couple attempts.

Though some of the bosses from here on out are a bit more difficult.

That’s fine by me lol. Nice to kinda breeze through areas and be able to just admire them without the “fuck these fucking fucks!!” getting in the way of it every so often.

 

[sXeth]

Leyndell and its underbelly are cleared, as far as I can tell. Unless there’s other big bosses besides Mohg, Godfrey and Morgott. They were all either pretty big pushovers too or I was overleveled in the span of 112-115, because they all fell in half a minute or less using a +9 Meteoric Ore Blade and +10 Mimic. I died to Mohg once though, initially unaware of the health drain on his AOE attack. But it’s a string of examples of how easy this game can feel when using its tools to good effect.

What a majestic location though; one of FROM’s best in my humble opinion. They tweaked the strangeness of some of their best DLC to fit perfectly into this beautiful fallen cityscape. Next is the Mountaintops, but finding a path to the Rold Route and activating the lift is currently a bit perplexing. I have the Rold Medallion but apparently also need the Haligtree one, with the left half yet to be found. Eh, might be time to check the wiki.

Also tried a rebirth since I wanted to see what Morgott’s Cursed Blade was like. Looks kinda cool but I’ve gotten spoiled by the speed and power combo of my katana. Plus for something with the slowness of a greatsword I’d rather stick with one that can be infused with stuff. I also tried power-stancing a pair of Omen Killer Cleavers, fire and cold infused. Pretty fun but not necessarily as mainstays. Will probably revert back to my original stats which has worked well so far.

As you have might have noticed from the lack of Great Rune that's not real Mohg. Kind of a practice run for phase 1 of the true version though.


Rold medallion goes to the Mountaintops and the mainline of the game. The second half of the Haligtree medal is actually up there somewhere. so you have to go up and find it, then come back to get the optional zone.

 

[Chupathingy]

Finished Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

I enjoyed it, though not as much as Covenant. Out of the three games this had the best overall gameplay, sans Shania's long fusion animations and the sanity system getting sidelined. And while I'd love to see another entry in this series (lol) it was kinda clear after playing this one that the developers were running out of ideas, considering all of the reused sidequests and story beats from the first two. Shame we'll never get that prequel they were planning since the developers were sent to the pachinko mines.

 

[Agema]

Norco (PC)

Point and click adventure about a woman in a mildly futuristic collapsing USA returning to her home in Louisiana following the death of her mother, and getting involved in a mystery connected to her mother. The puzzles are pretty basic, meaning it's more an interactive narrative, like Firewatch. But it's a very attractive one, and well written.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

As you have might have noticed from the lack of Great Rune that's not real Mohg. Kind of a practice run for phase 1 of the true version though.


Rold medallion goes to the Mountaintops and the mainline of the game. The second half of the Haligtree medal is actually up there somewhere. so you have to go up and find it, then come back to get the optional zone.

Yeah I just put the creeper Mohg out to his blood pasture last night. Basically a damage sponge with some cheap one shot attacks in phase two. Bombastic bloody asshole is how I’d describe that fight. Most/only real challenging boss since Radahn for me.

The path to the Rold Lift is next on my list then, having cleared Mohgwyn as much as currently possible (guessing that dead end cave above the Approach grace site is intentional for now…). I know there’s a path east but I haven’t really looked for it much yet.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Feudal Alloy. It's good for ye olde metroidvania sense of progress as the character becomes stronger and you puzzle out a gigantic map but the game's a zero for memorability. No story, no characters, no lore, no sense of mystery or humor. The bizarro premise of steam-powered, goldfish-controlled mechas in a medieval setting is wasted, as is the cutesy ligne claire art style on repetitive backgrounds.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Random thoughts:

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2


If you can watch the above video and not understand why I partly despise this game, then we're completely different people.

What irritates me is that I'm starting to like the combat more than I did - working out what Blades to use for Rex, when to use them, how to chain attacks, etc. But the story and waifu stuff is just so damn stupid, it's managed to make me embarassed to even play it. Even if I didn't have XC1 to compare it to, I'd still hate this stuff. And it's not just the waifu bait, it's not just that it's stupid from any logical standpoint (if you need to make a bi-pedal mech, why the hell are you basing it on fucking maids?), it's that when you actually consider the stuff going on in the world (I've already talked about Mor Ardain and Uraya, now Indhol's entered the mix, which as far as I can tell is some kind of theocracy), the setting of XC2 is pretty interesting. It's just that there's so much crap that I have to sit through in the meantime because the developers value boobs more than consistency.

I fail to see the problem here.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Currently playing Lost Ruins. I've tried a few of these more... resource management heavy Metroidvania's before but have fell off of a lot of them, this one is making me feel compelled to keep going though, that's a good sign. If I had any major problems with the game it would be the magic system because I'm just not using my spells at all. You don't regen health or mana unless you use items (Though I have found equipment that allows HP regen under specific circumstances) and spells just aren't powerful enough for me to justify me investing my hard earned money into mana items and I'd rather spend that on buying other things. So I'd LIKE to use spells, especially for flying enemies but I can't because it's just too much of a hassle, I'm not sure what they're going for with it being the way it is, maybe I'll find something later that'll justify this mana system.

 

[Hawki]

I wasn't going to comment, but I was quoted (more on that later), but, yeah, still playing XC2. I don't really have too much new to say, so here's some random thoughts:

-Credit where it's due, the music in this game is absolutely gorgeous. It might actually be the one area that XC2 might actually be better than XC1 in.

-So, pretty sure I've mentioned this, that XC2 manages to be exceptionally creative in its world (like XC1), but I'll give extra brownie points, such I'm on the Layfetian Archipelego (sp.), the conceit being (IIRC) that because of how the titans' are built, the clouds (of the Cloud Sea) are compressed to form roadways. So, yes, I've been making my way across cloud roads made possible by animals the size of continents. It's something that's utterly normal to people in the setting, but utterly alien to us.

-The plot is still...ugh. So, Morag's joined the crew now, and her motivation seems to be "yeah, I'll tag along, see how this turns out, report back to my superiors." Which is slightly better a motivation than Tora (whose motivation is "I'll go on an adventure because reasons), but...sigh. Everyone's motivation in this game for tagging along seems to be "yeah, why not?" Which would work, but considering that you've got some snot-nosed brat wielding a weapon that has sunk entire continents in the past...am I the only one questioning why more people aren't freaking out?

-Pyra and Rex have got to be one of the strangest written couples I've seen in most fiction, and I don't know if I mean that as a good or bad thing. The game ships them hard from the start, but the weird thing is, while that's still true, how it's handled is much better. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but if the early stages of the game are the example of "puppy love," then the stages I'm at now feel more mature - Rex takes Pyra to see the graves of his parents, Pyra talks with Corinne's guardian who raises the idea of marriage, Pyra seems more confident overall (likely due to Mythra having emerged), etc. Even the weebo stuff seems to have faded. So, option 1, all of this is coincidental, or option 2, the game's actually handling a relationship better than I thought it would based on early encounters. As in, both characters are maturing, therefore their actions are more mature, and ergo, the writing is as well.

Or I'm completely wrong. Could be.

-Getting more of a feel for the combat, so that's neat.

-So, last thoughts for this post...again, I might be reading too much into things here, but at this point in time, if I had to sum up the theme of XC2 in one sentence, it would be "life, death, and decay." Bear in mind that if I had to sum up the theme of XC1, it would be "free will vs. determinism" (this isn't really a stretch, the game isn't subtle), but at this point in the game, again, I could be reading too much into things, but here's the sctick:

-Alrest is dying. This isn't a theory, it's outright stated at the start that this world is basically living on borrowed time - titans are dying, which means people have less land, which means war, which means more death (decay leads to death, which leads to destruction, and so on).

-Despite this, the people who seem content to live their lives seem to do better than the people who fight against it. Gormott and Latheria (or at least Fonsett Village) are generally content with life, and don't care about the upcoming war between Uraya and Mor Ardain. Meanwhile, Mor Ardain's becoming a wasteland (which has spurred their military expansionism, which has likely in turn caused their titan to die further as they mine it, and so on), while Uraya's people are subject to rationing. The irony is (and again, this is almost outright stated) that the two kingdoms would almost certainly benefit more from trade than war (Uraya has food, Mor Ardain has technology), and it would keep things going for longer, but no, war's treated as inevitable. Even in a roleplay session where Uraya's options are discussed, you can't even suggest that peace is an option. And this coming off a cutscene with two MA officers discussing a ruined titan/civilization (the emphasis being that the people tried to prolong their lives, and created the Flesh Eaters as a response), with one of the officers saying (paraphrased), "I look at these people...and I see ourselves." Mor Ardain's going down the same route that the people of the old titan went down (forget its name), but can't, or won't, change course, so the death of the world is hastened.

Then again, this is still the game with anime doll shit (see below), but if I'm right, then XC2 deserves some props - an antithesis to "rage, rage against the dying of the light" might not be the most insightful theme in the world, or even desirable, but it's a theme nonetheless. But every time I'm reminded of XC2's potential, I'm also reminded that this is an anime game, and we've got boobs, damn it! Every time I find something I like, the game finds a way to snap me out of it.

Speaking of which...

 

[Hawki]

I fail to see the problem here.

So you...don't think it's a leap of logic that even in a setting like this, someone's idea of creating a bi-pedal warmachine is to base it on a maid (bearing in mind that in the factory that takes place in, the blades being constructed look a bit more functional)?

You don't think it's a little weird that Poppi's transformation is to make her even more 'maidy?"

Okay...

 

[Specter Von Baren]

So you...don't think it's a leap of logic that even in a setting like this, someone's idea of creating a bi-pedal warmachine is to base it on a maid (bearing in mind that in the factory that takes place in, the blades being constructed look a bit more functional)?

You don't think it's a little weird that Poppi's transformation is to make her even more 'maidy?"

Okay...

No, I don't find a comedy segment weird.