What are you currently playing?

[Old_Hunter_77]

I think I'm gonna stop trying with Hollow Knight for now and just devoted to Persona. Just a good reminder that at this point I no longer value thumb-breaking challenges, I want vibes, world-building, and story.
It's not even that I got stuck on this attempt at HK at some point, I just have no desire to pick it up. I just... don't care.

Tastes change. I used to like stuff like that, now I don't. Going through a similar thing with music. It's not about hating or regretting the things I used to like, it's ok to just be done with stuff and move on. It's always there to come back to. Meanwhile embracing the jRPG weirdness is a new wave for me to be on (note that I am using a guide to help navigate all the mechanics P4 because I'm not gonna remember what words Makukaja and Tarunda mean).

 

[Casual Shinji]

No sooner did I experience one of the most charming boss fights ever that I get confronted with what is probably the worst enemy room in the game. Team Cherry was pushing their luck with that one.

Oh, and if you're wondering why the flying enemies are particularly annoying in Silksong... Well, it's because about 20 hours in you'll find something that'll make 'm far less so.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No sooner did I experience one of the most charming boss fights ever that I get confronted with what is probably the worst enemy room in the game. Team Cherry was pushing their luck with that one.

Oh, and if you're wondering why the flying enemies are particularly annoying in Silksong... Well, it's because about 20 hours in you'll find something that'll make 'm far less so.

Did you get the oil to upgrade your nail a second time? NPC in Act 2 asks for a bunch of ingredients in exchange. One is essentially the 'delicate flower' from the first game, where you have to physically go down a long route, no fast travel, while avoiding getting hit (also you're on a timer because lol). Wonder if it's worth bothering with this before facing the cog bosses.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Thanks to @FakeSympathy there is a dedicated Silksong Thread.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Did you get the oil to upgrade your nail a second time? NPC in Act 2 asks for a bunch of ingredients in exchange. One is essentially the 'delicate flower' from the first game, where you have to physically go down a long route, no fast travel, while avoiding getting hit (also you're on a timer because lol). Wonder if it's worth bothering with this before facing the cog bosses.

Dude, I just spent the last hour and a half living in that Conductor's Melody enemy room... *sigh* And I still haven't beaten it. 'Oh. you think you're done after that 5-phase horde capped off with a big ass boss enemy? Fuck you, here's MORE ENEMIES!'

I got one of the ingredients; the nectar. I'll bother with anything to get me away from that fucking room.

 

[bluegate]

Booted up Stardew Valley for the first time... and... why does the character run so slowly while the city is so big, what is this madness.

Sort of kills the game for me when I think about having to walk all the way to the tackleshop or adventurer's hut.

 

[meiam]

So finished playing breath of fire 5: dragon quarter (PS2)

Its a weird game, no two way about it. First of all, the game hates you. For 90% of the game you're on a timer, essentially, everything you do increase a % that will straight up game over you if it reach 100%. That include walking, talking to NPC and even doing nothing. Then there's a ton of little things, like you need to use limited resource to save (special item that cannot be brought). The idea is that you're supposed to fail and get game over a few time, and restart the game but keeping a portion of the exp you had previously. Every time you restart, your a bit stronger and can get further. Also, large section are blocked off, and cutscene not accessible, but if you finish the game, you can restart with a rating, and if your rating is high enough it open those new area. The UI is also dreadful and the button layout seems to change depending on what you want to do.

But it has a bunch of cool idea, the timer you get is mainly used to make your character go super saiyan, you can straight up one shoot the final boss at level 1 if you have enough % left to use all your cool stuff. So throughout the game you have to avoid using too many super saiyan cause you need a lot at the end.

The combat system is also very cool, if poorly used. You are given AP every turn, these are used to move but also to attack, when you attack you use combination of skill, with early skill sometime boosting later one or having cool combination. Unfortunately, its pretty limiting in how you can chain skill together, and for most of the game you can't really use the combination you'd want.

The world is very austere, its all in those narrow corridor deep underground, I guess its part of the aesthetic/mood. There's many point where you kill boss that are character in the story and the boss is just dead, like not even a cutscene afterward, you just kill them and move on, no one even mention them most of the time. The game is unfortunately really ugly, again it fit the mood, but everyone looks kinda like E.T., with giant eyes. The main girl in the game only wear this one piece summer dress, but they decided to give her these impossibly pointy nipple visible at all time, its super weird (she's like 13).

But the mood also kinda work in the story since its about your character trying to do one last things before he dies.

Anyway, really interesting game, but I won't be playing it again, its kinda exhausting to be honest.

 

[Dreiko]

Turns out the Sephiroth bug was a girl called Hornet, and she chuckled when you hit her, I can see why people like her enough for her to end up getting a sequel. Beat her (or just made her bored enough that she left lol) and got the dash cape, and did some heart-stopping platforming through the thorns and the lightning to get some accessory with it. Fun times.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Booted up Stardew Valley for the first time... and... why does the character run so slowly while the city is so big, what is this madness.

Sort of kills the game for me when I think about having to walk all the way to the tackleshop or adventurer's hut.

I played that game for like 300 hours and I don't remember feeling like that, and I get impatient with such things real fast. I wonder how much these kinds of impressions are based on what we've been playing around that time or in general or something.
It also helped me that I was down to stop to talk to every NPC and forage for berries and whatever. I have to be extremely in the mood to play such a game and I was at the time.

 

[bluegate]

I played that game for like 300 hours and I don't remember feeling like that, and I get impatient with such things real fast. I wonder how much these kinds of impressions are based on what we've been playing around that time or in general or something.

I would assume quite a substantial bit.

It also helped me that I was down to stop to talk to every NPC and forage for berries and whatever. I have to be extremely in the mood to play such a game and I was at the time.

Ironically, trying to talk with every NPC is what made my a bit exasperated.

The game starts you out with a quest where you are asked to greet every NPC in the town so I figured I'd make that my first task for my first day and that led to me being fed up by the game's running speed and map size.

I promptly switched gears and decided to complete the Journey of the Prairie King arcade game instead, which I did and then I closed the game and went to play Viewfinder.

Viewfinder, a quirky game where you pick up photographs and as you hold them in front of you, what's displayed in the photograph suddenly becomes physical reality in the world. Quite a neat trick. I'm not sure how long it stays interesting though.

 

[BrawlMan]

I decided to play Final Fight again. This time, the actual arcade version from the Capcom Beat'em Up Collection. I played as Guy. This game still plays well. It's much better when you have rapid punch on. I also love how in the arcade version you're given many vertical surfaces for Guy to do his off the wall jump kick. Something most of the console versions lack, unfortunately.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Viewfinder, a quirky game where you pick up photographs and as you hold them in front of you, what's displayed in the photograph suddenly becomes physical reality in the world. Quite a neat trick. I'm not sure how long it stays interesting though.

I played the demo- it's neat, my brain is stupid when it comes to 3D puzzling so I didn't bother with the whole game. But it is indeed neat.
Some of the criticism was around the idea that the premise loses its charm after a while, so one's enjoyment seems to be based on what they expect to get out of it and how much they appreciate the core mechanic.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I decided to play Final Fight again. This time, the actual arcade version from the Capcom Beat'em Up Collection. I played as Guy. This game still plays well. It's much better when you have rapid punch on. I also love how in the arcade version you're given many vertical surfaces for Guy to do his off the wall jump kick. Something most of the console versions lack, unfortunately.

One of the big arcade games in my youth. Likely the "beat-em-up" game I spent the most quarters on.

 

[BrawlMan]

One of the big arcade games in my youth. Likely the "beat-em-up" game I spent the most quarters on.

Same for me, aside from Dynamite Cop and Simpsons Arcade.

I almost did a 1cc, but i've done it before with Final Fight multiple times.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I just watched a girl beat ISS in Sekiro twice simultaneously using her feet on a DDR pad and hands on a controller, and here I am struggling with just one of him. I wish I'd actually learned to parry his 3rd phase before I did a charmless run because baiting out his jump attack for two hits over and over really sucks.

 

[Dreiko]

Cleared the challenge fight with the 3 mantis lancers, hardest one so far, I died like 6 times. Those circular projectiles were so annoying. But I got in this zen state where I didn’t get touched at all in the run I won in. Almost felt like playing a souls game lol. Also I got Sekiro beheaded aped with the soul master boss having a second phase after I absorbed his soul and got killed to a cheap shot while celebrating. The actual ape didn’t get me but that fatass did lol.

Now I’m exploring the dark worm cave. Also got the Zelda spin slash, that thing’s hype.

I’m getting hooked for sure.

 

[Drathnoxis]

There, it's done. Sekiro NG+ Charmless with Demon Bell and 13 attack power. It's not much of an achievement compared to the above, but at least it's done.

Spoiler

Now I'm just running through easy mode (new game) to get the Shura ending and that'll be it. I'm up to the last boss and it's pretty tough. Otherwise I'm kind of disappointed in my performance. I didn't have trouble with Gyoubo, Blazing Bull, or Corrupted Monk. Genchiro took me way too many tries though despite how many times I've killed him at this point, probably like 8, and the Guardian Ape took me around an hour. That fight just really sucks with him spazzing out everywhere.

Not going to end up getting the Platinum despite only being one trophy short. Grinding millions of xp to get all the skill points just doesn't sound like fun at all, and I really don't like playing games on NG+ generally, and definitely not more than once.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

20 something hours into Silksong and the game finally opens up in a way that is more or less reminiscent of HK (go do these 3 things in whatever order), although the game is consistently much more "guided" too. If nothing else because there's a rhyme and a reason to every aspect of the game and most of it is acknowledged or explained in dialogue. HK was much more esoteric and speculative, the world was much less interested in you and the threat more passive, impersonal. Feels like the formula loses something by "civilizing" these silly, feral bugs with history and religion and a caste system. Which the lore freaks will tell me was in place in the first game, but it came across largely as either make-belief or largely faded or unconcerned.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

There, it's done. Sekiro NG+ Charmless with Demon Bell and 13 attack power. It's not much of an achievement compared to the above, but at least it's done.

Spoiler

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Now I'm just running through easy mode (new game) to get the Shura ending and that'll be it. I'm up to the last boss and it's pretty tough. Otherwise I'm kind of disappointed in my performance. I didn't have trouble with Gyoubo, Blazing Bull, or Corrupted Monk. Genchiro took me way too many tries though despite how many times I've killed him at this point, probably like 8, and the Guardian Ape took me around an hour. That fight just really sucks with him spazzing out everywhere.

Not going to end up getting the Platinum despite only being one trophy short. Grinding millions of xp to get all the skill points just doesn't sound like fun at all, and I really don't like playing games on NG+ generally, and definitely not more than once.

It’s not too bad. I did this farm run with the whistle late game for skill points and got it in a few hours -


In terms of grinding in FROM games I think it took me longer to get the bloody Pure Bladestone drop in the original Demon’s Souls.

 

[Bartholen]

I'm 20-something hours into E33. It's just really good man. A perfect blend of old school and modern design sensibilities you can just sink into like a cushy armchair. I especially enjoy the fights that shake you out of a routine and force you to switch your strategy. Like there was this fight against an enemy that would two-hit my party with a 7-hit combo and that dodged all attacks. Well, I put on the luminas that turn the party basically into suicide bombers, and beat him in no time flat. I've been exploring a lot and started going after the chromatic nevrons. While the fights themselves aren't anything special, the amount of rewards is immensely satisfying because it rewards going off the beaten path and exploring.

I already bitched about the menus so I'm not going to rehash that, just that as you gather more and more luminas you soon have to start wading through and absolute army of them if you want to switch to a specific strat. I hope this game gets mods on PC at least, because this is prime real estate for a better interface. The other thing I'm more puzzled than frustrated by is the weapon upgrade system. I just have no chuffing idea how it works. Sometimes weapons will get like 6 level ups after a fight and I have no idea why. The game's weirdly stingy with upgrade materials, and even upgrading weapons in the first place feels kind of pointless due to the aforementioned level ups and the frequency of getting new weapons. The added weapon effects feel more like a hassle, because they add yet another layer of tactics to consider, so I mostly just ignore them and look at the damage and damage type.