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BrawlMan

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he was tentatively thinking going open world could be a step in the right direction for the franchise.
I didn't care much for the open world and would have heard it to be linear. This wouldn't be such a problem if the game didn't waste time with those mandatory side quest.

And hardly any reviewer completely finishes a game.
Doesn't excuse lack of effort on his part.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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I've played a bit of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown *ehem* correction; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: A Ubisoft Original, whatever the fuck that means.

Anyway, it's pretty much just Prince of Persia Hollow Knight, but that's cool. It's fun enough movement and combat wise, but for some reason it felt the need to really emphasize it's bland story and characters upfront, when it could've just immediately hopped to the gameplay. This isn't a cinematic or story focused game, so I doubt anybody will give a shit about the interpersonal relationships of these characters or the politics of this kingdom.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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Monster Hunter Rise. Not gonna lie, the first impression is "Wow this is a huge step down from World". Just about everything looks and feels worse, but I guess there's only so much you can do with a Switch port. Seriously, why the fuck is there more loading time when booting up the game than in World.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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It's not that bad if you enjoy miserable stories about horrible characters told in the most frustrating and unrewarding way possible.
Yeah, I rather just play Drakengard 1-3, if it ever came to that. Most of the cast in Drakengard 2 ain't so bad though. Yet most of the characters in all three games are better people than nearly anyone in TLOUS2. Travis Touchdown has, and developed, more humanity than either leads in TLOUS2.
 

BrawlMan

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I popped in GG Gore, and bough Rocket Billy Red Cadillac DLC character. He's from Gungrave Overdose. The man is literally a ghost possessing an electric guitar as his main weapon!

I have more than enough points max out his attack range and damage. He's a fucking game breaker under the new combat system. The only flaw is that his health is fragile, and he doesn't get a super mode, but he moves super fast and can dodge cancel any of his attacks faster than other characters. Not to mention, his lighting attacks can hit and liquefy almost anything at far range. He plays like DMC3's Nevan, but with casual mode inputs.



 
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BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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SH2R - I finished the Hospital, but I am in now Otherworld version of it! Heeheheheeh....welcome to hell.
 

Dreiko

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So in classic atlus fashion, their latest game is just a complete time-vanisher. I don't know where the 10 hours I put in Metaphor today went, it felt like but an instant, and it was awesome.

I'm playing on hard and combat while familiar has a new aspect to it with the job system. At first balancing MP was difficult and I was barely able to beat stuff for half of my first main dungeon run, but then I shifted a bit more towards the monk class who uses HP for physical abilities (other classes use MP for physical skills too here) and that made a huge difference, make sure you do the monk sidequest asap and level that shit with all 3 heroes.

The best thing about the new job system is how you can master skills and abilities and slot them into any class. So if you unlock Hama but don't wanna be the healer for the boss fight you can just master it and then slot it on the wizard spell list. Also there's a whole lot of combination supers which do all sorts of cool stuff and have unique super epic animations. My fav one has to be this physical light attack that consumes HP and looks like a freaking Final Flash XD.

I beat the first deadline boss in 2 runs, and with the amount of stuff they give you that you have to go back to town to identify so you can equip them and benefit the most, it felt like it was practical, though I do think you technically could clear it in a single day for maximal efficiency so you can raise your social stats, maybe if you don't play on hard it'd be easier to do it in 1 day. Also there's just so much good music and crazy creative visuals everywhere. The menus in p5 were already gorgeous but they went even more over the top here. They use a live-2D style where there's slight animation in the menu visuals. A glimmer of the eye, a hand flexing, a sleeve being caught in the breeze.


As for the plot, without spoilers, the main theme in this game is using adversity as fuel with which you can achieve greatness. It's all about channeling your fears and constructively utilizing your anxiety and discomfort. Not wallowing in it and being caught up in feelings of helplessness. It's a truly hopeful message and I wanna see where it will lead.
 

Ezekiel

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Started playing Skyward Sword for the first time today. The Switch version.

Taking a long time to leave me alone. Even worse than Twilight Princess in that regard.

Having to hold L1 for camera control is weird. Wonder if it's better with motion controls, with joycons. My Switch is in a storage unit.

Faces look weird. Eyes are just flat textures, but it's far enough into the advancement in 3D graphics that the flatness stands out on the model. Link appears slightly East Asian.

Oh, the run button with stamina started in this game. Gefällt mir nicht. I made a long list showing that the sprint button is out of control in modern games. You always have to change the whole design for it.
 
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Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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TIL October 11 is National Coming Out Day. By complete coincidence I beat TLoU2 today. Neat!
Yeah, the one gay relationship gets broken up, and the one trans character is forced to kill his own mom because she wanted to kill him for being trans.

...

I forget TLoU2 was once touted for being a AAA game with LGBTQ+ rep. Than everyone played it and no one gave a shit about that anymore through all the misery porn.
 
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BrawlMan

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forget TLoU2 was once touted for being a AAA game with LGBTQ+ rep. Than everyone played it and no one gave a shit about that anymore through all the misery porn.
Then Celeste became LGBTQ rep, and no one objected. Helps that it's much better game in a more positive story despite having themes aniexty, fear, and depression. Yet fighting through and the learning to accept it and overcome those pains.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Yeah, the one gay relationship gets broken up, and the one trans character is forced to kill his own mom because she wanted to kill him for being trans.

...

I forget TLoU2 was once touted for being a AAA game with LGBTQ+ rep. Than everyone played it and no one gave a shit about that anymore through all the misery porn.
Something I didn't get, was the trans character's mom the "may she guide you" figure we kept seeing carved and stencilled all around, or did we never meet her?
 

Drathnoxis

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Started playing Skyward Sword for the first time today. The Switch version.

Taking a long time to leave me alone. Even worse than Twilight Princess in that regard.
Skyward Sword has an absurd amount of introductory cutscenes. I don't think Breath of the Wild is perfect, but it was certainly refreshing they went back to a brisker introduction.

I hope you'll post a lot about your experience with this one, I'm interested to see what you think.
 
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Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Something I didn't get, was the trans character's mom the "may she guide you" figure we kept seeing carved and stencilled all around, or did we never meet her?
No, you never meet her. I've seen some confusion about her and whether she's in the game, some people thinking the woman that holds the knife to Abby's gut is her. The "prophet" lady died at the hands of Isaac I think, and this then spurred the Seraphites on to start hanging and disemboweling outsiders/WLF. I think Lev mentions her death right before the "heights" sequence.
 

Piscian

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Dang I forgot all about the trans kid in LOU2. I generally fit in to the "idc" camp of gamers. I'm a little old of the culture war. Like it doesn't interest me, but doesn't bother me. I think the cult was so fire and brimstone I don't think it would have changed the story if the kid just really like drawing or something. So it was just like "ah message or something..got it.". Fun fact up until 2019 teen Conversion Therapy was still legal in Colorado. There's where they hold teens hostage in hotels, literally tied to chairs and scream at them to stop being gay. America is a crazy place. For what it's worth I did vote for that to be banned.

Resident Evil 8: Village or Resident Evil: Village or REVILLAGE or whatever its called

So I took a staycation last week and beat Resident Evil 8: Village, to feed the survival horror bug while waiting on Silent Hill 2 remake. Its complicated but I bought the game on release and the shitty PC controls made me so mad I uninstalled it 5 minutes in. Much better experience this time I around. I was pretty hooked and pretty much played it non-stop until I beat it.

I will say it was much more of a cinematic experience, like REVII. I think some of the thrill of RE was ammo conservation, but ever since 4 they've moved away from it and REVIII largely felt like an interactive movie. I thought to myself, now that it really lacks any reference to bio-zombies it was more like a spiritual successor to Alone in The Dark. I was good, but I sorta wished I'd played REVII again first. I hadn't played that in a million years and REVIII is a direct sequel. Not like new story, but that literally the entire game ties back to REVII stuff so after I beat it I had to go back and watch recaps to understand what was going on.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

It appears to basically just be a true blue remaster with upgraded graphics and quality of life improvements. Very pretty and definitely brought the willies more than REVIII. I got about an hour or two and was liking what I was seeing, but it just came out at the most unfortunate time....

Metaphor: refantazio

I was actually trying to ignore this game because I was already playing Silent Hill 2, I have huge backlog and the dawn thing was $70 on all platforms with nary a discount to be found online. The problem is that I actually watched a few reviews and they were all like "PERSONA BUT ISEKAI", goddamn I wish they hadn't said Persona. Literally the same team. I guess they were working on this and not my precious Persona 6. I can say it's...fine. I'll be honest I'm pretty over all this isekai shit or should I say how dull it's gotten. Like mutherfucker Record of the Lodoss war came out when I was like 5, haven't we said all there is to be said with this genre?

Anyway the story isn't bad I guess. I just got to the point where the game opens up last night where you can run around begging people to be your friend because this game is literally a friendship contest thing where you gotta make the city love or the bad guy gets elected king.

The combat, bonds, and personas are all kinda still there, but Personas are pretty much just Job classes from your typical fantasy JRPG. It's cool. I'll play some more tonight, but I haven't really glommed onto any of the characters.

This is a serious game so I haven't yet seen any comic relief. It's funny, for all my complaints about Persona 5 is all MVC2 OST jazz and spectacle, it's kinda missing here. Maybe thats why I like the modern atmosphere RPGs. Even the music in this game is all Zack Snyder valkerie shit. The Duel of the Fate crap got on my nerves so much I actually turned the music way down. I don't need to hear the fucking monk chant album while walking down the street thanks.
 
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