I mean I don't want to be too harsh to a solo-developed game, it's definitely a case of "it's supposed to be [negative criticism]". I can suffer stylistic choices up to a point.
What are you currently playing?
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In general. I get disoriented by FPS, like I have to move the camera around all the time to know what's going on. I get confused and headaches.
And I find shooting as a mechanic kind of boring, not impactful. That's why most of my games are fighting with fists and swords and why I could only get through Mass Effect as Vanguard class (melee focused). Occassionally there is a game like Dishonored that is so good and interesting and offers ways around that I could overcome it.
Speaking of which, I am picking up Ninja Gaiden 4 today. I'm going to have a blast tonight.
Are you ready? Your inner childhood gamer demands it!/sarcasm
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I just did my first ever run at the very first raid added to Old School Runescape, 'Chambers of Xeric'. And while it might seem forgiving with how you can die as many times as you need to finish the raid with your only penalty being to loot, you really want that loot. And if you want to do a deathless run at the raid's last boss, Great Olm, I assure you, it's harder than anything I've fought in a Souls game.
...basically just been playing Runescape because of the seasonal mode, TBH. Hoping to get back on Sonic Frontiers and/or Ghost of Yotei today though, now that I've tapped out about as much of said seasonal mode as I really plan to.
...basically just been playing Runescape because of the seasonal mode, TBH. Hoping to get back on Sonic Frontiers and/or Ghost of Yotei today though, now that I've tapped out about as much of said seasonal mode as I really plan to.
I replayed trough most of FF8 on my commute. Playing on an emulator, which really help cause I could fast forward whenever I needed to draw magic and I could save state just before doing card game in case I lose for some dumb rule.
It held up better than what I remember in some way, but worse in other. On the plus side, Squall as probably the most dynamic character arc of any FF game, I really like all the introspection he does. Unfortunately he kinda change a bit too abruptly, this along with Rhinoa kinda falling in love with him at no particular point and everybody deciding that Squall is the best and should be the leader for no reason really makes it feel like there was supposed to be an extra chapter at some point, where you'd do one more mission between the Timber part and the fail assassination, something that would both cement Squall as a leader and further the love story.
Gameplay wise I would always play trough it by using GF for everything the first half and then just spamming limit break, so I tried to play differently. I gotta say, the game balance is complete trash. I always knew that gaining exp in it is bad, but using the card ability to kill enemy without gaining EXP really break it. For most of the game the hardest part was stealing stuff from boss without killing them, completely humiliated Seifer by having Zell repeatedly mug him while Squall heal his ass so he doesn't die before I steal everything of value from him. Its a shame cause the GF and junction system are fun, but it really doesn't work. And limit break are so easy to trigger and so overpowered, it makes a mockery of everything.
Anyway, made it to the last dungeon and thought I could back out, but nope! So that kinda killed my run, oh well. I think its a good candidate for a remake that really changes stuff, add one more chapter early on, drop the weird "everyone came from the same orphanage but forgot" aspect, maybe tighten a couple of story sequence to be less abrupt, fill in the bizarrely empty world, redo most of the gameplay and you could have something really great.
Oh and fuck that card game.
It held up better than what I remember in some way, but worse in other. On the plus side, Squall as probably the most dynamic character arc of any FF game, I really like all the introspection he does. Unfortunately he kinda change a bit too abruptly, this along with Rhinoa kinda falling in love with him at no particular point and everybody deciding that Squall is the best and should be the leader for no reason really makes it feel like there was supposed to be an extra chapter at some point, where you'd do one more mission between the Timber part and the fail assassination, something that would both cement Squall as a leader and further the love story.
Gameplay wise I would always play trough it by using GF for everything the first half and then just spamming limit break, so I tried to play differently. I gotta say, the game balance is complete trash. I always knew that gaining exp in it is bad, but using the card ability to kill enemy without gaining EXP really break it. For most of the game the hardest part was stealing stuff from boss without killing them, completely humiliated Seifer by having Zell repeatedly mug him while Squall heal his ass so he doesn't die before I steal everything of value from him. Its a shame cause the GF and junction system are fun, but it really doesn't work. And limit break are so easy to trigger and so overpowered, it makes a mockery of everything.
Anyway, made it to the last dungeon and thought I could back out, but nope! So that kinda killed my run, oh well. I think its a good candidate for a remake that really changes stuff, add one more chapter early on, drop the weird "everyone came from the same orphanage but forgot" aspect, maybe tighten a couple of story sequence to be less abrupt, fill in the bizarrely empty world, redo most of the gameplay and you could have something really great.
Oh and fuck that card game.
@NerfedFalcon, @Worgen, @Johnny Novgorod, @Dalisclock, @Old_Hunter_77, @thebobmaster, @Dreiko, and @ExtraWildGames, get your (possibly) ninja asses in here!
I've been playing Ninja Gaiden 4! My God I love it!
The rundown so far: There is a mix of Column A & B (when it comes to how the gameplay between Team Ninja and Platinum), but the game lies slightly more so on the Team Ninja end, but this a Platinum* Game. Perfect dodges gives you super brief slowdowns for counterattacks. Parrying with heavy attack button is the equivalent of MGR Parrying, but you don't have to worry about pressing forward while pressing it. Yakumo gets his own Devil Trigger type move, and there is also a perfect block upgrade you can buy. Pressing R2/RT just before the hit lands, staggers the enemy, and opens them up for an attack. Perfect dodging is done by holding R2/RT and moving the L3/LS before the land blows. The enemies are what you expect, and will gang up on you. They can suicide bomb you too, if you're not careful.
This game is awesome! I've complete the lengthy first chapter, and the boss did kick my ass. Took me three tries, and I refused the revive. I've already unlocked almost all of Yakumo's combat moves. I just need the stronger variation of his perfect parry. You can also do optional missions to get more ninja coins. I suggest doing them, if you want upgrade Yakumo fast. I do love the use of vertical for Yakumo integrated into combat. It's exactly how they wanted Rising to go with wall running, but have to remove the mechanic, because of hardware. NG4 executes this flawlessly.
I noticed this game has certain DmCisms (2013), but it's in a good way:
I've been playing Ninja Gaiden 4! My God I love it!
The rundown so far: There is a mix of Column A & B (when it comes to how the gameplay between Team Ninja and Platinum), but the game lies slightly more so on the Team Ninja end, but this a Platinum* Game. Perfect dodges gives you super brief slowdowns for counterattacks. Parrying with heavy attack button is the equivalent of MGR Parrying, but you don't have to worry about pressing forward while pressing it. Yakumo gets his own Devil Trigger type move, and there is also a perfect block upgrade you can buy. Pressing R2/RT just before the hit lands, staggers the enemy, and opens them up for an attack. Perfect dodging is done by holding R2/RT and moving the L3/LS before the land blows. The enemies are what you expect, and will gang up on you. They can suicide bomb you too, if you're not careful.
This game is awesome! I've complete the lengthy first chapter, and the boss did kick my ass. Took me three tries, and I refused the revive. I've already unlocked almost all of Yakumo's combat moves. I just need the stronger variation of his perfect parry. You can also do optional missions to get more ninja coins. I suggest doing them, if you want upgrade Yakumo fast. I do love the use of vertical for Yakumo integrated into combat. It's exactly how they wanted Rising to go with wall running, but have to remove the mechanic, because of hardware. NG4 executes this flawlessly.
I noticed this game has certain DmCisms (2013), but it's in a good way:
- On the fly weapon switching with the D-Pad.
- Pressing a trigger button switch to modes/stances that does more damage.
- A city where demons have taken over and the changing the environment and manipulating reality for their own benefits/amusements.
- The city and its environment are literally out to kill Yakumo or Hayabusa, like Limbo was doing to Dante.
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I’m still on the new 2D ninja gaiden but will definitely be playing 4 too. Glad to hear it’s as cool as it looks.
Glad you're enjoying it.
I have never enjoyed any attempt with a NG game nor frankly am I in the mood for a fast moving parrying action violence thing right now. Maybe down the line at a discount or if I get weary of other stuff.
Lol, so you enjoyed the game, except for fundamentally most of it?
I have a soft spot in my heart for FF8; it's one of the three FFs I've actually played, and the one I enjoyed the most. I've spent years listening to FF fanatics rave about other FF titles while shitting on FF8, and I honestly don't know why, but also lack the breadth of experience in the franchise to refute anyone's complaints. I apparently love what everyone hates about it; the story, the characters, the combat system, Triple Triad, all of it! I actually enjoyed the draw system, and looked forward to finding new spells and drawing 300 of each no matter how long it took. I still have my original CD-ROMs and guide from 1999; I don't own a computer that can play them, but in the half dozen times I've moved in the past 25 years, I've been sure to take them with me, y'know, just in case...
It's probably mostly nostalgia, but it's one of my favorite games of all time. Playing it new, when it was visually groundbreaking, has it indelibly branded in my brain as an amazing game, damn-near perfect. The only thing a "remaster" could do to improve it would be to change the way the rules of Triple Triad spread; elsewise, leave my red-headed stepchild alone.
Painkiller - the 2025 release version
Ah some simple throwback single player FPS funsies, just with a modern coating, it's a no brainer from any angle, surely? Of course!
I mean, ok, there's another edition with a season pass, which is kinda weird, but hey if you wanna add more optional content then no wuzzas, you do you.
Now the game's started with a new turtorial... hm, it's been a long while since playing the original so can't be certain, were there always bots playing alongside you? my memory is hazy at the best of times
Interesting, the pause button doesn't seem to. pause. the. game...
no
pause
...
game
4 characters to choose fr...oh wait no wait they all play alongs... omfg they turned it into a live-service left4dead style game! Wtf how did I miss this detail?!?
Checked the blurb and at least it says "online play optional" so there's that, I guess. This feels more like darktide and i've no idea how much, if any of the original game is even in this. They got me, they fucking got me, I'll grant them that.
Ninja Garden 4
(Autocorrect changed it to garden so thought it best to let it have that one today lol)
It's still single player, this is already a huge relief! And platinum games still getting work, so even bigger reliefs!
Ah some simple throwback single player FPS funsies, just with a modern coating, it's a no brainer from any angle, surely? Of course!
I mean, ok, there's another edition with a season pass, which is kinda weird, but hey if you wanna add more optional content then no wuzzas, you do you.
Now the game's started with a new turtorial... hm, it's been a long while since playing the original so can't be certain, were there always bots playing alongside you? my memory is hazy at the best of times
Interesting, the pause button doesn't seem to. pause. the. game...
no
pause
...
game
4 characters to choose fr...oh wait no wait they all play alongs... omfg they turned it into a live-service left4dead style game! Wtf how did I miss this detail?!?
Checked the blurb and at least it says "online play optional" so there's that, I guess. This feels more like darktide and i've no idea how much, if any of the original game is even in this. They got me, they fucking got me, I'll grant them that.
Ninja Garden 4
(Autocorrect changed it to garden so thought it best to let it have that one today lol)
It's still single player, this is already a huge relief! And platinum games still getting work, so even bigger reliefs!
I know. I just wanted to mention it to you.
It is implied in at least one game that Ryu has garden before.
I also have a soft spot for FF8, and it's just a highly specific one.
I pretty much didn't play games beyond casual at-a-friends'-house kind of thing between high school and my 30's, which coincided with the birth of the Playstation, transition to 3D graphics, and the birth of so many franchises and gameplay mechanics that define modern gaming. This of course also coincides with Final Fantasy's explosion from pixel weirdo RPGs to big deal epics. I had an original PlayStation that was tucked away in the living room collecting dust.
Except for Final Fantasy 8. I don't recall why I ended up owning these discs- probably a break-up combined with a casual arrogance during the tech bubble at the time leading to complacency- but I did, I played the f*** out of this game. I don't remember jack all about it but except the gun sword and the grinding and some sort of extra bosses at or near the end that took forever, but I was obsessed in the same way I was about Legend of Zelda during my teen years and The Witcher 3 much later on.
For being an island in my long gaming exile, it's my favorite Final Fantasy by a mile, because it's the only one I really cared about like that.
And speaking of obsessed with epic games...
I'm done with Persona 5: Royal.
Whew, what a ride! Though I was getting worn down at the end, it picked up as I finally got to dig into the meat of the "royal" stuff with the for-real-last palace, boss, and story, and I was back into it. I thought they brought the story, theme, and character bits home. Of course it being an extra from the original killed the pacing by relegating the great characters from the base game to useless in favor of the new characters. But the connection between the villain, the story, the themes, and main character paid off enough to make me glad I stuck with it. It all came home in a way to make it feel like part of the whole story.
Definitely a game that will stick with me for a while, even though I didn't enjoy all the 170 hours I had with it. And while I certainly need a break from another game like this, at least I have a new genre I can go back to.
I'm done with Persona 5: Royal.
Whew, what a ride! Though I was getting worn down at the end, it picked up as I finally got to dig into the meat of the "royal" stuff with the for-real-last palace, boss, and story, and I was back into it. I thought they brought the story, theme, and character bits home. Of course it being an extra from the original killed the pacing by relegating the great characters from the base game to useless in favor of the new characters. But the connection between the villain, the story, the themes, and main character paid off enough to make me glad I stuck with it. It all came home in a way to make it feel like part of the whole story.
Definitely a game that will stick with me for a while, even though I didn't enjoy all the 170 hours I had with it. And while I certainly need a break from another game like this, at least I have a new genre I can go back to.
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Started playing Systemshock 2, the remaster. I totally forgot that SS2 has the best character creator ever, I love how it lets you choose a military branch then choose what kinda deployment you have each year (each one gives you different stats that the game tells you about). Its very very cool.
While conceptually I like the Ninja Gaiden games, I played a lot less of Sigma and Sigma 2 (the ones I own) than I intended to. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for if it goes on sale, probably, or once I finish Frontiers/Yotei and have room to add it to my list.
I'd say FF8 is at the bottom of the "good" FF game. Like I said, it has a lot of problem and many are self inflicted. The monster level scaling system just doesn't work, its an interesting idea, but its so easy to break, while also royally screwing up new player, probably the exact opposite of what they wanted to do. Just taking it out would really improve the game at no additional cost.
The draw system wasn't too bad this time around, (because I did most of it at 250% speed), but it really doesn't add anything to do the game, drawing 300 of each spell is not hard at all (cause the game is total cake) but its just boring busy work, you could just replace it by letting the player draw once per character and that would just cut out the worse 5-10 hours of the game at no cost. A better system would be to have spell needing many "fragment" to be learned, and have fragment come from different location. Say you need 10 "fire" fragment to learn the spell, every enemy that has it can give you one, once per enemy type, and drawing from draw point would also give you one once, this would avoid the pointless draw shit, and would give more reason to explore dungeon, cause as is, there's literally no reason to explore.
GF are cool, its an interesting take on the class system, really wish they tried something like it again. But the game just can't handle that complexity, a few hours out of the gate you can already have character with 4000+ HP, while enemy still struggle to do more than 100. Also, having to redo your junction all the time is really annoying, there's a couple of time the game strip everything from all your character for now reason.
The story as a good core, Squall the loner learn to trust other and fall in love with Rinoa, the lore with the Sorceress is actually kinda interesting and the setting of this sort of post apocalyptic world but still technologically advance is cool. I actually really like the first 10 hours, being a student then SeeD is great, I wish that part was longer and you'd have more mission as a SeeD. I like the "prequel" with Laguna, its a cool idea. But the pacing is way off, Squall go from just sorta caring about Rinoa to being unable to function without her kinda out of nowhere, and there's not really any reason for Rinoa to latch on to Squall that much. Everyone coming from the same orphanage randomly is just too big of a coincidence, especially since it brings nothing to the story. The orphanage is also really weird, why is there one in the middle of nowhere, where the heck did they get the money to have a massive boat that can sail forever? Really just remove all of that from the game and the story straight up makes more sense.
Its just a very flawed game, none of its various aspect ultimately feel well polish (outside visual and music, but you can say that about all the FF, so it doesn't allow it to stand out). Still a good game, maybe a solid 6 to low 7.
I've played way less Sigma than Sigma 2 or II Black. I've actually played more Razor's Edge than Sigma, but that's because I love playing as Kasumi and those challenge missions. I completely understand.
Take all the time you need.
At times like this, I really miss Breath of the Wild's telescope, which has the ability to place custom map markers on any points of interest you see without having to open the map and estimate where you're trying to get to. More open world games need that. Which, in hindsight, is a thought I had a lot of times when I was playing Breath of the Wild.
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From everything I've seen of it: An "in-name-only" successor, except for some of the weapons (of course the iconic electrodriver made it in). I absolutely wouldn't immediately turn my nose up at a multiplayer Painkiller game, but this ain't the way to go.