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Piscian

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Still on that Persona 5 train. Binged pretty hard, just reached december, which I'm guessing should be nearing the end. Got my social stats all ranked up, maxed all social links except the ones you get automatically, and have just started my second visit to the 7th palace. Even tho I felt it had a slow start, I ended up really liking it once it opens things up and actually lets you do stuff. Characters are engaging, with a couple exceptions. Same goes for the palaces, tho 1 and 6 are imo the standouts.

One thing I felt was kind of weird is that the main protag is a 16-17 yo high schooler, but like half your romance options are working adults, most of whom would be violating the professional ethics of their respective jobs by dating the protag.
If you're playing Royal and you think youre nearing the end, welcome to fuck town.
 

Dalisclock

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One thing I felt was kind of weird is that the main protag is a 16-17 yo high schooler, but like half your romance options are working adults, most of whom would be violating the professional ethics of their respective jobs by dating the protag.

I've heard this brought up from a couple other places too. P5 allows you to date children, adults and numerous people at once, but a boy? No, that's weird!

Oh Japan., where borderline(and sometimes actual) pedophila is fine but homosexuality is gross.
 
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Chimpzy

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I've heard this brought up from a couple other places too. P5 allows you to date toddlers, adults and numerous people at once, but "What if I want to date a boy?" "NO, that's weird!"

Oh Japan., where borderline(and sometimes actual) pedophila is fine but homosexuality is gross.
Pretty sure you can't date the loli twins, unless they added that in Royal (in which case, wtf Atlus). Closest thing beside them would be Futaba, who is about the same age as the rest of the gang, but mentally only about half that so she can fill the token little sister otaku bait role. It's all very Japan. Anyway, hooked up with Ann, cuz she's actually likeable.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I've heard this brought up from a couple other places too. P5 allows you to date children, adults and numerous people at once, but a boy? No, that's weird!

Oh Japan., where borderline(and sometimes actual) pedophila is fine but homosexuality is gross.
For the hell of it I tried contemplating this issue pragmatically, and ultimately have to blame the physiological engineers for taking too long to fine-tune the proper age of fertility in relation to all the other various life factors. I mean FFS their breasts aren’t even done developing anywhere near the time they’ve been crudely introduced to the painter, so how the hell are they going to optimally feed any kid they end up having anyways. The days before formula specifically. We kinda have to assume we’ve settled on fairly appropriate ages for the various socio-cultural aspects of life so c’mon nature, git with the times. We’re far past all the Dark Ages and days of plague and pestilence where humanity’s survival relied on expedient reproduction. Although I suppose one could argue the way we’re going we might just catch ourselves in a similar predicament again someday. Or a massive solar flare will help us out. Premature ice age anyone? Oh the possibilities…yay.

Speaking of Japan’s culture specifically, they seem to be keen on keeping one foot firmly planted in the old world in the midst of rampant technological advancements. The aversion to homosexuality seems to be a big part of that, but at the same time don’t some of them have poop fetishes?

I’m kinda forced to conclude it’s just people in general. We’re all just a part of some grand cosmic experiment in the scheme of things, and as a peculiar contrast to some of the weird looking shit we’ve found in the ocean, our oddities generally manifest from within.
 

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Finished Eastward.

Really good game, though it gets really fucking weird towards the end. Given it's practically screaming "We loved Mother 3 and Earthbound"(the word "Mother" is used a LOT and I don't think that coincidental given everything else), that's to be expected. The endgame did go on a lot longer then I expected and one particular bit felt like it went on a bit too long considering I was at the point of "I'll finish the game and go to bed" and then there was an entire final dungeon left(and not a small one either). Oh, and my game crashed so I had to refight the 2nd half of the final boss fight again(thank god there was an autosave midway through), but it was worth it. Oh, and Charon. Oh god fucking Charon. I figured "Oh, a train, I've done one of these before" and then it became "Where the fuck am I? There's no fucking way I'm still on that train" Like almost Silent Hill vibes the way the train is so sprawling and weird and creepy. Like it's truly some kind of eldritch location

Yeah, it works really well and even though the tone kinda jumps around it feels like the shifts are appropriate, much like the Mother games before it.

Probably gonna restart and actually finish Hyper Light Drifter next(I got 75% of the way done but the last time I tried to finish it was years ago so I might as well restart), but I may play some shorter game before committing to that. Also thinking of actually attempting Cuphead finally, since I've been thinking about Boss Rush games like Eldest Souls and Furi. Fuck, none of those games are much more then 10 hours long so who knows, I might try all of them.
 
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Drathnoxis

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Finished Eastward.

Really good game, though it gets really fucking weird towards the end. Given it's practically screaming "We loved Mother 3 and Earthbound"(the word "Mother" is used a LOT and I don't think that coincidental given everything else), that's to be expected. The endgame did go on a lot longer then I expected and one particular bit felt like it went on a bit too long considering I was at the point of "I'll finish the game and go to bed" and then there was an entire final dungeon left(and not a small one either). Oh, and my game crashed so I had to refight the 2nd half of the final boss fight again(thank god there was an autosave midway through), but it was worth it. Oh, and Charon. Oh god fucking Charon. I figured "Oh, a train, I've done one of these before" and then it became "Where the fuck am I? There's no fucking way I'm still on that train" Like almost Silent Hill vibes the way the train is so sprawling and weird and creepy. Like it's truly some kind of eldritch location

Yeah, it works really well and even though the tone kinda jumps around it feels like the shifts are appropriate, much like the Mother games before it.
Hmm, I also really loved Mother 3, I'll have to give this one a go once I'm done Inscryption (which I'm thoroughly enjoying and might actually play through twice to see a couple things I missed.)
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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Got all the prosthetic upgrades in Sekiro, which wasn’t too bad farming the last bit of materials. However now what’s left is farming skill points for the last few abilities. Maybe if I didn’t die all those times along the way I’d have a few more done by now, but of course that would be too convenient. With the demon bell active the rest should take no more than 3 hours, which is still kinda stupid to have to say for more of an action than RPG game.

I’m using what is considered the most efficient farming route, from the antechamber idol in the last phase of Ashina where you can stealth kill one elite and then use the finger whistle to get to ogre to aggro-kill a couple others below in the adjacent room’s atrium. It takes about half a minute per loop but it’s just kinda mind-numbing that stuff like this has to pad an action game.
 

Drathnoxis

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Just finished Inscryption, which was a little perplexing to say the least. I can't say much without spoiling but the game starts out as a rougelike and then suddenly stops that and does something else for the last 2/3rds of the game.

And... like... The first part of the game was good, and then you go into this super meh situation, and then the third part of the game took the first part and changed up the system a bit and added some very interesting factors. But... well the rougelike aspect is sacrificed in the name of the story, and because of that the rougelike portion just isn't very hard or deep. The third part of the game adds a lot of depth, but its not a rougelike anymore, and it takes a different format than the first part.

I hate to say this but I really think the game would be a lot better by hacking up the story a bit. They have this ludo-narrative consonance thing going on which is laudable, but in order to keep the story going they really do a disservice to the actual gameplay. I wish they had leaned into the strength of their gameplay and tried to make the story work with that rather than the other way around.

As it is I enjoyed parts of this game, but I can't go back to them because I know that part 1 is too easy and a little shallow, and part 3 isn't going to have any significant variance in a separate playtough, and its also too easy but for story reasons this time. Maybe they'll add some DLC that makes it into a challenging rougelike. The cardgame they developed is legitimately good - it looks good, there are interesting mechanics and interactions, and depending on the 'deck' you're dealing with it has a huge amount of variety. Its just that they said fuck all that in favour of telling a story.
Just finished the game now so I can actually read your post now. I actually liked all three parts of the game and how it mixed up the rules from time to time. The first part was an assemble your deck on the go style game like Ascension and the second part was more of your traditional Magic The Gathering style, both which were fun in their own ways. The third section I felt suffered the most from being a return to the roguelike style without actually being a roguelike, there really was no consequence for losing at all. The game was a little easy overall, the card mechanics are good but a little too easily broken. Especially if you are like me and realize that Oroboros retains its stat boost for dying permanently and abuse cards with the return to your hand buff to infinitely sacrifice Oroboros to keep buffing the card on one turn. I got it up to 6/6 in the first part and then when I realized that it kept the stat boost in the second part I used it to grind for money getting the card up to 60/60, I was actually a little disappointed when I got the card in the third part because that meant all the difficulty had just dropped out of the game because I had an instant "I win" card always at my fingertips. I actually mostly declined to use it outside of the first 2 battles I had it where I used it to get over $100.

The thing I dislike the most about the game is the pacing was a little bit off for me. By the time I had gotten all of the character cards in the first part I was on my winning run, and didn't really get to see any of the interactions or change of the last one. I think I was a little fast on the puzzles and the game didn't really expect me to already have the film on my first win because it seems like the game needed a little more breathing room at the end of that part. This made me a little leery on the second part and I ended up not really talking to the Bone Lord or whoever it is you talk to after giving the Obol to because I didn't want to jump the gun on another puzzle, but this time I just missed out on whatever his story was.

On the whole I was really impressed with the game. Great visual design, good music, fun mechanics. When I finished Pony Island I felt like it ended before the game had barely started, but Inscryption is like the game it should have been. Many of the themes are re-explored in greater depth and the game is just basically better in every way. The hours just flew by as I played. The FMV sections were pretty cheesy, but they were short and I personally didn't find them too off-putting. Probably the game would have been better without them, but they told their story well enough. I kind of feel like going through the game one more time to pick up the last couple things I missed, but I think maybe I'll put it on hold for a while, it is a fairly long game. I kind of feel like dusting off Slay the Spire again for another couple runs now, though.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Sometimes it's just nice to play Yakuza 0. And sometimes it's even nicer to be given a breakdancing style for combat that causes your extremities to glow with a fierce vibrant pink when you're kicking ass while spinning like quantum cheerio on your head. What's not so nice is ripping that cool shit away as soon as I denounced all other fighting styles as not worth the effort anymore.

ezgif.com-gif-maker-100.jpg

But then fake Micheal Jackson appears. And annoying zombies. And then...

ezgif.com-gif-maker-101.jpg

Real est... fucking real estate??


Time.

For.

Capitalism!
 

Dalisclock

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Sometimes it's just nice to play Yakuza 0. And sometimes it's even nicer to be given a breakdancing style for combat that causes your extremities to glow with a fierce vibrant pink when you're kicking ass while spinning like quantum cheerio on your head. What's not so nice is ripping that cool shit away as soon as I denounced all other fighting styles as not worth the effort anymore.

View attachment 5062

But then fake Micheal Jackson appears. And annoying zombies. And then...

View attachment 5063

Real est... fucking real estate??


Time.

For.

Capitalism!
Apparently there's also a mini-game you run a Hostess club as well and have to learn a bunch of hand signals.


Once you finish that, you can replay the game's Royal version and THEN play Strikers. :D
Don't do it! It's a Trap!
 

CriticalGaming

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Don't do it! It's a Trap!
It's not a trap, it's a fun time. Don't be a hater.

Also I just Platinumed Spider-man and all the DLC from the remastered edition. Spider-man is the best open world game released in the last 6 years easily and more games need to learn from Spider-Man.
 

Dalisclock

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It's not a trap, it's a fun time. Don't be a hater.

Also I just Platinumed Spider-man and all the DLC from the remastered edition. Spider-man is the best open world game released in the last 6 years easily and more games need to learn from Spider-Man.
It is a Trap, because then P4 and then P3! And where does it end? SMT1? That's a bridge too far, man!

I'm joking, BTW.

I don't actually have anything against the series. I'm actually going to play P5R someday. In the Future times.
 
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CriticalGaming

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It is a Trap, because then P4 and then P3! And where does it end? SMT1? That's a bridge too far, man!

I'm joking, BTW.

I don't actually have anything against the series. I'm actually going to play P5R someday. In the Future times.
But have you plat-ed spider-man?
 

NerfedFalcon

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Also I just Platinumed Spider-man and all the DLC from the remastered edition. Spider-man is the best open world game released in the last 6 years easily and more games need to learn from Spider-Man.
It was... fine. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it just couldn't hold my attention. I made it through what I feel is the first 'act' up to Miles's dad's death but I just didn't want to keep going after that. Still, a lot of people like it and I don't think it's bad. Just not my thing.

Anyway, I don't want to become too committed to anything right now, since I'm going to be going out of state for a wedding soon. So as something that I can just play casually now and then and then leave alone for a week, I'm doing Slay the Spire runs. Mostly as Ironclad, because it makes the most sense to me. My record with the other characters isn't very good, and even knowing that I have to play as them to learn them, I'd rather just stick to Ironclad for now.