What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

I've beaten Comix Zone without save states twice, but never again. Ninja Gaiden NES I beat once without saves states. I prefer Dark Sword of Chaos over the original. Easier and much more fair by comparison.

I gotta get back into Art of Vengeance, because Romeo Is A Dead Man comes out next Wednesday.

 

[Ezekiel]

After getting all of Sonic's emeralds with perfect scores (all rings) and no retries by level 3-1 as Knuckles, I tried a harder emerald for my first of the ones from Knuckles' island and failed, then restarted the system (despite being sure that the giant ring would not reappear) to find that I had a score of zero, which made me not want to play anymore. Sonic 3 and Knuckles separated cartridges is the best way to play as Sonic at least. You get the most variety in music and the game is not overlong. All you miss is the brief scene of Knuckles by his green master emerald waving goodbye to S and T, and the seven others in the sacred place are grey when you beat up Knuckles and he realizes he was tricked.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I've been playing the demo of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, which is basically Skyrim by way of Arthurian legend. It's a gorgeous game, but somehow the combat is even more clunky than Skyrim's; nothing about fighting feels good, whether it be melee or archery (I haven't found any sort of spells yet, though there is a mana system). There was also a strange miniboss that seemed absolutely immune to arrows and could throw rocks or swing its arms for fairly severe damage, with the only way to defeat it the aforementioned weaksauce melee system.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Overall I liked LatLE. I felt like most of the mandatory puzzles were pretty fair, but some of the optional ones required leaps of logic that I never managed to gap.

*In best Scottish accent* Seems you at least liked it a LatLE bit.


I’ve been away from it a while but back to Bloodstained; finally got the double jump and it’s so liberating. I was originally stuck because it was those damn library shelves that had to be manipulated to and fro, not a door of some sort. Ugh.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Final Fantasy 3: I eventually managed to complete the game's first arc, ending with getting the airship (for real, this time) and leaving the floating continent to explore the rest of the world. As much as the job system is occasionally used to railroad the player, and that the game (even in PR) doesn't really bother to explain anything about jobs to you, I'm still having a pretty good time with it, as simple as it ultimately is. With two more crystals to find, I'm looking forward to seeing what other ideas they were able to implement into this one. And it'll probably give me a better foundation for if/when I eventually play FF5 and see how the job system was expanded in that game.

This is entirely a personal criticism, but I generally don't care for RPGs where customization is emphasized to the point that the party members are all but interchangeable, and that is a bit of a damper on the experience, but it's not enough of one here that I've given up to play something like 6 or 7R2 instead.

 

[Drathnoxis]

*In best Scottish accent* Seems you at least liked it a LatLE bit.

You have potential. I feel like with a little training you could actually learn to weaponize your puns and deal grievous mental anguish en mass.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

You have potential. I feel like with a LatLE training you could actually learn to weaponize your puns and deal grievous mental anguish en mass.

Fixed.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Fixed.

 

[Chimpzy]

I played the demo of an upcoming game called Parasite Mutant.

The name is kind of a hint, but it's Parasite Eve. Blond woman protag. Urban horror vibes. Same battle system. Same weapon upgrade system. Just a bit more anime and sci-fi. I mean, look at this logo.

It's basically Parasite Eve's with the E turned sideways.

Not that I mind, PE is one of my all time faves, and it's not like Squenix is doing anything with the IP. If someone else wants to throw their hat in the ring, fine by me. It's a little jank, but what I played shows promise.

 

[Worgen]

Not that I mind, PE is one of my all time faves, and it's not like Squenix is doing anything with the IP. If someone else wants to throw their hat in the ring, fine by me. It's a little jank, but what I played shows promise.

Hope it doesn't suck, I've wanted a new or at least remade parasite eve for awhile. Well, a new one if it wasn't third birthday or whatever that was, sounded like it sucked. Not sure about the character design, but the gameplay looks decent. I suppose we shall see.

 

[Chimpzy]

Hope it doesn't suck, I've wanted a new or at least remade parasite eve for awhile. Well, a new one if it wasn't third birthday or whatever that was, sounded like it sucked. Not sure about the character design, but the gameplay looks decent. I suppose we shall see.

I suppose we will. And if it doesn't end up scratching the itch, there's another contender: .45 Parabellum Bloodhound. From the folks that did VA-11 Hall-A.

 

[meiam]

Wasn't there another one not too long ago?

They might make a remake, SE have been remaking almost everything in their portfolio lately (although with a strong bias toward the worst things in their portfolio).

As for parasite mutant, I dunno, to me one of the main draw of parasite Eve isn't the blond MC, but more the real world location. I'm sure I'll play it eventually but not crazy excited.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Playing the Nioh 3 demo.

I never really clicked with Nioh. I always really liked the combat, but hated the way it handled loot, and didn't really like the discrete levels versus an interconnected map. Nioh 3 kind of flew under my radar until I heard about all of the changes they had made.

The loot system has kind of become a non-issue because the game allows you to auto-equip the best gear for whatever weight you want your character to be, and the glamor system allows your character to look however you want regardless of the gear you're wearing, so you basically don't have to think about the loot vomit that comes out of every enemy, and you can set loot to auto-pickup.

The game is also open-world now, it's basically Nioh's answer to Elden Ring, except with a map that actually has objectives labeled on it, and the more you explore the more the map automatically fills out, so you don't miss things. The game really rewards exploration, but also doesn't punish you for not looking into every nook and cranny.

I'm still getting the hang of the ki-pulse system (I miss having the ki-pulse on dodge skill from Nioh 1), but it's also been made semi-optional. You have 2 character types you can actively switch between with the push of a button, the samurai and the ninja, and the ninja's combat doesn't use ki-pulse, so if you want to just ignore that part of combat you actually basically can, at least until the higher difficulty levels in later playthroughs.

 

[Worgen]

I suppose we will. And if it doesn't end up scratching the itch, there's another contender: .45 Parabellum Bloodhound. From the folks that did VA-11 Hall-A.

Hmm, does look interesting.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

They might make a remake, SE have been remaking almost everything in their portfolio lately (although with a strong bias toward the worst things in their portfolio).

That isn't by itself a bad thing, I think. Taking something that wasn't good the first time, but may have had something going for it, gives you a chance to focus on what worked, improve what didn't, and make it a lasting legacy. As a bonus, there isn't the argument of "a remake isn't necessary, it was perfect the first time". Sure, it doesn't always work out that way, but it's worth a shot I think.

Well, Parasite Eve itself isn't a game like that, but still.

 

[thebobmaster]

That isn't by itself a bad thing, I think. Taking something that wasn't good the first time, but may have had something going for it, gives you a chance to focus on what worked, improve what didn't, and make it a lasting legacy. As a bonus, there isn't the argument of "a remake isn't necessary, it was perfect the first time". Sure, it doesn't always work out that way, but it's worth a shot I think.

Well, Parasite Eve itself isn't a game like that, but still.

And unless you're Activision-Blizzard, the existence of a remake doesn't erase the original.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

And unless you're Activision-Blizzard, the existence of a remake doesn't erase the original.

There are cases where due to negligence rather than anything that could be called 'malice', the original isn't available anymore, at least officially. I feel like at least some remakes have been made because the publisher considered that more financially and/or physically viable than trying to dig out the original, though I can't think of any specifics; even the recent Silent Hill 2 remake I'm pretty sure had more ambition behind it than 'we lost the source code so let's just make it from scratch, surely it can't fail this time'.

There are people who are dedicated to preservation, but most of their efforts are... difficult to acknowledge, at least for developers and publishers. Particularly for Nintendo, if some people's observations of the Virtual Console can be believed. But ultimately that's a separate topic.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Final Fantasy 3: I now have the Water Crystal jobs unlocked, all of which seem to require entirely new equipment. Thankfully, the town I found myself teleported to after a cutscene has plenty of armor and weapons for sale for those new jobs.

...Why are they so goddamn expensive, though? I can't even afford a full set of armor and weapon(s) for even one of the new jobs, let alone a full set of four to equip my entire party with them. Guess I'm gonna be sticking to the old reliable stuff rather than experimenting for now. That is a major issue I have with this game, that it's not made as clear as it should which jobs can and can't equip what gear, and that it's hard to actually justify swapping to new jobs until you have the gear for them. But because you haven't been using them, they don't start at a high job level and your output stays limited for a while, but eventually the older and more reliable jobs stop being able to equip any new items... It's a mess, and it's one that I'm kinda hoping 5 fixes.

I'm not at the point where I'm ready to throw in the towel on 3 yet, but I'm definitely going to be looking at a few guides for what the jobs actually are, do, and equip. That info was probably partially or fully in the original manual anyway, so I don't feel bad about it.

 

[meiam]

That isn't by itself a bad thing, I think. Taking something that wasn't good the first time, but may have had something going for it, gives you a chance to focus on what worked, improve what didn't, and make it a lasting legacy. As a bonus, there isn't the argument of "a remake isn't necessary, it was perfect the first time". Sure, it doesn't always work out that way, but it's worth a shot I think.

Very true, problem is they don't fix the problems of the original.

They're slowly remaking the front mission game, but the early title have very basic gameplay (both combat and mech customization), and they're not improving it.

The saga game are full of baffling decisions that feel like they exist just to make the game more confusing, and those are all still in there.

Although to be fair, even when they make change they don't always make the most of it. Tactics ogre really needed a new class system, they did change it, but made a much worse version of it. FFT had extra content in the PSP version, that wasn't included in the remaster.

And plenty of their good stuff is left without remaster/remake. Bahamut Lagoon is the best SNES game they made, only available in japan, prime target for a remake, none in sight.

 

[Worgen]

I feel like I'm getting near the end of Monster Hunter Stories. At least it feels like I have a specific goal that is getting close. I have really enjoyed the game, it is missing some neat things from Stories 2, like teaming up with an ally, but it really does stand on its own. Been really enjoying the story also. The mad Dr and his minion are fun villains, Cheval going unhinged makes sense and hes good at just being a dick. At this point there being a corruption that is causing monsters to turn extra aggressive is old hat, it does still give good motivation for the adventure.