Still playing Final Fantasy XIV on PlayStation. Reached level 54, with main quests at around level 40. Not much else to add here.
I am halfway through Tiny Lands, reached world 6, and halfway through that too. So, about 33-34 levels remaining.
Some of these can be pretty easy, but can get stuck on some, but I think that’s mostly subjective and would be different for different people.
That’s pretty much all, but since it’s such a small post, I will just mention couple of games that I play, but at such a slow pace that they don’t end up in the post.
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Picross S5 : I bought my first Picross game, Picross S few days after it was released, and since then I always have a Picross game going on. I just love these games. Though sometimes I take month long breaks, and sometimes I’ll only do 3-4 puzzles a week, but I regularly play it. Currently I am on Picross S5 and am about 1/3rd of the way through it.
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Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun : Playing this on PC since last year. I love Tactics games, even though I am not very good at them, and have strong nostalgia for Real Time Tactics. Only issue is I don’t like to play on PC, I use it for work 10 hours a day already, and it’s too distracting for me to game on it. So I play it 10-20 mins here and there. Don’t remember what mission number I am on, started it more than a month ago, and will probably last another month or so.
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Street Fighter 6 : Got it on PS (way before Switch2), and while I am not a good player I play it every now and then.
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Mario Kart World and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe : No need to say anything about these.
What about all of you? What have you been playing and/or plan to play?
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Finished CrossCode!
I think this is one of those “good game, but not for me”. I loved the puzzles (even though they can get crazy hard), but didn’t care about exploration or combat. I ended up lowering difficulty and rushing through the last 30% or so of the game.
Combat felt way too chaotic, and tracking what’s going on became a frustrating exercise for me. Exploration simply wasn’t rewarding, as you would often spend time figuring out a complex plataforming puzzle to get to a chest and earn… crafting material you could farm somewhere else.
Playing Witch on the Holy Night!
Not as focused on this as originally planned but I still got decent progress and reached Chapter 4.
Aoko continues to be the highlight of the game, she’s such a fun character. Sojiro is also getting a lot more attention now, and I suspect the two will share the “main character” spot. Very curious about his past, I think the game is hinting there’s something important hidden there.
Played a bit of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter!
This game is a delight. It’s completed redone in terms of gameplay and QOL with all the good features from recent games, while also keeping the mood and charm of the original.
Even though I only played part of the Prologue I’m almost certain I will have high praise when I come back to play it properly.
Playing Super Robot Taisen Y!
Right after starting Trails in the Sky I got a package from Play-Asia that I wasn’t expecting for a couple more weeks, so I decided to change plans and go for this game since I think it’ll work better with my current mood.
Considering I’ve beaten 38 games from this series (some of them multiple times) it’s safe to say I’m a big fan. It’s probably the biggest gaming “comfort food” out there for me, and I’m very happy to have a new game to play after 4 years.
That being said, it’s clear this one had to work with significant budget constraints. Reuse of animation is common in this series, but it’s really glaring here since the many of the new additions use a more “plastic/toy-like” artstyle with sharper lines and shinier sprites, where the reused ones look softer, more “anime-like”.
I’m liking the original units a lot more than the ones from the previous game (SRT30). I chose the female protagonist (Forte) who uses the Lunedrache II, a good take on the “Ninja Mech” concept. And I’m surprised by how much I’m liking the main battleship despite its strange design - the A.Advent being a flying city is a cool concept that I think it’s underused.
Regarding Trails, do you think the original still holds? I haven’t touched the series yet, but would like to play the whole thing one day. Playing the remake would be an option, but I’d prefer playing the original versions - otherwise, it might be hard to go from the remake to the old games.
If you enjoy SNES/PS1-era RPGs I’d say yes. It’s been a while since I last played OG Sky 1-2, but I first played Sky 3 during the COVID days, then followed it with Zero and Azure which are all games from the same era and had a great time.
Highly recommend you go with the PC version so you have access to QOL features like turbo mode. There’s also mods to add the voice acting from the Vita version if you’re interested.
I played the original couple of years ago and it hold up pretty well.
The second game has a difficulty spike a little ways in the game where I got stuck, nothing devastating, but I wasn’t ready for it and would’ve required some grinding.
Other than that, the ganeplay, and even visuals still hold up pretty well, IMHO at least.
Why is your version of Super Robot Wars Y named different?
Super Robot Wars Y is on my wishlist and will be my first game in the series.
This game is a delight. It’s completed redone in terms of gameplay and QOL with all the good features from recent games, while also keeping the mood and charm of the original.
I am afraid that after playing this, other games in Trails series will feel dated. Still, this is where I am going to start!
I’ll give CrossCode a try some day, but going to go in with lower expectations now.
Why is your version of Super Robot Wars Y named different?
Out of habit! “Super Robot Taisen” is how it’s called in japanese, and I’ve been playing them for so long that I got used to that name.
Super Robot Wars Y is on my wishlist and will be my first game in the series.
Make sure to try the demo first, it carries into the game, and you even get some bonuses from having a completed demo save.
As much as I love the franchise the gameplay can get somewhat repetitive and won’t be for everybody’s tastes. It helps a lot if you’re a fan of mecha anime like me. :D
Sure, it’ll probably be a while before I get to it, with my hundreds of games long wishlist, but will try to remember that.
Any recommendations for Mecha anime? 😀
Any recommendations for Mecha anime? 😀
Plenty. Some interesting recommendations among series featured in SRTY:
- Gundam: Witch from Mercury: A recent, self-contained Gundam series that is making its SRT debut.
- G Gundam: The strangest Gundam series, I joke it’s “DBZ with Mechs”. It’s often silly and campy, but really fun.
- Code Geass: While I think this series is overhyped it’s still a good watch. It’s also extremely popular, and due to that its world and plot is used a LOT in recent SRT games. In fact, the first scene of SRTY is based on the ending of the TV series and will contain massive spoilers if you haven’t watched this. 😀
Other suggestions from my favorites:
- Gurren Lagann: I think you mentioned having already seen this.
- GaoGaiGar: Starts as a fun, old-school “monster of the week” series… then gets a more consistent plot running midway and turns into non-stop hype.
- Gunbuster: A very influencial short series (6 episodes). Despite its length it ramps up incredibly, starting as “high school for pilots” and going into epic battles against alien hordes. Episode 5 has favorite battle in this entire genre. NSFW warning for classic 80’s Gainax fanservice.
I have seen Code Geass and Gurren Lagann from the list. Will check out the rest.
Xenoblade X is still going. I like how you don’t need to put aside a lot of time to play it. Even if I just have half an hour to spend, I can just get something done and call it a day, it’s nice. Got my Skells today, though I don’t see myself using them quite yet. The Switch version isn’t nearly as bad about large enemies having to be fought in Skells or you die, regardless of level. That was a huge problem for me in the original.
Monster Hunter Wilds got its third title update this week and the Final Fantasy XIV crossover boss absolutely wrecked me. Omega is clearly not meant to be fought by yourself, emulating its MMO roots. It went a lot smoother with Support Hunters, but I still lost to being utterly confused by its mechanics, that are unlike anything Monster Hunter usually does. I had to actually research the fight and I’ll try again tomorrow. I’m confident I can do it now, but that’s only the easy version. I’ll try the Hyper Variant once to see what it’s like, but I’m leaving it until I’m done with everything else. I haven’t been playing enough in recent months to feel ready for such a beast!
I’ve started playing Wild Arms 2. I’ve played the first one again last year and was surprised how little I remembered. I have no such delusions this time, I’ve played it one and a half times in the past, but barely remember anything. I remember Brad being one of my favorite characters, not just in the game but in general, and I’m looking forward to rediscovering why.
I wasn’t fan of the first Skell you get, but when you unlock the powerful one and get some good weapons, got that OP feel that I always like in RPGs.
Hehe, and here I am, playing the MMO alone. Good luck with the hunt!
More Baten Kaitos Origins. I’m at the halfway point, I think.
Overall, I think the game is lacking something. There is just no excitement when opening chests or getting card drops - my normal deck mostly contains only generic cards, and I haven’t changed it much since I’ve started the game. Just replacing the one weapon card per character with stronger ones (weapons get equipped for X number of attacks, generic cards are your basic attacks). With fights being somewhat slow, encounters being common in some dungeons and your party getting fully healed anyway after each fight, I found myself using the remaster options to skip battles - I usually never touch these convince functions in re-releases.
In boss fights, however, the entire thing suddenly works. There’s strategy involved, the deck building is interesting, and I play many character specific cards for longer combos (generic cards are only for chain link 1 to 3, starting with 4 you need to play character specific cards) and healing. I could use the same deck for random encounters, but all that would do is making these fights longer.
I’ve written some longer comments about dungeons being all about resource management before on lemmy and I think that’s the main problem here. With the full heal after each fight, you can just burst down all enemies with no regard to defence or health - which works for everything short of bosses. I’ve even defeated some bosses that way - since I usually fight them once, die and then hit the re-fight button to equip my boss deck.
I also couldn’t stay away from Monster Hunter and started a fresh run of Generations Ultimate with my partner. Unlike with Rise, there’s no challenge involved this time, I’m just focusing on the Charge Blade, which I’ve never used, and compared to Rise just playing MHGU is a challenge. We plan on grinding some deviant armour and just got our asses handed to us by a Dreadking Rathalos. Good times.
Yeah, I have read your resource management posts before, but I like when my characters get healed after battle. I also don’t like to use consumables. The games that give you auto-heal or mana-refill but doesn’t heal you fully, I’ll just stand around to wait for them to fill up instead of using potions 😀
Which is the easiest MH game to play solo? Something available on Switch or PS. Can also try the PSP one again, but will have to find a replacement battery for Vita first. I played World a little bit, reached chapter 2 or 3, IIRC.
Generally speaking, Monster Hunter games get easier as times goes on. Therefore, Rise is the easiest one on Switch.
I haven’t played World, but compared to it Rise added a lot of extra mobility options. Of course you get the Wirebugs to zip around the map and out of pretty much every monster attack. But there’s also a new class of pets you can ride on while healing or sharpening your weapon. It’s also really easy to stack skills on your equipment to help you survive.
None of that is in Generations Ultimate and the games before that are even less accessible.
Wilds is seemingly pretty easy too, but I’d wait for a full version to release.
Will add Rise to my list, update me when you think Wilds is better than Rise. 😀
Don’t want to start any long game like this while I have FF XIV going on, but now that I am playing FF XIV, I think I can play something like this.
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Kura5: Bonds of the Undying - Boktai is extremely near and dear to my childhood, so much so that when the third game didn’t get localized I convinced my parents to sign me up for Japanese lessons on the weekend (and then didn’t get far in it because I had too much actual schoolwork to keep up with, but I’ve started studying on my own again as an adult now just for fun). I’ve been following this fangame since the first demo came out several years back. Full game finally came out last year… and sat on my backlog for a year. Finally got around to it, and wow, demo was already great but I’m really in love with the finished product. Story is fantastic, does a great job building on the original series’ lore.
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King of Fighters XIII - Dusted this off for some casual sets with a friend. I still have no real combos for anyone but Kula, I’m bad at confirming in games that don’t let me just do LMH -> BnB.
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Balatro - Only three decks left to Gold Stake. I’m telling myself I will not go for the stickers, I shouldn’t do it, I won’t do it.
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Chunithm, Wacca, Maimai - New arcade opened up last month and is threatening to drain my wallet.
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While I was at the arcade at the mall, I also stopped by the Lego store.
Never heard of Boktai series, but it looks interesting, would love to check them out if they are easily available on modern consoles some day.
Like all fighting games, I am not good with King of Fighters either, but I have played quite a bit of it, and XV is on my wishlist for someday. I have a small list of characters I play with, but my goto team was K’, Leona and Robert. In the earlier versions when you had to select whole team, I would go with Robert’s or Leona’s team. Also no idea what LMH -> BnB means. 😀
Nice Lego set!
if they are easily available on modern consoles some day.
Pretty much impossible to bring back without the original hardware, unfortunately.
Oh, that’s sad.
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I am eagerly making my way through the last bit of story in Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent before Octopath Traveler 0 comes out. I worry that the things that bother me about the console games will return in this new entry, but at least I know I like the story and source material to this one!
I am continuing with Picross Lord of the Nazarick (I think that is the spelling). It has so many boring puzzles! I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored on the picture reveal screens. Every time, it’s reveal music, then some random character from the light novel or anime. I think this shows my Picross addiction. If this were my first Picross game, I would have given it up ages ago. It kind of reminds me about a Phoenix Wright-style Picross game from early Switch times where you were investigating cases and every puzzle was a clue you found. But I liked that game because it was a part of the story rather than a review of previous story.
That’s enough negativity! I got to play Ethnos, Jungo, and Coloretto at work. Ethnos I crushed it, but I’m still pretty lukewarm on it. Sometimes I just can’t plan in those games and that makes me disinterested. The others were pretty great little card games. I can’t wait to play Coloretto again!
I might be a bit weird in this regard, but I don’t really care about the final picture much anymore. It’s just about the puzzle for me.
Which Phoenix Wright-style Picross games are you talking about? Murder by Numbers? That’s the only non-Picross nongram on my wishlist atm. Would love to hear if you have any other recommendations.
Murder by Numbers! That’s the one. I almost rage quit when I finished a case and realized I had missed an optional clue (and optional puzzle) with no way to get to it except replaying the case. I hadn’t let go of my obsession with 100%ing games yet, so I angrily replayed the case. In my more calm middle adulthood, I think I would have just moved on.
That said, I do recommend it. The story was pretty good.
My biggest complaint about the pictures is that sometimes my family will walk in on the last minute of a puzzle and play the guessing game of what it is. I miss that family connection with the game (but will probably buy another Picross game like this on the future).
Heh, yeah, I am letting go of that obsession too, but if there is something I am trying to complete, it’s pretty annoying if you miss one random thing.
Recently had this issue with Princess Peach: Showtime, if you miss a star you have to play the whole level again, I tried to replay multiple times to do that initially, but then decided the game isn’t worth that much effort 😀
I think I am maybe 75% through Convergence
I fell in love with the League of Legends lore, after Arcane. So I am trying to play some of their side games while they still exist.
Overall pretty enjoyable. It doesn’t particularly do anything new with time, that other games haven’t already done, but it takes those mechanics and puts them into one game.
Nice. Don’t care about LoL in general, but I like the way they are expanding their universe.
I could never get into the original game, as that kind of play isn’t for me. The company dedicates so much time into lore that their main players don’t seem to care about, so it’s nice seeing it come to life in other ways.
