What Are You Playing?

I just finished playing Skyrim for 209th time with mods tbh, now I wanna try it with different mods, but before that i want to download lord of the rings games for my PS2 and Harry potter too
 
I've received Eastward on the Switch two weeks ago, I didn't got much time to play but I need to advance in this great looking game.
The soundtrack sound super good.
 

Franz

It's a dolphin.
I've been fucking kids up on Switch Sports while also cursing profusely at the TV no thanks to my dummy teammates in soccer. Nintendo was very wise to not include voice chat because holy hell.

Aside from that I've been getting back into 16 bit emulation, having replayed Breath of Fire 1 and 2 for the first time since my initial play in the 1990s, and Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (first time). I'm taking a bit of a break from all that for a bit but will probably resume over the summer. I've found with my patience these days + availability of Game Genie codes, I'm very open to buffing my characters at game start and then just enjoying the storyline without having to worry about endless leveling up. I'll resume with Lufia II and then replay some old Squaresoft favorites.
 

Dark Emperor

Dweller of the Lotus Moon
I am currently replaying Doom 2016 and Final Fantasy IV. I'm not too excited about FF XVI. The games that came out after XII have been so mediocre to outright bad that it's quite clear that the Final Fantasy franchise is in a steep decline. FF XIV is an exception, but I cannot devote myself to playing MMOs anymore.
 
I'm not too excited about FF XVI. The games that came out after XII have been so mediocre to outright bad that it's quite clear that the Final Fantasy franchise is in a steep decline. FF XIV is an exception, but I cannot devote myself to playing MMOs anymore.
It's like you took the words out of my own head. I feel the same about the series. XII is the last great FF we've seen (and my personal favorite), and everything after that has incrementally left cracks on my love for the series.

XIII was an embarrassment for the series, XV was mediocre and not worth waiting a decade for, and VIIR was decent but marred by filler and uninspired side-content (that train yard chapter was disgusting).

It's partly why I didn't even bother posting the XVI trailer in the "Games to look forward to!" thread. I wish it will end up surprising us, but I'm not holding my breath.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Spyro: Year of the Dragon: Pretty underwhelming overall. I think they'd done what they needed to do by the time they were finished with Ripto's Rage. This game just felt superfluous. The levels weren't as interesting, the new gameplay elements weren't that fun, the story was almost non-existent, etc. I'm sitting here struggling to write anything at all about it, to be honest. I guess that kind of sums it up.

Banjo-Tooie: Also pretty underwhelming. I loved the first game when it came out, and I enjoyed replaying it again recently, but this outing just didn't do it for me. There are more moves, the levels are bigger and there are more collectibles, but I think that just goes to show that less is more sometimes. That and Canary Mary's second challenge being (by Rare's own admission) pretty buggy just left a sour taste in my mouth. I enjoyed a couple of the levels (Hailfire Peaks was pretty cool, being double-sided) and the last boss fight was a lot of fun, but I don't plan on replaying this one anytime soon. I couldn't (and didn't) say that about the first game.

Up next are The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of the Seasons and Oracle of the Ages! Been looking forward to these for quite some time. :void:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Up next are The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of the Seasons and Oracle of the Ages! Been looking forward to these for quite some time. :void:
Just curious—ever played Minish Cap? I believe it's from the same team. Might want to add it to the list, otherwise. It's decent in a Zelda fan fiction sort of way.

I'm still working my way through Elden Ring whenever I play games. But I've also been playing Nuclear Throne again. Along with Spelunky, this has been one of the most consistent pick-up-and-play games I've gone back to over the past decade or so. Soundtrack is great too.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Just curious—ever played Minish Cap? I believe it's from the same team. Might want to add it to the list, otherwise. It's decent in a Zelda fan fiction sort of way.

You're actually underselling it: they were all designed or directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who went on to direct Breath of the Wild and is basically the fucking guy now as far as Zelda is concerned. It's actually a really cool story how his Zelda history parallells making "classic" Zeldas, then weird offshoots, before moving on to the main 3D games (it's cute I still think of the flagship Zelda titles as the "3D Zeldas," I assure you I don't refer to any other third person action games as "3D" anymore =).

I'm still working my way through Elden Ring whenever I play games. But I've also been playing Nuclear Throne again. Along with Spelunky, this has been one of the most consistent pick-up-and-play games I've gone back to over the past decade or so. Soundtrack is great too.

That's kind of been what Souls has been to me the last decade, so Elden Ring was a natural evolution for me in that it actually invites you to come back and keep exploring rather than only replaying or refining your experience. I've pretty much been non-stop with it since launch day. Haven't even opened Forbidden West since then. :shrug:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Just curious—ever played Minish Cap? I believe it's from the same team. Might want to add it to the list, otherwise. It's decent in a Zelda fan fiction sort of way.

Oh, it’s on The List. :slan:

Until embarking on this little journey of mine, the only Zelda titles I’d played from start to finish were Link’s Awakening and Ocarina of Time. It’s been really cool playing the classics, replaying LA and OoT and playing Majora’s Mask and these GBC games. Now, I finally see what all the love is about.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
I am currently replaying Doom 2016 and Final Fantasy IV. I'm not too excited about FF XVI. The games that came out after XII have been so mediocre to outright bad that it's quite clear that the Final Fantasy franchise is in a steep decline. FF XIV is an exception, but I cannot devote myself to playing MMOs anymore.
It's like you took the words out of my own head. I feel the same about the series. XII is the last great FF we've seen (and my personal favorite), and everything after that has incrementally left cracks on my love for the series.

XIII was an embarrassment for the series, XV was mediocre and not worth waiting a decade for, and VIIR was decent but marred by filler and uninspired side-content (that train yard chapter was disgusting).

It's partly why I didn't even bother posting the XVI trailer in the "Games to look forward to!" thread. I wish it will end up surprising us, but I'm not holding my breath.
After XIII and XV I understand the hesitation to be excited but XVI has probably the best producer Square Enix has on it, director/writers who proved themselves with a very good expansion for XIV and combat director of DMCV.

Naoki Yoshida is a very practical and intelligent producer who knows how to pace development/hype around a game. He said he wouldn't even announce XVI until they had gameplay to show. He's also very good at recognizing talent and getting writers/developers into positions they kill it in. Example being Natsuko Ishikawa who wrote Shadowbringers and Endwalker which both have stories on par or better than the best FF games of the past. He also talked about Berserk's influence on the story/writing of XIV :Y that's always a bonus.

Even then I understand the caution lol, not everybody has the time to play 400 hours of an MMO to see this stuff but I'm glad that we'll get XIV (expansion) level quality for a single player game that doesn't have MMO barrier of entry. They are basically making the game doable as a single player game (kinda) by having "trust NPCS" you can take to story dungeons with you in the early parts of the game(and blah blah funny meme about free trial that goes up til the end of the second expansion)

Also Masayoshi Soken is on it too so the music will be amazing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAWVCFxsHvU

https://youtu.be/AJSM4tAeEAA

https://youtu.be/-cZHfOs2XOc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghqZ4Cc0xZg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Aa_LtzrdA
 
I started another playthrough of Sekiro, this time with the demon bell and without Kuro's charm. I expected the game to become more difficult, but not to this extent; I got my butt whipped over and over :ganishka: . I'm almost to the end. Only Isshin remains. Loved every moment as usual and I'm still convinced it's my personal favorite of the From Soft repertoire.

After XIII and XV I understand the hesitation to be excited but XVI has probably the best producer Square Enix has on it, director/writers who proved themselves with a very good expansion for XIV and combat director of DMCV.

Naoki Yoshida is a very practical and intelligent producer who knows how to pace development/hype around a game. He said he wouldn't even announce XVI until they had gameplay to show. He's also very good at recognizing talent and getting writers/developers into positions they kill it in. Example being Natsuko Ishikawa who wrote Shadowbringers and Endwalker which both have stories on par or better than the best FF games of the past. He also talked about Berserk's influence on the story/writing of XIV :Y that's always a bonus.

Even then I understand the caution lol, not everybody has the time to play 400 hours of an MMO to see this stuff but I'm glad that we'll get XIV (expansion) level quality for a single player game that doesn't have MMO barrier of entry. They are basically making the game doable as a single player game (kinda) by having "trust NPCS" you can take to story dungeons with you in the early parts of the game(and blah blah funny meme about free trial that goes up til the end of the second expansion)

I've no experience at all with XIV, as MMO's are just not my cup of tea. But I'm aware of its reputation and glad to learn that more competent people are involved in XVI. I'm still not confident in what's coming, as my excitement for new FFs was slowly chipped away at over the years, as I said before, but I'd give it a shot if turns out as a pleasant surprise.

I want the series to go back to the ambition it had in XII. Maybe this is just my past impressions talking here, but I was blown away by the scale and scope and attention to detail of that game when I played it as a teenager. The world felt alive, like an actual place, and I've yet to play another game that provides me with this feeling again (again, maybe this is just because I've grown up since then and hence became more cynical and harder to impress. Ahh, aging). XIII, XV, and VIIR on the other hand felt so...gamey.

There are also the limitations that keep cropping up in their games, primitive stuff they should abandon already. Japan really is stubborn with its JRPGs. Stuff like going through a menu to select a recovery item, or having to move to a specific sweet spot to press a button to jump somewhere, or your car only being drivable on the road, and so on, is just outdated AF, imho.

Sorry for the mini-rant. As you can tell, I've got issues with FF. Or maybe my tastes have simply changed over the years and there's nothing to be done about it. I can only take so much effeminate men wearing weirdly designed clothing while riding chickens before being sick of it. Who knows? Final Fantasy was my Berserk as an adolescent; it was my favorite thing ever! But sadly, this isn't the case anymore...
 
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Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
After Elden Ring I played though Triangle Strategy, a T-RPG from Square Enix. I had a good time with it, and it's the most notable game in the genre of the past 20 years to me. The game mechanics are especially good. Best part of the game by a mile. I really loved the Skill Points system for using special abilities, which I think is kind of a revolution in doing away with the traditional HP / MP system. The abilities were interesting as well, although I found the leveling choices to be too limited for my taste.

The other segments of the game are exploration and voting on a course of action. These felt a bit tacked on. The idea of exploring zones to find items and information is great and befits a game like this, however they needed much bigger areas to make it seem realistic/worthwhile. As for the branching scenarios and the voting associated, I found it simplistic and almost nonsensical at times. I think it could be refined into something really good, but you'd probably need a specific story structure for that.

Which brings me to the game's weak point: the story. It's generally uninspired (generic war and politics stuff) and the difference of scale between how they present things (kingdoms at war!) and what you see in the game (hamlets of 10 inhabitants) feels jarring in 2022. But that in itself isn't so bad. There's at least some attempts to depict complex and nuanced issues. The problem is that, due to the branching structure they went for, some of the bigger twists and turns come across as a bit ridiculous. That happens mostly in the later game, and it really soured me on what they were trying to do. My hope is that a sequel will be produced with a better writer at the helm.

As a side note, the English translation is also pretty bad in this game. I've learned that Square's English localization team basically tends to rewrite things as they see fit, often without much regard to the original text. The result is that while Triangle Strategy tends to keep dialogue brief and to the point, if you play in English you're treated with overly ornate text that drags on and on, because they're trying to turn it into a Shakespearean play. Since I played with the Japanese voices, the discrepancies between the two was quite annoying at times.

After that, I played through 13 sentinels on the Switch. It's split between a visual novel with light interactivity and a tactical fighting game where you control giant mechs. It felt rather low budget to me, with few animations for the characters, essentially no cutscenes, and simple graphics for the combat part of the game. Still, I had a lot of fun with the combat system, and while it's not the greatest story ever, I enjoyed it a fair bit.

I haven't really had much time to play since then. I've got tons of stuff I should get to, including a bunch of other visual novels, like AI: The Somnium Files (the sequel of which is coming out soon) and Root Film, both of which seem very good.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
I want the series to go back to the ambition it had in XII. Maybe this is just my past impressions talking here, but I was blown away by the scale and scope and attention to detail of that game when I played it as a teenager. The world felt alive, like an actual place, and I've yet to play another game that provides me with this feeling again (again, maybe this is just because I've grown up since then and hence became more cynical and harder to impress. Ahh, aging). XIII, XV, and VIIR on the other hand felt so...gamey.
Well I'll at least say that the person Yoshida is most influenced by and admires in Square is Matsuno who directed most of XII, FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, etc. He even had Matsuno as a guest writer do an epilogue to FFT in XIV as a raid series and characters/lore from XII are incorporated in another segment of the story he wrote that integrates into the world of XIV(basically Ivalice being a place within the XIV world and alternate versions of Basch and Fran being involved in the game). It also has a section of the game that's based on Palace of the Dead from Tactics Ogre. What influences XIV the most seems to be FF1, FF3, FF4, FF6, and FF9 moreso than the others.

After that, I played through 13 sentinels on the Switch. It's split between a visual novel with light interactivity and a tactical fighting game where you control giant mechs. It felt rather low budget to me, with few animations for the characters, essentially no cutscenes, and simple graphics for the combat part of the game. Still, I had a lot of fun with the combat system, and while it's not the greatest story ever, I enjoyed it a fair bit.
I liked it a lot on PS4, I liked how the story unfolded where it was more learning about it as it goes along rather than sort of being able to guess the twists from the early sections. The best parts were the stage with the song playing(you know the one) and the final stage with that great remix of the opening theme. I wish the tactical parts were a bit more in-depth but I did enjoy them a lot.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I liked it a lot on PS4, I liked how the story unfolded where it was more learning about it as it goes along rather than sort of being able to guess the twists from the early sections. The best parts were the stage with the song playing(you know the one) and the final stage with that great remix of the opening theme. I wish the tactical parts were a bit more in-depth but I did enjoy them a lot.

Yeah the story was fine. I'd say having reveals along the way is par for the course with visual novels like that (and I guessed what the big final reveal would be about midway through), but it felt relatively satisfying to me. As for the combat part, I played it in the "Intense" difficulty and really enjoyed it. When I got to the end, I felt like it was really too bad there wasn't more of it. Then the bonus area opened with what seems like infinite stages, and after playing twenty of these, I was done. :ganishka:
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
After Elden Ring I played though Triangle Strategy, a T-RPG from Square Enix. I had a good time with it, and it's the most notable game in the genre of the past 20 years to me. The game mechanics are especially good. Best part of the game by a mile. I really loved the Skill Points system for using special abilities, which I think is kind of a revolution in doing away with the traditional HP / MP system. The abilities were interesting as well, although I found the leveling choices to be too limited for my taste.
I was looking at this just the other day! Wanted something new to play and I was browsing around on my girlfriends switch but didn't end up pulling the trigger on anything. Sounds good though, I'll be playing this for sure!

Beyond that said girlfriend doesn't really play games outside of Mario Party (which honestly has been a lot of fun) but loves horror movies so on a whim I purchased a game that's a few years old now called Visage so we could play together. Generic spooky house in the dark game but I'm very pleased with it considering I only looked it up quick and read one review. Surprisingly startling, even though I couldn't care less about characters or story (dark family secrets, nana's a murderer, the house is alive) but there's enough tricky puzzles and jump scares to satisfy a newbie and, at this point, a pretty casual gamer myself for these late summer nights.

If anyone has any more recommendations for that type of game let me hear it because between my expertise on the controls and her keeping track of item locations and puzzle hints in her phone we'll be looking for a new one soon.
 
I just finished a nice little game called Ghostrunner. It was free on PSN a while back, so I thought I may as well try it.

It was fun, but also frustrating, as you will die in one hit only (and so do your enemies). So a lot of trial and error were involved. But the instant reload after death helped mitigate the frustration, so it was a lot of fun overall.

Gameplay for anyone interested to check it out:

 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished playing Oracle of Seasons and Ages over the weekend. Man, if you enjoyed Link's Awakening on the Game Boy, you'll love these little gems on the Game Boy Color. I preferred Seasons' main innovation where you can change the seasons in order to change the environment and access new areas, items, etc. more than Ages' main feature, time travel. That being said, the time travel was still really cool, and I loved how the two games linked together with passwords. Apparently, the linked games change a bit depending on the order in which you play them, so I'm looking forward to going back one day and playing Ages first. Highly recommended.

I'm currently playing Conker's Bad Fur Day, a rare (see what I did there?) little gem on the N64 that I never got around to playing back in the day. I remember seeing it advertised in GamePro as "Conker's Quest," then as "Twelve Tales: Conker 64," where it was very saccharine and cute. It looked very similar to Banjo-Kazooie, but almost "too" cute. Apparently, early reviewers loved it, but the public backlash was so fierce, Rare ended up re-tooling the entire game and creating what we no know as Conker's Bad Fur Day. At the time, I thought that was really stupid, and that Rare was just trying to be edgy, but apparently the game is pretty great. If only I'd read the reviews after it officially came out. Oh, well. I'm a couple of "levels" in, and it's pretty interesting so far. The controls aren't as tight as I'd like them to be, but the gameplay itself is unique. The Mighty Poo level was kind of awesome, I'm ashamed to say. :void:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Elden Ring - Still my life away from life. I'd say I've killed just about every field boss in the game at RL1, except every time I go exploring with my dude I find another one to kill. Eventually I'm going to make a formal list to get them all and post it. I love my arcane blood & fire build, my offense and defense is INSANE, and damn, I may need to take this dude to NG+ after all... That madness aside, with my regular dude I'm on Journey 5 and basically speed-running the game over and over until I get to max NG to similarly kill everything at that level.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - It's a modern retro sequel to Turtles In Time. and a pretty damn fun one at that. The combat is surprisingly complex because they added a lot of specificity instead of it being so random or contextual (there's literally like 20+ tutorial instructions, but you can just jump in and figure it out like me =). The art style is a little too cute for my taste sometimes, but overall it's pretty spot on and great (worst thing is Shredder's voice actually, and I know Uncle Phil died but can't you find a better sound-alike? Sounded like me doing it; hire Gobs!). I beat it in Story Mode and Arcade (classic straight shot, no saving, limited lives and continues, etc) and it was a blast. We'll see how it holds up for more replay value. Makes me want to replay Turtles in Time though, because they as this might, the SNES version of that game is still the one that has EVERYTHING (and I see they're releasing it in a huge TMNT collection this year :carcus:)!


Horizon Forbidden whatever - I tried going back for a few minutes but after 300+ hours of Elden Ring it's like walking on another planet, especially in the middle of it so I turned it off immediately. I need a refresher or something.
 
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Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Conker last night. Oof, that ending was dark. The game was fun, despite some of the humor being a little too juvenile for me (I'm not talking about the singing poop level; that was awesome!). I'm not sure why it was considered a platform game, because it's basically a series of mini-games with some walking between. Still, I recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it and enjoyed Rare's N64 games.

I started playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon the other day while finishing up Conker. It reminds me a lot of Symphony of the Night, which is a good thing. I beat the third boss this morning and I plan on playing a lot more of it tonight after my wife goes to bed. :void: The Castlevania Advance collection on PS4 is great. I'm so glad they decided to revisit those games, just as I was getting close to playing them. At this point in my retro gaming experience, I'm not sure M2 can do wrong. Every retro title they put out is a labor of love, and they have so many options and extra features added on.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Circle of the Moon last week. It was pretty great, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of Symphony of the Night. It's basically a hand-held (well, not anymore...) version of that game. I'm looking forward to playing the other Game Boy Advance Castlevania games, and replaying them with their various NG+ challenges.

I've spent most of my gaming time this weekend playing Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. The first Klonoa was a delightful little platformer, and this one's no exception. The made-up language used by the characters can get a little grating at times, but the gameplay is rock-solid. It's challenges are very well designed, and the platforming is tight (kinda like Castlevania :void:). I'll probably finish it sometime later this week, then it's on to my next challenge!
 
Into the Breach is getting a big update tomorrow, so I launched the game this morning for what has got to be the first time in a few years. Since there was some interest in the chat yesterday I recorded my play session to show what the game's all about.

Thanks for this, Aaz. I enjoyed watching it and I'm more enticed to play the game myself. I like the added dimension of having to protect places as opposed to only defending your own troops like in some of the other tactical games I tried before.

---

@Rhombaad if you don't mind me asking: I'm wondering why you focus on older titles. I've noticed the theme in your posts and my curiosity can't take it anymore :ganishka:

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As for me, I'm currently replaying Days Gone, a criminally underrated game and maybe my favorite zombie game (not counting staples such as Resident Evil). Recommended!
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
@Rhombaad if you don't mind me asking: I'm wondering why you focus on older titles. I've noticed the theme in your posts and my curiosity can't take it anymore :ganishka:

I decided several years ago, that instead of constantly trying to figure out what game to play next, I'd make a list of all the games I never got the chance to play when I was younger, along with all of the games I want to play in the future. Since then, I've been going through the list, title by title. I began in 1986 with The Legend of Zelda, and I just finished 2001's Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. I'm making pretty good progress so far, but I'm starting to get into the years where I didn't play any video games that weren't Halo, EverQuest and World of Warcraft. Those three games defined my college and post-college experience. I'm expecting to slow down, now that I'm in the era of games I'm not as familiar with.

I told one of my best friends about this project a few years ago when I started it, and his response was "You will die unfulfilled." :ganishka:

Personally, I don't think it's going to take me that long to get through the list I've made.
 
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