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“I Just Think They're Neat.” Like What You are Playing

ArugulaZ

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
I just bought Black Tiger for the ten millionth time, just to have it on Switch, even though I could have just as easily picked up my Vita or turned on my Xbox instead. I think I have a problem. I think having a problem doesn't seem like so much of a problem when that problem is Black Tiger.
 
zonetrope

zonetrope

(he/him)
zonetrope said:
I will say that this volcano is trying its darndest to erode the goodwill the rest of the game has built up, but it's so much goodwill that I can forgive it. But the amount of damage some enemies and hazards inflict (even with the appropriate armor) is a little bit overkill.
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Sadly, this level was a portent for an increasingly irritating second half, to the point where I straight up had to abandon the game during the final dungeon. It's still a beautiful game with a solid 10 hours of fun, though.
 
Bongo

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
The Case of the Golden Idol is a pleasantly brief and cunningly-constructed mystery game, in which you (an omniscient observer rather than a participant) witness and deduce the truth behind a long-running and convoluted conspiracy. I finished it in one sitting!

It has drawn comparisons to The Return of the Obra Dinn which are not wholly unfounded, as both are deduction games where you use careful observation of clues to fill in all the details of a somewhat supernatural mystery. The mechanics of the investigation are very different, however, as are the nature of the clues offered and the overall narrative framing. Just goes to show you how much different mystery games can be and how much unexplored design space remains there. It's an exciting time.

Anyway, you should play it. Ideally with a mouse.
 
Yimothy

Yimothy

Red Plane
(he/him)
zonetrope said:
Sadly, this level was a portent for an increasingly irritating second half, to the point where I straight up had to abandon the game during the final dungeon. It's still a beautiful game with a solid 10 hours of fun, though.
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This was pretty much my experience with the game, too, though I did finish it. Very pretty, solid mechanics that are thoroughly used, but far too willing to frustrate the player. Enemies hit too hard, getting from place to place is a hassle, there are several lengthy challenges that you have to start over if you make a mistake near the end. At one point I got stuck because I needed to climb some ice blocks and I had the boots that melt ice blocks on but didn’t realise. I just thought the game wanted me to make a long series of perfectly timed jumps, the impossibility of which was indistinguishable from the near-impossibility of other sequences in the game.
 
R.R. Bigman

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
Kirby: Planet Robobot is loads of fun. It is very much a sequel to Triple Deluxe, with the same basic structure. Only this time you get a neat mech that gains powers from enemies just like Kirby! I love the mech suit! More games should have big robots you can climb into to do things your character can already do, except bigger and with more destruction.
 
Johnny Unusual

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
madhair60 said:
It's a difficult pick but I would nominate Robobot for "best Kirby"
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I know my pick.

Jack-Kirby_art-of-jack-kirby_wyman-skaar.jpg
 
Octopus Prime

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
What wound up being a surprise hit out of all the stuff i locked in the Jinglevault of Santa Law this year, is Hero Hours Contract and it’s sequel (you can get both for less than $5 in the eShop right now), and this… is a really good, high concept low complexity game that I ain’t never heard no one talking about. And I’m pretty sure it’s aimed squarely at Talking Times collective ID.

At it’s core, it’s an SRPG where you control a team of Sailor Moons (Beautiful Genius, Science Angel and Provisional Magical Girl) who realize that by being magical girls, they’re stuck in what is basically a predatory gig economy, and decide to unionize. Each mission is spent trying to take down as many monsters as possible in order to argue for more pay and more time off (which, in turn, is how you purchase upgrades). Story missions give some new objectives, but the level grinding Ones are just rushes to kill monsters before time runs out.

Combat is almost more of a block pushing puzzle than a regular SRPG; Each of the girls has a unique fighting style, which vary pretty severely (Provisional summons Her friends to fight, which turns her into a deadly game of Sobokon, Science is useless one-on-one fighting, but can deal with large groups easily, and Genius can take multiple turns in a row but only target one enemy at a time) and you have to combine their talents to pull off wins as even trash monsters are Hard to put down quickly. Enemies don’t deal damage, but they can screw things up for you by messing up terrain or behaviour or just shoving you around, making it harder to pull of combos.

The writing is solid, the premise is great and while the in battle visuals are nothing to write home about (they’re fine, low rez pixel art kind of thing), the cutscene art is fantastic;

IMG_1069.jpg


IMG_1068.jpg
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Octopus Prime said:
it’s an SRPG where you control a team of Sailor Moons (Beautiful Genius, Science Angel and Provisional Magical Girl) who realize that by being magical girls, they’re stuck in what is basically a predatory gig economy, and decide to unionize.
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Well you've got my interest! And yeah, definitely never heard of this, thanks for bringing it up.

I just checked and it's 99 cents on Steam until the sale ends Jan 5th and the sequel is free, great timing!
 
Octopus Prime

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Looks like Sonic Frontier is my favorite 3D Sonic game.

However every character sounds slightly wrong and the soundtrack is largely somber and reflective, instead of The Guy From Hoobastank; a trade no wise man would consider.
 
Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I know I'm late to the party, but Unpacking is really good. The passive storytelling you get from the circumstances of each unpacking hits you surprisingly deeply, and it's just a nice, attractive, calming little game.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Paul le Fou said:
I know I'm late to the party, but Unpacking is really good. The passive storytelling you get from the circumstances of each unpacking hits you surprisingly deeply, and it's just a nice, attractive, calming little game.
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I was incredibly impressed at how livid I was that I didn't have room to unpack my diploma at asswipe boyfriend's place. The amount of emotion they made me feel over such a small thing is a testament to the game.
 
Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I just finished that level and YES, I felt the same way! I had to put it under the bed?!

The whole conceit of levels 3 and 4 (I think?) where you're unpacking into a place with other people already living in it, and how in the shared apartment you can't move anyone else's stuff so you have to kind of unpack around them, and then in the next level you can move the boyfriend's stuff around but there's so little space to try and cram both of you into... It's really impressive minimalist/experiential storytelling.
 
Sarcasmorator

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
I enjoyed playing through Mass Effect 1 LE for the first time in many years (aside from a run I got partway into and abandoned on PC a long time ago). There were substantial improvements that came in the form of "this feels *better* than I remember" and I looked up what the changes were and, yep, improved! Snappier action, headshots, different firing modes for weapons, etc.

The game is shorter than I remember. The primary mission, after the Citadel at the start, is four locations before the endgame. Saren's really barely in it aside from the very beginning and end. Lots of side quests but not that many. The Mako still kinda sucks but was more fun. Planetside locations still very repetitive, but felt less somehow? I remember there just being more of them, maybe. Improvements to combat help make them more fun.

But I'm just digging into Mass Effect 2 and damn, this is a STEP UP. The action is sooo much better than even tweaked ME1, right from go. SMGs are a bit weak (and having so few gun options as a Sentinel for now hurts a bit) but I went for Mordin early to get my beloved Carnifex. The abilities feel more impactful and varied and focused. The balance of shields vs. armor vs. health and what works against each was really well thought-out. I love the "building a team" structure with side stuff and loyalty missions along the way (and a set of smaller anomaly missions that you can find that I just don't remember from ME2 originally, but they're a great replacement for landing the Mako on random worlds. The probe minigame for resources gets a bit tired but it can be a mellow break in between missions.

I've considered ME2 my overall favorite in the series for a long time but haven't actually PLAYED it in so long that doing so again is reminding my why.
 
Mogri

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
Pathfinder: WOTR: I ran into a battle that was giving me trouble, so I switched from RTWP to turn-based. I had my suspicions that this would be the case, but man is it both way easier and way slower. I'll keep RTWP in my back pocket for pushover fights -- it's actually really great that you can swap between the two.
 
Octopus Prime

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Working my way through the contents of the Santa Vault still, and today that brought me to Kaiju Wars, and all i can say is "Yes! This is exactly what I've been wanting for decades!".

At a casual glance, you could say it's basically Into the Breach, and while you're not completely wrong, you'd still be *pretty* wrong. It plays a bit more similarly to Advance Wars, but with a much more desperate and defeatist attitude (the writing is goofy enough that it's not a bummer however). At the start of each map, the city you're in charge of gets attacked by a kaiju and you have to mobilize the army to stop them. Problem being; as anyone who's ever watched a kaiju movie can tell you; the army is useless against rampaging mega-fauna. So you instead have to figure out how to use, and sacrifice, your units to lure the monsters away from key locations. You can attack the monsters, and reduce their capabilities if you damage them enough; but they can regenerate, and even if you manage to destroy one, you just buy yourself a couple of turns until it recovers and attacks the city again. After enough time has passed, your scientists work out a Kaiju repellent that drives the monster away, so the main flow of the game is trying to field as many units as possible with your dwindling resources (Kaiju are compelled to attack buildings, which reduces your operating budget each turn) in order to hold the monster back until enough turns have elapsed for the science team to pull out a win.

My only complaint so far is that it's one of those games that uses the D-Pad to simulate moving a mouse cursor and that's NEVER comfortable.
 
Becksworth

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Beat Chained Echoes last night. Took longer than expected, as I heard it was 30-40 hours, but was at nearly 50 hours (was sidequest hunting though).

Overall I liked it. The story definitely feels like the classic JRPG/Anime pastiche you would expect from a mid 2000s RPG Maker game, so YMMV there. Also managing crystals and grimoire shards later in the game gets a bit tedious. That said the general moment to moment gameplay was great, especially exploration and boss design.
 
chud_666

chud_666

Becksworth said:
Beat Chained Echoes last night. Took longer than expected, as I heard it was 30-40 hours, but was at nearly 50 hours (was sidequest hunting though).

Overall I liked it. The story definitely feels like the classic JRPG/Anime pastiche you would expect from a mid 2000s RPG Maker game, so YMMV there. Also managing crystals and grimoire shards later in the game gets a bit tedious. That said the general moment to moment gameplay was great, especially exploration and boss design.
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I also like the fake Ivalice art style
 
chud_666

chud_666

Axiom Verge 2 was the ps+ PS4 game this month. I wish I didn't sleep on this game, as it's pretty incredible. It doesn't have that immediate dramatic look of the first game, but has a really refined gameplay style. Plus Robo Mesopotamia
 
Kalir

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
I super love the hacking in that game. The first game's glitch beam was a nice start but Mushussu is just such an improvement on that.
 
Kazin

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Alliance Alive: HD Remastered is absolutely excellent. I'm just shy of ten hours in, and the game just opened up considerably - I can apparently go wherever I want now and have nine characters to play with building. I love the battle system - it's fast, fun, and you can quickly build a good team, though the really tough monsters are still difficult (many random overworld battles are stupid easy, but go into a Water Monster den and prepare for Game Overs lol). Right now it feels like I get Talent points sliiightly too slowly, but I'm sure that will change as I get farther into the game, and it doesn't matter all that much anyway since sparking new Talents works pretty well when you shuffle your formations and weapons around. And now, my weapons will all be repaired if I stay at an Inn anywhere in the world, which means I can much more freely use my final attacks that break my weapons! Cannot wait for work to be over to dig in more!
 
Kazin

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
Just hit the credits on Alliance Alive HD Remastered. I didn't want it to end, but I was having trouble finding more recruits for the guilds. I suppose I could have destroyed the last few water monster lairs, but I couldn't find any guildmasters, so that seemed like busywork. In any case - absolutely fantastic game. Very well put together. So good, I think eventually I'm going to give Legend of Legacy another shot! I don't remember why I didn't like it when I first tried it.
 
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