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

[JBear]

One neat thing about it that I noticed in the Steam reviews is that it scores high on accessibility, given that the entire game is played with just a single analog stick and a single button (and the button only rarely, since I think you need to press A to open chests.

I bet it would have been fun on atari or an arcade cabinet!

 

[gogglebob]

For all of its faults, that was one thing Crisis Core got right - Aerith was clearly a troublemaker in that game, in a way that the butchered script of FF VII never really managed to communicate. It's nice seeing her act like that in Remake, it feels like I'm being proven right about something that nobody else believed for a long time.

Aerith had a rough time in Final Fantasy 7, so she didn't get to be around for the end/"post" game, and thus didn't get to sling Omnishlashes and orbital strikes and all the super duper limit breaks that stick in people's heads. Then she wasn't allowed to participate in Ehregeiz: God Bless the Tekken Franchise like Tifa. We also had Cloud going for a nondescript "flower girl" in Final Fantasy Tactics, and then she was a nonentity, aspirational ghost in Advent Children. But the biggest issue was probably Kingdom Hearts Aerith, who may as well be a different character (which, there is precedent there, as "Leon" is very deliberately different from FF8 Squall), and had to share scenes with certified gremlin Yuffie. KH Aerith stood around and prayed for peace in space, Yuffie skipped all over and tossed boomerangs in the coliseum. I feel like Gremlin Aerith was always right there in OG Final Fantasy 7 and Crisis Core, there was just a lot of counter evidence available before Remake.

All that said, I have written about how much I like FF7R Aerith a lot, and I love how her... circumstances seem to have influenced her personality.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I had some thoughts along those lines, gogglebob—that part of the reason she's so happy-go-lucky and willing to fight in ARENA DEATH MATCHES without a second thought is that she's operating with the absolute certainty that she will not, cannot, die or be hurt. She's kinda like HBO Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan in that way—knows the outcome, and is both freed and imprisoned by that. And she's trying to spare Cloud more hurt than need be, with stuff like the dream vision he can have. But then the endgame changes the possibilities of the future. It'll be interesting to see if her approach to life changes in the next one. I'm not at the end yet but I read some stuff when the game was newer so I know the gist of things in that area.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Vampire Survivor is a game that dares to ask, "What if Hades was Smash TV?"

Thanks guys, now I'm playing it too

I'm playing it a lot ugh. Very addictive. I spent a chunk of yesterday on the browser version before getting the steam version and it's worth noting the steam version is more updated - mostly UI stuff, gold prices I think, but probably some mechanical tuning in there too. But there's also at least one extra stage (not sure if that wasn't in the browser version or I just never got to it) besides the basic forest, which I tend to find a little easier; not sure why but it's probably the fact that the top and bottom are walls so you can only scroll east/west, which limits where enemies can come from so it gets them closer together for area attacks to take out. Also at least one more character (see above as to whether he's actually specific/unique).

I can't usually get past being level 29ish on the forest, but I've had 3 different characters make it to "maxed out every upgrade until you just get gold/floor chicken on each level" in the library, 60+ish? I've only managed to evolve 2 weapons, the magic wand and the knives, so I'm trying to get a few of the others and see how they work out; not sure if I just have to stumble upon the item combinations to allow those, or just push them to max level and pray.

 

[Mogri]

There are two objectives in each stage you might care about:

• Defeating a specific boss (which I think appears at the 25:00 mark in both stages) unlocks the "Hyper" version of that stage. The Hyper version isn't appreciably more difficult, largely because the increase in enemies has a corresponding increase in experience, but it awards more gold.
• Reaching the 30:00 mark despawns all enemies, summons Death to kill you basically instantly, gives you a "Stage Complete" message, and grants 500 gold, which is fairly minor compared to how much you'll have gathered on your own by then. There's no unlock associated with this, so the extra gold is the only bonus.

The second stage is quite a bit easier than the first. You'll want to focus on that stage until you're satisfied that you're doing well enough to go back to the forest.

All evolutions are contingent on the weapon being maxed out and having a corresponding passive item. Not all weapons have evolutions. The evolution is guaranteed on your next chest once you've met the conditions (except possibly if you have multiple evolution-ready weapons and the chest drops only one item).

"Floor chicken" is a delightful alternative to "wall meat."

 

[Octopus Prime]

Glad to hear that FF7R put an emphasis on Aeris being a chaos gremlin instead of a tragic messianic figure that all her post FF7 appearances stuck with.

Replaying the original game after decades of that caused her to shoot up pretty high in my list of FF characters.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I better talk up this great Hollow Knight game. Seems like it needs more press.

 

[Patrick]

Hollow What?!

 

[Issun]

Hollow What?!

I think it's a game about Sleepy Hollow.

 

[Sprite]

Glad to hear that FF7R put an emphasis on Aeris being a chaos gremlin instead of a tragic messianic figure that all her post FF7 appearances stuck with.

Replaying the original game after decades of that caused her to shoot up pretty high in my list of FF characters.

The best newish part of FF7R for me was Aerith and Tifa’s relationship, which they didn’t have much of in the original. Aerith doing her best to keep Tifa’s spirits up on the way to the falling plate was devastating and heartwarming all at once.

Second best was confirming that Cloud’s a bottom

 

[q 3]

Shadowverse: Champion's Battle is shockingly brutally difficult for what looks like a Saturday morning kid's show adaptation of a trading card game (bad anime card designs aside), but for some reason I love the cycle of getting my ass kicked, tweaking my deck, and trying again.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I’ve also given that a shot and, for one thing, the card art clashes so severely with the RPG parts aesthetics it’s hard to believe they’re from the same game.

For another thing, it’s clearly inspired by, and learned the right lessons from, Hearthstone, just without the baggage and with a handful of tweaks to keep anyone from getting litigious. Real fun and breezy and making tweaks is painless.

Kind of surprised there’s no way to get a detailed view of the cards during battle; half the appeal of CCGs as a whole is getting to look at cool drawings of monsters and wizards and piece together some kind of narrative from the flavour text. I understand the need to make Actual Gameplay Data more obvious but still, kinda weird for the genre.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I better talk up this great Hollow Knight game. Seems like it needs more press.

You don't say!

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Yes I do. Also, your words are blue. That's cool.

 

[Yimothy]

I’m playing Hexyz Force for PSP. I just encountered a demon enemy whose first attack was a punch called “diablow” and I enjoyed that.

 

[Kalir]

So Nobody Saves the World just came out recently, I have been playing it, and its an absolute delight in every respect you could care to mention. Probably my favorite subtle thing about it is the progression, though.

See, the basic idea is you're doing a action RPG zeld-em-up sort of thing, except where you transform into different forms. These forms are basically FF5 jobs (or even closer to Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass forms honestly), complete with being able to customize one form with abilities from a different form. It also measures form XP by doing quests, which are effectively mini-achievements for each form. Most of them are simple stuff, like just using an attack a lot, or using it in optimal situations (like catching a bunch of enemies with one area move).

The clever part here is that the customization quests give you clues for how to build forms that might not be immediately apparent, opening up some really neat playstyles. My favorite example is one of the Rogue form quests. They have a backstab ability, because Rogue. One of their form quests is to kill an enemy afflicted with Fear with that backstab. Fear is a really good status effect for that since it makes enemies run away (and thus turn their backs to you) but its also exclusive to the Ghost form normally. So the quest kind of coaches you by going "hey, try this out and see how it works and we'll give you form XP", and then you try it and suddenly it works amazingly well.

Seriously, once I get a new computer with a working keyboard, I might have to LP this.

 

[Positronic Brain]

I better talk up this great Hollow Knight game. Seems like it needs more press.

Dunno, I've been told it's full of bugs.

 

[Olli]

A Short Hike is really great! I really dig the laid back atmosphere and the realistic zoomer dialogue

 

[Rosewood]

I've been playing Solitairica mostly on the weekends for a number of months now. I griped about epic mode in the gripe thread I think, but I must have gotten used to it or something because now I am not going to stop until I've won it with all ten classes. I've gotten to at least fight 17 with all of them, and have beaten it with five classes. The blue and green classes were fairly easy. The purple and red ones are going to be a trick...

It's pretty satisfying to think "yep, this is the build" several fights before the end of the game, skip the shops, and just roll over the ogre, seagull and sea lion (and, of course, emperor Stuck) with no problem.

 

[Rosewood]

A Short Hike is really great! I really dig the laid back atmosphere and the realistic zoomer dialogue

I'm a silly sentimental slime who cried at the end. It was nice to just experience it and not have to worry about missing anything or doing everything.

 

[Octopus Prime]

My interest in League of Legends in general hovers somewhere around “nil” (though I admittedly like the art and lore), but I gotta say; Ruined King is a real good l’il chunk of RPG.

It’s pretty similar to the studios earlier Battlechasers, but with a different property and a slew of tweaks that enhanced what worked about that game and corrected where it fell short.

Also it plays very well on Switch, instead of like a sack of butts.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Wound up picking up The Tenth Line after stumbling upon it through Dekudeals. For one thing, this really illustrates how hard it is to just browse the eShop, for another; this game has existed for two years and I only learned about it today and it is really impressive.

It’s basically every Mechanically Weird JRPG mashed into one;

It’s got side scrolling dungeons like Valkyrie Profile

It’s got something like VPs battle system too, but with an emphasis on fighting large mobs of enemies

It doesn’t have a Sphere Grid, but it does have Sphere Carcassonne where the nodes you connect have little roadways and you get a further stat boost if you line them up.

Dungeons are also kind of like Lost Vikings (which is not a JRPG) because each of your party members travels independent of one another and have bespoke traveling skills.

It’s got some SaGa style “Weird for Weird Sake” skill system where each character gets different passive buffs and skill upgrades based ob the physical properties of what items they consume.

There’s an option in the menu to read the Fantasy JRPG Bible (it’s a real short Fantasy Bible); and in the first town you can eavesdrop on NPCs doing a Fantasy JRPG Bible study.

 

[Violentvixen]

I've definitely mentioned Chicory on here before and how much I love it, but we just started the co-op mode today. It's fun! The second person controls a second brush and can help with puzzles and battles but generally can just putter around painting what they like. I could see this being a very good game for a younger kid to be a second player.

Also I swear we had a co-op/multiplayer thread but can't find the dang thing...

 

[Issun]

The first time I played Transistor I was unimpressed and didn't care for it at all. While its systems still tend to be more frustrating than its predecessor's, I'm appreciating what it did more this time through. I still prefer Bastion overall, but Transistor is a good game, actually.

 

[Violentvixen]

Replayed VA-11 Hall-A since I previously played on someone else's profile. Such a weird, dark, charming game. Still need to play Read Only Memories, just got that recently.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Picked up Kentucky Route Zero and am enjoying the Kentuckian Magical Realism vibes. Just got to the second Act, so I don't really have much idea of what's going on except my theory that Weaver is a ghost, or if not, then possibly some sort of Magical Realism Girl.

 

[Exposition Owl]

Picked up Kentucky Route Zero and am enjoying the Kentuckian Magical Realism vibes.

Such a fantastic game. I’m glad you’re enjoying it!

 

[karzac]

The first time I played Transistor I was unimpressed and didn't care for it at all. While its systems still tend to be more frustrating than its predecessor's, I'm appreciating what it did more this time through. I still prefer Bastion overall, but Transistor is a good game, actually.

Transistor is one of my favourite games ever, glad to see someone else enjoying it.

 

[Pombar]

Have, after years of knowing about it and procrastinating, finally started playing the PSP Tactics Ogre remake's One Vision mod, which is meant to address the many balance issues in the original release.

Have had fun with it so far, though I'm still finding I hit points where my guys are barely hitting and doing very little damage when they do, while even the less combat-focused enemy combatants are hitting me with impunity and doing twice as much. So it's been slow going! Still, though. As good a game as ever.

 

[ASandoval]

Everyone go buy Grapple Dog.

Seriously.