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

[q 3]

Rise of the Third Power is very obviously made by the developers of Ara Fell... like it's not a sequel (or if it is, it's a very distant one) but everything about it is extremely familiar. I'd definitely recommend to anyone who liked Ara Fell; not sure if I'd recommend it first, though, as it's less immediately charming than its predecessor.

It does have some unique strong points, including numerous dogs and cats that you can pet (and each playable character seems to have their own unique animation for petting dogs and cats!) and just a subtle thing where many if not most of the incidental leaders and solider types are women. It's also much more of an ensemble cast, so I guess the one case where I'd recommend it over Ara Fell is if "plucky tomboy chosen one joins the eternal war between elves and sky vampires" doesn't appeal to you quite as much as "ragtag rebel alliance kidnap and/or recruit a hilariously spoiled princess to stymie the evil emperor's ambitions."

 

[ArugulaZ]

"ragtag rebel alliance kidnap and/or recruit a hilariously spoiled princess to stymie the evil emperor's ambitions."

Ooh, ooh! I saw that movie!

 

[Becksworth]

Headlander is super cheap on Steam right now and I'm playing through it. So far it seems like a fun mix of metroidvania and double-fine-ture. Also I dig the Paranoia-esque ROYGBIV laser fueled setting.

 

[Becksworth]

I had been holding out on playing Ender Lilies because I didn't want to get burned out on Metroidvanias before Metroid Dread released and Silksong just had to be around the corner...

Well Dread has been out for a while now, and I'm tired of waiting for Silksong. This game be pretty nifty.

 

[ArugulaZ]

People weren't kidding about Rumble Roses! I'm playing it right now on a PS2 emulator, and there's more to this game than just bare skin and bouncy boobs. I mean, it's a game that knows exactly what its audience is, but past that, it's beautiful for a Playstation 2 game, and plays well to boot. I just had my character tie her opponent up in the ropes, and they really sold the attack. I scrambled for my system's keyboard to take a snapshot; it was that impressive. Now I kind of want the Xbox 360 version, which is sure to look even better and, as I understand it, will run on an Xbox One. (I could be wrong about that; I'll have to do some research.)

 

[smacketh]

People weren't kidding about Rumble Roses! I'm playing it right now on a PS2 emulator, and there's more to this game than just bare skin and bouncy boobs. I mean, it's a game that knows exactly what its audience is, but past that, it's beautiful for a Playstation 2 game, and plays well to boot. I just had my character tie her opponent up in the ropes, and they really sold the attack. I scrambled for my system's keyboard to take a snapshot; it was that impressive. Now I kind of want the Xbox 360 version, which is sure to look even better and, as I understand it, will run on an Xbox One. (I could be wrong about that; I'll have to do some research.)

I think the Xbox 360 only has Rumble Roses XX which is the sequel and developed by another team besides Yukes. It is backwards compatible on Xbox One/Series, but from what I've seen XX is not as good as the original.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Bummer. I guess I can wait for a sale, if one ever comes.

 

[gogglebob]

Bummer. I guess I can wait for a sale, if one ever comes.

And then that exact thing instantly happened.

Buy Rumble Roses XX | Xbox

The sexy and extreme wrestling action, Rumble Roses is back with high-def sexiness! Offering not only photorealistic graphics, but vastly improved gameplay! Enjoy the drama in the all new tag team mode! Hit your partner mistakenly; you may end up being ignored when making a tag move. Outdoor...

www.xbox.com

 

[ArugulaZ]

I KNOW! Hot damn, I'm lucky!

EDIT: Smacketh is, unfortunately, correct in his earlier assessment. There's something about this version of the game that feels a little slower, a little less complex, and a little less satisfying than the first one. While you could argue that the Xbox 360 version looks better, it also feels like it's getting less mileage out of that hardware than the Playstation 2 game did, and the special effects are borderline distracting... get hit with a floodlight in the street fight stage and both characters nearly disappear inside it. Oh well. It was seven fifty, I'll live.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Smelter got an update that gives the game an Action Mode; which eliminates all the RTS segments you had to play through between the games levels, and which made up, like… half the game.

It being that I truly, truly did not care for those segments, this is a real case of addition through subtraction.

The upgrades that previously requires the RTS gameplay to unlock are either hidden through the games main platformer levels, or need to be unlocked by redeeming tchotchkes you find while thumping monsters. The game is pure platformer now, with lots of reason to replay levels to find all the bric-a-brac. While it’s not an exemplary example of a Mega Man-style platformer, it’s still a lot of fun now.

 

[Mogri]

Now we just need the same patch for ActRaiser...

 

[Octopus Prime]

There was a patch that gave you the option to skip the RTS parts of that as well, but only after you beat the game once

 

[Purple]

Alternatively, ActRaiser 2 is right there.

 

[Olli]

To my recollection, even basic movement in ActRaiser 2 is crazy hard.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Alternatively, ActRaiser 2 is right there.

That would be the Monkeys Paw version of what Mogri asked for

 

[FelixSH]

Replaying Banjo-Tooie, for the first time since 2006 or so. Which was the second time I played that game at all.

I pretty much love it. At first, it felt like the levels feel empty, or something, but that has vanished by now. I'm ab bit addicted, and have a hard time stopping, when playing. I just have a real good time exploring these levels. And I actually like how the levels start to be interconnected. Weird how this all changes. I still remember disappointment, when I played it the first time, when it was new. Granted, the levels don't feel as atmospherically excellent as the ones from the first game, and there is flavor lost (instead of everything talking, and explaining what it is, Jamjar always does the explaining - I miss, when I would collect eggs and they would tell me that you can shoot them our of Kazooies mouth or butt).

 

[BEAT]

The PC Port of Ocarina of time is very neat!

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Playing Solomon's Key for the first time. I feel like I'm going to get too frustrated by it at some point, but for now it is fun.

 

[Violentvixen]

Got In Other Waters as part of the summer Steam sale. It was described as a visual novel but it's not quite that, you're setting a path and moving samples around for a diver. It's an incredibly minimal interface so I get calling it a visual novel though. Curious where the story is going.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Souldiers is a troidy game with some *absolutely amazing* spritework that I couldn't really love as much as I wanted to, as the game in general and the Switch port in particular kind of janky.

And *just scant days ago* it got a robust patch and that jankiness is all but gone! The difficulty levels have been rebalanced (even the Easy mode was surprisingly vicious before), load times are drastically reduced (still lengthy, but suffering through them is no longer the worst penalty for dying the game had for you) and it just runs better in general. As well as a whole litany of other little tweaks.

Now I really enjoy the game and can recommend it to others!

It's a good'un!

 

[ArugulaZ]

You hunt and kill robot animals. It's possible to screw up a premise that cool (Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus, I'm looking at you), but it would take effort.

 

[Lokii]

Been going through King's Field 4 with the boys on the weekly stream and the more I see of this game the more I come to understand that Dark Souls 2 isn't so much Dark Souls 2 as it is King's Field 5.

 

[Lokii]

I mean obviously it's a Dark Souls game through and through, but it really is surprising how much of King's Field DNA has survived into From's modern titles.

 

[FelixSH]

I'm replaying Baba Is You, hoping to actually full clear the whole thing. Did get pretty far last time, but still stopped at a point. And I had looked up a few solutions, or at least tipps, back then. I really want to beat this whole thing without help, this time, and my memory is bad enough that the harder puzzles aren't any easier than last time.

Reason why I post is, that I just did two hard puzzles that stumped me last time, and which I beat now (Forest of Fall 11 - Catch and Ruins extra 1 - Further Fields). And now I feel like the most brilliant person in the world. Beating a hard puzzle in this game, on your own, is a great feeling.

Also, it's fun when you get to the weirder stuff (like when you get the "text" block), and can make all text into Baba, or something. I love this game.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Severed Steel is perhaps best described as "Superhot, crossed with Mirrors Edge and with the sensibilities of a Hong Kong action movie"; you're a ludicrously agile gal who just had an arm hacked off and was thrown into the garbage bin at the base of a futuristic techno-tower, and are HANGRY for revenge.

Each level is less of an obstacle course and more of a murder gauntlet as you have to use as much action-movie logic and parkour to navigate an arena, destroy what needs destroying, and reach the exit.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Not far into Inscryption but this game is a sinister little delight.

 

[Falselogic]

Any one here played Sable? I started it up last weekend and have really been enjoying it. It has a lot of similarities in play to Breath of the Wild, with a wide open space that you explore, towers where you find maps, and can see interesting locations on the horizon. It's got an interesting art style, that I don't have the vocabulary to describe. Sort of reminds me of the backgrounds in Wizards movie. So, exploratory puzzle solving. I've come to realize that one of my favorite aspects of open-world games is the simple act of moving across the landscape, and viewing it from different angles. it is relaxing and engaging at the same time. Sable is great at that. It's coupled with a coming of age story set in a what I think is a post-apocalyptic world but it isn't depressing in any way.

I think it is a game that TT peeps might enjoy. You can grab it if you've got Gamepass.

 

[Patrick]

Into the Breach got a free update that added five new squads plus new weapons, enemies, and challenges. It’s also free to play on your phone if you have a Netflix subscription. It’s kind of wild and came out of nowhere.

It’s such a pleasant little puzzly game, and this is a great way to revisit it. I think I’m going to start chipping away at achievements.

 

[FelixSH]

Finally bought Inscryption. Having played and loved Pony Island, the first game of the creator, and played and at least enjoyed The Hex, their second game, there was no question that I would play this game at some point.

Also, if anyone of you liked Inscryption, give Pony Island a try. It's excellent, the mood is amazing.

Anyway, played for three hours today, enjoying myself a lot. Got to the third world for the first time, for some reason, my deck was this time able to actually deal with what was thrown at me. The boss wasn't that hard either, but my items were pretty great for dealing a ton of damage in one round.

I also, of course, played around in the cabin, and got further a good bit. Got the wolf card and freed him. But, for some reason, I can't pick up the wolf statue. It shakes a bit, but stays where it is, with the hand-cursor being a fist. Does anyone know what is happening here, why I can't take it? I freed the wolf of the cage, so this should be possible, I thought.

Excellent atmosphere, and after being a bit disappointed by The Hex, this one is really, really great, fun and moody. Can't wait to see more.

 

[4-So]

I don't like card games or deckbuilders but it seems like I need to give Inscryption a shot.