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

[Savathûn]

I’m playing the Final Draft version of Alan Wake 2 and only now do I realize the wordplay in Shawn Ashmore’s character name.

Spoiler

(Quan)Tim Breaker

.

That and Barbara Jagger/Baba Jagga. I’m like the last person on earth to catch these

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I am very late to the party on Dragon Quest XI, and I love it. Now that you-know-who is you-know-what, I can enjoy the series without as much baggage. I do really love these games.

I hope Final Fantasy XVI’s muted reception will make Square-Enix consider their ideas on making DQXII “darker”. Stuff already gets too sad in these games!

 

[Bongo]

Yuji Horii always does his own thing. I wouldn't expect Final Fantasy XVI being less of a critical darling than they would have wanted will cause Dragon Quest XII to change course.

 

[Lokii]

Crystal Project is so much fun. I just got past the surprisingly tough baby's first knowledge check boss (great dungeon too, those mushroom encounters sucked ass, giving a compelling reason to figure out the movement puzzles). It felt like there was oodles of game leading up to this point but the impression it gives afterwards is that you're barely scratched the surface. What a triumph!

Gotta say "Final Fantasy but good" makes for a hell of a compelling game.

 

[jpfriction]

It's a good-un, perfect on the switch. Glad I gave it another shot after bouncing off the demo.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

whaddaya mean "but good"

 

[Lokii]

I mean it's a really good game! Carefully considered mechanics and the define-your-own-goals-freeform level design is captivating. A hard game to put down.

 

[Mogri]

Crystal Project is good enough as an exploration game that I would recommend it to someone who doesn't like RPGs (you can turn the difficulty way, way down), and it's good enough as an RPG that I would recommend it to someone who doesn't like open world (though you do still have to explore).

It's hard to overstate how rare that is. If you like exploration and RPGs, well, this is the game for you.

 

[Rascally Badger]

While waiting for new Like A Dragon, I've been flipping between Trials of Mana on the big boy Switch and Octopath Traveler on my Switch Lite. Both are very enjoyable.

 

[Baudshaw]

All Flee was a pretty fine puzzle platformer. It's become the dominant web game genre. 6/10

Cursed Treasure 2 (also known as Defense of the Wilds 2) is a much better web game. It has a nice aesthetic that's reminiscent of Kingdom Rush, and the corny vibe makes it quite charming. It's quite difficult to get 3 stars, but the bolts/skulls trivialize the game way too much. Even still, I like the slow and steady upgrade system, allowing you to gain both incremental boosts and powerful new mechanics. 9/10

 

[Kazin]

In my new save on Switch, where I still haven't caught up to where I was on PC, I found an entire new dungeon and class I hadn't encountered before at all.

Crystal Project is so good.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Pal World sure is a blatant Pokémon ripoff.

The gameplay loop of punching trees/rocks and building stuff is extremely my jam.

Can’t help but feel though that the game would be more fun on a controller vs m&kb.

 

[Mogri]

Rogue Fable IV has a good amount of DCSS DNA in a far less punishing package. As much as anything, it's nice to discover a new traditional roguelike in 2024, but it sure doesn't hurt that it's a good one.

 

[Bongo]

This Rogue Fable IV, or is there a different one?

 

[JBear]

Rogue Fable IV has a good amount of DCSS DNA in a far less punishing package. As much as anything, it's nice to discover a new traditional roguelike in 2024, but it sure doesn't hurt that it's a good one.

I mean, you can just tag me next time.

 

[Mogri]

This Rogue Fable IV, or is there a different one?

That's the one -- that link is the demo.

 

[Kazin]

.Hack: Infection is dumb fun. The mechanics are as basic as action games get, mainly mashing X. Strategy comes from managing your team and items, up to and including buffs and debuffs. It is not deep, at all. And yet... I find it utterly charming and fun. Maybe it's because it's clearly a PSO pastiche gameplaywise, and because the message board and email system do feel like early 2000s multiplayer online gaming (at least as far as I remember it). I dunno. I just have been really enjoying repeatedly dungeon diving and leveling up and data draining enemies and seeing weird story beats. I'd like to play through the whole series, at least the first four games this year, then maybe taking a break before trying GU.

 

[Kirin]

Is that the very first .Hack game? Yeah, I played it back in the day when it was new-ish, I remember it having a charming vibe and a very chill soundtrack to just wander around and dungeon dive to.

 

[Kazin]

Yep, it's the first one. I got to the last boss last night and have to grind up to beat it, apparently, as it's quite the difficulty spike, but the game is fun enough I'm going to put the time in over the next few days (plus I want to see what they do in the sequels).

 

[Kazin]

Didn't have to grind much, game cleared in 13 hours and about 15 minutes, including the bonus boss to get a cool weapon for the main character for the next game. Started up part 2, Mutation, and carried over my save, which is a feature I've always enjoyed in old games (and is much easier than, say, carrying your Golden Sun save over using the War & Peace-length password).

 

[Baudshaw]

Fire Emblem Souls of the Forest is a delightful big romhack. There's lots of content to gnaw on, but the game gives you a lot of characters, so there's quite a bit of replayability. The central focus are the extremely powerful late-game weapons, which are unbreakable and have stackable bonuses. It's quite a doozy, because both you and your enemies are extremely powerful, so you have to be careful with positioning. Overall, it's a fun time.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I am currently wrapping up Midnight Suns, a replay of Control, starting to dabble more in both Stranger of Paradise and Bloodborne, and spent most of January blazing through Fires of Rubicon. Everything's good. There are so many good games! And that's not even counting things from last year that I haven't really gotten into yet (like Octopath Traveler 2, Pikmin 1+2 and 4, etc.). And a few things, like Super Mario RPG or Advance Wars HD, that I haven't gotten yet.

I know the industry situation is grim; tons of layoffs. That'll surely have an effect on what's going to be coming out in the next several years. But I am a bit relieved to have time to take a breather and play some things without so much new coming out for a while (though there is, of course, FF7 Rebirth).

 

[lincolnic]

I still have my friend's Switch he lent me, so I started Super Mario RPG last night. Guess what, it's still charming!

 

[4-So]

Valkyrie Elysium is pretty good, y'all.

 

[Violentvixen]

Really enjoying Persona 3 Reload. Just all sorts of good improvements so far and they've added so much party banter within the dungeon, it's neat. Also a very drastic change in Tartarus between the first and second block, instead of having creepy purple walls that are still the typical 90 degrees everything is a much more alien curve and terrain with weird glowly plants (that freak Junpei out). I'm very excited to see what so many other parts of the game are like.

I was bummed they changed Mitsuru's "it's special" line about her bike to be "it was specially made", I always liked the original one, oh well.

Only change I can't seem to adapt to is some of the soundtrack changes, they aren't bad changes but it's weird to hear different lyrics to a few of the songs.

 

[Kazin]

.hack//Mutation continues to be dumb repetitive fun, just like the first game. It's so... simple. It's refreshing after playing a lot of more complicated games. Helps the presentation is charming and feels authentic in many ways, too.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Only change I can't seem to adapt to is some of the soundtrack changes, they aren't bad changes but it's weird to hear different lyrics to a few of the songs.

As someone with a lot of love for the original soundtrack, I don't really get what they're going for with the Reload version. I figured they might use the opportunity to do some cool remixes of the tracks, but in the end they just seem like off-brand versions of the originals? The few changes they've made don't really add anything, and the new instrument samples are cleaner but also way less cool and interesting than the old ones were. What happened to the deafening, thousand-ton drums on Master of Tartarus?

 

[Violentvixen]

As someone with a lot of love for the original soundtrack, I don't really get what they're going for with the Reload version. I figured they might use the opportunity to do some cool remixes of the tracks, but in the end they just seem like off-brand versions of the originals? The few changes they've made don't really add anything, and the new instrument samples are cleaner but also way less cool and interesting than the old ones were. What happened to the deafening, thousand-ton drums on Master of Tartarus?

Yeah, I was assuming I was just having a bad reaction to change at first but I can't get into them either. I know a lot of the original soundtrack used samples from a library so maybe they wanted it to be more original this time? But that doesn't explain some of the other changes which I agree don't work. It's nice that the songs are so much longer so things are less repetitive, but eh.

I think the exam music is a good example. This one of one of my husband's favourite tracks of the original game and when I got to this in Reload he strongly disliked the new one. It's overall very similar, there's a new flute section which I do think is fun, but something about it just isn't as good.

Wonder if they'll offer the old soundtrack as an option (for free I hope but probably not). P3P just came out last year so doesn't seem like there would be a new licensing issue this year? I dunno.

Still having a good time. Also rumor has it people are finding files related to The Answer in here, so seems like that might be coming as DLC. Still very much a rumor of course.

 

[Kazin]

Wow, I just looked up the Master of Tartarus remix on YT and that sucks. It sounds flat to me. Glad I bought the game on PC, there'll probably be a mod to put the original music back in, which I'll definitely be doing. What a strange decision.

 

[Violentvixen]

Glad I bought the game on PC, there'll probably be a mod to put the original music back in

I did Gamepass so technically haven't bought the game yet but dang if someone figures out that mod that'd be great.