Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

Persona 5 would have been pretty much ideal with actually balanced combat like in SMT games, where you can't just clean up trash mobs in five seconds and you actually have to strategize and plan out your skill load-outs for bosses (boss fights in P5 and P5R are wars of attrition).

Royal desperately needs an ACTUAL hard mode.

And that one boss fight from Royal needs to be re-designed again. You know the one if you've played through the game. It's the one everyone hates, and for good reason.

@Kidfried A fairly comprehensive playthrough of Royal (obtained the platinum trophy and maxed all but one or two of the confidants) took me about 150 hours. Where are you in the game?

@Kidfried Ah, okay. It's interesting that you feel like you do with the Royal version because I had the exact same complaints as you did, but for the vanilla version, haha. Obviously you wouldn't notice the differences if you haven't played the original version, so it's interesting to hear your perspective on Royal.

As a whole, I liked Persona 5 Royal a lot and certainly a lot more than the vanilla version. But I still prefer Persona 4 Golden on Vita simply because it's more cheerful and it has a better cast of characters. Maybe you would like that game even more than P5.

Anyway, hopefully you'll be able to get through the rest of P5R and see the end of the game! Don't worry if it takes a couple of months more, I think it took me roughly 1.5 years before I finally finished the game myself back in August.

@Kidfried If you've played for 100 hours and are at that palace, then I'd say you have maybe 40-50 hours left of the game with the pace you're going right now. That also includes post-game content that you'll access if you get the true ending, which I highly recommend you get.

If you want my advice, I'd say to just play the game at your own pace and don't worry about making bad decisions because you have a lot of free time to do whatever you want, especially in the Royal version as it adds multiple weeks of extra free time. And considering that it's your first Persona game, it's fine if you don't manage to get everything done. When I played through Persona 4 Golden, I didn't max out several confidants but I learned to allocate my time better next time when I played through Persona 5.

I'm juggling a few at the moment of multiple platforms (gotta be in a certain mood and mindset for particular titles), so for PS4: Thief, Far Cry 5, FC New Dawn and Immortals Fenyx Rising, for Switch: Breath of the Wild & Ghost Parade and for Xbox: The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 & Sunset Overdrive.

Went back to Mordor: Shadow of War today, after stopping playing it when Final Fantasy VII Remake released last year. Enjoying it far more than I thought I would as I distinctly remember finding it a chore last time out.

Just goes to show that it can really be worth giving something another try when you're in a different frame of mind.

@colonelkilgore That’s interesting to hear, as I’ve had Shadow of War in my backlog down toward the bottom for a while. I enjoyed the first game fairly well, but it didn’t set my glee ablaze or anything, but it was a solid amalgamation of ideas well combined within a universe I love and adding a couple novel mechanics of its own. SoW is supposed to be even better, so I’m not sure why I’ve dragged my feet. I think because some other game has always screamed for my attention to distract me.

But it’s a good point about state of mind. I’ve found that to be true also. Yet, occasionally I also find that I have some reluctance to play a game I have going (“…well, I’m really not feeling it today, but I gotta make some progress on this game…”) like it’s some kind of chore to make it through, but then when I get into it for a few minutes (or hours) then I really get clicking with it and enjoy it a lot. So it’s a bit of a balance I’ve come to realize whereby I sometimes need to get some inertia going and then it’ll pick up steam after a while.

@Th3solution yeah inertia (or momentum) is definitely required when returning to a game after a break. It did take me around 30mins for me to reorient myself but before I knew it I was flying through it.

To your point of it being an amalgamation, it definitely feels like the newer Assassins Creed games, with Arkham combat… but it’s definitely the nemesis system that elevates everything. The orc captains can be genuinely ‘laugh-out-loud’ funny at times.

To give you a little more context to my feelings about it… after listening to the various Guardians of the Galaxy reviews yesterday, I was extremely close to popping into town this morning to pick it up as I’m off work until Monday. The only thing that stopped me was not wanting to put Shadow of War on hold again.

The PS4 port of Dead Rising 2 is what I've ended up playing during my "week off" with the half term break.

Yeah it's pretty fun and enjoyable and a good enough Halloweeny themed game for the end of October.

Already on Day 2 and having to after the casino vaults. Inventory space is still on the limited side at the moment and I could really do with some more useful combo weapons then the reliable Spiked Bat.

Chuck isn't exactly intetesting as a character ... But I've never understood the facination people seem to have with Frank West either

Though the photography angle with Frank IS more interesting then Chuck and his motorcross background which isn't all that helpful at all I guess...

Going to start trying to play one game at a time. Just finished NieR:Automata and managed to get the platinum trophy thanks to the trophy shop! Playing Guardians of the Galaxy now.

This afternoon I started Slayaway Camp after purchasing in recent halloween sale. Simple sliding puzzle mechanics hiding behind cartoonized horror/slasher gory death scenes in what seems to resemble Minecraft characters. Played the first episode (movie) - made me laugh. Guess it's gonna get more complicated.

Also had a quick run on Death Road to Canada, hacked up some pixelated zombie hordes, found some supplies, weapons and survivors, got overconfident and soon after got overrun, lost all of my characters. Back to main menu with only 2 zombie points (?) to show for it...

Gonna plod on with these in next few days and also needing to start Darkest Dungeon and maybe Darkwood. But I'm a bit scared of these two. Think I'm going to get my backside handed to me!

Spoopy stuff indeed.

@Sorteddan Let us know how you get on with Darkest Dungeon and Darkwood. They have been on my list what feels like forever but have not pulled the trigger yet.

@LtSarge @kyleforrester87 I've continued my playthrough of The Evil Within. Almost exactly a year ago to the day, as I stopped playing it last halloween night.

It is as bonkers as I remember it and I have even less of an idea of what is going on lol. I beat a big zombie dog thing and about halfway through the next chapter.

@JohnnyShoulder Ah that's awesome mate! Sounds like you're quite far into the game, I'm guessing you're just continuing where you left off from a year ago? Well, I guess it doesn't really matter because there's no plot to remember at that point, lol. I also had no idea what was going on until the end as well as after having played the DLCs.

@JohnnyShoulder
Yeah can do.
Started Darkest Dungeon and put in a couple of hours this afternoon. Started on Radiant difficulty (easiest - 'recommended for new players') completed the first (tutorial) mission, explored hub area and recruited some new characters to my party.

It does indeed have a sense of stress/intrepidation/impending doom about it - maybe due to aesthetics and sound effects or maybe due to knowledge of permadeath for party members. Gonna hack away over next few days and will report back when I get some knowledge of classes, battle systems etc.

@LtSarge Yeah that's right, I've continued right from where I left it a year ago! Luckily it was at a save point and not right in the middle of a difficult section.

@Sorteddan Sounds interesting! I have heard it has a foreboding atmosphere about it. How is the RPG side of things?

@JohnnyShoulder
Oh it's very RPG. Let's see, I would describe it as squad based, rouge-like dungeon crawler with turn based combat. Recruit a squad of four from various classes - think all traditional classes are represented but with unfamiliar names, for example healer is called Vestal?, Magic user is now occultist, tank character is crusader etc. Then pick quest (dungeon) of appropriate length and difficulty and get to it.

Successful questIng results in cash, other currency and character level up. However characters also suffer LOTS of stress while on quests so I guess I am gonna need multiple parties as going over the stress limits has random effects on different characters, most of which I've seen so far have been very negative.

So you can use currencies to upgrade weapons/armour/skills as per usual or choose to upgrade buildings in the town hub area where you sort stuff between missions. Some buildings are for stress relief, some armour/weapons/skills, or for recruiting new squad members. Also save enough cash to provision the next mission - if you do not have enough torches or food you're gonna regret it!!

Combat is simple but complicated, pick a squad of four, determine who stands in what position (characters have skills that only work if they're standing in the right place) so put tank guy at the front, healer at the back then start walking. Random encounters, easier when torches are fully lit and try to wipe out all opponents without losing too much health or gaining to much stress. Repeat until either dungeon is cleared, all characters are dead or you feel like abandoning quest and running away (which will obviously render escapees massively stressed and useless for a bit). Combat is then based but also seems a bit random, still trying to determine how this is decided, maybe just RNG, dunno.

Anyways, hope that helps, apologies for my rambling account. Can't believe I sat on it for so long... Woke up today really looking forward to getting back to it. I'm gonna try to get three working squads in rotation and stick to easy short quests and see if I can gain some levels, cash and stuff.

Happy Halloween

@Sorteddan Thanks for your in-depth thoughts on the game! Sounds like the game has its hooks in you. I do like the sound of the different way your part members can be affected. Feels quite unique. I've certainly not played many games with something like that.

I think I heard somewhere that the sequel is out on some platforms. Hopefully that will come to PS soon.

The second Darkest Dungeon is out now on early access for PC @JohnnyShoulder. It came out 4 or so days ago I think?

Whereas the first is more of a turn based dungeon crawl with roguelike elements as you keep building up your estate, going on runs through the various areas and work your way up towards the Darkest Dungeon...

The second is more like slay the spire kinda roguelike, with each go being one run as you try to get to the end and the final boss before doing it again with different teams, routes, new encounters etc. It also has 3D graphics instead of the 2D of the first but keeps the lovely gothic artstyle.

I've played the first game (and seen some gameplay of the second) ... I didn't get close to finishing it but I intend to go back at some point. It's challenging

Monster Sanctuary is what I'm now playing having tore through Dead Rising 2 during the half term break.

The first two areas you go through (The Mountain Path & The Blue Caves) are easy enough for the 3v3 monster battles but the next three (The Stronghold Dungeon, The Ancient Woods & The Snowy Peaks) start to test your monster battling skills.

Keeper Duels are ESPECIALLY tough. Like goddamn the first Keeper duel against Will and his Spectral Toad (I chose the Wolf) was pretty tough to get through.

I have a minor quibble with the game so far... Monster Eggs often take a good while to obtain (Especially if you want repeats) as you need a good rank in battle (3 stars at least) to get them to drop and it's hard to try and farm them as well thanks to encounters taking a while to respawn.

Also only the six monsters in your active party get exp despite the fact you'll have at least 12 or so for all the different exploration abilites you need.

Eggs you hatch are two levels lower then your highest party member too and whilst there is a rare candy like item to level up weaker monsters... It only levels them up to two levels below your highest monster (Just like hatching them from an egg) ... So like what's the point? 😧

I do like how Monster abilities are used in your exploration though and the Metroidvania aspects of the game are pretty well done so far... There's some really tight platforming challenges!

The move trees each monster has so you can make different builds are pretty nice but it is a bit annoying as well in that sometimes for some monsters there might be a point already put into a move/tree you don't want to invest in... Why couldn't it just be blank and give you an extra skill point or two for YOU to invest it where you want? 😐

Pixel art is really nice though and the music is pretty decent so far too!

I am enjoying it despite those little complaints mind you and it does do a lot right so far!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy It was interesting reading your thoughts about the game! I actually tried it out a couple of weeks ago and found the formula to be quite fun that I bought it while it was on sale for like €6 on Switch, which is a pretty good deal considering it's a 30 hour long game. Don't know when I'll get around to playing it but from what I've seen, it's a rather good game. Hopefully you'll find the rest of it to your liking as well!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks for the info on the Darkest Dungeon games o great guru!

Not sure if I like the the sound of the 2nd game as I wasn't keen on Slay the Spire when I tried it on PS Now.

Will still likely give it a go at some, after I've tried the first game that is.