Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@JohnnyShoulder something about JohnnyShoulder being a “really cool dude”

@kyleforrester87 Yep they are full of it then for saying that.

@JohnnyShoulder you’re just fine as you are my son

@RogerRoger 😂 You’re credited for my first laugh of the day, my friend.
I suspect Johnny is at the clinic getting DNA testing right now. To be heir to the Forrester empire has to be like winning the lottery!

I called him Johnny so I'd never forget to use one in the future

With my PS4 now fixed (Though having to start everything from scratch because I never backed up my save data and don't have plus) I started The PS1 Classic The Legend Of Dragoon that's now available on PS4 and PS5.

Because of only playing it on my PS3 before through my US account (Thus only playing the NTSC version) I decided to give the PAL version a go (as it comes with both regions on 4/5).

To my shock and horror there is no Assassin Cock(rel) enemy... Instead I was greeted by this monstrosity

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

Jokes aside it's been good to play it again, especially on the PS4 with the boon of save states and seems to be running just fine now from what I gather?

There was a little bit of a clipping issue I think in the first scene with Rose's model but that's all I've really noticed!

I did send an (admitedly rather late) reply over PSN earlier @RogerRoger telling you I'd be back

To be honest that doesn't bother me as much as you might think. Well aside from the Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous save I had which I'd put over 100 hours into and was nowhere near complete and now have to restart from scratch. That STINGS. 😅

Oh I thought there was only some audio issues! It was broken? They seemed to have fixed it rather quickly at least. With it being a JRPG there's no doubt a lot more moving parts (not to mention the much lomger runtime) then say Ape Escape that made it a bit harder to find out all the quirks.

I was looking for something to play until Trails to Azure comes out tomorrow and I went with the free-to-play game Bleach: Brave Souls.

It’s a port of a mobile game, so the graphics are pretty poor and it still has the big buttons on the screen that show its touch screen roots, but I’m finding it to be a fun hack & slash RPG. It originally came out on mobile in 2015, so there’s loads of content if the game does hook you.

One thing that I find odd is that despite the game being in English, the trophy list is in Japanese.

Oh for sure I'll restart P:WotR... I need to see how this game ends @RogerRoger! Just gonna give it a bit of a break and mentally recharge from the loss

Once I am ready to play it I'll put the difficulty as easy as possible and use the much quicker real-time option to get back to where I was before putting the difficulty back up and returning to turn based mode! Seeing as I know what I'm doing it shouldn't take too long...

... Hopefully 😅

And hopefully Syphon Fliter: Dark Mirror is a-ok for you Rog when you get to play it next week!

@RogerRoger It gets lazier than that! It still has the text for the mobile version on some of the tutorial messages. It says to “flick the screen” to dodge, for example.

So I've said this before but I played Legend Of Dragoon & FF back around 2013/2014 @Th3solution.

I played FF VII first and well... You already know my feelings on it and how it didn't live up to the hype. Finding it a mediocre at best experience

Whereas for Legend Of Dragoon I'd heard quite a few bash it for being a "shameless ripoff" of FF VII made by Sony and whilst there were fans of it and has a cult classic status, the game wasn't nearly as well recieved or sell absolute gangbusters.

... Aside from the fact there's a silver haired antagonist (probably the most notable similarity but even then there are key differences between Llyod and Sephiroth), your main character has some blondish spikey hair and it's a JRPG the two are almost nothing alike

Yeah FFVII's success might've put production of TLoD into overdrive but it's wild how unkind quite a few of the reviews were at the time when it's SO different.

I also utterly adored TLoD unlike FFVII. The characters were charming (even with the bad translation), the combat was (and still is) fresh and fun thanks to the addition system which also makes everyone feel a little different in combat, the soundtrack is an absolute JAM, Each boss fight typically has some unique mechanic to it with some rather impressive animations and good sound design that really makes attacks feel and look satisfying.

If you have PS+ Premium I'd whole heartedly recommend giving it a shot sol. Even if you don't have PS +P I still recommend giving it a look!
.
.
.
As for all the RPG's?

There's Final Fantasy IX (Which I only got halfway through) that I need to actually complete that I'll have to start fresh.

Wild Arms III is in a similar position of I got halfway through but never finished but would like to rectify. How many JRPG's are there that have a spaghetti westernsp sorta setting? Not many!

Valkryia Chronicles Remastered is ALSO one I got partway into but never finished. Luckily I only got 6 skirmishes in so I didn't lose too muchl

I have the CRPG's Pathfinder: Kingmaker & Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous that again I got halfway through and will have to restart.

I also have Obsidian's CRPG Pillars Of Eternity II I have yet to try.

I bought Persona 3 Portable & Persona 4 Golden the day before my PS4's hard drive went so they're also on the docket. Having played Vanilla P3, P3 FES and Vanilla P4 means both of these will have new elements for me to enjoy. Not looking forward to Chie's new voice though

My daughter also bought a trio of games which are a mix of visual novel and JRPG that have an all female cast and are... unsubtle about it if you get my drift 👀

She quite enjoyed both Death End Re;Quest and Dragon Star Varnir but never got round to DERQ 2... I'll at least give one of 'em a punt and see how it goes.

I have the demo of Octopath Traveller II to try.

And then there's the stuff I'd to replay like Code Vein, Dark Cloud 1 & 2, Dark Souls III, Deltarune Chapter 1&2, Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Divinity Original Sin II, Dragon's Dogma (And actually do the DLC/Bitterblack Isle this time), Final Fantasy X, FF X-2 and FF XII: The Zodiac Age, Odin Sphere Liefthrasir, Shining Resonance Refrain, Yakuza 0...

So I'm set til like 2026 on the RPG front? Granted that's a mix of CRPG's, Turn based JRPG's, Action RPG's and a strategy RPG... But still... It's a lot 😅

Trails to Azure finally decided to show up on the PlayStation Store! Just starting it now. Trails from Zero was my GOTY last year, so can’t wait to get stuck into this. Week off next week too!

@HallowMoonshadow Sounds like you have a great set-up. Some real quality RPGs for you in coming months (and years..?!)

As for Legend of Dragoon, I am curious about it. My tolerance for retro titles is unfortunately pretty low though. I find myself struggle with anything pre-PS3.

However, I did really enjoy FF7-FF12. I think I’ve said before that I might say FF12 is my favorite. That or FF7. FFX is probably next though.

And my fondness for Dragon’s Dogma is well documented. 😄 I wouldn’t mind a replay of that too at some point. And I see Dark Souls 3 in the list too and so who knows — maybe you and I will end up playing it around the same time! I’m targeting late summer-ish for the next Souls game, whichever it ends up, either DS2 or DS3.

Anyways, I’m excited for you and all these great games you have!

@Bentleyma You're going to be playing a JRPG rather than Resident Evil 4 in a week? WHAT!? Oh, wait, there's a chance I'll still be playing Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana a week from now. Not complaining as it's been a fantastic experience so far, but I've been on Chapter 5 for a long time now because it's GIGANTIC.

Also, in all seriousness, I look forward to playing Trails from Zero for the first time at some point this year. While I have Resident Evil 4 pre-ordered and will be starting that right after finishing Ys VIII, my expectations for diving into the Trails games are high as well and I will not be rushing through Ys VIII to make sure I get it done in time.

@KilloWertz Oh I’ll be playing Resident Evil 4 alright! I’m hoping I’ll be finished with Trails to Azure before it comes out, so I can play it for the last couple of days of my week off.

You could be playing worse games than YS VIII. I loved that game. It’s probably the best game in the series.

@Bentleyma I wish I could sit there day after day playing a game for hours...

I'm definitely not complaining. I'd be surprised if I wasn't done in time, but me being willing to push back playing Resident Evil 4 until I'm done and not rush through Ys VIII tells you what I think of the game. It's the only Ys game I've played so far, but it's definitely one of the best JRPGs I've played (even if I haven't played a good portion of the genre).

was playing Mortal Kombat X to do some Brutalities so i can get the 50 Brutalities trophy.

and while I was doing that I got a Level 50 faction trophy which was kind of cool.

Jason's machete brutality was pretty cool straight out of an old Friday the 13th movie in my opinion

I played YS VIII back in May/June last year and I honestly thought it was okay at the time but nothing really special... Yet I am feeling rather wistful about getting rid of my copy now hearing you talk about it @KilloWertz 😄

Being in chapter 5 you're past the giant mountain and now on the other side of the island right?

Oh yeeeah I think I remember you mentioning that before @Th3solution. Funny enough whilst I was away and tj0he ol' PS4 had broke I still had my PS3 but... I couldn't really stand playing it or any of the games I have as I've come to not really like the hardware or most of the muddy brown colour palate quite a few PS3 games have 😅

Well only give TLoD a little try if you have premium then. Long as you give it a fair shot is all that matters even if you end up disliking it!

Have you played FFX-2 at all Sol? I know a lot of people really rag on it cus of it following after X and the more girl power/ cheesey charlie's angels type vibe with the all female cast... But it easily has the best combat system of all the FF's in my humble opinion. Plus the Job/Dress sphere system is great fun too.

I think I only played through FFXII fully once on PS2 (I still have the guide for it) and I REALLY remember enjoying my time with it. Did it all without the gambit system too 'cus I'm a mad woman and I don't like automating stuff

I gotta replay Dragon's Dogma before DD 2 comes out. When that came out on PS3 I was obsessed with it. I played it through like 4/5 times and even did the special speedrun mode in just over an hour

@HallowMoonshadow Yes, I did play FFX-2, actually. And I like it also. Not as much as I liked FFX (still don’t know why I got obsessed with Blitzball) but you’re right — X-2 was really good at its core. It’s felt a little too close to a Barbie Dress-Up game for my taste back then with my young immature mind, but now such thing’s probably wouldn’t bother me.

And no, I don’t have PS+ Premium, but I do have Extra. I really doubt I’ll ever upgrade, but if I do then TLoD is high on the list of things to try. With Extra alone my backlog has exploded though.

And that’s an impressive amount of DD you’ve played! I just played through once and I even fizzled out on the add-on content and didn’t quite do all of that. But I enjoyed many hours and I love the pawn system. Still don’t know why it was never replicated or copied. Hopefully DD2 brings it back with all the nifty current Gen bells and whistles. I’m curious what they could do with it. Perhaps you could better train or coach the pawns, and make sharing pawns in the asynchronous space more significant.