Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

I've made quite a lot of progress in Persona 4 Golden and am now at the Void Quest dungeon to go get Mitsuo Kubo.

Having only played the PS2 release I didn't actually know about the Scooter assists so when Yosuke suddenly spoke up after a critical hit to do a follow up attack (and he wasn't in my party) I thought the game had glitched... At least until he suddenly rammed right into a shadow on his scooter.

Golden really cranks up P4's goofiness huh?

@HallowMoonshadow Glad you’re enjoying P4G, it’s a gem. It’s one of those games that I look back on fondly, but don’t plan to play again because there’s parts of it that do drag on. As is the case for the series anyways. 😄

I started MediEvil as a bit of Halloween related fun, but I'm actually enjoying it more than I thought I would. It's tricky, but not off-puttingly so, with an endearing, knockabout sense of humour.

Seeing the very good reviews for Talos Principle 2, I decided to try the first one and I like it so far.
Not too difficult for now but I imagine it gets more complicated and there seems to be quite a lot of puzzles to solve.

@Voltan One of my favourite puzzle games! What’s brilliant is how it lets you truly solve the puzzles in your own way. Beyond that, the philosophical engine that drives the whole thing is very compelling. Hope you enjoy!

Speaking of Persona and enhanced versions any interest on your end for Persona 3 Reload @Th3solution? Seems like they've added a few things such as new events for all the male members of S.E.E.S and I have to admit, it does look rather nice too.

Ha great minds think alike as I also started playing it for some Halloweeny fun @Gremio108. I suppose you've finished it by now right? Hope you still enjoyed it!

I just popped the platinum for it over the weekend.

@HallowMoonshadow I don’t know. Right now I have no plans to play Reload, but I’ve been impulsive with my game playing lately so it’s possible. My backlog is enormous, but that hasn’t stopped me from buying new games and playing them right away.

It been some years since I finished P3. The series used to be one of my favorites, but after P5, I haven’t felt like going back to it. As far as JRPGs go, I’ve been riding the Final Fantasy wave more. Maybe I’m part of the problem, but I haven’t felt compelled by old-school JRPGs recently. And I’m a little off-put that they have been recycling older Persona games and adding expansions (to already really long games, mind you) rather than giving us anything about a true proper next installment in the series. Persona 5 came out in 2016, so like what — over 7 years ago — and we have no info about Persona 6. Instead they keep iterating the old games and porting them all over the place instead.

I don’t mind remakes, remasters, and meaningful expansions. But at some point there needs to be something new.

Sorry, that turned more into a rant than I had planned. 😅 But I know you catch my meaning. At the end of the day, there’s so much other output that I have been happy to just ignore the franchise for a while. Meanwhile Final Fantasy is churning out new content like crazy, even if it’s newly styled action based gameplay. And other developers have taken up the mantle of putting out retro styled JRPGs, like Sea of Stars, all the Tales games, all the Legend of Heroes games, Octopath, etc., etc.

So tell me how you REALLY feel Sol lol

No worries I totally get you (Especially as a lapsed Pokémon fan). We all go through different phases and gaming wants.

There is Metaphor: ReFantazio which should be coming out next year by Atlus which looks Persona-y but a more fantasy-esque setting so... There is that if you change your tune and want a more traditional turn based affair.

At least with Persona 6 they haven't announced it like 5 years in advance before it finally, eventually comes out like what happened with Persona 5!

@HallowMoonshadow It’s a fine line, for sure, as far as announcing a game too far in advance. And realistically, I think there’s little doubt that Persona 6 is cooking, but it’s just been so long that it’s easy to lose interest. I have no doubt that when details are released it will kickstart the hype, but until then we’ll just stick with the remakes and alternates. I hadn’t heard of Metaphor: ReFantazio but I’ll keep my eyes peeled on that one. I never did finish Trails of Cold Steel, so I could always drop back into that quagmire. 😅 I was discouraged enough by the less than stellar impressions of the second game that I put it on the back burner. ToCS 3 and 4 have received more consistent praise, but I’m not sure how I feel about spending another 150 hours to finally get to the good stuff.

Finally back on the gaming horse after nearly a half-year break. Gravity Rush Remastered and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Final Bar Line; one before work, the other after. Those platinum trophies will be mine!

@HallowMoonshadow Golden makes a few needed changes. One thing I didn't like about it is how much easier the difficulty curve feels, though. I played through some of P4 on my PS2 years after Golden and have a considerably harder time with it.

Honestly that massive wait with my hype for Persona 5 building to stupid levels is probably what poisoned the well for me so much when I eventually played it @Th3solution (A me problem for sure but I do hold legit criticisms about it too and not just vitriol i swear )

So the fact P3 Reload (Which I'm totally getting as P3 is my favourite) will only have a 7/8 month or so media cycle hopefully they'll do something similar with P6 and not announce anything til it's nearly out...

As for Metaphor: ReFantazio it was announced at an XBox event 5 or so months back that also revealed P5 Tactica and P3 Reload. The trailer looks pretty neat.

As for Cold Steel? I've just given up on it. No desire to go back myself. It was kinda crazy to go from Cold Steel 1 straight into 2 and I definitely suffered some burnout but... I still didn't like most of the choices they made even then

Oh I DEFINITELY agree on the difficulty for Persona 4 Golden being way too easy @Ralizah.

I mean for starts Shadow Yukiko has a weakness! She was an absolute beast in vanilla P4. Kicked my ass at least a couple of times back in the day.

Plus I took Shadow Mitsuo down without him ever getting to rebuild the 8 bit shell again which is wild too.

Plus the new shuffle time mechanics with sweeps, Persona level up and skill level ups can easily break the game (I got 4 Level up cards in a row somehow in one run).

I've honestly been thinking of bumping it up... Maybe even up two notches as it's been a cakewalk on normal.

I've also never played Gravity Rush. In fact my only experience with Kat is Playstation All Stars mostly and the demo for the second game.

Hope that and Final Bar Line don't have any really stupid requirements for you in order to the platinums!

@HallowMoonshadow I have to admit that I mostly ignore the XBox (and Nintendo) events and announcements. But now that I look at it, I do remember a buzz about whether it would be XBox exclusive as the trailer suggests, until it leaked that it was slated for PlayStation as well.

The trailer looks good and sure does look like it could even be called “Persona 6”. It probably coming late next year so maybe by then I’ll be back in the mood for something in that genre

I'm excited for Metaphor: ReFantazio. A brand new, big-budget Atlus JRPG IP? Sign me up. Those don't come out too often.

@HallowMoonshadow Difficulty balancing is an issue with recent Persona games. P5 was ridiculously easy on the highest difficulty setting, and the same is truer of P5R. Which is too bad, because, unlike you, I consider it to be one of the best JRPGs ever made otherwise. Top three game from Atlus.

My ideal is P5R, but with SMT V difficulty balancing, where it's very challenging on the hardest difficulty, but not complete BS like Nocturne was.

Oh god, I love Gravity Rush. It was one of my primary reasons for getting a PS Vita. It's obviously not as impressive on a PS4 as it was on a Vita, but the heady rush of excitement I get from the game's gravity shifting antics and wild mid-air combat encounters is still there. And the gorgeous music, and the neat, surrealistic environments, and the cool motion comic-esque cutscenes... it's still magic.

I maintain my previous position that, no matter how few people played their games, Japan Studio was, far and away, Sony's most exciting first-party developer, and so much of my interest in the brand is gone now that they've been scrubbed from the Earth.

I actually looked at the trophy list before buying Theatrhythm. I suck at rhythm games (despite enjoying them), so I needed to know the plat was achievable for me. There's a few trophies that might take some time, but they all seem doable.

@Ralizah you’re bang on regarding Japan Studio, they were a big part of the PlayStation identity, it’s a huge loss, especially combined with Sony’s vanilla focus on the increasingly played out AAA third person action adventure.

@kyleforrester87 Totally agree. Japan Studio was putting out games that felt like classic Playstation, even as all of their other studios became increasingly Naughty Dog-ized. They added much needed diversity to their exclusives output.

Clearly Sony is very good at the particular type of game their studios now specialize in making, but it's depressing for those of us who enjoyed offerings that weren't photo-realistic movie games.

@HallowMoonshadow Great minds indeed! Funnily enough though, I've stopped playing it. I had last week off work so I managed to play a good few hours of it, but time has been short then. I'll definitely pick it up again at some point though, it's a lot of fun

I'm feeling increasingly bad for Soul Hackers 2 and it basically being sent out to die

But yeah I'm rather excited to try Metaphor too. From the trailer it seems to have some sort of class/job system to it judging by the status menus which is quite intriguing.

I do plan on retrying Persona 5 with Royal at some point. It won't fix my problems with the game... But... Enough time has passed and I know what I'm getting into now that maybe I'll find some aspects to genuinely like about it.

Have you got around to trying Raidou yet by the way?

And I've really been meaning to get Gravity Rush as they do look like a very unique set of games. I just keep distracted by other things whenever I decide to purchase something. Soon I swear!

Ah that's a shame @Gremio108! Hope you get some more free time soon. Was always a favourite of mine back in the day with it's sense of humour and I love Sir Dan as a character.

For some reason it's the only game my mother who's never been that interested in games always remembers. That and Croc. I have no idea why either

I actually bought Soul Hackers 2 a few days ago @Ennui and I'm really looking forward to dive into it fully soon as I did give it a little go for about half an hour and was enjoying my time with it.

I love Ringo and her sass already.

As for P5's Soundtrack? I... Really don't like Lyn's voice to be honest so I don't really remember thinking all that much of it! Not a patch of 3's or 4's in my eyes

@HallowMoonshadow

RE Soul Hackers 2: I tried Soul Hackers 2 for a few hours on Game Pass. It's alright so far. I get the sense I'll like it if I ever properly get into it. It should have been a new IP, tbh, since it feels nothing like the original Soul Hackers in terms of gameplay or tone. Then I wouldn't need to make direct comparisons, which almost never flatter SH2.

Sort of like that team's previous game, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, I feel like it's probably a fundamentally decent game that just does a terrible job of selling itself.

I will say I'd like the game way more if it styled itself more after SMT and put more of a focus on the demons in battle. but alas.

And yeah, Ringo's snark seems to be everyone's favorite aspect of the game.

I'll probably play it on the Steam Deck OLED once I get that. I may not be able to have a Switch version, but I'm intent on playing it on a handheld!

RE Raidou: Nope! If I can get some PS2 action going smoothly on the Deck, though, I'll probably be tempted to give at least the first one a go.

RE P5R: IMO the new story elements add a LOT to the game. The third semester expansion gives it a VASTLY better final act, for one thing, with the new villain arguably being the best one I've encountered in an Atlus game to date.

It also allows you to plat the game in one complete playthrough, which I appreciate so much, considering how annoying the trophy lists usually are for Atlus JRPGs, and especially for the original release of P5.

Persona 5/Royal's soundtrack is a top three gaming soundtrack for me, so I couldn't disagree more with your assessment. But I also thought most of the tunes in Persona 3 were mediocre to borderline unlistenable, so that's where I'm coming from.