@LtSarge Odin Sphere isn't a game without repetition, but it's a tremendously better experience. Was flat out gorgeous on the Vita. Have yet to play 13 Sentinels, but otherwise, it's probably my favorite Vanillaware title to date (was iffy on Muramasa)
Currently Playing: Fields of Mistria (PC); Cookie Clicker (PC); Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC); Overboard! (PC)
@RogerRoger I'd actually be interested in playing the remasters of Tomb Raider I-III but it doesn't seem like the re-releases will offer difficulty options or changes to the controls. I'm fine with tank controls in Resident Evil, but combining them with platforming in Tomb Raider is not appealing to me at all. Not to mention how brutally challenging the third TR is. So I think I'll pass on those games unfortunately and stick with the PS3/360 trilogy.
Finished Super Mario Bros. Wonder today. This is the best 2D Mario platformer I've ever played. Literally every level is unique and has something different going on, whether it'd be the Wonder Flower ability or a new enemy. This game is just filled to the brim with creativity, something that's been missing from Nintendo for years now (at least with the 2D games). It just does a great job of surprising you at every corner and not sticking by a strict structure. I'm genuinely impressed by this game and Nintendo. It's not just another 2D Mario, it's its own thing. It's an absolutely phenomenal experience from start to finish and I loved it.
Just saw credits on "Spider-Man 2". I'd describe it as the most profoundly disappointing objectively excellent videogame that I've ever played. Not really interested in playing "Spider-Man 3" that much is for certain. After my negative experiences with "Alan Wake 2", "FFXVI" and now this, maybe I'm just fed up with mega budget AAA videogames?
@LN78 Bummer that the game didn’t stick the landing. I’ve yet to play Spider-Man 2 but I have it on deck to get to in the next few months. I need to mop up FFXVI. After getting through the initial adjustment of what the game is, compared to prior FF games, I’ve come to enjoy it for what it is. But I can definitely recognize where many players have had complaints.
As for SM2, was it mainly the narrative aspect that didn’t appeal or was it more related to gameplay? Lack of innovation? I’ve heard the story really picks up in the final act but I don’t know anything about how it ultimately ends. I’m obviously not looking for spoilers, but I’m just curious. Whatever the reason, it has to have been majorly disappointing to be already dissuading you from the inevitable third entry.
And I think I remember you did get to play Baldur’s Gate 3, right? I think you enjoyed it if I recall correctly? Maybe there’s some AAA hope yet. 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution It was the story (very low effort, in my opinion - especially in a year when "Across the Spider-Verse" came out) and the fact that (a couple of new mechanics aside) there was nothing to distinguish it from the first two games in the series (which I loved). It might just be a case of too much of a good thing, but I really felt like Insomniac were treading water instead of moving forwards in any meaningful way.
On the topic of "FFXVI" , I don't have any deeply ingrained loyalty to a particular format (team based or real time or whatever) for the series (and as suggested earlier, I welcome innovation) but not only was the game (a button mashing thumb killer) insultingly easy, but the staccato pacing, dull characters and derivative story told in endless (admittedly beautifully produced and performed) cutscenes had me tearing my hair out. Fortunately (unlike the equally disastrous "Alan Wake 2") it was a hard copy so I managed to get a big chunk of my money back by selling it on eBay.
Perhaps it's just third person narrative driven action/adventure games that I'm getting burnt out on? In any case thank God for "Baldur's Gate 3" 🤣.
@LN78 Ah, got it. Fair enough. I thought the first two Spidey games’ stories were fairly good. Wouldn’t put them in the highest tier, but solid storyline and characters for a game. The FFXVI story (although admittedly steeped in copious cutscenes and paced poorly at times) is hitting above expectations for me. I am actually really smitten with it. I’m glad you recouped some of your money for it though. It’s why I try to go physical if I can!
And can’t wait to play BG3. If I’m not blown completely away by it then it will be a disappointment
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Just beat Resi 5 on veteran difficulty with a friend of mine, that’s the 3rd or 4th time I’ve played it over the years - lots of fun! It wasn’t too hard until the final chapter where it all went a bit nuts. The encounters needed quite a bit of planning and attempts on very limited supplies. At some points it seemed impossible… lots of fun! Unlocked professional difficulty now 🤔
@kyleforrester87 I’ve yet to play RE5. Do you think Capcom continues to go in order and it will be the next RE that they remake? Or do they go back and do RE0 or Code Veronica or something?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution pretty sure RE5 remake is a lock now given some information that came out with RE4 remake. As long as they keep the co-op element I’d love for them to do 5. In its original form it is only worth playing that way, though. It’s really exceptional fun 2 player.
I have no real affinity for 0 or CV, but CV could be fun.
@RogerRoger Yeah, if the remasters offer an updated control scheme then I might give them a shot! I love experiencing older titles as long as they still hold up today.
Me back to write something that is probably too long for this thread, but not detailed enough for the review thread.
After bouncing off of the base version of the game for the best part of six years, I finally finished Persona 5 thanks to the Royal version. Just in time for Persona 3 Reload, which has now shot up to the top of my hype list (although I have had P4 Golden loaded on my PC for literally years, so maybe it is now time to finally play it).
Anyway, Persona 5 is one of a few games for me where if I was just to give you a contextless list of pros and cons, the cons section would probably be longer, but the pros section is just weighted higher, overall.
P5 is just vibes and mood, man. Can't explain it any other way. Loved the virtual tourism aspect and loved spending time with these characters. Sure, the writing is absolutely all over the place, with a poorly structured and paced story, that barely makes any sense. But when it comes to writing character moments that hit the feels, they just nailed it every time. Well maybe they could have laid off the sexism and weird underage dynamics a bit too.
I also loved the combat, too. It feels like traditional turn based games are vanishing before my eyes, so I lap up any game that delivers in that regard as I love a turn based RPG. But I dunno, there is still something special about the way Persona 5 does it on top of that. It is one of the few RPGs I have played where I am actually excited to grind, rather than dreading it (not that grinding is often necessary in Royal, really. But it was deffo way more necessary in the significantly more gruelling base version, which is part of the reason why I bounced off of that game so many times).
But yeah, battles in P5, man. The pace, the animations, all the little details. Battles were very repetitive in terms of the Xs and Os, but every battle just felt like a complete joy. Well except Haru's Dad (and his whole dungeon, to be honest). But the reward is Haru, who is one of the best characters in the whole game so...
So yeah, dunno if in the rawest sense I'd agree with all the 10 out of 10s and that, but on the vibe scale it is deffo up there towards the top, for sure.
@Pizzamorg The style, art, and music of the Persona game is unmatched, and P5 is the pinnacle of that. I agree with your assessment overall. For me, the games are really too long, and drag in the middle, but the characters are a lot of fun to engage with.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Pizzamorg The style, art, and music of the Persona game is unmatched, and P5 is the pinnacle of that. I agree with your assessment overall. For me, the games are really too long, and drag in the middle, but the characters are a lot of fun to engage with.
Yeah so much of Persona 5 in the end is kind of just filler. Like it doesn't feel like it in the moment, but looking back you realise there are entire gameplay sections, characters and story arcs in here which are in the end basically completely irrelevant.
It's like they made three Palaces with real intent and realised that the story doesn't land as well with the Phantom Thieves only doing that much, so they threw in a bunch of extra Palaces to pad out the resume but didn't properly blend them into the wider story.
There's also just a lot of filler in general in the game. One of my biggest frustrations with the game was how it kept hammering me with warnings about making good choices, maximising my time etc. but in reality you almost never get to really make any choices of your own, the majority of the time the game will add in artificial blockers, so you can really only make the choice it wants you to make. Linearity isn't a problem to me, until you start gas lighting me and pretending I had a say in matters I never actually did.
@Pizzamorg The way each palace is centered around a cardinal sin is an interesting concept, but it does mean there’s times when it seems they must have forced some ideas. If they trimmed the story and content down to the best 4 or 5 palaces/storylines, then it couldn’t have fit into the whole concept there. It’s a problem when games start with an external narrative frame and then they have to adjust their story to fit the idea.
I only played the base game, not Royal. Seeing that Royal adds a whole other character and extra semester did not appeal to me, although I hear the add-on content is very good. But I spent excess of 100 hours just to finish the base game and so I never felt like I wanted another 20 hours.
Persona 4 Golden also dragged for me in the middle. I don’t remember Persona 3 being as long-winded though.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Pizzamorg The way each palace is centered around a cardinal sin is an interesting concept, but it does mean there’s times when it seems they must have forced some ideas. If they trimmed the story and content down to the best 4 or 5 palaces/storylines, then it couldn’t have fit into the whole concept there. It’s a problem when games start with an external narrative frame and then they have to adjust their story to fit the idea.
I only played the base game, not Royal. Seeing that Royal adds a whole other character and extra semester did not appeal to me, although I hear the add-on content is very good. But I spent excess of 100 hours just to finish the base game and so I never felt like I wanted another 20 hours.
Persona 4 Golden also dragged for me in the middle. I don’t remember Persona 3 being as long-winded though.
I was just thinking along those lines, that the real problem with Persona 5 is the wider narrative. The need to tell the rise, fall and rise again of the Phantom Thieves entirely in real time, along with the bigger interconnected story around that. That it actually hurts more than it helps, when it comes to the moment to moment story.
If each palace was its own mostly disconnected separate mini arc, I think that might have overall worked better, like you were just watching a couple of seasons of your favourite anime or whatever.
Just finished FF7 remake for the first time and wow I’m so impressed! I knew I was sleeping on this game but didn’t realize how hard. I started this journey last week and normally I hop between games but I couldn’t stop playing or thinking about playing this one. I didn’t switch up my game time at all between different games while playing this which is saying a lot for my ADHD brain. Now I’m hyped to jump into the DLC tonight and eventually the sequel! Think I’m going to play through 16 first and some of my backlog. I’ll wait for a sale on Rebirth before picking it up as I normally do.
Just finished Paper Mario (64) on Switch after 26 hours of playtime. What a fantastic game! I'm really proud of myself for finishing this one as I've been wanting to play through it for so long but never gotten around to it. It also didn't help that I wasn't able to progress through it as a kid. The game is actually not that challenging, I just got lost during one of the chapters lol.
Anyway, this is easily the best Paper Mario I've played in terms of gameplay. It's just so much fun to play a Paper Mario game with RPG mechanics. There's so much depth from how to approach a battle to customisation. In terms of story though, it's fairly simplistic with Bowser kidnapping the princess once again. It's actually the events and characters in each chapter that truly shine. From exploring a haunted mansion to solving a murder mystery (yes, Nintendo actually wrote a part about a character being murdered in a Nintendo game!), each chapter was just so memorable. Not to mention the amount of unique characters in this game! If there was one aspect of this that I wish had been more developed, it's the partners and their interactions with each other. But maybe that was improved in TTYD.
But yeah, the story wasn't this game's strongest suit. Out of all the Paper Mario games I've played now (64, Super and Sticker Star), my favourite story is Super Paper Mario's. Absolutely brilliant plot with well-written characters.
In short, I really enjoyed this game and I'm so glad that I've finally played it. Can't wait to play TTYD down the line!
@avividan Congrats for beating Alan Wake 2. Its a game that is on my radar and I would probably want to play it soon if I had not a few other games in my backlog atm. That being said I hope to maybe play it later this year (or next year).
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