I usually try and finish most games I start, but I've given up on Black Myth: Wukong. I might go back to it at some point, but for a game that the developer said wasn't a Soulslike, it's too much like a Soulslike for me. I want to like it, but there's only so many times I can die on a boss before I've had enough!
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! My first and most likely last visual novel game. I appreciate there is supposed to massive twist in the game at some point, but if all you are doing is reading text with minimal intereaction (choosing words for a poem as an example), then I'm out. I need the gameplay to be more enanging to keep me interested. Plus the music did my head in. On a positve note, the characters seem to be written, if a little cliched.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder first negative thing I’ve ever heard about it tbh… though I get it and would most likely feel the same. I have quite a few visual-novels knocking around the backlog and have my doubts if I’ll ever get to them tbh.
@PorkChopExpress I am continuing my play through of Little Nightmares 2. I started it a couple weeks back. It has been good far and it nerve tangling in places.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
I just gave up on Until Then. Visual novel games have yet to draw me in, which is strange, as I'm a sucker for a good story. I bought this because I read a review that claimed this had a really solid story, but it failed to hook me. Maybe it picks up later on, but what I played was dull and forced. My main problem with the game was the language, though. Made in the Philippines, the translation is at times terrible. It also attempts to employ the vernacular of teens today and I can't speak to whether it succeeds or not, but I do know that way to often the characters would spout something utterly nonsensical and I was left to wonder whether kids actually speak like that today or if it was another poor translation. Others may get more from this than I did (I've seen some glowing reviews), but this was not for me.
I'm also on the verge of giving up on Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. I absolutely love the characters and voice work, and the story they find themselves in is compelling as well. It's just that I'm struggling with the mechanics here. The exploration feels meaningless, as does the equipment upgrade system. Worst of all, though, is that I'm finding the combat to be a chore. It goes from boring to frustrating and back to boring quite frequently, but that is most likely my own fault for not approaching it correctly. I will give it some more time and try to get more into the various combat options and also maybe lowering the difficulty to see if I can just breeze through the story. As I said, I really, really love these characters and I really want to see their story to the end.
@FuriousMachine not that I’ve played it yet but I’m a little surprised about the issues you’re having with Banishers… as everything I’d heard previously was pretty glowing. Reading your comment made me realise that I don’t really have any context on the games combat system, is it similar to that of any other games?
@JohnnyShoulder well it never hurts to have my expectations reset. I was (& still am tbh) looking forward to playing it but at least I’ll be going into it aware that it might not hit the way I was initially hoping.
@colonelkilgore@PorkChopExpress You should both definitely check it out, the combat thing is likely highly subjective and, as I mentioned, I may not have approached it "properly".
The combat is your standard "light attack, heavy attack, block, dodge" system (though the dodge and blocks doesn't "feel" right to me, so I wind up attempting to rush attack enemies instead). You also get a ranged attack after a bit, and there's also two "stances" (for lack of a better term) that you switch between that has different abilities.
In addition, there is a set of buffs, laid out in a skill tree type thing, that you can spend points on. You can freely respec any of these at any time, which is cool.
I played another few hours yesterday, and I might power through to the end. Dropped the difficulty all the way to the bottom and that leaves most encounters thankfully short, so i can just focus on the story, the excellent characters and the great side-quests ("hauntings"). It cannot be said enough how much I enjoy these aspects of the game, so that is a huge motivator to power through.
@FuriousMachine It’s not just you. My feelings regarding Banishers thus far are very similar to yours. The world, story, characters, writing and performances are all extremely compelling. Combat just isn’t. I’m finding the enemies and scenarios in which you face them are uninteresting. The skill tree is annoyingly designed. I’ve consistently struggled with the lock on…Getting through an encounter has felt less like effectively utilizing adequate tools to best formidable adversaries and more like fumbling through a bag of half-baked tricks to eventually stumble over the finish line of victory. As you implied, it’s hardly a game killer due to the rest of the game’s impressive strengths, yet it’s hard not to dream of what could have been had the combat been as well realized as the rest of it. I’ll also finish it but in the way one finishes a good pizza with a bad crust.
Edit: Out of curiosity, where did you land with your oath? My commitment would definitely fall under the description of ‘conflict of interest’ within the banisher profession.
[...] Getting through an encounter has felt less like effectively utilizing adequate tools to best formidable adversaries and more like fumbling through a bag of half-baked tricks to eventually stumble over the finish line of victory. [...]
That is such an incredibly fitting description of how the combat feels!
As for my oath, I felt that Red was a gentle and selfless soul that would feel the price for their happily-ever-after was too steep (although my own instincts were to go the other route )
@FuriousMachine I think that’s a good read on Red. The framework is really quite brilliant! I’ll be curious to hear how things play out for you in contrast. Though I’ve been swayed by enough cases that I may not fulfill my oath.
“Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” C.S. Lewis
@Jimmer-jammer Yes, I love the concept of the Banishers and how it weaves into the decision making. I must admit, I picked that oath partly because I knew I would struggle to uphold the other one (without going into details to avoid spoilers)
Trails Through Daybreak (PS5) - I'm liking it well enough, but I just got absolutely bodied by the key battle in a side quest (enemy had first turn and KO'd two of my party members, including my healer, before I even got a turn). It's not something I can come back to later as you have to do all available side content as it becomes available, and I dunno if I'm just playing wrong or what but I shouldn't be under leveled at all as I've done everything up until this point, so it shouldn't be anywhere near this hard (most regular battles seem easy, and I can get through most boss battles with an acceptable amount of difficulty, but the chapter end bosses are starting to kick my butt as well, and I often feel like I clear them only on luck). I may come back to it, but I've jumped on to Astro Bot for now.
Resident Evil: Revelations (Steam) - This has been decent enough, but the bosses are absolutely unfair in how bullet spongy they are. I can start a battle pretty much fully stocked and only lose because I expend all my ammo (with all weapons) & grenades and the boss is somehow still standing so I just sort of have to let it kill me so I can try again. Apparently I missed out on the Rifle, but I'd have to backtrack a ton to get to it (and get back), and I'm not sure if I want to do all that.
Kind of feels bad because (including these) I've dropped 4 games in the past year and I haven't dropped games that often since I was a kid (I think I may have only dropped 1 or 2 games total in the preceding 10 year period before now, so I don't know what's wrong with me).
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@RR529 That is indeed annoying to get to a point in a game where it’s nearly impossible to clear a certain boss if you didn’t find a certain weapon or a specific power up, especially if that item or ability was hidden and/or difficult to go back and get. Fortunately that form of game design trapping is more rare nowadays but occasionally still happens. A good game will have some options to still progress no matter what loadout you have ended up using. There should always be some way to progress, especially if you’re several hours invested.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I finally pulled the plug on Banishers - Ghosts of New Eden yesterday. The excellent story and characters pulled me through another few hours, in spite of the deeply unsatisfying gameplay mechanics, but as I sat down to play yesterday, I realized that I had started viewing it as something I should finish, rather than actually wanting to. If that isn't a sign to call time of death, I don't know what is.
I'm genuinely sad that this game didn't click better for me, so I'm hoping that others trying it out will have a better experience with it than I had.
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