Topic: Playstation 5 Recommendation Thread

@velio84 @Kairu @KilloWertz Thanks for the recs. I did play Rocket League way back at the beginning when it was new and dropped on PS+. It was decent enough, but I wasn’t very good at it and the game physics were a bit frustrating so I dropped off pretty quickly. I’m not a soccer fan either; not that you need to be to play the game but it probably helps.

Fall Guys seems to fit the bill for something really simple and isolated for short session of mindless fun. It seems a little silly thematically but maybe I need a little silliness in my life.

This thought and question in my mind was evoked partly because of Hood Outlaws and Legends dropping on PS+ this month. What I read about it seemed to evoke memories of the old Assassin’s Creed MP modes in the Ezio games, which is probably one of the few MP experiences I’ve ever enjoyed. Since my gaming skills are so painfully average, I always liked that I could at least earn points for hiding from the other team. In most games skill based MP games like FPS I just drag my team down and it’s not fun being the lowest kill count guy every single match. I’m sure that I could get decent enough at some of these games but people spend hundreds of hours getting good and I’m not willing to do that with all the other games I want to play.

So if anyone spends time playing Hood O&L then let me know what you think.

@Lavalera Responding over here so as to avoid detailing the PS Plus thread, but I’d say go for it with Death Stranding and with Demon’s Souls. Death Stranding is, as you said, different from anything else you’ve ever played. In my book that was a good thing though. The gameplay is engaging in a different way. And it does still have some traditional stealth and gun combat, so there’s enough familiar to keep it on track. The gunplay opens up a little later in the game and is never the centerpiece, but just enough to keep it fresh. The story is bonkers and so your mileage may vary on whether you find that part of it entertaining, but the ideas of how the game world works are where it really shines.

Demon’s Souls is (from what I hear) probably the easiest if the FromSoft games. If you go with a magic wielder (as I did) for your character build then it’s kind of like an “easy mode” for the game. It’s still tough though and a few bosses may have you squeezing your controller, but much of the game is quite approachable with magic as your primary focus, with a sword to use for combat clean up. Fextralife has a nice build I loosely followed for my point allocation, and there are plenty of videos on the internet for boss strategies. I think just about every boss has a technique or “cheese” that you can try out if you run into a wall. As far as I’m concerned, with FromSoft games then all methods are viable and I don’t feel the least bit guilty to look up a video to help me out. It made the game much more enjoyable for me.

Returnal however does not have easy cheesing that can be done in most of the game, so it’s just a matter of getting good for the most part. It might be hard enough to put you off for a while, but as a average gamer I got my skills up to speed and had a blast doing it. The videos online do help to slow down boss battles and teach strategies to look for which moves are coming, etc, but most of the big fights just need to be earned through repetition.

I’m sure a lot of this you’ve heard or read before, but I wanted to give you my two cents and encourage you.

@Th3solution Thanks m8, i appreciate the feedback It's always good to read other people's opinions about games i might be interested in so i can easier decide if i want to try a game or not.

Returnal out of the 3 is the one i doubt the most, because i'm generally not a fan of roguelike's. They tend to get repetitive for me. I tried games like Hades on gamepass and while i get people like that game it simply isn't for me. Now with the ps plus extra tier i can see if maybe Returnal is better suited for me or still feels so repetitive.

I will eventually try them all out and see if i like them or not. If i like them aweseome i found some new games, if i don't thats fine as well, since with these services it doesn't feel like you wasted money. I have been a gamepass subscriber since 1 1/2 year so know the pros and cons of those services and for me the biggest pro is trying games i would never have touched otherwise or maybe on a deep deep sale. And if i really like those games i buy them with DLC, if it is available. That happened for me with games like the entire yakuza series. Which i never tried before, but thanks to gamepass im now a huge Yakuza fan and it made me buy the ultimate edition of lost judgment the day it arrived.

@Lavalera No problem. I agree — one of the best things about the forums is hearing people’s personal experiences with games and it has motivated me many times to try new things.
I’ve had a similar experience that you describe through PS+ in that I have found a few favorites by trying some games I would have never tried otherwise. Control comes to mind. That game is one of my favorites I’ve played on PS5 and I played it through PS+. Another is Bloodborne, which I was like you and was skeptical enough to not want to spend money on it, but when it was give out on PS+ I decided to try it. It was a rough opening 5 hours or so, but I eventually grew to like it and then eventually became obsessed and loved it and consider it one of my favorite PS4 games. I had tried the original Dark Souls on PS3 and didn’t click with it. But I think I just wasn’t in the right mindset at the time, so I need to retry the Dark Souls series again. I think I’ll try DS3 soon, because it’s supposed to be the easiest of the three and closest to Bloodborne in how it plays. I also plan to try Elden Ring, but unless it has a steep sale price drop (unlikely for a while given it’s success), I’ll probably try DS3 first. We’ll see.

Interesting you mention Yakuza, because I should probably go back and try to finish Yakuza 0. I played it for about 20 hours I think and I liked what I played, but it seemed so overwhelming as far as length and easy to get distracted with all the side content. Then when I looked at the fact there was 6 more games to get to the end of the Kiryu arc, I just gave up. I just don’t have the time that I used to for devoting 500+ hours into one series. Maybe I should try to go back, or maybe it would be better to just play the two Judgement games. Again, if they drop onto PS+ it might tempt me to try them.

And since you mention Hades, I picked it up on sale on the back of my enjoyment of Returnal. I think I only paid about $17 for it. Not sure when I’ll get around to it, but looking forward to it. The only other rogue-like I played was Dead Cells which I enjoyed enough to continue to experiment with the genre. It wasn’t an all-time favorite, but fun enough and was a pretty good entry point to the genre.

I may want something to play between now and GOW. Kena or Plague Tale?

@Octane Having played neither, in my head that seems like a choice between fun and misery!

@Octane I'm replaying God of War before Ragnarok releases. Currently taking Atreus back to Freya after being ambushed by Modi.

As for your picks it's a tricky choice.
One is more colourful but combat is more involved, I enjoyed both but they are very different experiences!

@MightyDemon82 Which one is shorter you think? I'm going to play them both eventually anyway.

@nessisonett Is Kena that miserable?

@Octane Depends if you wanna go into Ragnarok having played a more gritty experience with Plague Tale. Saying that Kena does have its darker moments too, but can't say much without spoiling stuff. Both good games mind.

@Octane been a while since I've played both, but A Plague Tale is probably the shorter of the 2 as you won't be retrying bosses several times unlike Kena unless you set that on easy.

@Octane I've only played Kena, and its a pretty decent game... but the bosses are pretty punishing unless you drop the difficulty down big time!

Not sure if you'd be interested, or are into Souls-likes, but one of my favorite games of all time - 'Salt and Sanctuary' - is now on sale in PS Store. In UK it is like 3 £GBP (!!!) and a great experience. Basically a 2D-Dark Souls, loads of build diversity and cool bosses etc. You'd happily mop it up in a week or so, prior to Ragnarok.

But assuming you an answer to your original Q, I understand both games could probably be beaten before Ragnarok... but I think Plague Tale is probably the better experience (also nice Halloween vibes I guess)

@Octane Assuming you’re referring to A Plague Tale: Innocence rather than Requiem, I’ve played both your options.

For what it’s worth, I liked both. Quite a bit.
I thought I actually wrote a review of them, but I guess not, as I just checked the contents page and don’t see either.

But in short, I’d say APT:I is like a poor man’s The Last of Us with a little more emphasis on dynamic puzzle solving over combat. Quite a bit of stealth.

Kena: Bridge of Sprits is more like like a Disney/Pixar action rpg-lite. Very colorful, cutesy (almost too much), but really fun combat and exploration.

Both are fantastic examples of why I really love AA games.

Thematically, I’d go with Kena before GoW since it’s less narrative heavy (and in fact the narrative aspects are probably it’s weaker parts, imo. There’s a story there, but it’s awkwardly told).
The downside is that the gameplay is a little closer to what GoW will be, which is action-combat with a splash of magic skills, open world, map exploration, big boss fights. The art design is so different that you probably won’t notice it, though.

You can’t go wrong with APT though. The gameplay will be less like GoW, but it feels kinda like a Sony-narrative-driven-game-wannabe. And that’s not an knock on it necessarily, as it accomplishes quite a bit in that regard.
Nevertheless, I think APT is a little shorter. And it’s linearity makes it a nice one to pace through rather quickly without the temptation to go back and explore the whole map and find all the collectibles.

So, I think I just probably confused you more. 😅

Thanks all! I think I'm going to order Kena and see if it arrives on time, since that one seems to be the shorter one. Though the difficulty has me a little worried, I do like to play on normal or hard, so if it's too much of a time sink I may just wait until I'm done with GOW.

@Th3solution I actually meant Requiem! I played Innocence when it came out and I quite liked it! So I have no doubt the sequel will be just as fun.

@Octane If you do end up having trouble with the bosses in Kena, there's no shame in dropping the difficulty down just for the boss fights in order to keep it from getting too frustrating. I had problems with them, but just dropped the difficulty down to Easy for them and was able to enjoy the game more.

@Octane Ah, well that changes things. Supposedly Requiem is a bit longer. So Kena is probably the logical choice, so long as your copy arrives in a timely fashion.

Regardless, I do agree that playing on easy would be a reasonable approach, especially given the possible time crunch. But even without that, I enjoyed it a ton on easy. Every trophy is obtainable on easy except the one trophy for completing the game on Master difficulty, which is apparently nigh impossible so I haven’t even tried.

@Th3solution I went with Kena, but I won't be delivered until today or tomorrow, so it'll have to wait until I'm done with GOW unfortunately!

@Octane Good choice. An amazing game

@Octane Sounds good! Either way it will still function well alongside GoW, even if it’s afterward. Or maybe even during GoW, as the review emphasized just how enormous Ragnarok is and so maybe a midway break from it will be necessary.

Regardless of when, I’ll be curious to see how you like Kena. Although I don’t think it’s the best non-Sony developed PlayStation console exclusive (with Death Stranding, Detroit Become Human, FF7R, and until recently Persona 5 all setting a high mark), it fills a very specific void in the PlayStation exclusive library. Stylistically speaking, there’s a paucity of these cute colorful and less photo-realistic games on the platform now that Media Molecule is tied up with Dreams. (With apologies to Concrete Genie, which also fits well there)

Edit: Yikes… and also maybe Ratchet & Clank, and how could I forget Astrobot? Oh well, you get the picture… 😅

Wasn’t sure whether to put this in the PS+ thread or what, but this seems like a good enough place for it.

And I can’t believe I’m actually asking this question because I don’t know if I really want to know the answer…. but what can people tell me about how to approach the Kingdom Hearts games?
I see from today’s article that PS+ Extra gets:

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (PS4)

This seems like it should be the whole series, so there’s no excuse to not try it… other than having no clue where to start. 😅. Well, that and hearing that some of the games are garbage.

The numbering system is completely bonkers here and as an outsider to the series, it makes almost no sense. It’s probably the highest barrier to entry of any long-standing series in production. All these crazy versions of the games, with remixes, remasters, and offshoots.

I mean, there’s some really long and complex gaming series out there but KH has to take the cake. The closest I could think of might be the Metal Gear Solid series where the numbering and naming convention is out of sync with an already convoluted timeline of storytelling. I could see a newcomer being confused there. But Kingdom Hearts looks way worse.

I did a quick internet search and tried to read the explanation of entries 1.5+2.5, 2.8, 358/2… holy macaroni! It’s just too much. I hate math and don’t want addition or fractions in my game titles. I believe I’ll just steer clear.

Someone convince me otherwise.