LuXifer

Neck deep into school drama, monster slaying and building bonds in Trails of Cold Steel I try to absorb all the in game history/lore, but the game sure like to tell instead of show. This is going to take a while, at least if I plan to do the whole series. 😅

Finished Chrono Trigger on my bedside retro-handheld earlier this week, still one of the best jRPGs ever made. Now it's up to Phantasy Star to make sure I keep on getting too little sleep. 😁

Fun trip down memory lane. 😃

Played a fair bit these games. But it's hard to remember exactly how I felt about them at the time. The highlights and lowpoints are easy enough, but rating mid games is almost impossible. So I abstained from rating games I don't clearly remember.

What a great library the PS1 had.

Well deserved! 👏🎉

Not much that interested me this time around (that I don't already own). But snagged myself Risk of Rain 2 at a great price.

But more importantly got myself a physical copy of Gran Turismo 7 locally for $12.99, been waiting some time to get my hands on this one! 🥳

Update: I'll be damned, walked over to my local game shop on my break just as they were restocking...and got my grabby hands on Final Fantasy XVI for $9.99. My poor, poor, backlog sooo bloated. 😁

If you can get it on any of the big digital storefronts then it's waaaay to mainstream for me, damn dirty sellouts. I only enjoy the games found while scraping the bottom of itch.io and a select few atari 2600 & zx spectrum homebrews. tips fedora

I'm sure the extended universe and lore must be good, at least good enough to get the money-people excited enough to back them.

But as for the game, I thought it looked like an uninspired action game with the chick from The Witcher tv-show. It gave off a "Forspoken at home" vibe to me. 🤷‍♂️

@CriticalGames I'll download it right away, thanks. 😃 Great to see the passion and hands-on approach from the dev team. 👍

Looks like my kind of jam, just need to see some gameplay and story beats before I slap it on my wishlist.

The series that helped coined the term slav-jank being janky checks out. I applaud them for sticking to their guns and not dumbing it down. Will get this down the line, no doubt.

Two SKUs coming next gen.

• Portable w/gpu dock (pricier)
• Legacy console (a bit cheaper)

Talking out of my a*s of course, but I do know in my heart of hearts that they will be named:

• The PlayStation 6 Fondle
  &
• The PlayStation 6 Worship

Well deserved, Atlus jRPGs are in a class of their own. Glad to see them seeing success outside of the Persona games. A developer with a diverse set of IPs is a healthy developer imo.

Loved my playthrough, easily my personal jRPG of the year and can't wait to see what's next for Atlus. 😃

It's a steep learning curve. But once you have yout head wrapped around the character creator and systems it's easily one the absolute best cRPGs ever made. Cloked over 1.5k hours into this one by now. 😁

@DogPark Yeah, much improved from the hourly crash in Kingmaker. Don't think I've had more then a handful of crashes in total while playing this on the PS5. Load screens are a plenty still, but they're quite snappy IMO.

Would be a great get for Sony, not so much for From Software.

Ohh, a remaster of a game already avalible on modern systems. What a novel idea.

A quick buck is a quick buck I guess. But would prefer if they dug into their backlog and gave us some King's Field or Armored Core goodness.

Elden Ring and From Software deserves all the praise and accolades it gets showered with, but it's dlc should not win goty under any circumstances.

Glad to see Unicorn Overlord getting nominated in the Sim/Strategy category.

I only support games that I enjoy at a price point I feel is fair/deserved. This is a hobby that I use to unwind and have some fun...and be snarky about sometimes. 😁

I don't belive in this rhetoric that we as gamers need to support games/studios for any other reason than giving us a product we want. I do wish that we got more low budget and creative games but in the end we are not investors and we don't owe developers a living.

@JuiceboxMeister Thanks for the info, yeah sounds like stupid leadership in a nutshell. I mean, I've got a tip that a horse in a race MIGHT win so I'll spend all the money my family needs for food and roof. Just might pay off you know. 😋

Pata-pata-pata-pon!🎶 Hope they deliver on the expectations, would love to pick this up.

My guess is that some crafty market researchers cooked the books with covid numbers and sold the greedy executives on a self-imploding plan. Just too bad so many people have to pay for shortsighted leaders.

As for Kingdom Come 2 - I'm sure it'll it'll sell well, exceeding it's predecessor handedly. But, as much as love the original, I'm uncertain it will bring in the amount of cash Embracer would need. Would love to be proven wrong. 🤞

Lol, lmao even. Why not just put them in a dlc/remaster of the year catagory. As someone else said this is a big middle finger to developers with fresh releases/experiences. Guess they need the "approved" games to win. 🙄

I'm neck deep in field trips, politics, monsters and school drama as I continue my journey through Trails of Cold Steel.

May your weekend be filled with great games. 😃

@twitchtvpat For sure, especially when it cover things like fidelity, resolution and the likes. But the games I'm interested in getting a boost are mostly held back by the CPU. But as I've said before, if the right game with the right improvements comes along I'll not deny myself the upgrade.

Been watching comparison videos of several games I'd be sold on. Decided to save my money and spend it on a nice Switch 2 kit next year instead.

Base PS5 have been treating me good so far, if only console maker would standardise controllers with hall effect sticks I'd be a happy camper.

I've been waiting for this to go on sale again. Hope it gets a nice discount during black friday/xmas/new year. 🤞

@Oram77 Yeah, it does seem to be an instrumental release for them to stay healthy as a company. So that it has ended up drenched in drama makes for good entertainment if nothing else. 😁

No shade to either Ramsey or AC fans in general, enjoy your games to your hearts content. I wouldn't want it any other way. But that dosen't change the fact that I despise these games. 😉

My hope is that one day humanity can evolve past the point where we feel that any criticism against a game we like = personal attack.

No matter what I think of AC: Shadows it will be a very interesting release, there's no doubt that this is a very important product for Ubisoft.

This show gives the Oscars a run for their money when it comes to rating the bouquet of each other's farts. But usually has some exciting announcements sandwiched between copious amount of ads. 🥳

No wonder I slept badly, trashing about as if some unspoken evil act had happened. Lo and behold, a fresh PS5 release without PRO support. 😅

Played through DQ 1-5 a couple of years ago on my retro machine. Glad I did, but I'm in no hurry to revisit them. Maybe down the line.

This looks like my cup of tea. But seeing as I have too many games lined up as is, this goes on the wishlist for now.

It's been apparent for many years now that the industry that used to be filled with passionate developers that were willing to shed blood & tears to release a a product to their fellow gamers are having a hard time transition to a legacy entertainment factory. With scummy publishers exploiting the ingrained work culture of the past.

I get that working at a mega-corp, pumping out soul-less content can be unfulfilling and that they have neither the will nor incentive to treat it any different from any other 9-5 job...and apparently have misgivings to even show up at work.

What's interesting to see if how this all plays out over the next few years. Will we have a monopoly devided between a handful of publishers, ala Hollywood. I think there are more then a few similarities between the history of film and what's going on in the gaming industry. Art vs Money - with money probably being victorious in the end, winning over the masses with big budget spectacles.

Or the whole industry crashing as investors flees back to more secure teets to milk. And out of it's ashes smaller studios/publishers could steer the industry to prosperity...until they get too big and profitable, starting the cycle once again. 😋

Making gaming mainstream was a huge mistake. Pure greed makes for a sh*t incentive in a creative industry.

But either the masses will gobble up their bland, made by committee, slop or they will not. The market will decide. All I know is that MS seems to want to cement their place besides EA and Ubisoft as a unholy trinity of industry enshittification.

Loving the vibe of the presented artwork, looking forward to getting more info.

Hmm, to implement/enforce this they'd need to make it mandatory for Aussies to provide government issued ID wouldn't they?

But if they must have ID-approved accounts then the predators would just slither away to shadier pastures. Youth are usually at the forefront of technology and quicker to adapt to emerging digital habits. Then the government need to s-l-o-w-l-y catch up with updated systems to include new tech.

The only way for Australia to shield itself from the Internet would be to cut off all Internet content/access to it's citizens unless it's pre-approved by the government. Sounds like quite the task.

I'm all for keeping kids safe. But this, to me, sounds more of a case of the government wanting everyone to register their ID to use the internet and then using the age old "won't anyone think of the children" tactics to force it through.

Again, I agree that something needs to be done to fight the predators. But this sounds like an bureaucratic and totalitarian nightmare.

But this won't be the first time my tiny brain can't comprehend the thought processes that goes into a lot of corporate and governmental decisions. 🤷‍♂️

I bit the bullet and dived into The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. About 5 hours in and loving it so far.

Have an amazing weekend nerds, enjoy your games. 🤓

@danzoEX Don't you know that mean words online = worse than irl physical assault. 😋

Let's hope it's just a performative lawsuit, to deter others from flying to close to the "Pokemon sun", that they settle under the table. Because if they win...oh boy. 😬

Hopefully it will be either Fallout quality or Rings of Power quality. Both scenarios will be very entertaining, if for different reasons. 😁

Interesting news, thanks for the update. Hope someone uploads a late game video of it running on the pro.

@Fallingshadow Yeah, I read something about that. Such a shame. Luckily the rom-translators are picking up the slack so part 2 and 3 of Shining Force III are playable in english. But still, an official release with some QoL fixes would be preferable.

As I've said earlier, I'm just one must-have title with meaningful improvements away from getting it.

Keeping a close eye on news/details around the reported upcoming BG3 pro-patch. 👀

But yeah, as an earlier commenter said, all in all the Switch 2 is a higher priority for now.

It's a sign, they're pulling the collection because they're about to announce a remake of the entire Shining Force series. Finally!

*inhales large amounts of hopeium

Enjoy your new hardware guys and gals, always fun getting new tech. 🎮

Nice, picked up a handful of titles. Finally bought Trails of Cold Steel 1, now to find the time to play these massive titles. 😬

The wife is a huge HP fan and enjoyed the game immensely, can't wait for this to release as it would make the perfect gift. 😁

@RedRiot193 Not my favourite way of playing lore rich games, but I'll keep my expectations in check.

As this will be my first time dipping my toes into the Trails world I'm quite intrigued by the world-building. Hope it resonates with me because then I'd have a lot of games to look forward to.

Just spent a couple of hours trying it out, loving the tactical/puzzle elements. But oh-boy got hit by the slow-load bug during the first boss fight. Had to forfeit, guess I'll wait for a patch before venturing forth.

@ShogunRok @McBurn
I've been hovering them all up on sale just waiting for 1 to go down to a more manageable price. I had planned to do them all as I've heard chatter and praise for the Cold steel series in general for years. The size and scope of it all is a bit daunting ngl. But that's why I need plenty of time, I got the feeling that mashing my way through dialogue will just leave me unsatisfied. And I've played my share of jRPGs so a school setting won't deter me too much.

Thanks for the feedback guys. 😃

@nessisonett Oof, that's not exactly an glowing endorsement. I've got a couple of the games already, just need the time off to dive into them. Are they so bad that I'm better off looking up some story/lore videos and jump straight into 3?