Yakuza 8 having Kiryu in it as a main character and also there being an interquel starring Kiryu between the events of 6 and 7 is both cool and making me wonder if RGG is backing down from the whole new protagonist thing and just bringing out the emergency comfort blanket that is Kiryu.

Ahem so does anyone else sort of see some glaringly similar personality traits shared between the new Octopath Traveler characters? I wanna make sure I'm not seeing something that isn't there.

@Yankee you're a fan, do you see anything odd about the characters?

I'm not sure what you mean by odd. As far as traits shared between them, it's still a bit early but... I dunno, it seems about half of them have a more upbeat personality and the other half have a more serious one, vaguely similar to the first group. It's kinda hard to judge just from the short trailer since all we really have is their design, a short scene with them, and the reason for their travels. So like, Throné shares her reason with Therion, both thieves are "For Freedom." And then we have Osvald the Scholar taking over Primrose's "For Revenge," and Temenos the Cleric taking over Cyrus' "For Truth." It'll be interesting to see how they differ. The others don't have the same reasons as the previous group. I can't really tell what similar personality they all share that you're seeing, but feel free to tell me your thoughts.

I'm interested to see where the new story goes in general especially since it seems they took some of the criticisms of the original Octopath and worked on them, they mentioned the travelers having more of a connection than the first so that will be cool.

@Yankee I didn't think about it like that before, I'm definitely excited to see how they improve things compared to the first game. I'm definitely excited for it and the two characters I'm liking so far is Osvald and the Merchant (can't remember his name atm) but Osvald seems like a really interesting character.

Hi, I'm 彡iRoen彡.

How iRoen-ic.

Through a complicated chain of dominoes, my mind thought about Sunrider again. Turns out Love in Space is making another one, despite my impression they'd given up on Sunrider.

I'd get optimistic about it, but Liberation Day was such a trainwreck of a VN that I'm dreading whatever the hell they're cooking up. Someone else can bite the bullet on this one for me, 'cause lord do I not want to have to think about LD's plot ever again.

Death's Door crashed on me in the middle of its unskippable end credits and made me fight the final, final, but not final boss twice. (Or more.) It's fun, I guess. But I cannot be bothered to do the end game content.

On that note, several games I got for a buck review.

A Robot Named Fight: Eeeeeh. It's Permadeath Procedural Generation Metroid Deadcells. I didn't hate it. But it's a bit dull, and not engaging enough to keep unlocking things little bits at a time. So I'd rather play something else.

Wuppo: I was surprised how charming this was to start with. Basically a point and click adventure (in gameplay) with a decent variety of boss fights. However, it lost me in its city level. In that its sprawling and not very clear where I'm meant to go. Or what I'm suppose to be doing. And it expects me to grind for quite a bit of money. But what made me stop, was its real time waiting for things to pass. In many more places than you'd imagine. In some bizarre attempt at realism in this world of sentient hat-wearing balls. (So it's REALLY damn slow.) And it seemed to be broken on top of it. So when it expected me to do a bunch of busywork and odd jobs to progress, I decided to stop.

Headlander: This has been a very interesting experience. (Flawed as it might be.) Its probably my favorite of the three. Except the terrible boss fight.

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I don't really want to buy TemTem. (With its mobile game currency/battle pass shit.) But my friend really wants me to. So I might get strong-armed into playing that.

@SleepingSilence do eet buy TemTem

@Dark Cloud I did. So I hope its at least mildly entertaining.

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My friend finally managed to find and purchase a PS5 (the last one in stock) today. Now all he has to do is justify the amount spent on a console with no games on it...

My friend finally managed to find and purchase a PS5 (the last one in stock) today. Now all he has to do is justify the amount spent on a console with no games on it...

Damn there's like 30 games on there tho. And even just counting exclusives there's a fair number.

Also this idea of having to 'justify' a purchase with some arbitrary number of games is wild. If someone wants to play Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart then congrats, the purchase is justified!

@SleepingSilence if your friend pays for a PSN subscription they can get access to games on the Catalogue for no money.

Damn there's like 30 games on there tho. And even just counting exclusives there's a fair number.

Also this idea of having to 'justify' a purchase with some arbitrary number of games is wild. If someone wants to play Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart then congrats, the purchase is justified!

...Buyers Remorse Detected...

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For his first day, he downloaded Destiny 2 and he watched Ghost Stories on it.

Yes, I'd agree. If there was a game on the PS5 that he really wanted to play. He should buy that, and then the console it comes on. You buy consoles to play games. Not the other way around...

But I'm just teasing. The user interface is where the PS5 truly shines. And hey, I got a free year subscription of PSN Plus (that I'll rarely use) because it wasn't redeemable on the PS5.

So woot. Another mediocre Need For Speed game is all mine!

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If your friend pays for a PSN subscription they can get access to games on the Catalogue for no money.

He got the console bundled with Horizon's sequel. Not that he was particularly interested/almost gave the code to me.

And I did help him put the random assortment of titles that he got with a PS5 plus sub into his library. (Since he was having trouble figuring out the UI.)

Though, I'm also not a fan of how they've turned the PS Plus subscription into a tier-based subscription. Just to make everything more complicated and expensive.

It's genuinely turned me off getting the console myself. (Along with everything else Sony's been doing.) And I'll likely make purchasing a better PC, my preferred choice in gaming.

@SleepingSilence I didn't say PS5 exclusives. There are many games that are out and out better on the PS5 despite also being on the PS4 because of fuckery with distribution. Shit like Forbidden West, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, and those Last of Us games people seem to lose their mind over.

But anyway they put Brie Larson in Fortnite so I am honor bound by the sapphic code to play that game at last.

Eh Brie Larson? Didn't she like do shitty YouTube vids for awhile after that era where everyone just hated her?

The TemTem character creator is pretty lame. (Just saying. Haven't even gotten my starter yet. Trying to play the campaign with a friend.)

Headlander is probably a 6 out of 10. (+.5 if I add 'I liked it' bias to it.) Decent quirky Metroidvania. Combat and puzzles are easy to deal with. The map is good enough, and its pretty easy to level up. The story, sidequests and many of its upgrades are pointless. And the final level feels thrown together (with a random ass Simon Says minigame in it), and the final (2nd) boss was defeated by me smacking it across the head and then promptly going to a corner of a room where the boss couldn't hit me with any of his attacks. Rinse and repeat. Oops.

But if I were to recommend a Metroidvania for 20 bucks. I'd say Islets has been quite a charming and breezy experience thus far. With enough challenge (in its platforming sections and bosses specifically) that it doesn't suffer from being too easy. (Like Headlander, or Haiku The Robot.) The map, easter eggs, character interactions, rewards, upgrades, monster variety, it has everything and its doing them pretty well too. If anything, its grab bag style of game design, feels a bit unfocused. With the character feeling a bit floaty (and twice as fast as most action platformer MC's.)

However, its probably a good game, when your biggest/most common criticism is the NPC's dialogue is often amusing. But they feel like NPCS. Some repeating one line, usually boss lore, long after it mattered. Other recurring characters will speak about events in the wrong order. (Because you happened to show up too early/late.) For example, the rival makes a witty pun about how he somehow managed to connect two of the islands (the gimmick of the map) in his sleep. But by that time, I already connected three of them. So the interaction feels unnatural.

But unless it falls off hard in its second half. I'd say its well worth it. If you've finished Hollow Knight. (Or want an easier/adjustable difficulty version of it.)

Edit/Update: Islets was honestly a lot of fun for the ten hours I spent with it. Though after becoming more than a bit overpowered, (which almost seems intentional the way you're forced to fight multiple previous bosses, just to completely kick their ass.) The final boss and the charm in its characters pulled through. And it even managed to feel rewarding to 100% the game and find all its secrets. Strong 8 to 9 out of ten. Liked it all the way through. Small bugs and gripes aren't even worth mentioning.

mw2 (2022) is good

Eh Brie Larson? Didn't she like do shitty YouTube vids for awhile after that era where everyone just hated her?

The only people that hated her are weirdos who just can't admit they bought into grifts from people who make money being hypocritical and coddling people into thinking that it's not you that's the problem it's the world.

But sure, she makes YouTube videos including ones where she plays Fortnite with others inbetween the whole being a major actress thing.

I'm ready
I'm ready
I'm ready
For me Collection!

HAAK is another metroidvania that I unfortunately had to stop playing. Because it pulled a game-breaking glitch on me six hours into my playthrough, where I no longer received any currency and couldn't progress in any meaningful way.

So aside from the Ori-like (trial and error) chase sequences that I hated. Its a shame that I'm unable to continue for now.

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TemTem has managed to piss me off, and continues to be an absolute borefest. Making my attempt to rant about what it fails at, too cluttered and long to be readable. So fuck it. I’m doing it by bullet points instead...

Graphics

• The human faces are fucking ugly.
• The frame rate is stuttery and inferior to the PC version.
• The environments are plain-looking, samey and confusing to navigate

Characters

• No character has said anything funny or interesting throughout.
• Most NPCS are assholes. (And not even the fun snarky kind.)
• The dialogue is bad. Yet you’re forced to talk with every trainer, before and after fighting them. (None of which give you anything of substance for your wasted curiosity.)

Exploration

• The rewards for exploring are minimal to none. (Especially lacking in the cities.)
• Every starting quest is either “give me your Temtem”, or is hard locked until you go through multiple cities.
• Like the worst of pokemon. You will step on a battle with every other step. Or one step away from every exit.

Combat and Battles

• Every single trainer has the same monsters from one to five a piece. (Usually four of them.) All water, wind and able to poison yours for several turns. So I've fought what feels like a hundred of the same fucking NPC already.
• With the "stamina bar" preventing your Temtem from attacking more than two or three times each fight, without needing to wait for it to recharge. (Meaning you’re wasting more time switching between characters, or losing health every fight.)
• Plus an added penalty for level differences. Making the EXP grind even more monotonous and slow. Despite being obviously required to progress.

TemTem/Variety

• You get about a dozen choices to start with. (One of three starters, and a generic lot to catch.) Most having the same three types, and almost none of them evolve for some reason?
• Wild pokemon don’t even have different movesets, or base traits as far as I’ve seen.
• Plus, there is no fucking way to farm money in this game. Except for way later on, (apparently) where you can release the ones you’ve caught for pittances.

Fuck this game.

• Everything costs an arm and a leg, and you don't get shit for money.
• So you (like I) will probably run out of it, the second you enter the absolute shitshow that is the first "gym". A maze of offscreen teleporters that force you to go through the whole thing, before you can even leave. (And it autosaves everything, so my unpredictable mistake cost me severely.)
• So with all that, several crashes, and music that is beyond uninteresting to listen to. This game (and the snowball’s chance in hell that I’ll ever finish playing it.) is not looking promising…

Nexomon Extinction is basically better in every way.

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Destiny 2 has a poopy character creator, ngl.