Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

[Gareth]

@Dark Cloud Vampire Survivor is it console or pc?

[Carlyle]

@Gareth I know it's on Steam, I don't know about console.

[Dark Cloud]

@Gareth I know it's on Steam, I don't know about console.

@Kuro

It's also on mobile.

[Carlyle]

<Snipped quote by Kuro>

It's also on mobile.

@Dark Cloud

Ah, I rarely play games on my phone so I didn't know. About all I play is like, Pokemon Unite lol

[Carlyle]

Me realizing the competitively trained shiny Delphox someone randomly traded me on Pokemon Home is stuck in Pokemon Jail because there hasn't been a game with it since USUM:

[CabbageFrog]

Just started back on Dragons Dogma, anyone ever play before? Or anyone play on Xbox wanna be friends and let me use their pawn.

[SleepingSilence]

'Pronty’ was a pretty good game. (And one that I needed, after going through so many mediocre ones in a row.)

It really nailed the atmosphere and worldbuilding. (Even without a full soundtrack. Which I would have loved to have.) It had a decent enough story & conclusion. (It helped that the protagonist was adorable.) And some of the bosses were near Hollow Knight perfection level of 'challenging, but fair' in difficulty.

And despite being such a linear Metroidvania, there’s an impressive amount of collectables and lore. (For those who like to read.) A decent variety in its challenges, and an 'Ender Lilies'-like variety to the combat. (In that there's a lot of 'charms' that you'll find, and probably never use. But it's nice to have the option to experiment.)

Best of all, you know how platforming is easily the worst part of nearly every Metroidvania? Even some of the good ones, like Blasphemous? Well, this one doesn’t *have* platforming. See? Literal perfection.

Few flaws aside, it was a fun time.

('Dungeon Defenders 2' is indeed better with a party of friends. But the game is clearly optimized like crap. Had to reinstall the fucker three times to get it past the opening cinematic, and its immediate crash.)

'Metal Hellsinger' kicks your fucking teeth in. (Maybe it’s because I’m relatively inexperienced at rhythm games, and I absolutely suck at modern twin-stick shooters.) But I want to suffer anyway, because the soundtrack is great and I might just need some more practice. (Or to fiddle with my latency options.) I do see a lot of people complaining that it's hard to stay on beat.

[Carlyle]

I think Twitch drops are funny. The point of them is to build up hype for a game, draw more people into the community, etc. Then there's me, who just AFKs in a stream on my phone and lets it run just to get the free items. Idc for what xqc or anyone else is doing, I just want the free shit lol

[SleepingSilence]

Well, that's a buzzkill.

Metal Hellsinger feels like it might've been rushed in development, and could've used a bit more time in the oven.

The game's art (through its numerous cutscenes) is great, and so is its soundtrack. And despite being difficult, it does feel like its accessible. (Even has a 'game journalist' mode option. A mode that let's you completely bypass the rhythm matching part.) And any game where you improve as you play, has to be doing *something* right.

But the shielded enemy is a complete flow killer. Most upgrades feel a bit tacked on. And Archeon, it's 2nd to last level, is buggy as all hell. Had numerous enemies falling through the terrain, and I got soft-locked at the boss, due to a spawned minion vanishing and spoiling my entire run. So if that shit happens again, I won't be finishing the campaign.

(Also, the fact that all the bosses are the exact same monster design feels a bit lazy.)

Though either way, I'll be playing something else tomorrow, most likely.

---

Edit: Fortunately, I was able to finish it. And yeah, Metal Hellsinger can be pretty engaging. (Once you're good enough to do well, and realize that some weapons just aren't worth using.) I'll rate it a 6.66. Because metal.

And I don't know if it quite reaches a 7/10, "I'd easily recommend this to others who like the genre". But I did like it.

The next indie I picked is back to average. 'Last Night Of Winter' has a decent artstyle, and its combat is functional throughout. Limited by a tiny inventory system, and its occasionally unfair enemy hitboxes. But the platforming and ice skating sections are miserable and boring. Plus its story doesn’t exist, and the character dialogue isn’t particularly interesting.

So I’ll be nice, and give this a 5/10. (I think I’ll be able to complete this one in another session.)

[Carlyle]

Some new free 2 keep games for y'all. Get 'em while you still can.

Steam:

store.steampowered.com/app/544610 - free 2 keep up until 4/9.

Epic:

store.epicgames.com/p/dying-light - free 2 keep until 4/13.
store.epicgames.com/p/shapez-0929c9 - free 2 keep until 4/13.

[SleepingSilence]

Sable: It's Breath Of The Wild, except there's basically nothing to do. (The camera is broken. There's audio and visual glitches aplenty. (Mostly the latter.) It's a game that feels like (and most likely is) an unfinished product. So it fucking baffles me that this is so highly played/reviewed. Had to bring my own soundtrack to keep myself going with this one...

Don't know if I'll bother completing this one. But I guess we'll see...

[Fabricant451]

Had to bring my own soundtrack to keep myself going with this one...

@SleepingSilence

Not a fan of Japanese Breakfast, eh?

[Carlyle]

Almost finished with my Pokémon Home dex. 53 more according to the counter. I've got a few legendries to go (mostly because the ones I don't have are classified as "special" so I can't use the GTS for them). Everything else is just Galar mons save for the few Alola I haven't picked up.

If anyone wants to help me get the last few hmu

[SleepingSilence]

@Fabricant451 It isn't the soundtrack's fault for why the game is so unpleasant to experience.

The nauseating camera that constantly zooms in and out, or wildly changes perspective out of nowhere, is the primary culprit. (Along with all the other consistent visual glitches and bugs that kept happening.)

The first song that played near the beginning sounded fine, I guess. But then the soundtrack would frequently cut in and out at times that felt unnatural. So I don't even know how much of "the soundtrack" I actually heard (as intended), when the bike-riding tends to be silent/cut out the music.

Plus its open world felt empty, and the game was absolutely boring me to tears. (And the very few mechanics that it did have, were f*cking broken. Like the ability to "call your bike back to you" and the fact that it basically never works. Supposedly due to how poor the pathfinding is...)

I digress. What have you been playing?

---

Review for the game I played instead: Downpurr (Basically Kero Blaster) would be an indie darling. If the boss fights weren't rigged against you. It's short, but I enjoyed its platforming/gimmick levels. However, I swear most bosses have RNG attack patterns that CANNOT be dodged (well). (So you'll die until the game lets you beat them, essentially.)

Next game is Blacktail. My first impressions go as follows…



It's intrigued me. Just hoping the combat improves over time...

[Lord Orgasmo]

There really aren't too many if any spoilers in my thoughts, but just in case you want to know as little as possible about it, I've put it in a hider.

Persona 5 Strikers thoughts

Finally finished up persona 5 strikers. I've got a few nitpicks, but the overall game is pretty good. The story is pretty generic, but the characters really help carry it. They emote well, the voice acting is greate, and the characters all have great chemistry with each other. This is definitely one of those games that relies a lot on the previous game to carry much of the character building, however. Most of the main cast doesn't develop much, and it's only the newcomers that really do.

One thing you do need to keep in mind if you decide to play it is that this is not a turn-based jrpg like the last one, it's a Dynasty Warriors type game, where you're fighting hordes of enemies in real time. (Though time is stopped when you summon your persona, or open the menu). It's also only about a 40 hour game this time around as compared to Persona 5 Royal's bloated 120+ hour completion time. I also still feel like this had the same difficulty problem as the previous game, where there are weird peaks and valleys with the difficulty, especially with the bosses.

I think my biggest gripe with the game are a few performance issues. While it runs just fine, it has some pretty bad pop-in. Like you see windows or lights appear 5 feet in front of you, or textures not loading until you're right next to them. But the big thing here is the loading. It's like a PS2 game where there are loading screens every other minute, and half of them take like 20+ seconds to load. The previous game didn't have that problem, and it was like 3 times as big.

It becomes really noticeable when you use checkpoints for healing. Basically, at any checkpoint, you can warp out of the dungeon, back to the real world. Doing so, unlike the previous game, has no drawbacks, since the movement of time is scripted. Merely leaving the dungeon refills everyone's HP and MP, so you'll probably be doing this pretty often, unless you want to spend every last yen on healing items and going through them like candy. Afterwards, you can hop right backinto the dungeon from any of the checkpoints within it. Here's the issue: going out of the dungeon, and then directly back in is four loading screens. One for leaving, one for getting back into the hideout, once for going back into the dungeon, and then one for warping back to the checkpoint. Why couldn't they just put a "rest" option at the checkpoints is beyond me.

As far as the fusing system is concerned, it's all sorts of annoying. You can't itemize or sacrifice personas anymore, so the only way to get rid of them is to fuse. Not only that, but most personas make you have to have the base personas needed for fusion a certain level before you can fuse them. It's entirely possible to be unable to clear your persona stock because you can't fuse anything. It sucks.

Either way, if you're willing to look over these small blemishes, there's a great game with a fun story and characters to be had. If you liked Persona 5 and want a little more, this game is for you.

[Mole]

The next Splatoon 3 Splatfest is Zelda themed. The family is stoked!

[Carlyle]

Started playing Wolfenstein: ET again, haven't really played it since I was a kid. Still enjoyable as long as you're not being insta-gibbed by enemy grenades, mortars or artillery. That and I also don't really remember too many of the custom fan-made maps so I've been trying to stick to the ones that were released with the game.

[Gareth]

Octopath Traveler 2 is my jam. Not too long. Bosses sometimes challenging. Best is I can choose where to go.

[Dark Cloud]

Octopath Traveler 2 is my jam. Not too long. Bosses sometimes challenging. Best is I can choose where to go.

@Gareth

Partitio is based, and we love him. We must protect the economy and beat the dickens out of poverty with our bare hands?

[Dark Cloud]

Anyway I have a crackpot theory about Tears of the Kingdom. What if the strange looking woman pictured below:

[+]

Is Hylia possessing Zeldas body and Ganondorf is being possesed or invoking the curse of Demise in this still frame below:

[+]

What if Ganondorf isn't the one who was evil, what if both he and Zelda from eons past sought to end the cycle of reincarnation? The mural we saw in BotW that we thought depicted the Hero and Zelda sealing Ganon.