What are you playing?

[modern_moron]

What up, peops?

Binged the Final Fantasy 7 Remake over the past few weeks and I fell in love with it. I missed the boat on the original back when it came out because I was 5 years old, terrible at games, and didn't have a PS1, so I've never really been a Final Fantasy guy.

But hoo boy did the remake really do it for me.

And I might have never given it a shot if it hadn't been free on PS+

I had tried the original on my Vita a few years ago, but lost steam because the thing kills my hands and a lot of the game has aged poorly IMO, but I'm playing it on my Switch now while I impatiently await Intergrade and Part 2

The characterization and dialogue is all so on point now.

Spoiler: SPOILER

And while I obviously never finished the original I'm very much aware of some of the bigger plot developments like Aerith's death.

Simultaneously looking forward to and dreading that scene.

Although I have a feeling the introduction of the Whispers and this whole "fighting fate/destiny" thread might introduce the possibility of preventing or reversing that.

Mixed feelings on that. It's kind of an important, very final moment and I'm unsure it should be changed.

Also tried FF8 immediately following finishing the 7 remake and instantly hated it lol

Might take more time to adjust to it, but I just turned up an old OG guidebook my uncle gave me with a bunch of other crap so maybe it can give me a more palatable explanation of the combat stuff.

 

[Xeo]

I also recently decided to play Skyrim again. It's been awhile and wanted to have an adventure again. I'd rather be playing Oblivion to be honest, but on PS5 this is the option that's easily present. I'd like to play some other stuff but haven't found a whole lot of interest as of late.

 

[Scrustle]

I recently started playing Pandora's Tower through Dolphin. I have actually played this before, since I have the Wii version digitally on Wii U. I bounced off it before though, since it felt so clunky, and the resolution was so bad I could hardly make anything out. Didn't care for the voice acting either. Playing through emulation however allows the resolution issue to be fixed, and I'm enjoying it much more. It's still a pretty clunky game, and the voice acting is rather... unrefined. But I think playing through the Drakengard games has done something to my brain, and I now have a much higher tolerance for jank.

It a strange game though. It's an action RPG which takes place within a collection of towers that act as dungeons, where you have a time limit for how long you can be out dungeon crawling. You have a home base area too, and there you have a companion character who is the reason for the time limit. She is inflicted with a curse that gradually turns her in to a horrible slimy tentacle monster if she goes too long without eating flesh from other monsters. So you need to take flesh from the enemies you defeat and bring them back to her every so often to avoid her turning in to some disgusting squid thing. And the sequence they show of her eating the flesh makes it look very unpleasant too. So the game has this strange tone to it where you feel the pressure to make sure you're keeping her healthy and avoid her from suffering, but at the same time feeling a bit guilty having to put her through the experience of eating the horrible looking meat over and over.

Gameplay is somewhat interesting. It has a few neat ideas, but I'm not sure how well it actually pulls them off. You have some basic sword attacks and stuff, but a lot of the combat also focuses around a chain weapon that you have. You can use it to bind enemies to stop them moving, and it has a different effect depending on what part of their body you tie up. You can also build up tension in the chain and rip it out for a big chunk of damage, as well as tie enemies together, or throw lighter ones around, stuff like that. So far the bosses have focused almost entirely around this chain rather than the more traditional attacks, as you have to use it to hurt their one weak spot. So bosses are less about a straight up fight and more avoiding attacks while optimising when you decide to use these chain pull attacks. But to aim all these chain mechanics, the game uses an on-screen cursor. The game clearly expects you to be using a Wiimote, although it does have support for normal controllers too. Although I have heard it's pretty easy to set up a Wiimote with Dolphin, I've just been using my usual Xbox One controller. It makes aiming a bit fiddly, but it seems to be doable so far.

 

[Voex]

I also recently decided to play Skyrim again. It's been awhile and wanted to have an adventure again. I'd rather be playing Oblivion to be honest, but on PS5 this is the option that's easily present. I'd like to play some other stuff but haven't found a whole lot of interest as of late.

Nice, I started another playthrough back in October, this time on Special Edition. Finished the main quest now doing Dawnguard. What kind of character are you playing?

 

[Fwuffles]

@Voex Love your avatar! I played the crap outt of Machinarium back in the day.

 

[Voex]

@Fwuffles Thanks, yeah it's one of my favourites

 

[Fwuffles]

Been a while since I updated here. Still throwing my time at FFX's endgame. I've completed all of the Monster Arena (including defeating Nemesis - woo!), got all of the Celestial Weapons, and am never playing Blitzball again - blech. All that's left is completing the sphere grid for each character (which I'm making good progress with), and then taking on all of the Dark Aeons and finally Penance. Should only take the rest of my life!

 

[Fwuffles]

Final update on Final Fantasy X - I finally finished (finally)! I'm sure I'll play through the story again in a couple years because I love it, but I definitely won't be maxing stats again. Happy to have done it and call it a day!

Getting back to A Plague Tale: Innocence with renewed vigor, especially since a sequel was announced! Still loving it.

I also started and beat Oddworld: New n Tasty. Oddworld was a series I grew up seeing and hearing about, but never actually played. Glad I got around to it! The gameplay mechanics feel really unique. The movement and platforming is punishing until you can master it. The puzzles aren't so difficult, but that's okay because they never feel dull. And the overall premise really resonates with me. Currently working on completing it - making my way through a Hard Mode run to rescue everyone. Will try a speed run at some point too!

 

[Fwuffles]

Reached 100% completion of A Plague Tale - it was fantastic! I wasn't expecting it to end with so many questions left unanswered, but knowing there's a sequel in the works has me excited!

I got burnt out on trying to complete New n Tasty. I'll get back to it eventually, but putting it to the side for now.

I've had Control for a while, installed it a couple weeks ago, and am finally down to dive in. Huge titles like this always feels like such an undertaking, but I'm finally willing to take that plunge with this title.

I also recently got a physical copy of Pikmin 3 Deluxe during a sweet, sweet sale. Excited to throw the lil veggie bugs around again!

Also looking to find my zen with Sky: Children of the Light now that it's on Switch. I struggle to become invested when playing such titles on my phone, so this is the release I've been waiting for!

 

[Scrustle]

I played Sky: Children of the Light too. I was left rather nonplussed by it. It was pretty, had some nice music and visuals, but it felt incredibly derivative of Journey without being able to capture any of what made that game so special. It wasn't a bad time by any means, and it had some great looking scenes, but it was painfully clear that it was just imitating what came before and didn't really do much to justify its own existence.

During a single playthrough I didn't mind the monetisation to be a problem at least. It's mostly based around buying currency that you use for cosmetics, that you also gain through playing the game. It seems very intent on having you play through multiple times to unlock stuff for your character, and I assume that's where the grind comes in to make you cough up out of impatience. But I'm not really sure why anyone would want to repeatedly grind a game like this. Seems totally at odds with what it's trying to do, to the point where it feels redundant.

 

[Voex]

Still replaying Splinter Cell: Blacklist. I've found a good difficulty balance that's closer to the original trilogy, by only purchasing certain upgrades and equipment and only using the mark and execute feature in certain instances.

The story is the basic terrorists doing terrorist stuff, and the Echelon team are your stereotypical special ops gang; you've got the smart tech guy with a smarter mouth, gruff, bland teammate who's only there for co-op missions, and Grim who's characterisation is just "stern".

And then there's Sam. The blandest character. Reduced to a gruff, moody "the mission comes first" guy, with none of the stuff that made Michael Ironside's version likeable. The lack of wit in the writing doesn't help.

Overall still having fun with the gameplay, just zoning out a bit during cutscenes.

 

[Fwuffles]

Started FFXII: The Zodiac Age a couple weeks ago (for the umpteenth time). Already further than I've ever gotten. The story seems more interesting now that I'm older. It's a bit long-winded at times though, and the characters could do with some more... character. But levelling up is really satisfying, and combat keeps me engaged, so I'm really enjoying my time with it.

 

[Scrustle]

Been playing No More Heroes 3 lately. Pretty deep in to it but still not done yet. I'm liking it, but I'm not really sure on it. While the combat is fun, the aesthetic is a really cool mix of colourful and unconventional styles, and I like being back in this world and seeing these characters, I'm having a hard time picking out what this game is actually going for. What point it is trying to make. The previous games all had themes they were exploring and trying to get across, even if in 2 that wasn't done as elegantly as with the other games. This one though, I don't know what it's trying to say. At first it seems obvious, like it's trying to comment or parody superhero media, but the actual events of the game don't really back that up, and the topic rarely comes up at all. I'm not seeing any other obvious theme it's going for either. But I'm still liking my time with it, and I do appreciate the references to older Grasshopper games too. There's a lot of Killer7 references in there, among other things.