What are you Playing?

Wagomu

@Purple:

Our favorite rubberband has finally bounced into the fold. I unno if it counts necessarily as grinding (and maybe they changed the scaling by the time I did P4G) but I didn't really feel like I ever needed to deliberately grind, though. I do end up thoroughly exploring dungeon floors before moving on, though, I suppose. If there was a time when it felt like scaling was at its most difficult, I'd say it was the beginning, though.

This has been on my list for a long long time, but I had no way of playing it until recently (I had to reconfigure my whole room for the TV to play the PS2). I've looked at enemy guides a bit and it seems like they changed a lot between the two versions. The bosses in gold tend to at least have a weakness while that hasn't been the case in the old version. Some enemy stats were made a little tougher to compensate, though, so it's hard to say. Personally, though, I find myself running out of SP in dungeons and then feeling underpowered on the bosses. Even after grinding and doing the bonus boss in the castle before attempting the bathhouse, I had difficulty. I'm on my third ingame day of doing this dungeon, and though this will probably be the last one, I still can't remember the last time I've had this sort of difficulty with RPGing.

@Robby:

When Persona 4 came out I had just clocked in like 200 hours on Persona 3, so I wasn't in a hurry to go out and get it. Then I waited, and eventually got it on the PS3. It's sitting there on my harddrive, waiting to be played… really want to play it.

Right next to Suikoden 1 and 2... Life is Strange... Xenoblade... Witcher 3... Trails in the Sky... And dozens of platformers... I've got like 600 hours of games stocked up.

At least I'm finally getting through Fire Emblem... and playing a bunch of Smite and Dark Souls... and One Finger Death Punch...

I haven't played 3, but 4 is definitely a big time sink, so prepare yourself if you dive in! It has been a really enjoyable experience so far, though.

Purple Hermit

@Wagomu:

I haven't played 3, but 4 is definitely a big time sink, so prepare yourself if you dive in! It has been a really enjoyable experience so far, though.

4 also improved the system by having you actually able to control characters other than your protagonist, so that'd probably help Robby.

Smiley

playing monster hunter with a mess up analog is a challenge of it's own.
I'm fighting the analog and the monster lol.

Robby

Yeah, the auto-pilot teammates being dumb was… not helpful. Set them for auto for grinding, sure, but it'd be nice to be able to control them during bosses so they properly rezzed people and didn't waste innefective attacks and whatnot...

It's been years and I'm still kinda pissed off at the last boss confusing one of my characters who then full healed him. Wouldn't be so bad if you could at least save after getting through his TWELVE warmup phases before facing the actual finale....

Wintermute

@Sakonosolo:

^Arkham Knight is one of the worst ports to PC in quite a while. I don't know how you haven't heard this. They even were forced to take it off Steam due to the launch backlash and added it back with a few fixes, but it's still not very good.

Oh I knew, that's why I waited for a sale. I read it got better and after so much time I thought 'Well, I guess they fixed it now'. I was wrong -.-

Green_vs_Red

@Robby:

When Persona 4 came out I had just clocked in like 200 hours on Persona 3, so I wasn't in a hurry to go out and get it. Then I waited, and eventually got it on the PS3. It's sitting there on my harddrive, waiting to be played… really want to play it.

Right next to Suikoden 1 and 2... Life is Strange... Xenoblade... Witcher 3... Trails in the Sky... KOTOR... And dozens of platformers... I've got like 600 hours of games stocked up.

At least I'm finally getting through Fire Emblem... and playing a bunch of Smite and Dark Souls... and One Finger Death Punch...

You should do like I did it get back to playing Tactics Ogre LUCT after a year of not having played it (causing things to get FUBAR'ed) then say fuck it and and use a gamefaqs save that speeds up a lot of the tedium you struggled with originally. Who knows once I get done with this I might finally go back to playing Hyperdimension Neptunia, Then break in HDN2, HDN3, HD Noire or I'll eventually procrastinate and go back to Fire Emblem Revelations, or try locking up the final three trophies of Samurai Warriors 4: Empires, still ignoring a bunch of other games:ninja:.

@Wintermute:

Oh I knew, that's why I waited for a sale. I read it got better and after so much time I thought 'Well, I guess they fixed it now'. I was wrong -.-

KaizokuFan22

was playing WWE smackdown: Here comes the pain and Mario Party 1, now ill be playing Elder scrolls online and LBP3

Robby

Played Abzu after years of anticipation.

It's nice. Very pretty. But it's not Journey.

More detailed thoughts in the Journey thread.

kouch_lee

FINALLY played SMT IV. Finished it, neutral route, I'm quite proud. . .even though I'm surprised at how easy it was overall, specially during the end, where I stacked my demons with tons of Nulls and Drains and the bosses barely seemed to use the more abusive Almighty attacks that they had at their disposal and that could totally wipe you out if abused, but apparently were too kind to do that. . .

I liked it a lot, but I guess I expected to love it even more? I miss Kaneko doing designs; Doi isn't bad per se, but he's definitely more vanilla than good ol crazy Kazuma, and I could've used Meguro doing the music, which was a bit hit or miss, even though some of the 80's synth-like stuff did fit the game like a glove.

The DLC stuff deserves special mention; it is. . .infuriating to say the VERY least. I don't give a crap if they want to sell special armors, or special apps to earn money and exp more easily, or special weapons, or special demons, ok, do it. . . .but to willingly hide MAIN PLOT stuff as DLC is insulting. I'm freaking angry at them for doing such an assholish thing, I never expected Atlus to do this, and it seems they did the same with the sequel, SMT IV: Apocalypse. Fuck this.

At the end of the day, the best thing was the story, the 3rd person dungeon/town navigation being super smooth, how incredibly refined the fusion system has become (no more random skill assignment, you choose which ones you want!) and the atmosphere and setting. Which, for an RPG, is good enough. Not on par with SMT III:Nocturne, but on par with Strange Journey, which was a pretty great game in its own right (though, I dare to say I liked that one a little tiny bit more than SMT IV?).

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Oh, and I started Soul Hackers. Now this is a bitch of an SMT game, all right. Bosses kicking my ass left and right, like it must be. For how clunky and old fashioned it is (and it IS clunky AND old fashioned), I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. Neat setting, neat characters, and awesome boss fights.

Sakonosolo

Finished Bachelor day 4 in Pathologic. Starting to get some good money and a good amount of items to trade, which is good. Good thing you don't lose reputation robbing houses unless you kill someone.

Megadoomer

I realized that, while I've played a decent amount of Zelda games, I've only finished two (Link to the Past and Majora's Mask). I'm trying to change that, starting with Zelda 1 through the Gamecube Collector's Edition.

I tried playing it without a guide, just exploring, trying to find dungeons, and making my own map as I go along. This led to me stumbling into the eighth dungeon with only four hearts max, so I'm thinking that plan might have to change.

Sakonosolo

On day 6 as the Bachelor in Pathologic. Accidentally used two plague cures on myself because I double clicked the spot. Apparently you could need them later to cure other people but I have the plague right now and don't really want to start chugging antibiotics and immune boosters.

Also on I think mission 4 in Original War. Need to defend my base from the Russians but their vehicles are a bitch to destroy.

fedcom

Been playing the Far Cry games. I was playing Far Cry 3 but it froze and I lost a huge chunk of progress, so I just said fuck it and started playing Far Cry 4.

And they're really great open world games! I felt like something exciting was going to happen every time I wondered out into the forests. They've got a good, open ended approach to their missions. It's usually just 'kill these enemies in this area in whatever way you want'. As opposed to the scripted nonsense that plagues so many other open world games (i.e GTA).

I know a lot of people criticize Ubi open world games as being just endless series of menu upgrades and checklists, and that describes the AC games really well. But the shit you have to do in Far Cry to complete those checklists is genuinely fun, and it results in a little bit of progress every time you want to just fuck around in the world. Except for the towers though, they're completely pointless beyond the traveling you have to do to get to them.

Sakonosolo

I have never in my life had a game be fixed by restarting my computer but that worked for two games within the last day or so: SupCom FA and Cossacks Back to War. Played a bit of FA trying to learn how to play it.

Demon Rin

For the 30th anniversary of the series, I'm playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the first time!!! :D

Just got the Wave Beam on my last play session. Really loving the game so far. This really does feel like the best way to do 3D Metroid.

Serra Britt

@Demon:

For the 30th anniversary of the series, I'm playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the first time!!! :D

Just got the Wave Beam on my last play session. Really loving the game so far. This really does feel like the best way to do 3D Metroid.

When I first played it, I was sure I wouldn't like it as much as previous Metroid games. Was extremely pleased to be wrong ^_^ Hope you enjoy them fully as well!

firelord111

Dark souls 1
battlefield 1 beta
overwatch witcher3(didnt like it) dota2(mostly with highschool classmates playing arcade)

sgamer82

World of Warcraft's Legion expansion went live last week, so the majority of my focus has gone there. Mostly have been playing my Alliance Shaman, got her to the new max level of 110 on Friday. Now exploring endgame stuff.

DarthAsthma

Got my PS3 dusted it for yakuza 5 and damn super fun game. I weirdly even care about the story.

Green_vs_Red

Polished off Prince Of Persia Forgotten Sands….....boy that game makes Prince Of Persia 2008 look like an epic.....Now it's off to Yakuza 4.

Wintermute

Battlefield 1 beta. Riding horses, driving tanks, flying planes. This is so much fun. Especially without those lock on weapons that pestered me in BF3 and 4.

Serra Britt

I finished up Undertale. Did normal ending and pacifist ending. Care too much about the characters to seriously try the other ending though >.>

Not sure where I'll go after this. I have a few choices. Friend suggestions tell me to play Mother 3 but I sort of have an itch for Final Fantasy 4 and 6.

sgamer82

@Serra:

I finished up Undertale. Did normal ending and pacifist ending. Care too much about the characters to seriously try the other ending though >.>

Not sure where I'll go after this. I have a few choices. Friend suggestions tell me to play Mother 3 but I sort of have an itch for Final Fantasy 4 and 6.

I feel the same way re: Undertale. I've considered it only to realize I can barely do renegade options in Mass Effect.

FF4 is my personal favorite. 6 is the better game overall, but 4 was one of my first, back when it was called Final Fantasy II on SNES.

Jabberwok

Man, I should really finish FFIV. I was right at the final boss and everything.

At the time it was definitely the best Final Fantasy to date and one of the better ones in the series but I don't have any big feelings towards it.

The Tenth Strawhat

There's a lot of Final Fantasy I played but never finished: III, V, VI, VIII, XI, and X and the only one I beat so far was VII. I have to correct this somehow.

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Currently playing Yakuza 5 and AM2R.

Y5 kinda reminds me of a modern day Shenmue. I remember my brothers used to play the first Yakuza game for PS2, but they never beat it and I don't know the full story since I'm diving into the series myself in the fifth game. Oh well. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I'm lucky I snagged AM2R before Nintendo took down the downloads. The game's really fun and I always wanted to get into the Metroid series for quite some time now.

firelord111

Well i played final fantasy 10 12 13_1 13 _2 13_3 but only finished 13_2

Dr. Faust

@Jabberwok:

Man, I should really finish FFIV. I was right at the final boss and everything.

At the time it was definitely the best Final Fantasy to date and one of the better ones in the series but I don't have any big feelings towards it.

Now i really want to replay it again.

I finished all the FF from IV to X, but dropped it thereafter when most of the former Square developers (especially the music composer) left the company. Since then the series went through some changes i didn't like.

Rukusho

Right now playing Deus Ex Man Kind Divided love it so far really fun, Augs VS Naturals great game.

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@DarthAsthma:

Got my PS3 dusted it for yakuza 5 and damn super fun game. I weirdly even care about the story.

I would have liked if Haruka learned to defend herself , but otherwise Yakuza 0 is up next hope your ready for it Kaz is a lot younger real trippy going back in time.

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@The:

Currently playing Yakuza 5 and AM2R.

Y5 kinda reminds me of a modern day Shenmue. I remember my brothers used to play the first Yakuza game for PS2, but they never beat it and I don't know the full story since I'm diving into the series myself in the fifth game. Oh well. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I'm lucky I snagged AM2R before Nintendo took down the downloads. The game's really fun and I always wanted to get into the Metroid series for quite some time now.

From what I heard is Yakuza will be remade so it'll look really good from the First to the third maybe. It'll be really good.

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@Wintermute:

Battlefield 1 beta. Riding horses, driving tanks, flying planes. This is so much fun. Especially without those lock on weapons that pestered me in BF3 and 4.

I was really interested in playing this as well, are there skyfights while people are shooting on the ground ? Simultaneously ? I know its a bit much to wish for but it would be nice if NextGen is really pushing what they can do.

MajinArekkusu

Tried the hatsune miku diva x demo, got hooked like crazy, listened to many vocaloid songs on yt as well as great covers/remixes. Now bought diva x and plan on buying future tone too. :D

Atuin

I've been going retor playing Alundra
Such a very frustrating RPG. So much parkour
I've raged quit at least 5 times this week and yet I keep playing it.

Foolio

@Atuin:

I've been going retor playing Alundra
Such a very frustrating RPG. So much parkour
I've raged quit at least 5 times this week and yet I keep playing it.

Alundra is actually on my list after it being strongly recommended to me by a couple of people. I heard it described roughly as a much darker and mature imagining of Zelda. What's so frustrating about it?

Atuin

@Foolio:

Alundra is actually on my list after it being strongly recommended to me by a couple of people. I heard it described roughly as a much darker and mature imagining of Zelda. What's so frustrating about it?

I've never played Zelda but Alundra is indeed quite dark. It's a great game but there are a lot of puzzles and you have to be prepared to look up help. It's the parkour side that gets me. Timing jumps to perfection and trying to jump distances as well. There is a lot of it. And then there is the roulette… If you want 100% collection you'll have to play it and it is not kind on the odds.

Serra Britt

@Atuin:

I've never played Zelda but Alundra is indeed quite dark. It's a great game but there are a lot of puzzles and you have to be prepared to look up help. It's the parkour side that gets me. Timing jumps to perfection and trying to jump distances as well. There is a lot of it. And then there is the roulette… If you want 100% collection you'll have to play it and it is not kind on the odds.

Alundra is amazing. I do agree that some of the puzzles are pretty tough though. I prefer mind puzzles over physical ability puzzles to be sure…but it's a quite amazing game.

vannt93

This post is deleted!

cactusmomma

King of Fighters XIV
Mass Effect

Wintermute

@Rukusho:

I was really interested in playing this as well, are there skyfights while people are shooting on the ground ? Simultaneously ? I know its a bit much to wish for but it would be nice if NextGen is really pushing what they can do.

Well all out vehicle warfare and jets are the trademarks of Battlefield since the beginning. But yeah, the graphics and sound were gorgeous. Sadly the beta is over.

Going back conquering Europe in Rome 2 now.

Demon Rin

Just beat the first Metroid Prime. EXCELLENT game!!! Loved the hell out of it!

Probably gonna take a little break before playing MP2, gonna play something more lighthearted called "Ittle Dew".

Think a scaled down version of a 2D Zelda game with a comedic tone.

Black Leg

Overwatch is free on consoles this weekend so I'm giving it a go. So far it's been a blast

Demon Rin

@Black:

Overwatch is free on consoles this weekend so I'm giving it a go. So far it's been a blast

It's excellent! I've been playing it on PC for a while now.

Just hope that the butthurt banned cheaters don't decide to do one of their regular DDoS attacks this weekend.

KaizokuFan22

Overwatch free weekend..Games been awesome.
Also playing: DOTA 2 (Very similar to LOL), Neverwinter and Tropico 5

DarthAsthma

@Rukusho:

I would have liked if Haruka learned to defend herself , but otherwise Yakuza 0 is up next hope your ready for it Kaz is a lot younger real trippy going back in time.

Over the years I've read some conversation about where the best place to start is and really heated debates like start from the beginning.
But I gotta say playing 5 first gives a very interesting perspective and everything still works actually the mystery around certain characters gives quite a bit of flair.

Looking forward to 0 and seeing Kazuma during his ruthless years maybe.

Also still hacking away at Yakuza 5 that game is insanely long just finished chapter 4.

Noqanky

Started Axiom Verge yesterday, been enjoying it a lot so far. The story doesn't seem that interesting or captivating to me so far, but the game play is excellent.

MDL

Been playing Didnapper (ver 1.7), a small DiD themed rpg about being a princess-turned-bandit as you work your way towards reclaiming your throne from someone who backstabbed you.
The traitor didn't expect you to join the ranks of your own kidnappers, and the conflict of interests for your character is pretty amusing sometimes.

Predictably, there's only one way to lose.

!

It's been a decently fun playthrough so far, the difficulty curve of the turn based fights is just about right.

DarthAsthma

Yakuza 5 pachinko makes me question my existence….

Foolio

So after beating Obduction I was still craving more similar puzzle-type games and I heard about this game called The Eyes of Ara. It's an indie title but it's on Steam for $15 so I decided to give it a shot. Just finished it and I have to say if you're into Myst-like games, you might want to look into it. Overall pretty satisfied. It's a very very puzzle-dense exploration game that takes place inside a big castle, meaning the areas are very confined (not a lot of wandering around trying to figure out where to go/look). Movement is point-and-click to different fixed nodes (a lot like Myst) but you have full 3D control of the camera, so you can look around the rooms in any direction (and trust me, you don't want to ignore the ceiling/floor either XD).

Anyway it features legitimately well-designed and challenging puzzles which was my biggest concern. Stuff where all the clues are there but you really have to put the pieces together to decipher the answers. It also has an inventory system but it's really not abused; I don't think I've ever had more than 4 or 5 things at a time. You can examine/rotate items in the inventory and sometimes combine them or interact with them, and I enjoy that puzzle aspect too (I miss that about old Resident Evil games).

There are definitely things that could be better though. The good outweighs the bad by a good margin, but it does suffer from the "magic pixel" issue where sometimes you just find yourself hovering your cursor over every inch of the room just to find that one mostly-hidden item with only the tip sticking out that you have to interact with and such. Or similar issues of not realizing you could examine something that you passed over a hundred times, etc. Also for whatever reason they decided to put collectibles in the game, so you can find all these coins and photos and figures and whatnot scattered throughout the environments. I think that's a shitty design choice, especially when you're a completionist like me. It interrupts the whole flow of the game. Oh and one thing that drives me crazy: having a different vantage point in a room depending on what door you enter it through. This happens very rarely; usually the "nodes" you get positioned at don't depend on where you came from, but when it does happen it's super frustrating (because you assume it's the same and don't notice the changes).

But yeah I recommend it, and if any of you guys know other legitimately good puzzle games like that, please let me know. Not something like The Witness where you're presented with a series of progressively more difficult mini-puzzles to complete, but more puzzles that rely on putting together clues and deciphering the mechanics of devices.

Sakonosolo

On account of Cossacks 3 apparently not being finished yet even though it's released I decided to just keep playing Original War instead. I wish I could find someone to play online with because the game doesn't have AI skirmish like most other RTS games.

Demon Rin

Ok, I beat Ittle Dew.

Anyone who is a fan of Zelda should pick this game up. It plays like scaled-down Zelda while still being charming, cute and funny in its own right.

Like, the first time you pick up a heart, this cutscene happens:

and this is part of a tutorial cutscene early on:

It was so cute and fun, I enjoyed every minute. I am EAGERLY awaiting the sequel.
It's $10 on Steam and the Wii U eShop. I can't reccomend this game enough.

Now tho, I've moved on. Right now I'm playing two games at the same time.

On one hand, I'm finally jumping back into Batman: Arkham Knight to finish the Story DLC that came with my Season Pass.

Also however, I've started and am already close to beating Sonic Generations…. First Colors now this?!.... MODERN SONIC GAMES AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD!! STOP SCREWING WITH MY HEAD SEGA!!!

Noqanky

Close to the end of Axiom Verge so just recently decided to also start up on Jotun: Valhalla Edition.

Super beautiful game, and also super challenging. The UI feels super unpolished which kinda makes the presentation fall a bit flat sometimes, but the visuals and environments and icelandic voice track and just overall everything being beautifully animated by hand more than makes up for it.

Also got to talk to some of the people from Thunder Lotus and they're pretty chill people. I definitely endorse anyone giving them money.

Nobodyman

Been playing Mario and Luigi Paper Jam.

Honestly, I like it more than Dream Team. The pacing feels a lot quicker and there's no turn-the-DS-sideways segments. Still though, some of mini-games and collectable achievements are BS.

RoboBlue

I started Dragon Quest 7, but the game holds my hand too much, so I'm playing Dragon Warrior 1 on nes instead for now.