The PlayStation Thread

[tatermoog]

In the past year, two games have really surprised me with their solid gameplay and emotional depth, those games being…checks notes...uh, Yakuza: Like a Dragon and...wait...checks notes again...Guardians of the Galaxy.

...I'm so confused.

Of the two, LaD is definitely the superior game primarily because it doesn't get as tedious for me in the latter stages as the other, but GotG genuinely shocked me at how it actually packed some character depth with some genuine quiet and reflective moments that it takes quite seriously. The voice acting is a bit inconsistent, but I think I prefer the game's rendition of all the characters except Gamora (mostly, and she gets some decent stuff in optional stuff and the ending!) to their cinematic counterparts.

[Shiebs]

I'm sorry if I posted this before but is anyone interested in this?

basically an Isekai video game

[Robby]

That does look pretty neat.

[tatermoog]

World looks nice, plot seems to be on the "edge" side of the Square-Enix spectrum, which has not done much at all for me in recent years. I'll probably give it a shot just because I like big open fantasy worlds; maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Robby]

Decided to try out Godfall since its free ont he PS+ this month. Reviews for it aren't great, but its free and I thought maybe it could scratch that Warframe/ Monster Hunter/Musou Warriors itch.

The PS+ version doesnot include the story campaign. Just the endgame grind. So you spend 10 minutes doing the tutorial figuring out the controls and gettign a couple weapons to try out, beat the first boss…

and then it jumps you to level 50. With high level gear that has dozens of special effects on its, hundreds more attack than the tutorial gear, and dozens upon dozens of skill points already filled out in a massive skill tree. With no idea what they do or chance to study the chart and slowly make your own build or learn the nuances, its just like "Okay, now you have 80 hours of experience in this game. Have fun!"

Yikes.

The entire point of these sorts of games is obtaining power and getting stronger and finding slowly better and better gear and learning what everything does. Just throwing you in the deep end skips all the learning steps and achievement and its just nonsense numbers then.

I wasn't super impressed by the tutorial but I saw something there and was willing to give it a shot but holy crap, that is such a huge misfire. What were they thinking? Its a glorified demo... and I have NO IDEA what I'm doing now AND it stripped literally all the potential fun and theory crafting from it. I'm gonna delete this thing now.

[tatermoog]

Every once in a while, it feels like Playstation just needs a PS Plus gap-filler and asks around for something that isn't selling (the amazing part is Godfall: Glorified Demo is actually a game you can purchase!). But yeah, had no interest when I saw the restrictions, and trying to do that with the game made me lose whatever minute interest I had in the first place.

Feels odd to do this for December. In general, feels like it's been an underwhelming year for PS Plus, but a good bit of that is reluctance to put anything significant free for PS5 before they have enough PS5s in the wild to maximize the potential buyers. Overcooked and Plague Tale were both nice, not sure I remember much else.

Solid bet Sackboy is on there next year.

[Robby]

Someday when I have a PS5 Bugsnax will be ready to go!

And knowing that I will never buy it on PS4. And by the time I have a PS5 I will have long forgotten about it.

They might as well have just made it available on both

Mortal Shell is also free this month but… I don't need a poor Dark Souls clone two months before Elden Ring. Especially not when I already own multiple Darksouls.

Oh well, time to finally jump into Ys8 I guess. Or maybe Persona5. Or finish Dragon Quest 11 after taking a 3 year break on it...

[Green_vs_Red]

@Robby:

Or maybe Persona5.

Um that would be Royale not the vanilla version would it?

[kouch_lee]

@tatermoog:

Every once in a while, it feels like Playstation just needs a PS Plus gap-filler and asks around for something that isn't selling (the amazing part is Godfall: Glorified Demo is actually a game you can purchase!). But yeah, had no interest when I saw the restrictions, and trying to do that with the game made me lose whatever minute interest I had in the first place.

Feels odd to do this for December. In general, feels like it's been an underwhelming year for PS Plus, but a good bit of that is reluctance to put anything significant free for PS5 before they have enough PS5s in the wild to maximize the potential buyers. Overcooked and Plague Tale were both nice, not sure I remember much else.

Solid bet Sackboy is on there next year.

For a second I was gonna say "excuse me? Hollow Knight was on PS plus this year!", then I checked it and it was November 2020.

So, the "big ones" of this year are: Greedfall (started it, didn't get far, but looked interesting and might give it a chance some day), FF7 remake (right before the "upgrade" or update or wathever) and…¿Days Gone? ¿Control?

Yeah, I looked at the full list and I don't think I played a single one for more than an hour or two.

(Though this was the year I got back into Bloodborne and platinumed it, played Hades a lot, played Hollow Knight and also Nier, so maybe it just wasn't the time).

@Green_vs_Red:

Um that would be Royale not the vanilla version would it?

Yeah, Royal is the game to buy if you want to play P5…but man is it an easy game. Way, waaaay easier than I recall vanilla 5 being. OR maybe it's just an impression.

Gotta say, during this playthrough all of P5 flaws are becoming more and more apparent to me, to be honest. Every time a palace is introduced you just know a good 40-50 minutes are going to be spent on just pressing X to advance the dialogue, then doing a pre-emptive incursion before you can finally explore at your leisure...and even then, they don't let you explore that much.

At this point, my mission is to 100% the compendium and get to the new story content, which apparently is pretty good. Everything else is becoming a bit of a chore.

(Still, if you've never played it, don't let this discourage you: the game is pretty good and deserves to be played).

[Robby]

@Green_vs_Red:

Um that would be Royale not the vanilla version would it?

Yeah, I got the good version when it was on sale.

After having already bought the vanilla version when it was on sale and then never touching it.

I feel pretty obligated to play it at this point but committing to a game of that length is just… argh. I have a whole truckload of RPGs to play and the backlog is just... bad. I kind of want to clear out a bunch of smaller games instead? But I also want to play the big things.

Heck, Persona 4 is still technically on my backlog but thats a console generation ago and is probably never going to happen.

[Green_vs_Red]

I can’t begrudge anyone for not being anole to touch nor finish a game creating a massive backlog so got so many damn games sitting on my PS4 untouched or unfinished and the screwed up thing is I got the time to polish the majority of them off.

The only stuff I have that I at least have an excuse for not finishing is Paper Mario TTYD since I need an adapter for my TV to play my GameCube.

[Robby]

I decided to start up I am Setsuna finally. Its not the game I'm the most interested in, but it has the earliest install date by several years. So its been sitting on the "to do" pile the longest.

[Green_vs_Red]

Well shit hope you like it.

[Robby]

A few hours in and so far its trying to be Chrono Trigger but without the characters, charm or variety. Mostly its making me want to play Chrono Trigger. I'll give it a few more hours.

[Green_vs_Red]

@Robby:

A few hours in and so far its trying to be Chrono Trigger but without the characters, charm or variety. Mostly its making me want to play Chrono Trigger. I'll give it a few more hours.

You’re basically summing up a lot of the criticisms I’ve heard about the game.

[Neaeran]

I didn't finish a lot of games in the last 2-3 years because i lose interest very fast these days unfortunately but Persona 5 is one of those games i finished without taking a long break, despite it's length. And i'm not even into turn based RPGs that much anymore. It's just an amazing game. I'm still listening to the soundtrack regularly.

Elden Ring is the game i'm looking forward to the most right now but i'm not gonna play it before it get a PS5. So i'll probably have to wait a year or so …

[kouch_lee]

(Putting this in the right thread)

One of this month's PS Plus games is Slay the Spire, which is a ¿dungeon crawler card game? I've honestly never played a card based videogame, and the concept doesn't sound particularly appealing…but it's apparently a really, really good game??

Anyone has any experience with it?

[FolhaS]

@kouch_lee:

(Putting this in the right thread)

One of this month's PS Plus games is Slay the Spire, which is a ¿dungeon crawler card game? I've honestly never played a card based videogame, and the concept doesn't sound particularly appealing…but it's apparently a really, really good game??

Anyone has any experience with it?

I have it on my smartphone.
It's a good game, imo.

You start out with a basic deck and after each fight you get to choose a new card to add to your deck, giving you new ways to make combos for the following fights. Add a few potions and items and you got yourself a nice roguelite deckbuilding game.

[kouch_lee]

Ok, sounds like it's worth a try, at the very least. I mean, it's "free".

Thanks for the reply!

[Robby]

@kouch_lee:

(Putting this in the right thread)

One of this month's PS Plus games is Slay the Spire, which is a ¿dungeon crawler card game? I've honestly never played a card based videogame, and the concept doesn't sound particularly appealing…but it's apparently a really, really good game??

Anyone has any experience with it?

I put 150-200 hours into it back in the day. I own it on PC and Playstation. Its great.

Its very much a roguelike so at first you're just going to get completely random cards and build weird decks and feel like you're getting lousy results, but later you'll learn what does what, and how to pick and choose, when to ignore new cards, and adjust on the fly. pathing you can take to maximize your options, and what kind of enemies are coming you start getting better and better builds. So it will SEEM random and out of your control at first, but its not.

And all four characters play very, VERY differently with very different themes. If you don't like one at all you might love the next.

A couple other games have come along since and built on and improved upon what StS started, like Monster Train or Grift Lands, but its still a really solid game, especially if its your first roguelike deckbuilder.

[kouch_lee]

Did a first run last night, to see what it was about. I played for like an hour or so before getting killed.

It's definitely intriguing, in that, indeed, it felt random? But I see how I can get rid of some cards in order to have a specialized deck, but it costs quite a bit of money to do so, so it'll take some getting used to.

I thought maybe specializing in blocking might be cool, but the fact that blocking disappears next turn unless you have Barricade makes it very hard to stockpile it, so maybe that thought goes nowhere.

I'll tamper with it a bit more maybe tonight, or tomorrow, but yeah, first impression left me wanting for more. Nice!

[Neaeran]

I played Slay the Spire for like 12 hours, mostly Ironclad, but either i'm really bad at this game or the learning curve is very steep. I managed to beat the first boss a few times but only reached the second boss twice just to get wrecked.
I tried to balance Offense and Defense but in the end i mostly can't block enough and take damage constantly while not being able to kill the enemies fast enough.
I don't know, i like the game, but i think i'm more into roguelikes with permamant upgrades like Hades or Rogue Legacy.

[Robby]

One of the tricks to StS is to NOT take new cards just because they're there. Keeps your deck smaller. Build a theme around the first few you get and adjust.. but also don't get locked into the first thing you see. Just in case no other synergy comes along. It takes a bit to learn that flexibility. There are also ways to burn cards you don't pay for, like rest stops, though you have to choose between healing and discarding.

More cards and relics unlock as you play. Blocking is absolutely a viable path, one of my favorite themes, but you need relics that retain it or cards that double your current amount or things like that.

You can absolutely win with the starting cards but some of the key ones unlock after playing a few times.

One fun deck is to just get a super hard hitting multi enemy sweep attack, and then do everything you can to remove other cards so you just have a deck of like 6 cards so it comes up every turn, for instance. In general smaller decks are better because you get more consistency.

Also, random as it is, picking routes and NOT taking every card do give you some control The enemy themes are also consistent on each floor, so you start anticipating what you'll need later.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Neaeran:

I played Slay the Spire for like 12 hours, mostly Ironclad, but either i'm really bad at this game or the learning curve is very steep. I managed to beat the first boss a few times but only reached the second boss twice just to get wrecked.
I tried to balance Offense and Defense but in the end i mostly can't block enough and take damage constantly while not being able to kill the enemies fast enough.
I don't know, i like the game, but i think i'm more into roguelikes with permamant upgrades like Hades or Rogue Legacy.

Splitting the deck gets you in trouble. You want some of both but you want like 70 percent one or the other so you dependably get it. Eventually you barely need to block because you wreck things so fast. Blocking toouch just gives the enemy more time to kill you. It's often better to just take some damage in order to hit them and end it faster, then heal later.

And it has permanent upgrades, your card and item pool get better as does your knowledge.

[TLC]

Oh wow, I used to get every card because I am a hoarder and I beat the game including the true ending with every character lol

[Robby]

@TLC:

Oh wow, I used to get every card because I am a hoarder and I beat the game including the true ending with every character lol

Did you beat it at the highest difficulty or just the base first run? I can't imagine a deck functioning at all if you put everything in it at the higher challenge.

[TLC]

@Robby:

Did you beat it at the highest difficulty or just the base first run? I can't imagine a deck functioning at all if you put everything in it at the higher challenge.

I got up to Ascension 2 and got burned out. I actually didn't even realize the game had levels until I beat the base level like a bunch of times lol

[Robby]

@TLC:

I got up to Ascension 2 and got burned out. I actually didn't even realize the game had levels until I beat the base level like a bunch of times lol

That makes a lot more sense. Yeah, beating it at base with a random deck is totally doable. That does NOT fly at the higher difficulties.

[kouch_lee]

Ended my first ascension two days ago with the Daggers & Poison guy. That was fun! I didn't quite optimize my deck, but it was fun anyways.

And I'm pumped to have another go at it, probably with Daggers & Poison again, cause poisoning and doing free stabbings at the start of every fight is just so satisfying. I hope tonight I'll have some free time to give it a go.

[Robby]

Ah yeah i really liked the daggers and poison tracks. That character was generally the one I liked best of the four, though I did best with the orb user since they could get incredibly broken.

[Neaeran]

I focused on damage the last time i played and managed to reach the boss of Act 3 straight away, the awakened one.
I wasn't prepared for a second phase unfortunately …
I'll probably try to get a bit farther with the Defect next time. Only tried him once yet.

[Robby]

[kouch_lee]

So, managed to get to level 2 ascend (is that how it's called? when you add extra-difficult stuff and all that?) with the defect, the poison lady and the ironclad. The watcher. . .I think I got killed before even reaching an elite. That will need extra training, for sure.

Now, the next thing I gotta figure out is how to get the triforce. I manage to get 2/3, but not the third part. . .and I don't even know what that does?

One thing I am curious about: daily challenges are only for the love of the challenge, I guess? Like, there's no permanent upgrades to be gained from that?

(Needless to say, I'm having fun. A lot of fun, honestly. And I know I'm not mastering this game maybe ever, cause it requires some planning and managing techniques that I'm terrible at, but the game is still a ton of fun).

[Robby]

@kouch_lee:

Now, the next thing I gotta figure out is how to get the triforce. I manage to get 2/3, but not the third part. . .and I don't even know what that does?

One of them you can get at any rest site, you're picking it up in trade of getting rest or an upgrade. I always save that for last because its easiest to get at any point and you can judge in the final floor how your build is doing and if you want to deal with the completed thing.
One of them there's a buffed elite with a flame icon behind them. I think one appears on each map till you get it.
The last one is from treasure chest ? rooms. I think its linked with relics, so you have to choose between the relic or the key.. but the key will keep appearing in every relic ? after that.

If you get all three pieces in one run

! you unlock the fourth area which will kick your ass. I won't describe what the actual challenge is there or how many rooms it is but its HARD. Don't even bother unless you have a SUPER broken mega good setup. I was playing at higher difficulties by the time I started facing it, but I only ever managed to beat the fourth level a few times. If you lose there it doesn't count as a completed run even though you did the first three levels so I tended to not even try because I preferred progress.
! You either have a broken setup or it wrecks you, there's not much inbetween.
! But like I said, go ahead and grab the first two pieces then make a call on the campfire piece near the end. If you're decimating stuff, give it a go.

One thing I am curious about: daily challenges are only for the love of the challenge, I guess? Like, there's no permanent upgrades to be gained from that?
.

Just for fun, yes. But you can get some crazy broken stuff out of those so some days its fun to just do because.

The watcher. . .I think I got killed before even reaching an elite.

Watcher was a DLC character added much later to the game, so they're a lot more complicated than the others. But can be really crazy once you get the hang of her.

Defect is the one I tended to do best with because it was really easy to get setups where he would, for instance, cast lightning and then do it another 8 times refreshing the orbs every time the enemy did anything, it was the easiest to make crazy.

[kouch_lee]

@Robby:

One of them you can get at any rest site, you're picking it up in trade of getting rest or an upgrade. I always save that for last because its easiest to get at any point and you can judge in the final floor how your build is doing and if you want to deal with the completed thing.
One of them there's a buffed elite with a flame icon behind them. I think one appears on each map till you get it.
The last one is from treasure chest ? rooms. I think its linked with relics, so you have to choose between the relic or the key.. but the key will keep appearing in every relic ? after that.

If you get all three pieces in one run

! you unlock the fourth area which will kick your ass. I won't describe what the actual challenge is there or how many rooms it is but its HARD. Don't even bother unless you have a SUPER broken mega good setup. I was playing at higher difficulties by the time I started facing it, but I only ever managed to beat the fourth level a few times. If you lose there it doesn't count as a completed run even though you did the first three levels so I tended to not even try because I preferred progress.
! You either have a broken setup or it wrecks you, there's not much inbetween.
! But like I said, go ahead and grab the first two pieces then make a call on the campfire piece near the end. If you're decimating stuff, give it a go.

Yeah, I realized after posting my message that you could get the Sapphire stone from the treasure chests. I just missread the "getting this relic deactivates the Sapphire stone" as, getting a relic would make finding the Sapphire stone impossible…and never bothered to tap "down" once again to select it. Yeah. I'm that guy.

Anyways, I don't think I've done a run where I've absolutely steamrolled everyone. Last night I thought I got it, but then fucking time stoping snail wrecked me. So, obviously, I wasn't ready to go to the next level.

I hate that snail, btw.

Watcher was a DLC character added much later to the game, so they're a lot more complicated than the others. But can be really crazy once you get the hang of her.

Defect is the one I tended to do best with because it was really easy to get setups where he would, for instance, cast lightning and then do it another 8 times refreshing the orbs every time the enemy did anything, it was the easiest to make crazy.

I'm really trying to get as good as possible with poison lady, and as I said, I think I got pretty damned close last night. At least in terms of damage input, I thought I was killing it. It wasn't enough, of course.

The defect is tons of fun, that's for sure. I might try to go next level with him next.

[tatermoog]

I have no idea how to search threads any more, but at some point in the distant past, there was a rumor that Sony had nixed a game dev doing a Last of Us remake because Naughty Dog was going to do its own and I declared it a laughably dumb and nonsensical rumor.

It was true.

smh

[Time Control Magician]

Oh that’s nothing I originally speculated that the only logical reason they’d remake the game was to tie it to the TV series (which even then would make no sense if the release schedule of the game and airing of the series was taken into account).

Literally can’t think of any reason why this game was remade.

[Robby]

@Time-Control-Magician said in The PlayStation Thread:

Literally can’t think of any reason why this game was remade.

Because they're about to release it to PC for the first time and they want that to be a modern experience instead of a 10 year old one.

And because yes, the tv show that is coming. No, they're not launching at the same time, but when the Witcher show came out that caused a huge spike in sales of the games, and it's likely to be the same here. Have it set up and ready to go and the only version on the market rather than having multiple versions to choose from the day it comes out.

A reviewer I like put it really well.

He's not THAT big a fan of Last of Us. For him, the upgrade isn't worth the price of admission. But he IS a fan of other things (like the movie Robocop) and he's bought that over and over.

I'm the same. There are movies I love that I've bought on VHS, DVD, and then Bluray and also gotten the soundtrack and artbook because I loved them that much and getting them in slightly better quality with a few more features was worth it, and that's just for a movie. I've bought Okami four different times (five counting Okaiden)

A game getting much more visually upgraded than a movie going from dvd to bluray is certainly worth a jump if you ARE a fan of it.

I just recently bought a 100$ leatherbound of a Brandon Sanderson book that I already had in paperback for 6$, that I've read once and I'm not likely to read again more than once or twice in the next twenty years... but I like having the nicer deluxer edition. It looks good on my shelf and makes me happy to have for if and when I do revisit it. It depends on how much you like the thing already if the upgrade is worth it to you.

[Time Control Magician]

@Robby said in The PlayStation Thread:

Because they're about to release it to PC for the first time and they want that to be a modern experience instead of a 10 year old one.

I mean even then that’s pretty jank. Not for the PC crowd of course but did PS5 owners need the remake too?

Especially when they likely got the PS3 and/or PS4 versions?

I'm the same. There are movies I love that I've bought on VHS, DVD, and then Bluray and also gotten the soundtrack and artbook because I loved them that much and getting them in slightly better quality with a few more features was worth it, and that's just for a movie. I've bought Okami four different times (five counting Okaiden)

I mean I’ve bought Super Mario World on almost every system it’s been released on but even I have to step back and ask “is this really necessary”?

It probably would’ve been better served being tied directly to the TV show but given the life expectancy of shows especially in this WBD climate I guess the game’s probably better off.

[KageKageKing]

[Shiebs]

I think this was originally being made by one person and then Sony picked it up