Mal

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice I wouldn't call this a fun game or even challenging. It's more of an experience and it almost would be better off without the combat. Combat boils down to knowing how to deal with each enemy and trying to not be surrounded because movement is limited during combat. What you are essentially doing is hacking and dodging in the biggest of brawls. Some blocking and kicking in the smaller fights. The portions without combat are the "fun" bits while combat is a chore. Since I mentioned movement, outside of combat it is fine but at times it can really be cumbersome. As an experience, it is rather cool but it is exhausting. It's very audio and visually demanding on your mind. I wholeheartedly recommend it at some point. Of course, be prepared for some frustrations since it is a flawed game. Edit: And no, I didn't get the true ending or whatever gets unlocked by getting all the collectables. Some are rather hidden, in plain sight even since the objects can blend into with everything else.

Tokyo Xanadu's translation had the or a translator took some liberties on some lines and phrases. I'm not sure if this is all (these are not mines). I have no idea how close the lines are the original Japanese or they're even remotely close of localization equivalents words/phrases. I just think that the above comes off as almost amateurish even if I get the intent like *nom* *nom*. Some of the stuff though reminds me of bad fan subs and others are just bizarre. Here's some Trails for comparison: Anyhow... I was coming onto here to do a bit of comparison between Sky/Crossbell to Cold Steel jump and from Valkyria Chronicles 1 to 2 jump. Mainly about the move from grounded games to a bit fantastical and quite high school-y setting. I do find them to be a bit similar. I think I'll do it another time. Gonna leave with this. An old image but hey, it got history and it never fail to get a chuckle out of me.

Kindle Paperwhite for myself. Amazon has a five-month payment plan with no interest or whatever so that's nice.

There's a chalk drawing in the grad student office of BoJack that survived 3+ years. Never been touched or messed with. It even got a border drawn around it as an exclusion zone. Let's say the grad students through multiple generations, including me, love that show.

Tokyo Xanadu got re-translated a bit as well from what I read. Also to be honest, I only finally got a look at the gameplay at the Steam page. It does not inspire confidence. It's basically turn the non-battle portions of Cold Steel into an ARPG. I find the walking portions of Cold Steel to be rather lackluster and a bit stiff. Maybe Tokyo Xanadu will solve it. I'll get paid in two weeks and we'll find out then.

@danielpholt

Everything's alright...

There's actually a lot to like about Gurumin. For example... First off, like in my first playthrough, there is the adorable Parin. Parin is easily one of the most adorable MC. A lot of idle animations and stuff to collect for her to wear. Second is actually the combat. While it is hampered by being on the PSP, the basis of a really great combat system is there. Movement is generally pretty good (save for some platforming sections...) and the move sets are interesting. It best shows itself in the optional boss. It just could use some QoL improvements (quick change of parts and hats) and perhaps some enemy tweaks like elemental based enemies. It's be interesting if Falcom ever decide to revisit this combat system. Doubt it though since you really don't see any mention of this game in say Cold Steel or any other Falcom games (while Zwei II and Xanadu Next does). As for the okay to bad... well there is the game structure, the story and other characters which I think are quite the common complaints. Also the lack of a good camera movement is frustrating (again, shows itself "best" in the optional boss). The okay to bad just overpowers the game. I think I might stop my second playthrough and focus on other games since I did what I set out to do: explore the rest of the map and see what I've missed on the first playthrough. Main thing is the optional boss and some mini games. There are some collectables to cute up Parin but I don't want to deal with getting them.

I cannot comment on China but I feel that over here in the US, it is easier to call bullshit on such obtuse shit like that. Besides this concerns gambling and children with the whole "think of the children" and all. It's far too easy of a political point to ignore (for everyone except for perhaps one person...). Edit: I can see the ESRB trying to chime in but they are already in favor of lootboxes. Since the ESRB is part of the industry, I can see the government calling bullshit.

It had to be a Star Wars game to break the camel's back. I wonder what the scope that they in Hawaii and in Belgium are going for. AAA games only or is it going after mobile and even stuff like CSGO stuff? I wonder how the industry going to react. Ideally they shouldn't fight this fight since it will look terrible on them. It is however a big money maker so I don't know...

Sure.

Ys Seven About time I've done it. I'm actually not sure what held me up on the PSP but on PC it was simple enough. Part of me think I was playing on Hard mode on the PSP (I played on Normal on this run). I had plenty of healing items this time around but if I was on Hard mode I might be back to where I was on the PSP. Though the only tough/annoying parts of the four part boss fight was the first and second stage. The second stage was just annoying because you cannot damage the boss directly until you take out some other bits. The other bits were easy enough to move around since this time I have a 360 gamepad, not a PSP. Overall I rate this just below Origin and Oath. With regards to other Falcom games... gameplay is better than Zwei II but Zwei II blows Ys Seven out of the water when comes to characters and setting. The gameplay in Zwei II is almost for sure a prototype/offshoot of what came in Ys Seven. Ys Seven is just more refined and balanced.

I recall that I used sacrificial troops to draw fire and yes, I lost someone during this mission. Only time I did. I'm sorry unknown soldier. The years have stripped your name from my mind but I still remember you. No. People have to suffer through the horror of war and being a commander. I'm so sorry. I think I'm going to do a replay VC1 with a fan rebalance patch. I think I'll know the true horror of war with that because scout rushing was so overpowered. Then I'll probably play VC3 with the fan translation and emulator. Not sure if I want to play VC2. I kind of had my fill of school life with Cold Steel 1. edit: @MetalCaveman That sniper got to be Marina.

Umm... maybe I have my timeline wrong but isn't VC4 after VC1? What happened in VC1 is part of the reason why the offensive happened. So, I think what they are is just tacked on characters in ways similar to Vyse and Aika who are from Skies of Arcadia. To me Vyse and Aika are fine but when ti comes to character from the same universe, it just gets weird. Last game where this happened and which I disliked was in the Neptunia games. DLC though so I guess I can ignore. Edit: DLC is missing Marina.

This game takes place after VC1 but before VC2. So you are fine.

The Xbox One version seems to be for the West only. The Japanese release date doesn't mention it. But yeah, no PC announcement is just bizarre but as I said in the other thread, I have a Switch so I got this game covered. I probably will give this game a year before I get it just to see if a PC version is anywhere in sight. The Canvas engine is just so damn pretty when you get rid of any aliasing by downsampling. I'd argue it makes VC one of the best anime-styled games* out there. So I want it on PC. * Barring the per-rendered cut scenes. Pre-rendered should go away. Edit: The only mention of PC is in this press release: https://sega.jp/topics/171113_soft_2/ It's in the category it is place under in. It makes me believe just a bit... just like with this announcement.

So far most of everything looks fine to good. The only bullshit thing is the PS4 time exclusive Japan. PS4 release is March 21st 2018 in Japan, Switch is some time later.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 PS4, Xbone and Switch. Have they done it? Have they recaptured the magic of VC1? I think it is pretty close... And PC sometime later maybe? I have a Switch so I'm not totally left out.

The OST leaked out from somewhere. Well, no complaints for the battle theme. Though it sounds more like a special battle theme with theme of power of friendship.

At some point in my music journey, I got to go to the inspirations for the artists I listen to.

Weird... maybe wonderful. I'm just kind of speechless.

December 1st. The Switch was off to a slow start, you can argue it is still slow, but it is picking up steam.

I'm going in blind.